User:Titodutta/Silence (poem)

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Silence is a poem written by Indian poet and activist Anasuya Sengupta. The poet wrote the poem in 1995 and presented to Hillary Clinton. Clinton was impressed with the poem and quoted it in her 2003 memoir Living History.

Background

Sengupta wrote the poem in 1995 when Hillary Clinton came to India and visited Lady Sriram College (LSR), New Delhi. At that time she was an under-graduate student of the college.^[1] Meenakshi Gopinath, the then principal of the college asked Sengupta to write a poem for Clinton. Sengupta was also told that that day's function would start with that poem. Sengupta wrote the poem in haste, and the calligraphy was done by her friend Alpana. The function at LSR was cancelled due to security reasons, but Sengupta was asked by Clinton to present it a lecture on women's rights at the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.^[2] Clinton was reportedly moved by the poem. She mentioned the poem in her couple of speeches— one at Delhi, another at United Nations women's conference in Beijing. Later she quoted the poem in her 2003 memoir Living History. She also named a chapter of the book Silence is Not Spoken Here^{[1][3][4][5][6]}

Publication

In August 2009, the poem was published in Outlook's Independence Day issue.^[7][8] Other than Clinton's memoir the poem has been quoted in a few other books such as Human Trafficking: The Stakeholders' Perspective.^[9]

References