Short Story: Portrait of Madonna

3 min read

In this short story, Humayun Malik throws a critical lens on the beauty standards of the society and how deeply it impacts women.

Editor’s Pick

This piece is available for free reading this week

Whenever Mom went to the hospital she used to tell me, I’m going—bye…

But when she left me forever, she told me nothing!

How do I explain her—through surgeries how her mother lost the ability to talk.

She also questions, How my mom stays away without me!

Come on, she then proposes, let’s bring her back digging the soil of her grave.

To change the course of my child’s life I give her art paper and oil pastel and teach how to draw eggs, glass, river…

She draws the beauty spot—tip on her mom’s forehead.

Lots of colorful tips, earrings, necklace; even her vanity bag, tea strainer, pressure cooker.

And also, the milk feeder used later for her by the sick mother.

Through this practice she spontaneously draws a woman—her eyes-mouth-nose…

That’s like a surreal painting.

And she says, This’s my mom. Later she draws herself in her arms.

While she was drawing a bun with her mom’s black hair she asks, Did she use a rose on her bun?

She did, I lied—glorify her mother with rose.

Then she often tries to make her mom perfect.

Once she stares at me from her creation & asks, actually how did my mom look like!

Oh, in the meantime, into a mixture of shape, color, manner her mom has become abstract in her: it may be because the surgeon dissected her face and then sewed several times but couldn’t bring it back to its previous state—but through the practice.

I think, one day she might be able to draw a portrait of unique Madonna, then she would even realize the portrait is of a perfect mother but it’s not even a shadow of her real mom even a simple fraction of the life she spent with her.With the combination of various classical crafts in the end, the unique Taj Mahal is a memorial mere a tomb, not Mumtaz—the living empress of virtues and beauties.

Author’s Bio

Humayun Malik was born in a feudal farming family in Bangladesh, a developing country. His mother was a statement property holder, but his educationist father was a Marxist, and under his influence, Malik became anti-capitalist and existentialist. He received a bachelor’s degree in law and a master’s degree in Library Science from Dhaka University. His writings have appeared in international anthologies and literary magazines such as Ariel Chart, Nixes Mate Review, Kelp Journal, Down in the Dirt magazine, and Shoegaze Literary. He has published 21 books of short stories and novels. Professionally, he is a lawyer.