A friend asked me this morning if I was a Maya Angelou fan. I replied her "Kind of". I had never asked this question to myself. Perhaps I considered her more of a feminist than a literary figure. However it was her poem 'The Caged Bird' that startled me. Till then, I saw poems in black and white - they could induce either happiness or sorrow. But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing. We have associated songs to happiness and cheer. Without them, the world would have been too drab. But these lines ! They shatter all romance associated with music. These 'songs' are born from intense pain. Pain of magnitude that we cannot imagine. The more the pain, the sweeter the song. They sing as they have nothing to do except cry at their destiny. Who sings when there is a pressing need to cry ? But these 'birds' are one of its kind. Instead of...