My Grandmother's House

by Kamala Das you look down to the roaring road.

There is a house now far away where once you search for the signs of daybreak in what little light spills out of
I received love……. That woman died, bus.
The house withdrew into silence, snakes moved
Among books, I was then too young your own divided face in the pair of glasses
To read, and my blood turned cold like the moon on an oldman`s nose
How often I think of going is all the countryside you get to see.
There, to peer through blind eyes of windows or
Just listen to the frozen air, you seem to move continually forward.
Or in wild despair, pick an armful of toward a destination
Darkness to bring it here to lie just beyond the castemark beyond his eyebrows.
Behind my bedroom door like a brooding
Dog…you cannot believe, darling, outside, the sun has risen quitely
Can you, that I lived in such a house and it aims through an eyelet in the tarpaulin.
Was proud, and loved…. I who have lost and shoots at the oldman`s glasses.
My way and beg now at strangers' doors to
Receive love, at least in small change? a sawed off sunbeam comes to rest gently against the driver`s right
temple.
The Bus By Arun the bus seems to change direction.

at the end of bumpy ride with your own face on the either side
The tarpaulin flaps are buttoned down when you get off the bus.
on the windows of the state transport bus.
all the way up to jejuri. you dont step inside the old man`s head.

a cold wind keeps whipping

and slapping a corner of tarpaulin at your elbow.
DEEPAK
of mothers among other things Father, when he passed on, to holdin their parentheses
left dust everything he didn't quite
I smell upon this twisted blackbone tree on a table of papers, manage to do himself,
the silk and whitepetal of my mother’s youth. left debts and daughters, like his caesarian birth
a bedwetting grandson in a brahmin ghetto
From her earrings three diamonds named by the toss and his death by heart-
splash a handful of needles, of a coin after him, failure in the fruit market.
and I see my mother run back
from rain to the crying cradles. a house that leaned But someone told me
The rains tack and sew slowly through our growing he got two lines
with broken threads the rags years on a bent coconut in an inside column
tree in the yard. of a Madras newspaper
of the tree tasseled light. sold by the kilo
But her hands are a wet eagle’s Being the burning type,
he burned properly exactly four weeks later
two black-pink crinkled feet, at the cremation to streethawkers
one talon crippled in a garden-
trap set for a mouse. Her saris who sell it in turn
as before, easily
do not cling: they hang, loose to the small groceries
and at both ends,
where I buy salt,
feather of a one time wing. left his eye coins
coriander,
My cold parchment tongue licks bark in the ashes that didn't
and jaggery
in the mouth when I see her four look one bit different,
in newspaper cones
several spinal discs, rough,
still sensible fingers slowly flex some burned to coal, for sons
that I usually read
to pick a grain of rice from the kitchen floor.
for fun, and lately
to pick gingerly
in the hope of finding
and throw as the priest
these obituary lines.
Obituary By A K Ramanujan said, facing east
And he left us
where three rivers met
a changed mother
near the railway station;
and more than
no longstanding headstone
DEEPAK one annual ritual.
with his full name and two dates
DEEPAK
London
And sings a melancholy strain;
BY WILLIAM BLAKE
O listen! for the Vale profound
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Is overflowing with the sound.
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe. No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
In every cry of every Man, Of travellers in some shady haunt,
In every Infants cry of fear, Among Arabian sands:
In every voice: in every ban, A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
How the Chimney-sweepers cry Among the farthest Hebrides.
Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh Will no one tell me what she sings?—
Runs in blood down Palace walls Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
But most thro' midnight streets I hear And battles long ago:
How the youthful Harlots curse Or is it some more humble lay,
Blasts the new-born Infants tear Familiar matter of to-day?
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?
The Solitary Reaper
Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
Behold her, single in the field, And o'er the sickle bending;—
Yon solitary Highland Lass! I listened, motionless and still;
Reaping and singing by herself; And, as I mounted up the hill,
Stop here, or gently pass! The music in my heart I bore,
Alone she cuts and binds the grain, Long after it was heard no more
DEEPAK
My Grandmother’s house
At the beginning of the poem, the poet says that there is a home that is now very far from her where she
received love. It was the house of her grandmother in which she spent the days of her childhood.
However, that woman, (her grandmother) is dead now and the home “withdrew in silence” i.e. is without
any life because her grandmother was the very soul of it.
Grandmother also had books which she could not read as he was quite young and she would read stories
for her (poet). But now the snakes are moving in those books. All these things made the house quite
horrible and the poet “like the moon” i.e. quiet unhappy. She is now without any life and warmth.

The poet expresses her desire to go to her grandmother’s house because she is emotionally attached to it
since her childhood. She wants to look through the “blind eyes of windows” of her grandmother’s house.
The term “blind eyes of windows” mean that there is no one (in other words, her grandmother) in the
house to look for. She also desires to listen to “the frozen air” of that house. “Frozen Air” probably means
that that the house is locked and the fresh air has not moved in.
In my views, the poet desires to move into her thoughts which are buried deep inside her heart and no air
has blown into it. Thus the grandmother’s house here is rather a sweet memory that she wants to recall.
The poet further says that she wants to bring the darkness of her grandmother’s house with her “in wild
despair” i.e. in her troubled life.
The line makes it clear that her grandmother was very protective. And now that she feels insecure, even
the darkness of her grandmother’s house, which is though unpleasant like cold moon comforts her.

In the final lines, the poet is in conversation probably with her husband or her readers. The poet says
that one won’t believe that she had some of the best memories of her grandmother’s house and she is
quite proud of it.
Now that she has lost her grandmother, she bags at strangers doors for love. She knows well that you
won’t be able to get that much love but she still hopes for at least a part of it.
DEEPAK
The Bus
'The Bus' by Arun Kolatkar is the opening poem of the thirty-one section of his collection of poems 'Jejuri.'
It describes the bumpy journey from the starting point to its destination which is the temple of Khandoba.
It is a State Transfort bus the windows of which are screened by the tarpaulin with which the bus has
been covred to keep the possible rainfall , and also to keep off the cold wind which keeps blowing
throughout the journey. It is a night journey which the bus has undertaken ; and after several hours of the
arduous journey the passengers start waiting eagerly for daybreak.

The bus is full of the pilgrims who are bound for the temple of Khandoba where they want to offer
worship; and the passengers might have included a few tourists who merely want to satisfy their curiosity
about what kind of a temple it is and in what surroundings the temple stands. One of the passengers sits
opposite an old man wearing glasses; and this passenger , while looking at the old man, sees his reflection
in both the glasses of the spectacles which the old man is wearing. This passenger can feel the onward
movement of the bus. The old man wears on his forehead a mark indicating his Hindu faith and even the
high caste to which he belongs. Among the passengers is the protagonist or the persona who speaks in
the poem, describing his experiences and his reactions to what he sees at Jejuri.

In due course, the sun appears on the horizon , and quietly moves upwards in the sky. The sun's rays,
filtering through the gaps in the tarpaulin , fall upon the old man's glasses. Then a ray of the sun falls upon
the bus-driver's night cheek. The bus seems to have changed its direction. It has been un uncomfortable
journey; but, when the destination is reached , the passengers get down from the bus which had held
them tightly in its grip. Analysis:
The Bus is a purely descriptive poem which does not give us much of information about the purpose of the journey,
apart from telling us that it is going to Jejuri and that it is a night journey , with a cold wind blowing all the way. There are
a few humorous touches in this poem as, for instance, the protagonist finding two reflections of himself in the two
glasses of the spectacles which the old man sitting opposite him is wearing. We also learn that it is a bumpy ride at the
end of which the passengers get off the bus without anybody stepping inside the old man's head;and this is another
DEEPAK
touch of humour.
of mothers among other things A K Ramanujan
In this poem, Ramanujan creates a comparison between the speaker's mother and a tree, along with the life that surrounds that
tree. She begins by calling the audience's attention to "the silk and white petal of my mother's youth." Using the "blackbone
tree" and "twisting" it together with her mother, the poet sets the connection between the two. The speaker illustrates the age
and commitment her mother showed toward her, through the imagery of nature. She sees her mother run back to her "crying
cradles" through a "handful of needles" which is the rain. Her mother has sacrificed a lot as seen in the line that reads, "the
rains tack and sew/ with broken thread the rags/ of the tree-tasselled light."
The speaker can see her mother and her "wet eagle's two black pink-crinkled feet,/ one talon crippled in a garden-/trap set for a
mouse." In this instance and in the closing line, we can imagine that the speaker has some perspective on motherhood.
Perhaps she is now a mother and she realizes all the little things that mothers do to care for their children. The last lines read:
My cold parchment tongue licks bark
in the mouth when I see her four
still sensible fingers slowly flex
to pick a grain of rice from the kitchen floor.
I believe that the "cold parchment tongue" is the speaker's way of saying that her attitude towards her mother was cold at times
and that she didn't understand the things her mother was doing for her. She can see her pick up a grain of rice from the floor,
because that's what she does on a daily basis, now that she has children.
Obituary By A K Ramanujan
Stanza 1
The poet says that when his father died he left nothing for the family but problems like dust on a table of papers,
debts, unmarried daughters & a bedwetting grandson whose name is a little bit similar to his father’s name. The lines show the
poet’s dissatisfaction with his father. He does not seem to be sorrowful because of the death. The poet is more concerned about the duties
(of his family) which he has to perform. He has to pay the debts of his father, he has to marry off his sister and also has to take care of a
young child who urinates in the bed. These lines also show the culture of a typical Indian family which is patriarchal in nature. Neither the
mother of the poet nor his sisters are earning. As the poet is now eldest male in the family, all the duties are bestowed on him.
Stanza 2
The poet continues that his father has left a house that leaned slowly through our growing years on a bent coconut tree in the yard. The
line means that they have inherited a house from his father which is leaning on a coconut tree and thus in bad condition. The poet calls his
father as the burning type. indicating that he was a bad-tempered man and would never have behaved properly with him or the other family
members. Being hot-tempered he burned properly at the cremation. The phrase gives the message of tit for tat.
Stanza 3
The line continues from the previous one (enjambment). He is burnt very easily from both the sides. except his eye coins (coin either
signifies his anger or his greed for money) which didn’t look one bit different even after burning and also several spinal discs though some
of them burnt to coal. DEEPAK
Stanza 4
This stanza continues from the previous one. According to the poet, the remains of his father’s pyre
are left for sons to pick as the priest said, facing east where three rivers met near the railway
station. The lines show that the priest forces the sons to perform the Hindu Rituals. The poet is in
no way ready to do it. His father has no grave (as his ashes and remains are thrown in the river) with
his full name.
Stanza 5
In addition, there also no two dates (his birth and death dates) to show throw light on his life. The poet calls him
incapable as he didn’t do anything on his own. His birth was Caesarian in a brahmin ghetto and his death by heart
failure in the fruit market. The lines, in my views and as quoted in this article question the genius of Brahman. In
Hinduism, the Brahmans or the Upper Casts are worshipped as Avatars of Gods. However, the poet shows that his
father took birth as a Brahman yet his birth was ordinary and even his death could not be controlled by him. In spite
of being educated, he died in the market of heart failure and he couldn’t save himself. These lines, in other sense,
mark that he has achieved nothing in this world. His birth was ordinary, his death was ordinary and what he did in life
showed his incapability.
Stanza 6
However, the poet comes to know that two lines were written for him in an inside column of a Madras
newspaper which is sold by the kilo (as junk) after four weeks of his death to street hawkers.
Stanza 7
These street hawkers sell it in turn to the small groceries. From these groceries, the poet buys salt, coriander, and
jaggery in newspaper cones which he reads for fun.
Stanza 8
The poet says that began to buy more of these things in the hope of finding these obituary lines which were written
for his father. In the end, he says that his father left with them with a changed mother (she remains sorrowful) and
more than one annual ritual. The poet is showing his dislike for the ritual which is celebrated in the memory of his
father for his peace.
Thus the poet says that his father achieved nothing in this world except those two lines (obituary) which were written
in the newspaper he could never find out. On the other hand, he left an unbearable burden on the poet. The poem is
hence a critique of the poet’s father and his incapabilities
DEEPAK
 SERVANTS
In this poem the author talks about the nature and condition of servants who live in the city. He says that they
come from an incomplete plot which is a reference to their less than ideal life story which somehow stops in the
middle. They are people who sell their farming lands and end up working as servants in households or worse to
earn a living in the city. They all have the same thing going on in their lives. Everything from waking up to sleeping
is planned. The loss of individuality is stressed upon in this poem. The author says that the aura around them is
dark and they are non-entities. He says that animals have more personality or individuality than them. Servants
are treated less than animals. Their lives have no purpose. They do not dream nor do they have desires. Their eyes
are blank. Their mouths hang slightly open without knowing what to do.
The poem by Gieve Patel is like a collection of pictures portraying the appalling condition of the poor in India. The
poor of India who predominantly work as servants. There is no promotion nor there is any reprieve. They live like
non entities, work like animals and sleep like the dead.

THE LOOKING GLASS

Stanza 1
In stanza 1, the poet says that it is quite easy for a woman to get the love of a man. A woman just needs to be
honest about her womanly needs. She should stand naked before the mirror with her man. This will make the man
feel stronger while on the other hand, the woman will be softer, younger, lovelier.
The lines are quite ironical because the poet is not praising the qualities of a woman but exposing their reality. The
soft, young and lovely body of the woman is what makes the man believe that he is strong.
Stanza 2
Again the poet continues the easy ways to make a man love her. A woman needs to accept the man’s admiration
and praise for her body.
While in the bathroom, she should look at the perfection of his limbs, his eyes reddening under the shower, his shy
walk across the bathroom floor, dropping towel, and the jerky way he urinates.
These are the things that a woman should look at carefully as they make him her man. However here again the
dependence of woman reflects. The lines symbolise the fact that the woman needs a man in order to please her
body.

DEEPAK
Stanza 3
The woman should gift her womanly traits to the man like the scent of long hair, the musk of sweat between the
breasts, the warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your, endless female hungers (her craving for the sex and
intense love).
The lines depict how superior is the woman to a man as she possesses ample qualities which are a gift for the man.
But these qualities ultimately become the tools of exploitation (as depicted in her poem An Introduction). Hence
being a woman is a blessing in disguise.
Stanza 4
The poet again repeats the beginning line, Oh yes, getting a man to love is easy. However, as the love is not
everlasting and thus living without him afterwards may have to be faced. The dependence of woman thus leads to
her misery.
The woman becomes a walking corpse. Her eyes quest for her man while meeting strangers. The ears like eyes long
for the voice which once called her name and praised her body. The body of the woman which used to get pleasure
with man ultimately has to suffer without him.

DEEPAK