Out of The Kitchen

ऐ दिल किसी का होने से पहले , ख़ुद के लिए भी कुछ बोल

ऐ मन रसोई से निकल कर के तू , दुनिया के दरवाज़े खोल

माँ तू अपनी माँ जैसी, और वो अपनी माँ  जैसी

हम बच्चे, रसोई, परिवार तुम्हारा संसार

माँ तुम देवी, हाँ देवी, फिर क्यूँ

ये दुनिया, हाँ दुनिया, तुमको ही दुख दे

मेरी किताबों में, Marie Curie, Nancy Drew और Helen Killer हैं

सो मुझे उनसा है बनाना, तुमसा नहीं

तो दो मुझे दो विद्या के पंख, जिनसे मैं रसोई से बाहर आकर

ना तुमसी, ना तुम्हारे माँ सी, मगर ख़ुद सी हो जाऊँ

विश्वकर्मा सी कुबेर सी, इंजीनियर बनकर

तुमको भी रानी बनाऊँ

ऐ दिल किसी का होने से पहले , ख़ुद के लिए भी कुछ बोल

ऐ मेरे मन रसोई से निकल कर के तू , दुनिया के दरवाज़े खोल

I grew up watching the women in my family spend bulk of their time in the kitchen, providing fresh cooked food for the family at every meal. Before the Breakfast was done, plans for lunch started, and then evening snacks and dinner, rinse and repeat. This also limited their mobility, because if they left the house, who would cook and feed the elderly, men and children of the house. Even though, in some deep recesses of her heart, she wanted me to be independent, she would constantly scold me for not spending enough time helping her. But my heart was in becoming independent, and hence I chose to prepare to get admission in the nation's toughest engineering school IIT, because I wanted to give my family a solid reason to leave me alone and not bother me with the usual marriage market stuff once I came of age. If I had studied to be an artist at the time, I wouldn’t have been taken seriously and would have ended up being married into another Marwari household, where my dreams would be buried under the endless kitchen chores like countless other women in our family. So I did become an engineer from IIT, but I never left my art, and hence you are reading these labels today.