Maa, it's autumn now in Bengal. The air is getting nippy, the sky is clear blue and in the countryside, the kash flowers are swaying their heads in gentle air. All these heralds that You are coming to Your father's house. On your four days stay at your father's house in Bengal, we Bengalis worship you as an annual ritual. We hold you in veneration. Maa, You are the symbol of woman power to us. The woman who gives birth, who nourishes and cares, yet when the time comes, she vanquishes the demon. Then are we hypocrite, Maa? On the auspicious day of Mahalaya, the very day which is synonimous to the commencement of Devi Paksha, a girl child was murdered this year. This gruesome murder of a child pains me very much. Being a mother myself, the picture of her wailing mother suffused my mind with great sorrow. Why this contradiction, Maa? On the one hand, we make a great show of worshipping our mother idol, and on the other, our daughters are being tortured every day. Every day as I turn the pages of the newspaper, there are news of women, and even minor girls, being raped, murdered, dowry deaths, female infanticide and the list is endless. When will You end this, Maa? For once, You come alive, hold Your Trishul firmly and demolish the demons who are torturing You every day, for it's You who live inside each daughter, each woman, each mother. When will that day come? Do you have any answer?
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