Song of a Teenage Girl 2/2

Concluding Part PRELUDE The song expresses the feelings of an Indian village girl. Her parents have fixed her marriage (It generally happens in the rural areas of India, even to-day). She is about to leave for the first time for her in-law’s place. She do not want to go to her father in law’s place leaving her parents, her soul mates friends the animals and birds. The song sketches the tender feelings of her heart for her Mother, Father and Brother & for the animals and birds, whom she used to look after until now as her most precious friends and who taught her how to sing a sweet song. The Song of a Teenage Girl 2/2 Still if you have decided to send me to my in laws, place, O dear, This year, O My Dear Father and Mother please, Do not forget to send my brother on Rakhi* So that I can tie up the Rakhi String* on the wrist of my sweet brother. You know O Mother, being a newly wedded bride, I won’t speak much in my in laws place. If I speak, who would bother to understand the feelings of my heart. Still if you have decided to send me to my in laws, place, O Mother, Please don’t forget, what I have told you today, Only then, your daughter would be happy in her new alien place. Ravindra Kanpur India 17th October 2010 * Sasural. A Hindi word. Meaning father-in-laws place *alien place. The place of in-laws generally remains alien for rural girls, as their marriages are fixed by the parents & in some cases, even the husband remains totally unknown to the bride. * Koyal. The melody singing bird of India. * Rakhi. Rakhi is a festival of siblings of opposite sex, which symbolizes the love & the emotional bond between them.