They Married for a Life Abroad. But They Never Saw Their Husbands Again. —The New York Times, June 14, 2023.
Thousands of brides in India are being abandoned by their British Indian husbands after they are married. Despite this, there is evidence to suggest that Indian women are continuing to fall for British suitors. —BBC News, November 23, 2009.
In Candana, England, called Vilayat,
My husband abides alone,
or with another,
he visits me sometimes in winter,
some years, not at all,
and I live with his mother.
I am a middle-aged Punjabi dreamer,
I practice English at home,
tears smudge my notebook.
He promised me a visa and visits,
but what if they were gambits
to freehire a family cook?
Jede Chadd ke chal gaye ne,
Mawan, dhiyan, khetran, gawan nu,
Undi raah kyun takdi aye,
kyun aaun ge o tainu le jawan nu?
Those who have abandoned mothers,
fields, daughters, villages, and gone,
Why do you wait for their return?
Why would they take you along?
Occasionally, he calls from Vilayat,
sweet-talker, whiskey breath,
I crave his love and sweat,
I rage, and he lends me an ear,
tells me he hates it there,
but says he hasn't made it yet,
I feel fallow, tell tales to my buffalo,
she moos at my discontent
and the choleric of my kith and kin,
prevents me from calling him a rogue,
though he has left me to wither here,
though he has left me alone.
Jede Chadd ke chal gaye ne…
Those who have abandoned us and gone…
Throughout Punjab, we are scattered,
throughout Punjab, we are alone,
why did you wed us?
Why did you leave our home?
What good is the foreign penny,
slavery of foreign tarts and pimps?
Come back, o black-hearted,
Come back to our sweet home.
Jede Chadd ke chal gaye ne,
Mawan, dhiyan, khetran, gawan nu,
Undi raah kyun takdi aye,
kyun aaun ge o tainu le jawan nu?
Those who have abandoned mothers,
fields, daughters, villages, and gone,
Why do you wait for them?
Why would they return to take you along?
Your forefathers fought invaders,
never quit, never let their land go,
kept heads high in proud turbans,
never balked or gave their women woe.
“O Ranjheya, your banter: how do you translate it?
Your Punjabi heart-to-heart: how do you communicate it?
Are you legally there? Are you really there?
We are aging. We'll die. When will you ever make it?”
Jede Chadd ke chal gaye ne…
Those who have abandoned us and gone…
But what can I say, had you stayed back,
I would have urged you to leave,
when destiny calls with dollar bills,
staying back for mud-dung is grief.
But I was wrong, marjaaniyan
how I wish he were never gone,
I know he must be more miserable,
at least I am in my home,
What pagli is this 'lady',
lives in a world of make-belief,
if the bride was ever worthy,
why would the groom ever leave,
But tell me what I must do,
but tell me where I can go,
In this dust, I must live and die,
maybe after death, reunite in a Canadian home.
Jede Chadd ke chal gaye ne...
Those who have abandoned us and gone…