Children

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Mother, Oh ! Mother, please send me to school

With books, bag and pencils and a wooden footrule.

Then I too like brother shall add two and two-

And read all your letters

Like the village Postmen do.

I'm tired of rolling out flour everyday

Of milking the cow and cutting the hay.

Oh ! daughter, my daughter, I would send you there

If you were a boy, my son and an heir

Stay shut in your oyster, hush bridegroom's pearl-

Because oh ! my daughter you are only a girl.

( In India, even today, in the remote areas and villages girls face discrimination. They are not educated and often mal-nourished. This poem speaks of this.)

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