ANOTHER WOMAN:IMTIAZ DHARKAR

the poem deals with the oppression of women not only by men but also by the entire fabric of society including women themselves .the woman mentioned in the poem goes to the market in the morning to buy a bunch of green methi. she meets the dark there is a block of her mother-in-law for no reason. The mother in law keeps abusing her as well as her parents. she says that the women's parents have sent her to darken the lives of people in other homes .the poor woman feels like busting at heart but then realises that she was no exception she was just another woman and 'other torch blazing in the dark.' the poem ends with the line - 'Shield our faces from the heat.' the heat Here is the heat to which a woman is subjected in the house of her in-laws all her life the woman can Shield herself from the heat of the cooking pot but not from the heat of her mother in law's abuses and what do we do all about it ?asks the poet ironically. the traditional Indian society is a patriarchal society in which women are treated like slaves . a married woman in a traditional Indian family has not only to submit to all the reasonable and unreasonable demands of her husband but also suffer silently all the insult showered on her by her mother in law, says the poet.