What will the river give back
in return for your medals?
For your sweat, blood, your toil?
Will it return the honour or punish
the guilty? Will it drown those men 
in a deluge of shame or water? 
Ask the river, will it, in return 
for what you are offering her.

The river too is being sullied
by the same men and women
who have perpetrated injustice 
in the name of gods, temples, and holy books.
Its waters have been poisoned
so are the minds of the mob; the soil
rivers, trees and the house of honest men.
The river, girls, can’t protect itself. 
Neither prayers nor faith 
can get you justice. 
Stand firm and fight girls, you must.

I wish you had gone to your akhara, and 
shown the medals to each girl in the village
and had vowed 
with a fist full of soil in your clenched hands
to wrestle your dignity
from the men who also assault
the very essence of this nation.

Stand firm girls. Stand mightier 
than the Ganga in spate.

In solidarity with protesting wrestlers. 31 May 2023