Out-of-Coverage Areas
English Traslation: Pulikonda Subbachary
Telugu Original : Jupaka Subhadra
We ploughed the land
And shared the food
The sky danced in our palms
Now, we are half the sky
In that half, we are pushed
Out-of-Coverage area
We search
Not knowing where we are
Scorpions at home, snakes outside (?)
Who can understand
The agony of an Oxen’s open wounds
That the crows prod
We have become slaves
To people who throw
Burning clothes at us
We are the lowliest of the slaves
Our Gods-Poshamma, Maisamma
Sammakka, Maan Kaali have turned
To chaff, refusing to stick to us
Carrying head loads of
Rock-salt baskets, earning
So little that is not enough
To meet the expenses of an hour (?)
We have become ………
Broken tiles
Everywhere we are Out-of-Coverage area
How long are we to bear
This ……looting (?)
We are like cloth bundles
On the back of dhobis
That never touch the river
We know nothing about the feel
Of heavy silk sarees
Nor are we the Sitammas
Who sits under the shade of…….
Our pallus don’t fly
Like the silk kites
Our dreams
Revolve only around
Our mud pots that hold our food
And the plates that clatter…
Ayyayyo, Dammakka
They (?) have never stepped into
The mud of our village,
Nor washed their legs
Doctors never approached
Our village borders
We go to the hospital
Only when the Dai has given up
All we have are these
Government hospitals
To live or to die that’s where we go
When labour pains
Like thunder and lightning
……………………….
Like falling from a palm tree
Into a thorn bush that
Tore your skin into pieces
Like having the pot full of boiling
Rice gruel fall on your skin
And make you feel you lost
Your life…
Ear-shattering wails—waawwo! Waayyo!
………………………..
We lack the wherewithal
To give birth
Even that is Out-of-Coverage area
The labour rooms
In the Government hospitals
Have become out-of coverage areas
The pregnant women’s
Pains have become out-of-coverage areas
In the darkness spread all around
Outside the hospital gates
Our women talk about their labour pains
Is there in this world
A place where there is no
‘Untouchability’?
In the village or the town
It’s the same everywhere
Can one sow a seed and
Expect it to become
A sapling on its own?
Not allowed inside,
Hustled, pushed
Scorned and scolded
From the foetus in the womb
To the lifeless body
For food, for cloth
For life, for luck
For education, for……
We have become
“Out-of-Coverage area”
………………..
Inspired by the sight of Durga, and other pregnant women who get pushed around in hospitals.
English Translation: D. Vasanta
*****
జూపాక సుభద్ర కవయిత్రి, కథకురాలు, కాలమిస్టు, వ్యాసకర్త, అనువాదకురాలు, పరిశోధకరాలు, వక్తగా, సంఘసేవకురాలు, ప్రభుత్వ ఉన్నతాధికారిణి. బహుముఖ ప్రజ్ఞాశాలి. ప్రస్తుతం తెలంగాణ ఉద్యోగుల సంఘంలో కీలకంగా పనిచేస్తున్నారు.
సుభద్ర గారు తెలుగు సాహిత్యంలో, మహిళా సాహిత్యంలో ఉన్న అగ్రకుల బావజాలాన్ని ప్రశ్నిస్తూ, ఆధునిక సాహిత్యంపై విమర్శ చేస్తూ దళిత, బహుజన సాహిత్యం యొక్క ఉన్నతిని పెంపొందిస్తూ రచనలు చేసున్నారు.