Dear Angry Indian Goddess, it's been a long time coming and it's good you're here

Dear Angry Indian Goddess,

It's been so long since you last appeared on the scene that I almost forgot you existed.

When Nirbhaya was brutally raped, savaged and left to die on the streets; when 21-year-old Bhavna Yadav was beaten, strangled, and dumped into a car for marrying a boy against her parents wishes; when a two-year-old baby was abducted and raped before being dumped in a park near her home, I often wondered where you were, and whether you would appear in your Parvati, Laxmi or Sarasawti avatars, stopping rapists in their track with your celestial presence, stunning acid throwers with your luminous attire, overpowering misogynists and sexists amongst our law makers with your famous multiple hands before they could pass anti women acts and deeds.

But no, you didn't appear.

Time after time, through the shameful litany of India's heinous crimes against one half of its population, through rapes, and honor killings and dowry deaths and female infanticides and foeticides and trafficking and acid attacks and worse, you chose to stay away.

It was left to Delhi's screaming young women to face the might of the State 's tear gas and lathi charges to protest the rape and killing of Nirbhaya; in Badausa in the heart of Uttar Pradesh, it was left to Sampat Pal to cobble together an army of women now known as the Gulabi Gang to beat sense in to the populace of alcoholic wife beating errant men; and in the case of the eight year old Sonal (name changed) from the Yavatmal district of Maharshtra, who had been raped by her uncle, leave alone you, even the judicial system and State machinery appear to have deserted her and her visually impaired father seeking justice for his child.Nirbhaya; in Badausa in the heart of Uttar Pradesh, it was left to Sampat Pal to cobble together an army of women now known as the Gulabi Gang to beat sense in to the populace of alcoholic wife beating errant men; and in the case of the eight year old Sonal (name changed) from the Yavatmal district of Maharshtra, who had been raped by her uncle, leave alone you, even the judicial system and State machinery appear to have deserted her and her visually impaired father seeking justice for his child.

So let's be honest, whether its been your duties in Vaikuntha, sitting on your mount of elephant; and owl as Laxmi goddess of wealth and beauty, consort to Vishnu; or as Saraswati, clad in a white that no Surf can ever achieve, seated on a lotus; or the Goddess Parvati steeped in love, fertility and devotion; the epitome of gentle nurturing and life affirming Shakti; the long and the short of it is you didn't show, you didn't even call: you were, as they say, Missing In Action.

Never mind. Better late than never. It's good you're here. Finally.

I see you all over the place these days. The signs are unmistakable. In the recent Indian films that do not objectify women, do not demean or degrade them, but depict them as they are, flawed perhaps, oppressed and confused definitely, but powerful, resilient and not cowed down or divided any more. Women ready to rise and fight, tooth for tooth eye for eye.

I see you in the fast fists and stinging blows of the vigilante sisters Arti and Pooja Kumar, who were filmed robustly attacking their molesters with their belts on a bus traveling from Rohtak to Sonipat I hear in you in the words of brave young actresses like Anushka Sharma who are unafraid to speak out against Bollywood's economic inequality or like Sonam Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha who have shown that they refuse to cow down to cyber bullying or chauvinism.

I read you in the writings of young Indian novelists like Rosalyn D'mello who with her Handbook for my Lover has broken out of the prison of what subjects women were allowed to write about, to write a book of unfettered sensuality and eroticism.

Truth be told dear Goddess, I have begun to see you in the faces of many women. Angry, Powerful. Outspoken. Omnipotent.

Not some ethereal, inaccessible and aloof deity, but a living breathing fiery creature who will remind each of India's women of her Goddess powers.

Women who till now have been beaten, raped, burnt, murdered, abandoned, cheated and often killed even before they are born. Goddesses who have now risen and know who they are. Goddesses who refuse to be mistreated. Who expect devotion and dedication, like all Godesses do.

So as I was saying, it's been a long time coming and you've arrived not a moment too soon. But now that you're here and making your presence felt, the good news is that you may not have reason to be angry much longer.
Much Goddess love,

Yours sincerely etc

The columnist believes in the art of letter writing. She can be reached at malavikasmumbai@gmail.com