Regional Institute of English, South India

Jnanabharathi Campus, Bengaluru 560 056

Revised class IX text book of Kerala
From Coleridge to M.T.Vasudevan Nair
Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. The
above words are those of a school teacher, Mr. Thomas Gradgrind; a character created by Charles Dickens in Hard
Times. Here Gradgrind, the retired hardware merchant school master advises one of his teachers in training. In
Dickens' view, Gradgrinds classroom is a factory. Its purpose is to manufacture future workers for the industry.
Lets take a look at two High schools. In one, students sit quietly at rows, instructed by strict teachers who lecture,
expect their words to be written down, memorized and written on exams. The emphasis is teachers covering the
material, getting through the curriculum and text books, and transferring knowledge from their minds into the vacuous
minds of students. In the other school, students and teachers are engaged in the active creation of meaning, thinking
critically and creatively, gathering data, critically analysing and thoughtfully reflecting on the problem. In this class
room the students are encouraged to raise questions and find answers with the help of the teachers. The first class
room is like Gradgrinds class room in Hard Times. The second class room is the one visioned in the revised
curriculum and text books of Kerala.
How necessary is a textbook?
How necessary is a textbook? In the Kerala any debate on text books will generate a lot of heat and fire. English
textbooks are crucial to the quality of English language teaching and learning. Text books have been variously
regarded by teachers as the Bible, a guide, a crutch, a necessary evil, or a burden. It is the visible heart of English
language teaching. The English text books in Kerala for classes 1 to 7 have been prepared to promote the acquisition
of English by providing rich and comprehensible input to the learners. However, the English textbooks for classes VIII
and IX has been designed with a view to providing learners ample scope for interacting with authentic pieces of world
literature. This issue of second language attempts to review the revised English text book for students of class IX.
Why should adolescent learners study literature?
The texts included in the revised class IX text book contain literary pieces: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, one act plays
etc. It includes Indian literature in English, British and American literature, European literature and Latin American
literature. It is only recently that literature has been recognised as a valuable source for teaching in the English as
second language classroom. Literature study was associated with old or traditional teaching methods. English
language teaching in the yester years believed that literature failed to provide the vocabulary, structures and functional
language that students required. Why should young learners study literature? Why, in particular, should fourteen or
fifteen -year- old adolescents who dont read for pleasure and have weak literacy skills be forced to spend their time
reading poetry, short story and plays instead of working on simple reading comprehension and writing skills?
Why is the close study of literature so important and enduring?
The body of world literature contains most available knowledge about humanity. Some of life's most important
lessons are subtly expressed in literature. You can learn these lessons and derive great insight if you pause to think
about what you read. Literature allows you to experience the cultures and beliefs of others. In our own culture we find
an infinite variety of attitudes and personalities, hatreds and bigotries, and assumptions. With each exposure to those
who differ from us, we expand our minds. Study of literature hones our language skills and teaches us new and
valuable techniques for communication. Language is the single most important tool of leadership and great leaders
embrace its study. Like good music, poetry uses wordplay, rhythm, and sounds to lull the reader into an emotional fog,
and therein deliver its message. Great leaders learn to harness these techniques of communication and persuasion.
Literature teaches you empathy and empathy is what keeps us human. Literature can train and exercise our ability
http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

to weep for those who are not us or ours. When you read Isaac Singers The son from America you will certainly
shed tears for old Berl and Belcha. As children, your circles of concern stop with yourselves. As you grow, you expand
those circles to your families and friends, and perhaps to your neighbourhoods, towns, cities, states or countries. Study
of literature continues to expand that realm of concern beyond the things you physically experience. Reading literature
is the best way to develop ones writing power. Reading and writing are complementary processes. Once you see how
you, as readers, find meaning on the page, you can employ that knowledge to our advantage in your writing.
Selection of Literature Texts
Colonial bias may be seen in the English course books and activities at the school and college level. The English
text books prescribed for schools and colleges usually present a sort of social climate which is alien to our students .
Some of these literary texts are completely irrelevant in Indian context. A major break-through in decolonising English
teaching may be achieved by giving a place of prominence to both Indian writings in English and Indian literature in
English translation. English literature today is no longer English mans literature. Indias contribution in this direction
has been remarkable. Encouraging the study of Indian literature in English will not only help the cause of decolonising
English studies but also promote national integration. No doubt, the need to decolonize Indian literary psyche is an
urgent one. But there is another side of the coin too. Excessive emphasis either on Indian or Western response to
English studies would create a lot of imbalance.
Traditionally, text book writers give a lot of priority to authentic British and American texts in the course books.
The selection of texts in the revised class IX text book is a bold attempt to decolonise English studies at the high
school level. Traditional notions about authentic English have not bothered the authors of the course book. They
have included the literary works of Pushkin, Brecht, Cesar Vallejo and Maupassant in the text book. There are four
types of literature texts in the new course book: those by native English writers, Indian literature in English
translation, Translations from European literature (French, German and Russian) and from Latin American literature.
It is a fascinating mosaic of world literature. The text book exposes the learners to culturally diverse literature. It can
connect the learners with the world around them, develop understanding and respect for their own cultural groups, and
empathize with the tragedies and triumphs of others.
From Roots to Mirroring the Times
The course book is divided into six thematic units: Roots, Breaking barriers, Tales of soil, Glimpses of a
Green Planet, Guns and roots and Mirroring the Times. The division of learning texts into thematic units clearly
has the objective of making learners engage with contemporary social issues and concerns. Each unit is a whole with
the individual texts forming parts of it. The units consist of literary pieces and slightly edited versions of texts from
fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The first unit is centered on the theme of people returning to the roots. Isaac Singers
story in this unit The Son from America tells the story of a successful son who returns to his village roots with the
aim of improving the lives of the people there. Robert Haydens poem, Those Winter Sundays", reveals the sense of
grief a son who fondly recalls how he never appreciated his father's love when he was a boy. Kamala Dass short story
The Tattered Blanket suggests that forgetfulness is both a blessing and a curse. The last piece of the unit, Alexander
Pushkins To My Nanny depicts the thoughts of a boy who remembers an old lady who took care of him in his
childhood.
The second unit is based on the theme Women. It contains Marathi poet Shanta Shelkes poem Even Past Fifty
which tells the pangs of middle aged women. The one act play The Princess on the road is about a princess who sets
out on an adventure trip to a village dressed as a peasant girl. Only Daughter by Sandra Cisneros is an ethnic short
story about a young girl who is the only daughter in a family of six sons. Louis Borgans poem Women depicts the
misery of women who are deprived of freedom. The third unit titled Tales of soil contains two short stories and two
poems. The Man who knew too much tells the humorous story of a soldier. In I am the People, the Mob, Sandburg
shows that the common people are the ones with the most power. Munshi Premchands resignation tells the story of a
submissive lower middle class clerk. Follower by Seamus Heaney highlights poets love and admiration for his
father.
The fourth unit Glimpses of a Green Planet contains journalistic pieces like editorial and letter to the editor. In To
Nature Coleridge exalts nature by expressing his Pantheistic view of it. M.T. Vasudevan Nair is one of the most
eminent Indian writers today. It is in fact a very bold and creative attempt to include M.Ts English piece in this course
book. In Memories of a Dying River M.T. reflects how man is responsible for the sufferings of a river. He recalls
Edasserys poem Kuttippuram Palam- a poem quoted over and over again in discussions on the eco-aesthetics of
Malayalam poetry. John Keatss poem On the Grasshopper and the Cricket is a poem glorifying mother Earth. The
http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

fifth unit Guns and Roses contains two short stories and two poems. Ambrose Bierces story An Occurrence at Owl
Creek Bridge is written against the backdrop of the American Civil War. Berthold Brechts poem General Your Tank
is a Powerful Vehicle establishes the universal truth that no machine can substitute the human power of thinking.
Maupassants story The Colonels ideas tells how a pretty girls presence helped the exhausted French soldiers move
forward with a new spirit. Peruvian poet Cesar Vallejo poem Mass is a powerful anti-war poem. 'The sixth unit
Mirroring the Times is about the theme media. The unit contains articles on print media and television. It also
contains an entertaining poem by Roald Dahls, Television.
Multiple reading of literary texts
The reading pedagogy embedded in text is commendable. Reading and responding to literature and other texts play a
central role in the development of learners knowledge and understanding. Reading and language skills are critical
tools for learning. Its not enough for a student to just read for basic comprehension. They need to know how to take in
information, reflect on it, and become lifelong learners. The text book advocates a critical pedagogy perspective for
the reading process. The major merits of this perspective are the following:
It opens up scope for multiple reading
It promotes democratic discussion
It ensures the right to agree and disagree with the views of the author
Critical literacy involves the analysis and critique of the relationships among texts, language, power, social groups
and social practices. We no longer consider texts to be timeless, universal or unbiased. Texts are social constructs that
reflect some of the ideas and beliefs held by some groups of people at the time of their creation. In order to become
critically literate, one must learn to read in a reflective manner; read in this context means to give meaning to
messages of all kinds, instead of just looking at the words on a page and comprehending the meaning of those words.
Incorporating multiple texts based on similar literary themes offers students the opportunity to critique the values or
voices that are being promoted. Furthermore, this practice challenges the idea that meaning is fixed and encourages
students to use evidence to support their interpretation. Students can evaluate the social, cultural, and historical
frameworks of texts by analyzing differing perspectives of a single event. When students critically read the literary
texts they get beyond the elementary notion of a standard right answer. They, in turn, come to respect the wealth of
varying responses to a text.
A course book is only a guide. Teachers neednt have to follow it along blindly. Teachers can change the order,
add lessons, or replace them with others. However, teachers planning is essential to present the revised text book
effectively in the class room. Class rooms have to be interactive, not didactic. We no more appreciate the class room
processes of Dickens Gradgrind. Teachers are the key factors in the successful transaction of curriculum and course
book.
The authors of the text book have made a sincere attempt to provide rich multicultural literature input to the
students of class IX. The course book contains the literary works of great writers from Coleridge to M.T.Vasudevan
Nair. True lovers of literature will be extremely delighted to see great Indian writers like Munshi Prenchand, M.T,
Madhavikkutty and Shanta Shelke figuring in an anthology along with celebrated world authors.

Reference:
Cunningham, A. 1995. Choosing Your Coursebook. Heinemann.
Dinesh, K.T: Blazing a New Trail.
Gabrielatos, C. 2001. Shopping at the ELT Supermarket: Principled decisions and practices. ELT News.
Pingel Falk: UNESCO Guide book on Text book research and Text book Revision, 2nd Revised and Updated Edition, 2009.
Sherrif, K.M: Restructured Curriculum at the Undergraduate Level and the Role of the Teacher.

http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

The Son from America

Why do you write in a dying language?
As human beings do languages also die and disappear. Half of the world's 7,000 languages are on the verge of
death. When we lose a language we lose a part of our common humanity. Isaac Bashevis Singer, the winner of the
Nobel Prize for literature in 1978, wrote his novels and stories in a dying language. In his Nobel Prize banquet speech
Singer, said, People often ask me: Why do you write in a dying language? And I want to explain it in a few words.
One of the reasons is this: Yiddish may be a dying language, but it is the only language I know really well. Yiddish is
my mother tongue and a mother is never really dead.
Yiddish life in Eastern Europe had been wiped out in one swift stroke by the Nazis; an entire, previously thriving
world had vanished. It continued to exist in Singer's work. Singer is the foremost Yiddish writer of the twentieth
century. Although he moved to the United States in 1935, Singer wrote almost exclusively in Yiddish in an attempt to
preserve what he considered a rapidly disappearing language. Read primarily in translation, Singer's fiction frequently
evokes the history and culture of the Polish-Jewish village or shtetl. This issue of the second language analyses Isaac
Bashevis Singers short story The Son from America included in the revised English text book for class IX.
Returning to the roots
The essence of Singers greatness is that, as the American critic Irving Howe has put it, he can write of a
vanquished past as if it still existed. The power of his writing in this respect is uncanny. He writes nostalgically about
the lost world of Polish countryside, the Jewish villages, and draws a vivid picture of Warsaw as it used to be before
the Second World War. In his novel Meshugah Isaac Singer brings up the destruction of the East European Jewish
culture through a character lamenting over the vanished world and its rich culture: Who will know a generation from
now how the Jews of Eastern Europe lived, how they spoke, what they ate? Singer also points out his own function
as a writer through the characters words. What is traditional about Singer's stories are his settings, the small towns
and Jewish city life of Warsaw, and the fact that his characters are rabbis and yeshiva students and simple people like
butchers, bakers, and their wives. He had experienced it all firsthand. Born in the small town of Leoncin to a Hasidic
rabbi, Singer moved with his family to Warsaw when he was four years old. At 10 Krochmalna Street, where his father
presided over a rabbinical court and earned a meagre livelihood from donations and private Talmud lessons, Singer
found rich material for his later stories.
Singers story The Son from America is set in a Jewish village in Poland called in the 1900s.
Berl, an old
man in his 80's, and his wife Berlcha lived in a tiny hut in the Polish village of Lentshin. Old Berl was one of the Jews
who had been driven out of their villages in Russia and had settled in Poland. He was short and broad-shouldered with
a small white beard. Berl and his wife had a son Samuel who had gone to America 40 years before at the age of 15. It
was said in Lentshin that he was a millionaire. Every month he sent a letter and a money order. No one could read the
letter because many of the words were in English. Three times a year Berl and his wife went on foot to Zakroczym and
cashed the money orders there. But they never seemed to use the money. They had a garden, a cow, and a goat.
Berlcha sold chickens and eggs for money for flour. They never seemed to use the money. They wanted nothing. One
Friday morning a nobleman came to their hut. It was Samuel who had come to visit them from America. Berl and his
wife did not recognize him and had trouble in understanding his Yiddish which was mixed with American English
words. Samuel stayed for the Sabbath with them. He asked what they did with the money and Berl showed him the
money- it was stuffed in a boot. On the Sabbath Samuel went for a walk. He had come here with big plans. He had
presents for his parents and money of his own and from the Lentshin Society in New York for the Jewish village. But
the village needed nothing. He could hear chanting from the synagogue and his mother saying the holy rhymes
inherited from mothers and grandmothers.
Singers story telling technique: Frame story
Singer uses a frame story to tell the story of Berl and Berlcha. In a frame story an unknown narrator tells the story
of the Jewish villages in Poland and the immigrants life in America. Singer frequently tells his stories through some
other person and he himself acts in the frame stories as a passive listener, who only seldom asks the storyteller
questions to make him continue, for example in The Blizzard, Property, and Lantuch, all in A Crown of Feathers and
Other Stories. The Son from America tells the story of a successful son who returns to his village roots with the aim
of improving the lives of the people there. The story is told from the point of view of a villager, a friend of the boys
parents Berl and Berlcha. This villager acts as flat or static character who remains the same throughout the story.

http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

Through utilizing this device the author is able to tell the story in a third person narrative omniscient style which
allows the readers the opportunity to learn of all characters perspectives through the words of just one.
In this storytelling form, Singer has written a whole novel The penitent. It may well be that Singer has heard the
stories from others, but it is really he who gives them form and has put them down on paper. In Singers stories, also
the storytellers are briefly, but carefully described so that his short stories really include two layers: the story of the
storytelling situation and the story in itself. People often came to visit Singer and told their stories in hope that they
would see them printed one day, and many times Singer has used this material for his short stories, and he even uses
the storytellers in the frame stories.
Themes and Symbols
The most important themes in Isaac Singers novels and stories are death, suicide, the experience of dying, and what
life comes after it, and religion, abandonment of old traditions and the fight between good and evil over a mans soul.
In a way all these themes entwine together in his stories. There is a constant battle between the belief in free will and
destiny, whether a man can choose his own destiny or that everything is decreed beforehand. Singer's themes,
nonetheless, extend far beyond ethnic or provincial concerns; his work emphasizes faith, doubt, corruption, and
sexuality, and expresses a profound interest in the irrational and the supernatural. Religion is one of the dominant
themes in Singers stories. He writes about Jews and Judaism. Judaism is the oldest living religion and it is the root of
both Christianity and Islam. The Jews observe Sabbath by refraining from work and by attending synagogue service.
On Friday night the Sabbath begins at the sunset, with the woman of the household lighting a candle, with a blessing
over a cup of wine, and the blessing over children by parents. But modern Jews like Samuel do not observe the
Sabbath or other Jewish holidays.
Singers The Son from America is rich in its symbolic value. As the story unwinds Singer uses many interesting
quotes to get us to think about what he is actually trying to say. As Samuel moved to America his parents became
weary and wonder if Samuel is coming home, however in the story it mentions Samuel had sons and daughters
their own offspring. This could mean that he is coming home because he has had kids and his kids will have kids and
he is ready to return to his roots. The story mentions that They walked with their heads down and their feet up.
This explains Americans today, people get so accustomed to the way that they live; they are always put down and
never want to get out of the depression they are facing and now it has become a daily routine they live by.
The money that Samuel sends to his parents can also be seen as a symbol. Today as modern people we always want
more and more money and seem to never be happy with what we have. However, with Samuelss parents they are
provided with everything they need by God and that the money Samuel sends them is just a gift to them but they do
not use it. They store the money and when Samuels dad shows him the money Samuel says This is a treasure. We
dont know what is the real treasure, Samuel or the money. Throughout the story Singer uses many symbols to
describe how the story can unfold and leave the imagination up to the readers. The story makes it clear that peoples
conceptions of peace happiness can differ - true state of peace is achievable without wealth.
Singer as a writer
Isaac Singer was born into a world of Jewish orthodoxy. His father was a rabbi (Jewish teacher). He was planning
to become a rabbi himself, but he became captivated by stories and storytelling. When he was about twelve, he read
the Sherlock Holmes stories and Dostoyevskys Crime and Punishment in Yiddish. He decided right then that he
would become a Yiddish writer, just as he thought Conan Doyle and Dostoyevsky were. It never occurred to him that
the stories he read had been translated into Yiddish. With the rise of Nazism in 1935, Singer left Poland for New York
City where his older brother and fellow writer, I.J.Singer had already settled. Yiddish was his only language, and at
first he felt he would never grow any roots in this new country.
In 1978, the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Isaac Bashevis Singer for his impassioned narrative art
which, with roots in Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings human conditions to life. Singer, the most widely known
and possibly the last of the great Yiddish-language novelists and short story writers, himself supervised the translation
of his works from Yiddish into English. Singer has called himself an entertainer, and he was a story-teller, that did not
http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

care about the latest fashion of modern prose. He had read the great entertainers of nineteenth century: Tolstoy,
Dickens, Gogol, Dostoyevsky and Balzac, and decided to compete with them. Singers primary audience were the
readers of the Forward, mostly simple immigrants, but he became popular among the English speaking readers as
well, after Saul Bellow translated from Yiddish the tragicomical story Gimpel the Fool in 1953.
Language
Singer himself always begins with the particular. "I consider myself a Jewish writer, a Yiddish writer, and an
American writer. But in a way, I write about Poland." Over the years his settings have shifted to New York "since I
have developed roots here too." Still, he insists, "I write mostly about Yiddish speaking immigrants. I know them
better than those born here. I try to write about things I know best." Singer always wrote and published in Yiddish
almost all of it in newspapers and then edited his novels and stories for their American versions, which became the
basis for all other translations; he referred to the English version as his "second original". This has led to an ongoing
controversy whereby the "real Singer" can be found in the Yiddish original, with its finely tuned language and
sometimes rambling construction, or in the more tightly edited American version, where the language is usually
simpler and more direct.
In the short story form, in which many critics feel he made his most lasting contributions, his greatest influences
were Chekhov and Maupassant .From Maupassant; Singer developed a finely grained sense of drama. Like the French
master, Singer's stories can pack enormous excitement in the space of a few pages. From Chekhov, Singer developed
his ability to draw characters of enormous complexity and dignity in the briefest of spaces.
Great writers like Singer know the value of mother tongue. Singer insists on writing in Yiddish--"I like to stay
with my roots. The leaves fall but the trunk and roots always stay. After receiving the Nobel Prize he said, "This is a
great honour. I hope to keep on scribbling in Yiddish for the rest of my life. Next time when you go to the library,
look for the magical tales of Isaac Bashevis Singer. Read and respond more fully to the experience the stories provide.
In the first reading the focus is on experiencing the story and gaining an impression on the whole. A single reading
provides one kind of experience; repeated readings extend that first experience into something more complex, more
satisfying and more lasting.

Reference:
Furman, Andrew. Contemporary Jewish American Writers and the Multicultural Dilemma: The Return of the Exiled. Syracuse: Syracuse
University Press, 2000.
Howe, Irving. "Introduction," Jewish American Stories, ed. Irving Howe, New York: Mentor, 1977.
Wisse, Ruth. Jewish American Renaissance. The Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature. Michael Kramer & Hana WirthNesher, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20

http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

The Tattered Blanket

Be Amy, or Kamala, or, better
Still, be Madhavikutty. It is time to
Choose a name, a role. Dont play pretending games (An Introduction)

A voice within a voice speaks in me, in French and in English, separately or, at times, simultaneously, wrote
Samuel Becket one of the greatest writers of 20th century. Beckett wrote many of his works in French; then re-worked
them into English. Beckett wanted to strip language to its naked elements in search of meaning. Writers such as
Vladimir Nabokov, Joseph Conrad, Samuel Beckett and Kamala Das were bilingual writers; they wrote in their mother
tongue and the other tongue.
Kamala Das, one of the leading modern bi-lingual writers, wrote both in English and her mother tongue Malayalam
in her sobriquet Madhavikutty. As Dr. N.A Karim observes, when Kamala Suraiyya wrote her beautiful short
stories in Malayalam, the language became a fine spun, one with a rare romantic evocative quality that has no parallel
in modern Malayalam literature. This issue of Second Language attempts an analysis of the short stories of
Madhavikutty with special reference to The Tattered Blanket, translated into English By K.M.Sherrif, included in
class IX English course book.
Women short story writers
Short story developed immensely during twentieth century. At the same time womens voice started becoming an
inevitable part of the domain of literature. Womens voice is loud enough to be heard in the field of short story.
Woman stated realising that she was fettered by the stereotyped roles the society had conferred up on her. Women
gradually chose her own course and followed her own ideals. This theme of feminism finds expression in so many
short stories of post- independence women writers. Kamala Das, Shashi Deshpande, Anjana Appachana and Prema
Ramakrishnan are prominent writers who have given voice to womans feelings and problems in their short stories.
They have expressed the feelings of women and their struggle for existence in society.
The prominent among women short story writers in Malayalam are Lalithambika Antharjananm, K. Saraswathi
Amma, Madhavikutty, B.Rajalakshmi, P. Vatsala, Sarah Joseph, Ashitha the list continues. Madhavikutty is very
different from other women short story writers in that her style, content and approach to writing are very
individualistic and modern. She reaches out to a space of hitherto unexplored ideas and experiences and relates them
in a style which is candid and poetic. Her style is not monotonous; she changes her style to suit the theme, ambience
and emotional tone of the story. Reading her story written at different times one cannot make out that they are by the
same author.
Madhavikutty and Basheer
A.J. Thomas in his article Remembering Madhavikutty says Vaikom Muhammed Basheer and Kamala Das had
many things in common. The most striking factor is that both had very limited vocabulary of Malayalam words. Both
were free of the baggage of classical reading in Malayalam, and so whatever they wrote were pared down to the bare
minimum, and were poignant and intense. Kamala Das wrote real words of emotions, fantasies, realitiesstories
shorn of sentimentality, figures of speech, exuberant outward lyricism. If you listened Madhavikuttys speech in
Malayalam, in ordinary informal talk, you would think that Malayalam is not her mother tongue. Thus, the so called
deficiency of both the writers-Madhavikutty and Basheer- became their strength, and they were naturally protected

http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

from verbosity. They changed the art of storytelling in Malayalam, by inventing a non literary language very close
the everyday life of Malalayalee.
Short stories of Madhavikkutty

Madhavikutty is one of the foremost short story writers in Malayalam. She is the composer of a novel kind of
fiction that bordered on poetry. Her first story, Kushtarogi (The Leper) had appeared in the Mathrubhumi Weekly in
1942 when she was a little girl. With the publication of Mathilukal (The Walls), her first collection in 1955, she
established her place in Malayalam short story. K. Sachidanandadan in his scholarly article Redefining the Genre:
Kamala Das in Indian Literature observes that Madhavikutty belongs to a generation that includes M. T. Vasudevan
Nair, T. Patmanabhan and Kovilan. These writers had all gone beyond the socialist realist mode employed by their
predecessors to explore the tormented psyche of the solitary human beings haunted by guilt, pain and lovelessness.
The writers Vaikom Mohammed Basheer for their forerunner travelled from the outer drama of social events to the
inner drama of emotions; the states of mind become more important to them than the states of the community to
express which they developed a taut and cryptic lyrical idiom. The narrative content became so thin in their stories and
the form so much an organic part of it that they could hardly be retold in another voice.

The fictional world of Thakazhi, Keshava Dev and Ponkunnam Varkey portrays the outer drama of social events
and the miseries of human beings. But M. T. Vasudevan Nair, T. Patmanabhan and Madhavikkutty go beyond the
social realistic mode of fiction into the individualistic and emotional world of human beings. Sachidanandan says that
in the stories of Madhavikutty this inward evolution touches its peak; her stories most often evolve from a central
image and express a mood or a vision. Even the titles of her stories sounded like the titles of paintings or poems
(remember she herself practiced painting for a while): The Red Skirt, The Red Mansion, The Child in the Naval
Uniform, The Father and The Son, The Moons Meat, Sandalwood Trees, The Secret of the Dawn, Boats, The Smell of
the Bird, The Kings Beloved, A Doll for Rukmini and The Tattered Blanket.

Her vocabulary was limited as she had little formal education and had mostly grown up outside Kerala; but she
turned this limitation to her advantage by her deft and economic employment of those few words in her stories that
were always spare and crisp to the point of being fragile. Many of her stories were not longer than two or three bookpages, including the famous ones like Padmavati, the Harlot. Here a harlot longs to be photographed with Vithoba
and Rukmai, goes to the temple, requests God to accept her ragged body that was like a river that does not dry up even
if thousands bathe in it, meets her god who is growing old and gets dissolved in him for a while to return purified. In
her later stories like Pakshiyude Manam (The Smell of a Bird), Unni, Kalyani, Malancherivukalil (On the
Mountain Slopes), The Karutha Patti (The Black Dog) the element of fantasy grew stronger; they became more and
more compressed often taking the form of brief monologues.

The Tattered Blanket

Madhavikuttys The Tattered Blanket exposes the bitter truths of life in a stunningly simple manner. After five
years Gopi comes to Kerala to see his mother. Gopi is a big officer in Delhi living with his wife Vasantha and four
children. He has come to Thiruvananthapuram as a part of his official assignment. He Just dropped in his way back
to meet his mother. His mother is very old. She lives with his eldest sister Kamalam who is a widow. When he arrived
unexpectedly at his home in the countryside, his mother was lying in an armchair on the veranda. Mother fails to
recognise her son Gopi. She believes that Gopi is still a school boy. She doesnt recognise anybody. Sometimes her
memory is quite sharp, sometimes she forgets the present, but remembers the past. When her memory is very sharp

http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

she asks about Gopis letters from Delhi. Kamalam tells her a lie that everything is fine with Gopi, his wife and kids.
But Gopi doesnt write any letters to his mother.
Mother doesnt recognise her son. She asks her son Gopi Who is your Amma? What is her name? Where does
she live? Is it far from here? But mother has the picture of her son in her mind. She says,
My son is in Delhi... a Government Officer. He has Kesariyogam.... He draws a salary of two thousand five hundred
rupees. Mother tells Gopi if he meets her sons ask him to send her a blanket. A red one. She has a blanket, the one
Gopi bought for her when he was studying in Madras. It is all tattered now, just a ball of knotted yarn. Gopi has come
home to ask his sister to sell his share of land and get some money for him. Kamalam knows that Gopi has come only
for money, not to see his mother. It took more than five years for him to find time to come home. Kamalam says,
Amma is eighty three now. I dont think she will pull on much longer. It took you so long to visit her after the last
time. But Gopi has his excuses for not visiting Amma. He says But Amma cant remember who I am. The story ends
with Kamalams question to Gopi, But do you remember your Amma? Amma doesnt recognise her son because she
has lost her power of memory. In fact forgetfulness is a blessing for her. Her son doesnt have any love for his mother.
This is one of the brilliant short stories penned by Madhavikutty in Malayalam. Her focus has always been on the
tormented female self craving for love. She is concerned with the condition of women and the way in which they are
betrayed by society. In The Tattered Blanket mother craves for her sons love. Her son is evergreen in her memory.
But she has been overpowered by forgetfulness. She needs a red blanket because the old one is tattered. Here blanket
represents the warmth of her sons love. She actually needs her sons love. The tattered blanket symbolises the tattered
soul of the mother. Madhavikuttys stories are a re-affirmation of women, woman reclaimed of body and spirit. In
The Tattered Blanket Madhavikutty portrays the poignant voice of wounded womanhood against the value systems
of a male-dominated society.
Madhavikuttys style

Madhavikutty has introduced a new language and spirit to the modern Malayalam short story. Her style is simple,
direct and very intensely emotional. It has the lyrical beauty of poetry. She is able to adopt the tone of an outsider
who reviews the situation detachedly. She often adopts an abstract, psychological, stream of consciousness approach.
Her style is never linear, but abstract, evocative and psychological. She also has written surrealistic stories such as
Kalyani, The Smell of Bird, and Unni where the lost souls seek death as a release from the mechanical and
crippling monotony in city life. Her diction, presented with an extraordinary simplicity makes her works attractive and
readable.

Her characters are unusual people who follow their inner instincts and try to unravel their identity. The life story of
Kamala Das has been eternal quest for identity. Her autobiography and poetry clearly show her urge for liberty and
freedom and stress the need for discovering her true self. Kamala Dass poetry and prose reflect her restlessness as a
sensitive woman moving in the male dominated society. Her sensibility is fiercely feminine and she is able to
articulate wounded experiences of women in this male dominated world. In The Tattered Blanket she presents the
predicament of women with a fine feminine sensibility.

Kamala Dass My Story is the beginning of her exploration into womans experience. In her first collection of short
stories in English titled A Doll for the Child Prostitute, she weaves a web of feminine experiences in all their
sensitivity and poignancy. Her next collection, Padmavathi, the Harlot and Other Stories, though not related to one
another form a holistic experience of woman as victim, as mother, as goddess, as emotion, as intellect and a host of
images in relation to man. The stories are based mainly on the theme of oppression of women. Many of the stories
reveal a feminist pre-occupation with the breaking of stereo-typed images of women such as prostitute, the other
woman and the wife and the portrayal of women in a non-servile, independent stance. Thematically as these stories
including The Tattered Blanket have feminist slant. They show how women characters are caught in the web of man
http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

centered society. In her revolutionary handling of the traditional male stereotypes, Madhavikutty emerges as a
champion of the cause of womens liberation.

Women are not born, they are made, says the great French writer Simone de Beauvoir, in her thought provoking
book, The Second Sex. In her view, it is the socialization of women as a woman which makes them what they
become. Kamala Das in her poems and stories convincingly demonstrates the truth of this observation.

References:
Anjiem Tanseen: Kamala Dass Feminist Perspective in Indian English Poetry and Fiction (Ed), Sarup and Sons, 2006.
Karim, N, A: Tribute to Kamala Suraiyya, Mainstream Weekly, 2009
Sachindanandan, K: Redefining the Genre: Kamala Das, Indian Literature, Sahithya Academy, 2009.
Surendran, K. V: New Perspectives on Indian and Western Fiction, Sarup and Sons, New Delhi, 2000.
Thomas, A. J: Remembering Madhavikutty, Indian Literature, Sahithya Academy, 2009.

http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

Robert Haydens poem Those Winter Sundays

Daddy, I have had to kill you!
Father what is that in the sky beckoning to me with long finger?- Walt Whitman
The simple word father can conjure up many images and emotions. A father can be a warm and joyful memory, or a
dark and dismal one. Western poetic and dramatic literature has not been kind to fathers. Fathers have been portrayed
as brutish tyrants and cruel authority figures or deceivers and manipulators. In Sophocles play Antigone, King Creon
is depicted as an arrogant tyrant. In their love for their children, Shakespeares father characters have been assigned
the roles of the tragically flawed (King Lear), the hopelessly misguided (Polonius), or the stubbornly autocratic.
The best parental poems are about fathers, not about mothers. Parental poetry very often examines the emotional
foundations built upon the relationship between child and father, rather than child and mother. Fathers have naturally
assumed the role of caretaker, meaning they are physically absent for extended periods of time. Whereas mothers and
children have more access to each other and could develop deeper levels of understanding, at the same time fathers
were emotionally absent from the childs life for long periods of time. Robert Haydens Those Winter Sundays, and
Sylvia Plaths Daddy- indicate that the physical distance between father and child can lead to emotional and
psychological distance. This issue of Second Language discusses Robert Haydens poem Those Winter Sundays
included in class IX English coursebook.
Three poems
Three great poems of twentieth century- Robert Haydens Those Winter Sundays, Theodore Roethkes My Papas
Waltz and Sylvia Plaths Daddy are based on the theme of fatherhood and parental relations. Haydens poem, Those
Winter Sundays uses an adult narrator to describe the memory of the child towards his foster father. The father used to
wake up the boy early every Sunday to be ready for church services. In this poem, the father is not friendly and
affectionate, but he made sure that everything stays in order for his child. In Daddy Plath relates the Nazi-like nature
of her own father, and then tells readers Daddy, I have had to kill you. Did she really kill him, or just exterminate his
memory from her life? Using Nazi images and drawing physical parallels between her father and Hitler, Plath
expresses the emotional void and resentment that she felt after her father died when she was eight years old. Feeling
controlled by her fathers memory and victimized by her husband, who reminded her of her father, Plath compares her
life to that of a foot trapped inside a black shoe. The poem My Papas Waltz, by Theodore Roethke describes the
scene of dance between a father and his son. This poem deals with affectionate memories of the narrator and his father.
Those Winter Sundays- Analysis
In Those Winter Sundays, the persona thanks his father for all the things he has done that have gone unnoticed.
This is a poem that causes the reader to ponder his/her relationship with his/her father and mother. Haydens intricate
language of the poem brings a great use of imagery, alliteration, and other forms of figurative language to each line.
The speaker in Haydens sonnet is a man looking back at his childhood; he dramatizes an event that made him realize
that he had not treated his father with as much love and respect as the father deserved. But instead of allowing himself
to wallow in guilt and self-recrimination, he offers a rhetorical question that puts his attitude in proper perspective. If
he had known better, he would have done better. The poem is about a son looking back on his earlier years to his
relationship with his father. The son, who at the time could not perceive his fathers subtle expressions of love, never
returned them. Therefore, guilt and love are the central themes of the poem.
Sundays too
Haydens speaker is a man, who looks back on childhood memories, when his father rose before dawn to build
warming fires. The first line, Sundays too my father got up early, implies that the father did not sleep in because it
was Sunday, but rather he continued his duty to his family. The father had to get dressed in the coldblueblack cold
because no one else would get up before the house was warm. The father had worked all week in the cold weather,
possibly outside, until his hands were cracked, and even though his hands ached, he made the fire to warm the house
for his family. In the days of Haydens youth, homes in Detroit were heated by coal which burned out overnight and
left the furnace, and the house, stone cold by morning. Thus every morning the coal furnace had to be banked with
fresh coal and re-lighted. Banked fires blaze refers to a real fire, since the old furnaces burned hot with live coals.
http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

The phrase banked fires refers to the piles of wood that were heaped to keep a low glow during the night to make
starting the fire again easier in the morning. This kind of fresh language is what makes poetry so alluring; instead of
merely reporting that the father got up early as usual and started the fire in the stove so his family would be warm, the
poet has fashioned a little drama filled with intriguing images that make us see and hear the events. The simple, line
following these skilfully crafted images, delivers a blast: No one ever thanked him. The speaker has shown us a
caring man who did so much for others, yet no one appreciated it.
The cold splintering, breaking
In the second four-line stanza, the speaker acknowledges his experience as a boy, waking to hear the effect of the
fires warmth on the house, which he describes as an audible noise of splintering, breaking, an image that recalls the
cracking of ice. The speaker would lie in his warm bed listening while his father was rekindling the fire in the stove or
fireplace to warm the house. He would hear the cold splintering, breaking another image that contributes to the
dramatic quality of the poem. Literally, the father was splintering the wood, but figuratively while almost literally to
the child listening, it would sound as if the cold itself were breaking up. Then when the house was warm enough, the
father would call his son to get up, and the son would reluctantly comply. He would rise and dress. The father does
not call the boy immediately or force him to face the same cold darkness as he did. The father waits until the rooms
are warm, which is another distinct kindness. Still, at the end of this second stanza, the speaker indicates that he would
dress slowly, aware of the chronic angers of the house. He does not specifically indicate what the angers relate to or
to whom they are attributable. The house itself is not angry, the people inside the house are angry.
What did I know?
By the final five-line stanza, the speaker declares that his usual response to his father was, he feels now, ungrateful
indifference. The last two lines of the poem is a question the speaker asks himself. The words austere and lonely
also carry a lot of meaning. Austere means severe, strict, rigid, or stern. Offices in this context mean simply ones
duties. The speaker says that he lacked understanding of how his father was showing him his deep and abiding love
through all the things he did for him as a boy. At the end of the poem, Hayden describes what he discovered looking
back on those mornings. What did I know, what did I know / of loves austere and lonely offices? One could read
this question as an excuse: I was just a kid, what did I know? In these lines the speaker expresses his ignorance as a
child. Perhaps we are all in the same situation. None of us understands the sacrifices our parents make for us. As a
child, Hayden doubted his fathers love, but once he was older, he realized that love is often expressed silently and
indirectly.
The Use of Imagery in Those Winter Sundays
Imagery is the word used to describe the types of images a poet uses throughout the poem. Images are references to
a single mental creation; they are the verbal representation of a sense impression. Haydens imagery is an amazing
juxtaposition of contrasting elements of sound, light, colour and texture. His images address our senses and a good
reader can see, hear, feel and smell the images. Haydens effective use of imagery allows the reader to gain a unique
understanding of the poem through descriptions of character and atmosphere. The images used appeal to almost all the
readers senses with the exception of tastes. Beginning in the first stanza, the readers senses of touch and sight are
appealed to. For instance, when the speaker describes the cracked hands that ached, the reader sees an older man
with dry, cracked hands. This can lead the reader to a number of assumptions again of the man being worn out from
his job, or possibly having arthritis which would lead to the dry and sore hands. It also appeals to the sense of touch
and sight when it describes the fathers hands and also when he puts his clothes on in the blueblack cold.
At the beginning of the poem, Hayden introduces cold and uncomfortable images to relay his initial tone of regret
with regards to not respecting his father. He supplements cold in the second line with blueblack, a very uncommon
word that creates dissonance and carries with it a negative connotation, in order to strengthen the undesirable
conditions brought by the cold imagery. In the early stages of the poem, Hayden creates the image of a caring, devoted
father. The father cares so immensely for his family that he sacrifices his own comfort for them. Hayden mentions that
he rises in the blueblack cold to emphasize that the sun has not even begun to rise. The speaker further characterizes
the father by saying that his cracked hands that ached / from labour in the weekday weather made / banked fires
blaze. The first stanza ends with, No one ever thanked him. The second stanza includes imagery of the father by
mentioning that (w)hen the rooms were warm, hed call. Again, the father shows his love for his family. He only
calls them when the rooms are warm so that they will not have to brave the cold. Symbolically, this line suggests that
the fathers love has warmed the rooms for his family. Images of the father in the third stanza include Haydens
description of the father (driving) out the cold / and (polishing) (the sons) good shoes as well. These lines show
http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

examples of things that the father has done for his son. Although the family does not require these things, the fathers
love for them leads him to continue to carry out these duties.
Just as Hayden uses images to convey the character of the father, he also creates an astonishing image of the sons
personality. The images of the son convey the idea that he is ungrateful. The first description of him says, and
slowly I would rise and dress. This shows his selfishness by pointing out his reluctance to get out of bed even though
the house is warm due to his fathers efforts. The speaker expresses his fear of the chronic angers of that house.
The chronic angers represent the father. Ironically, the father is angry because he feels that no one ever understands
his acts of love. Hayden ends his poem by saying, What did I know, what did I know... In these lines the speaker is
expressing his ignorance as a child. Only when it is too late does he realize that his father was showing his love by
sacrificing things for his family.
Analyzing Poetic Devices
In Those Winter Sundays Hayden uses poetic devices such as alliteration, consonance, and repetition to convey
meaning. Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in a sequence of words. If the repeated consonant
sound is at the beginning of the word, it is alliteration. If it is anywhere else, it is consonance. In most cases,
consonance refers to the end sound (like nk in blank and think). How do these hard c and k sounds contribute to
the mood of the opening stanza? These hard sounds mimic the sound of the fire that the father has started to warm the
house before he wakes his son. They also indirectly contribute to an impression of the father as, perhaps, somewhat
harsh despite the lack of any direct mention in this stanza of a harsh father. The poem is written in free verse. It has no
identifiable rhyme scheme or meter. There are three stanzas of five, four, and five lines, respectively. The diction adds
a deeper meaning to the poem. The sentence no one ever thanked him adds a great deal to the meaning, since it is
known that those individuals who do societys hardest and most necessary work are seldom given credit or appreciated
for their hard work.
The poem Those Winter Sundays defines, unspoken love. It begins with the fathers unspoken love towards the
son, when he makes the fire. Then, the unspoken love is returned, when the adult son asks, What did I know, what did
I know of loves austere and lonely offices? The meaning of the poem remains somewhat open-ended, as it closes
with a question rather than a statement.
Poetry has the ability to take us on a journey, to places we have never been before. It is everywhere - in nature, in
the moment we look into the eyes of those we love, in the depth of ones soul, in our memories and in the flashes of
our childhood. Haydens Those Winter Sundays is a short lyric that grasps a personal story of the relationship
between a father and son. If you love poetry and you want to bring your fathers unspoken love in a poem, you can
compose one as Hayden did.
Reference:
Lauri Ramey(Ed): The Heritage series of Black poetry, Ashgate Publishing company, Burlington, 2008
Goldstein, L and Chrismas, R: Robert Hayden: essays on the poetry, University of Michigan Press, 2001
Williams, T. Pontheolla: Robert Hayden-A critical Analysis of his poetry, University of Illinois Press, 2003

http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

Shanta Shelkes poem Even Past Fifty

HELMER: First and foremost, you are a wife and mother.
NORA: That I dont believe anymore. I believe that first and foremost I am an individual, just as much as you
are. (Henrik Ibsen in A Dolls House)
Women, you owe her everything! So read the headline announcing Simone de Beauvoirs death in April 1986.
It was a phrase repeated over and over at her funeral, where some 5,000 mourners gathered to pay tribute to the
greatest French woman of the 20th century, author of The Second Sex, mother of the modern womens movement
and the partner of Jean-Paul Sartre, though never in marriage. There are two major ideas in de Beauvoirs The Second
Sex. One idea is that one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. The other is that in all known societies, woman
has always been looked upon as the other
Women have been writing in India since time immemorial, as early as 1000B.C on religious and secular themes and
it was mainly poetry. Much later we have a few Bhakthi Poets like Jana Bai and Meera in different parts of the
country. We have eminent modern woman writers like Amrita Pritham in Punjab, Shanta Shelke in Marathi, Kabitha
Sinha in Bengali, Sugathakumari in Malayalam--just to cite a few instances. This issue of the Second Language
discusses Womans voice in Indian literature with special reference to Shanta Shelkes poem Even Past Fifty
included in the class IX English course book.
Sarojini Naidu and Kamala Das
Toru Dutt and Sarojini Naidu are called the precursors of women poetry. Toru Dutt (1856-77) was the first Indian
woman poet to write in English, and her work depicts archetypes of Indian womanhood, such as Sita and Savitri,
showing women in suffering, self-sacrificing roles, reinforcing conventional myths in a patriotic manner. Sarojini
Naidu is the most lyrical woman poet of India. She made more definite contribution to Indian English Poetry. Her
poetry reflects her involvement with Indian life. She is an epitome of Indian womanhood and commands respect from
the younger generation as an intrepid freedom fighter. In her poems like Indian Love Song, Village Song,
Pardanashin and Indian Dancers, she has portrayed the life of Indian Woman of different sects where women are
seen dancing, enjoying and involved in the thoughts of their lovers. Love is the prominent theme of her poetry where
woman are shown as a sacred beloved who are ready to surrender before their lovers. Sarojini Naidus poems breathe
an Indian air with particular light on women and their glory. They are mellifluous and catching and disclose an image
of ideal woman of Ancient times.
Modern Indian women poets
The distinction of Indian women poets of the post independence period lies in their voicing the real and living
experience in its stark naked form. The major themes of these modern poetesses include love in its various moods and
forms, marital ties, familial relationships, quest for life and death and a few social concerns, besides gender issues and
female quest for identity and space. The post independence, post colonial era in India has been a phase of intense
introspection, search for roots and identity. Women, mainly those who had the opportunity to get education, started to
tear off their veils and assert their identity. They started reviewing how women in the past had been tethered to the
orthodoxy of tradition, and how the chains of patriarchy had restrained them from speaking out their minds. Modern
women poets, through speaking of individual experience have represented the woes and throes of the average women.
The modern feminist thought came into Indian English poetry with Kamala Das who emerged as a staunch rebel
against the customary patriarchal arrangement in the Indian society. She originated a vigorous and poignant feminine
confessional poetry, in which a common theme is the exploration of the man-woman relationship. She made bold
attempts to break the traditional shell of Indian woman with her fiery tone and confessional mode of writing. This
style was subsequently taken up by other women poets such as Gauri Deshpande, Suniti Namjoshi, and Chitra
Narendran. In womens poetry we hear the voice of the New Womans definition of herself and a quest for her own
identity. The predicament of a single woman, spinster or separated, has also been a prominent theme in womens
poetry. Tara Patel shows in Single Woman (1991) that in the harsh reality of the world, the quest for companionship
without strings is a difficult one. Anna Sujata Matha in Attic of Night (1991) writes of the trauma of separation and the
travails of a separated woman. Poetry for her seems to be an act of transcendence of agony, in the name of survival.
But the image of woman she projects is strong and determined, and she argues for a sense of community, justice and
companionship. As in fiction, the image of the New Woman and her struggle for an identity of her own also emerges
in the Indian poetry.
http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

Shanta Shelke
Shanta Shelke was born in Manchar, a small village in central Maharashtra into a family that was well placed, but
which had no tradition of literacy. However, both her father and mother were educated and from her mother she
imbibed her love of literature. Her father a forest ranger was an unusual man. He did not believe in traditional
restrictions and his children were brought to cherish their liberty.
Consequently I have always lived like a man, Shanta Shelke, who was their eldest daughter, says. At sixteen, she
was married to a boy of her own caste. The marriage meant little to her, and she left him to live independently and to
continue her education.
She had lived a bold life, breaking many social conventions, and doesnt regret it. She worked at several jobs
including proof reading, writing columns for magazines and translating books from English into Marathi. Her life
has been a rich experience, filled with ideas and friendships. About todays urban feminists who are fighting for
equality and want to imitate men, she has her reservation. But she emphasises that women should assert their
difference. Shanta Shelke is both a poetess and songwriter. She has experienced the joys and the pangs of poetic
creation. After G.D Madgulkar, she was the prominent songwriter, who graced Marathi films by her poetic creativity.
But what is the difference between poetic creativity and that of writing a song? Is there any qualitative difference?
Song writing to her is as much a poetic creation as that of a poem . Shanta maintained that there is no qualitative
difference between the two creative processes. In her peculiar mood of self-expression, Shanta harped on her process
of development as a poet and a songwriter.
A Dolls House
In Even past Fifty Shanta Shelke presents the picture of a woman past fifty. But the poet immediately corrects
herself, though the woman is past fifty she is a little girl at heart. For the middle aged woman the house she lives in is
like a dolls house. She is like a little girl playing with a dolls house. She is like Nora in Ibsens play A Dolls
House. She has been treated like a doll to be played with and admired. Running the household is a simple
childhood game for the woman. She has travelled along in the journey of life, but her little feet is never fatigued. She
lives in a world of imagination. She has to face a lot of hardships and catastrophes in life. The hardships of life to her
are like evil spirits in childrens stories. She imagines herself a hero in the fantasy stories and she fights the evil spirits
using blades of grass. But in her lifes struggle she sometimes wins, sometimes loses.
The middle aged woman faces all the agonising problems of life with a smile. It is a distaste smile like moonlight.
Sometimes the weight of life will be too much on her and she feels totally in despair like a flower crumpled in a
fist. But she rises up like a phoenix from the silent sufferings and untold miseries. The poet met the middle aged
women after a long time. The woman talked to the poet with irrepressible intensity. The poet noted for the first
time with pang that the woman is becoming old for her hair is fast becoming white. The poet saw the froth rising
above the stream of her life. The white froth above the stream is like her white hair.
Poetic devices
A poet uses words more consciously than any other kind of writer. Poetry works it magic by the way it uses words
to evoke images that convey a lot of meaning once you look into them. Shanta Shelke presents the silent suffering of
Indian rural mother through a series of images. The first striking image that attracts our attention is that of a little girl
playing with a toy house. The image of a girl fighting evil spirits with blades of grass is in reality the picture of Indian
woman fighting silently against the value systems of a male-dominated society. The image of a flower crumpled in
a fist presents the picture of tormented female self craving for love and identity. The woman in this poem is a victim
of patriarchal oppression. The most beautiful part of the poem is the image that comes in the last two lines of the
poem. In this the poet notes the womans hair fast becoming white and with a pang, the hollowness of the froth
rising above the stream of her life. As you read the poem, you can see these images in your minds eye.
The poem uses abrupt change in message to add more emphasis to the meaning. By beginning the poem with an
image that contrasts the main theme, the poet is able to inflict a more vivid impression on the reader. Contrast -- that
is, suggesting differences between two things is a very powerful means for Shelke for developing the poem. Poets
usually make use of contrast between words, short phrases, two different images and two different emotional or
psychological states. Shanta Shelke creates two opposing images of the middle-aged woman using contrasts like
Shes past fifty and but she is a little girl at heart. Similarly travelling a long road with little feet and
simplifying difficult questions and smile of distaste are instances of contrasts in the poem. The use of metaphor is
another important feature of Shelkes poetic style. Metaphor can be described as figure of speech in which a thing is
http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com

referred to as being something that it resembles. The poet says that the house of the middle aged woman is a dolls
house and she is a little girl playing with it. The long road and the stream of her life are metaphors suggesting the
painful life of the woman. Even past fifty is a lyric that expresses poets emotions and thoughts in a lively and
memorable way.
Feminism and women writers
The modern women are not silent sufferers like the woman in Shanta Shelkes poem. The new woman dares to
pronounce her volitions and convictions. It was mainly after the womans liberation movement of the 1960s that the
contemporary feminist ideology evolved and the female voice was heard with special heed. The focus of the literary
studies was shifted to womens writing with a view to rereading, revisioning and reinterpreting in the light of long
existing gender bias in history, culture, society, language and literature. Virginia Woolfs book A Room of Ones Own
(1929) was recognised as one of the most important feminist documents. A woman must have money and room of her
own if she is to write a fiction, Woolf says. She cites an example of Jane Austin who wrote stealthily, hid her
manuscripts from male intruders, got time for writing in the setting room only when family members were out. Above
all, she suffered all kinds of casual interruptions; she tried to conceal her identity as a writer for the fear of being
mocked at.
Virginia Woolf questioned quite self-consciously why womens space in literature was so limited. In the post war
period, Simone de Beauvoirs Le Deuxieme Sexe (1949) was an important landmark in the evolution of feminist
theory. She questioned the status and role of women in the convention-ridden patriarchal society. She opined that
woman is not feminine by birth, but she is made so by importunate process of socio-cultural conditioning.
Womens Indian English texts have come a long way from being really a literary sub-culture that owes its existence
to the British presence in India (Tharu, 1989) to becoming a free post-colonial literature of specific gender and
nationality. The themes and attitudes developed by women writers in English make them literary sisters of women
writers writing in the vernaculars. Indian literature in English by women and the texts in the regional languages form a
unified body of literature. Their narratives evolve from an ethos which is Indian, a value system which is Indian and
attitudes which have native value. Womens writing tries to portray the aspirations and emotions, and the conflicts
and frustrations of women who have grown into creators of good and mature literature of their own.
Although women form half of the human population, yet in many respects womens lives experiences,
preoccupations and feelings have so far been marginalised. The literature written by and about woman has been until
recent times, undervalued or rejected as thrash, while the literature written by men has been regarded as central or
fundamental. As Anne Eliot, a character in Jane Austins novel Persuasion grumbles: Menthe pen has been in
their hands, women had been on the margin enduring their pains in silence.
Reference

Ray, K. Mohit and Kundu, Rama (Eds): Studies in Women writers in English, Atlantic Publishers, New Delhi, 2006
Singh, Dinesh Kanwar: Feminism and Post Feminism: the context of modern Indian women, Sarup and sons, New Delhi, 2004
Singh, Nisha Chandra: Radical feminism and womens writing, Atlantic Publishers, New Delhi, 2007
Tharu, Susie and Lalita, K. (Eds). Women Writing in India Volume 1, 600 BC to the Early Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press.
New Delhi. 1991.

http://mlpmschoolnews.blogspot.com

parazak@gmail.com