"Imaginary Homelands" - Introduction

Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie is a work that explains how being a diasporic writer gives one an ability to perceive world or cultures from different perspectives. The Introduction begins with Rushdie looking at an old photograph, a black and white photo that takes him to the past. He recalls the opening sentence of L.P. Hartley's novel The Go-Between - "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there" - and tries to invert this idea of considering the past as alien, instead it is the present that is alien.

Rushdie further recollects memories of visiting Bombay, a city which he refers to as his "lost city". His father's name in the telephone directory and the colourful house which was present monochromatic in the old photograph become reminders of the past. To further this statement, Rushdie gives Midnight's Children, his own novel, as an example that showcased an attempt to restore the past for himself. According to Rushdie, the mere looking back into the past alone does not do any good, instead one must do so in knowledge as well. The knowledge would give rise to profound uncertainties, it would make the individual aware of his physical alienation from India and to reclaim the past or what was lost can be achieved through fictions, creating "imaginary homelands", "Indias of the mind".

Midnight's Children is an illustration portraying a version of India, precisely Rushdie's version of India. What Rushdie did in Midnight's Children was to make it "a novel of memory and about memory", so that he could come up with a version, of the hundreds of millions of possible versions, of India which he later calls - "my India". Though it is a version created through imagination, there is still a sincere attempt of making it as authentic as possible. However, imaginative truth is simultaneously honourable and suspect, and Rushdie's version of India could be a time when Rushdie actually belonged to it.

This leads us to his next line of thought where Indian writers writing from outside India try to reflect that world, they are obliged to deal with broken mirrors, some of those fragments have been irretrievably lost. But, for Rushdie, the 'broken mirror' can actually be as valuable as the one which is supposedly unflawed, for it helps one to recollect memories from the past, even the trivial things become important when the past is revisited (example - the slogans, advertisements, songs, etc.). These fragmentations, therefore, made trivial things seem like symbols. The past is reconstructed provisionally, yet there is an excitement in its discovery even if they are pieces of the most common objects.

Human beings do not perceive things on the 'whole', the 'whole sight' is almost impossible to achieve. As Milan Kundera says, "The struggle of man against power, is the struggle of memory against forgetting". In context to this, Rushdie elaborates that human beings do not perceive things whole, they are wounded creatures and cracked lenses. The meanings that we construct become shaky edifices that we build out of scraps, dogmas, childhood injuries, newspaper articles, chance remarks, old films, small victories, people hated and people loved.

Rushdie further foregrounds few questions keeping his arguments of being a diasporic writer as the base: "Does literature seek to do no more than describe?" - "Can the writers do no more than describe, from a distance, the world that they have left?" - "Or does the distance open any other doors?" Before attempting to arrive at ab answer, Rushdie gives an example of Mrs. Gandhi (Indira Gandhi) and her statement given to the press/media during the Emergency. According to the statement recorded by a reporter, Mrs. Gandhi claimed that there were no bad things or forced sterilizations that happened during the Emergency. Rushdie questions the 'state truth', because as an outsider, how does one get to know the truth and this inevitably leads one to arrive at a conclusion that politicians and writers often become rivals. And, for a writer, a novel becomes one way of denying the official, politicians' version of truth.

There are no fixed answers or solutions to the raised questions but one can answer only in the hope of arriving at a probable solution. The function of "literature is self-validating". It is to say that "a book is not justified by its author's worthiness to write it, but by the quality of what has been written". Books become good when it goes to that edge and risk falling over it - "when they endanger the artist by reason of what he has, or has not, artistically dared".

Further, the Indian writer, who looks back at India, does so through guilt-tinted spectacles. The writer's identity is at once plural and partial where he straddles between two cultures yet does not consider it as an infertile territory for him to occupy. There is also a linguistic struggle which becomes a reflection of other struggles taking place in the real world, the struggles between the cultures within ourselves and the influences at work upon our societies. By translating, Rushdie is forging his 'British-Indian' identity, he is 'bearing across' meanings of one culture to the other. He argues that something always gets lost in translation, but there is also the notion that something can also be gained.

In conclusion, Rushdie elaborates on how plurality equips a writer to build a new, 'modern' world out of an old, legend-haunted civilization, an old culture which one has brought into a newer one. Literature, then, functions to find new angles to enter into the reality, and the long geographical perspective with distance provides one with such angles. However, there is a trap that we fall into unconsciously, the trap of having a 'ghetto mentality' where we confine ourselves within narrowly defined cultural frontiers.

In this context, Rushdie's personal take is that he has no reader in mind, he writes for ideas, people, events, shapes and 'things' that will be of interest to others. International writers have the pleasant freedom of being a literary migrant, which provides them with a larger literature, a polyglot family tree to which they learn from. Rushdie ends the essay by quoting from Saul Bellow's novel The Dean's December - "For God's sake, open the universe a little more!" - which means a writer must look at the world from a holistic perspective which will allow him to appreciate and critically look at his own culture and other cultures.

"Of Parents and Children" - An Understanding

(Précis)

Bacon, in his essay, Of Parents and Children, deals with the universal sentiments of parents towards their children. He begins the essay by saying that the “joys of parents are secret; and so are their griefs and fears” – indicating that parents experience immense joy in their children’s happiness and similarly their sorrows or misfortunes create greater grief in the parents. Children sweeten the difficulties for the parents; they make difficult and depressing situations, perhaps even the remembrance of death of someone, less painful.

The care for the children exists in perpetuity, meaning, this attitude runs in every generation, and the same is seen in animals as well. However, “memory, merit and noble works” are certain aspects which can be attributed only to mankind. Bacon subtly comments on the achievements of great minds, he tells that probably these men would have had greater achievements if they had only remained “childless” – for they could have concentrated more on their work, keeping the mind and body coordinated enough. Bacon further hints at how children inherit certain qualities from their parents and it is often the first raisers in the house who expect their children to grow up, both in mind and body that indicates a continuance of the parents. However, Bacon points at the close family relations and children tend to imitate behaviour of those of their uncles or nephews, etc.

Further, Bacon highlights at how every child in a house is treated, normally the affection towards their children vary accordingly. The eldest children are respected, given due responsibilities, while the youngest of all is considered to be a “wanton” (someone who is hard to control) and the ones in the middle easily get away unnoticed. This sort of an attitude could lead to negative results where children who are often seen in the strict eyes tend to pick on bad influences. Bacon quotes Solomon, “A wise son rejoiceth the father, but an ungracious son shames the mother.” This means that generally, the father takes pride in his son’s accomplishments but refuse to take any responsibility if the same son is led astray.

Thus, favouritism amongst the children would in most possible ways have bad influence on them; and the puerile fight between two brothers is carried on as they grow up. Now, the indifferences between the siblings would relate to issues over property, relationships, etc. and would disturb the peace in the family. Bacon continues to discuss the apprehensions of the parents when it comes to their children’s choice of their vocation. He insists that it is better for the parents to decide for their children what is best. Nevertheless, if the child does not show any significant improvement or interest in the course or career chosen for him, the parents shouldn’t impose their authority over the child.

Bacon concludes the essay by saying that the younger brothers are often fortunate enough while the eldest are seldom fortunate – for the parents normally expect the eldest to inherit all the qualities of them. Thus, Bacon’s essay not only talks of the universal sentiments of parents towards their children, but also their trepidations in upbringing their children in the right manner.

"On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth" - An Understanding

(Précis)

1. Hazlitt, in the very beginning of the essay, talks on how there is a feeling of "eternity" in youth which makes them compensate for everything. The youth live as if they had their future loaded with treasures, paying no heed to the planning for future. Their is no limit for their hopes or wishes. 
2. Words like "death" and "old age" are of no relevance to them, for they believe that they bear a lucky life and their minds cannot relate to non-active fancies such as death or old age, it only remains a fiction to them.
3. The youth sees no end to prospect after prospect; they have their desires piling on and seek every opportunity to gratify them. They look at the world in a positive spirit, and feel in themselves the strength and energy to keep them on pace with the moving world. In this excitement, they fail to foresee how they decline into old age and finally encounter death. Probably, it is in the very nature of the 'youth' that they feel the essence of immortality.
4. Hazlitt states that the youth is still in that thin layer of innocence (for they have not seen life as yet) and are rocked in the cradle of their desires. While many desires occupy their thoughts, they have no room for thoughts about death in their mind. The spirit of youth remains unimpaired and they are guided by their own sensations until they come across a minor failure, and they cut their ties from the world, where their passion loosens its hold on the happenings in future, and then begin to understand the occurrences in its proper sense. Hazlitt gives an example of a scullion (a servant employed for rough work) Sterne, and his Master, Bobby. When Sterne is informed of his Master's death, his only reply is "So am not I!" - meaning to say that his monotonous work has already taken away the beauty of his life. While the youth is not bothered by the idea of death, their confidence only seems to strengthen and enhance their sense of possession and enjoyment of life. They also fail to understand the value of time, until they see Love, Hope and Joy withering around them.
5. Hazlitt now talks about the fears and uncertainties of youth. The youth cannot do away without having experienced the splendour of life. It is accepted in amazement, as if life were compared to a rustic fair, and the youth have no thoughts of going home or that it will soon be night.
6. Hazlitt then compares life to be a play wherein the nature as a "step-mother" holds them in her arms and after sometime lets them fall, as if they were that increasing burden to her to support. Yet, for sometime, she (Nature) shines on the youth and holds them up to see the "raree-show" (a small display or scene viewed in a box) of universe.
7. Further, Hazlitt states about those aspects that the youth enjoy from Nature in complete vigour. ("To see the golden sun... Nature poured their treasures at our feet.) He mentions how the youth explores the sublime world of nature, considers historical events to an extent (Tyre of Sidon - a Mediterranean port; and Babylon - the grand, wicked city on the Euphrates river to which Jews were exiled). They appreciate nature and admire its sublime beauty, while the maturity comes in them all of a sudden and this transition from all to nothing shocks them and the enthusiasm of youth that once brimmed with hope and pleasure has now become a comfortless thought.
8. The transition from youth to old age or rather to the age of maturity happens gradually, yet it seems to have happened suddenly. Hazlitt talks about how art (Rembrandt's paintings) lives for long, while the youth takes no heed of the passage of time and one day they find the intricacies of Nature. The painter lives eternally in his painting while the viewer is turned to dust - meaning to say that one's health, strength and appetite reduces as he grows old, and even if he wants to do of any value to this earth (Nature) it becomes rather too difficult a task for him to accomplish.
9. At times, when we understand the ravages of time, we find it appealing to live that single moment (the youth) to its fullest, and complain how slowly (like a snail) time moves but it won't be long enough for us to see how quickly the time has passed.
10. Hazlitt mentions his own experiences of youth where he participated in the French Revolution. The fit of moment and vigour of youth made him participate in the Movement but at the end he only saw bloodshed ("For my part... my hopes fell").
11. Hazlitt then talks of how he forms an opinion on "youth" by recollecting his past experiences. He now realizes that the soul cannot be satisfied for it has to leave something behind which is of value to this earth. This marks the uncertainties and fears that come even in the transitional phase. All the reckless/careless/imperious attitude fades and a fear grows within that he may not leave anything of value to this world.
12. As one grows old, the essence of time becomes very vivid, nothing seems to have changed but in reality we become the examples of change. Hazlitt comments saying that the world is a witch that cuts us off with false shows and appearances - meaning to say that all joys and hopes become an illusion in front of our eyes. The only thing we can expect now (in our old age) is little of ill health and suffering and then peacefully we can retire to our graves. The thought of 'death' now does not frighten us for we do not die wholly at our deaths; we have moulded ourselves throughout - "faculty after faculty, interest after interest, attachment after attachment disappear: we are torn from ourselves while living, year after year sees us no longer the same, and death only consigns the last fragment of what we were to the grave."
13. Hazlitt states that men should "wear out by slow stages" and only then they will understand the essence of life. Even the things that we study and watch certain things today may seem a bit juvenile after many years. Hazlitt is being critical of youth.
14. Hazlitt concludes leaving a question for the readers as to why youth fades away? Why beauty fades away? - Life is not enough to get solutions.

"The Praise of Chimney-Sweepers" - An Understanding

(Précis)

1. Lamb wants to meet the young chimney-sweepers who come at the dawn and sometimes do not even see the sunrise (metaphorically, they are always kept in the dark). He has a special yearning for these boys and girls whom he notes as "dim specks - poor blots - innocent blacknesses".
2. Lamb conveys his sincere respect to these chimney-sweepers (the "Africans of our growth") for they set out for work early in the morning, battle through the freezing climate, and yet preach to mankind a lesson of patience.
3. Lamb then talks of the struggles of the young chimney-sweepers who are lost in the darkness of those huge chimneys, while their other companions have lost all hopes of expecting them to return. But in complete delight, there emerges a survivor waving his brush as if it were a weapon and that he was a victorious soldier who had conquered a fort. Lamb also hints at the punishment given to a bad sweep - that he would be locked in a stack with his brush, and would be asked to indicate which way the wind blew.
4. Now, Lamb urges the readers to be compassionate on these young souls (the young chimney-sweepers). It would be nice of the readers to provide the young men and women with some money, food and warm clothes - and that the readers do not have to spend their entire fortune but a very minute part of it.
5. Further, Lamb mentions about a peculiar beverage with its main ingredients being "sassafras" (a fragrant bark of an American tree). This pleasant beverage is provided to the chimney-sweepers and which they drink with great contentedness. While, Lamb himself cannot bear to drink this beverage for it is much unappetizing for him. But, to a chimney-sweeper, this beverage is luxury. The sassafras is oleaginous (oily) in nature and as the drink goes down the throat of these young men, the sooty matter on the roof of the mouth also reduces in its thickness.
6. Lamb talks about Mr. Read, the owner of the Salopian house, that he runs quite well his business for he can never run out of customers - the young chimney-sweepers (whom the writer refers to as "artisans").
7. The writer now turns to the readers and urges them to help these boys by giving them extra money, a slice of delicate bread and butter so that it may help to soothe the palate of the young boys. The employers need to be grateful to these chimney-sweepers, because they work hard and not allow the descending soot to ever touch the food, even if they have to face death in a fired chimney. Their cries cannot be heard for there is the noise of the rattling engines from the adjacent "parishes" (an area that has its own local church and priest or minister).
8. The writer shares one of his early experiences where he had a good fall and a chimney-sweeper laughed looking at this. Lamb is annoyed by those people who laugh showing their teeth out for he sees their bones as well, but he is not angered when the chimney-sweeper laughs for it is the laugh of innocence, of glee and definitely less of mischief. This display of white on a sweeper's face is compared to - "A sable cloud. Turns forth her silver lining on the night." This marks a badge of better days.
9. Lamb cites yet another instance where he describes the royal bed, that of the duke at Arundel castle. A lost chimney sweeper accidentally comes into the duke's room and is lured by the comfort. He lays his black head upon the pillow and sleeps like the young Howard (the duke). This venture of the sweep was more or less initiated by his desperate want of care and concern, as how he had once received when he was in the womb, and now once again after many years the boy creeps back into his proper cradle.
10. Another instance that Lamb cites is of his friend Jem White (James White) who was impressed with a belief of metamorphosis (a major change in the appearance or character of someone or something) frequently took place - he arranged for an annual feast for the chimney-sweepers in a small enclosed space. There was heavy amount of food but not of its best quality, the small ale was served as if it was the best of wines. All this was done in order to deceive these young workers so that they would consider going back and continuing their work rather than protesting against authorities. The diversion and flattery made through the feast is to please these young children and then subject them to difficult labour.
11. The plight of these young children are brought in the following lines: "Golden lads and lasses must,/As chimney-sweepers, come to dust-"
12. Lamb concludes the essay by stating that after James White's time was gone, the annual feast too ended; with him the glory of the feast in Smithfield was departed for ever.

(Major themes)

1. The essay discusses the times when industries were on its development at a fast rate.
2. This text also highlights the atrocities done by the then sole institution - the Church; through a detailed criticism of religion as an institute of corruption, Lamb has tried to bring the truth to the forefront.
3. Lamb's tone of narration while citing various instances runs more on an ironic level, he is mocking at those who benefit without doing any work at all. This could probably be a direct attack on the suppression of the working class by the ruling class (or the bourgeois). He discusses this politics in a very subtle manner. 
4. There is a mystical aspect, as well as a humanistic aspect present in the essay. The critical study of the religious institutions, its tenets and its contradicting relation with the society explains the mystical aspect; while the writer's concern and soft-corner for the chimney-sweepers, and his constant urging of the readers to help the young boys and girls marks the humanistic aspect.

"The master of the house, is he at home or isn't he?" - Basavanna

Grass on the threshold

Dirt in the house

The master of the house, is he at home, or isn't he?

Lies in the body,

Lust in the heart:

no, the master of the house is not at home,

Our Lord of the Meeting Rivers.

Basavanna was a royal minister and the figure around whom the 'Virasaiva' community combined. He and his associates attempted to form an egalitarian community based on devotion to Shiva, rather than on caste divisions. Basavanna's signature line, the "the lord of the meeting rivers" refers to a Shiva temple in the town of Kudalasangama, where three rivers met. In this poem, Basavanna writes on a level more inclined towards the 'Advaita Vedanta'*. "The master of the house, is he at home or isn't he?" stands to symbolize the presence of clean mind and body as a representation of the supreme abode of the God.

In the very first line, the word "threshold" refers to an entrance or a doorway, and "grass" might be a reference to the uncleaned path. This line is a clear indication to the fact that the thoughts that arise in a human mind is perverted to an extent; and various disturbances become the grass in man's path to salvation. There is "dirt" in his house, meaning, he is not void of all worldly attachments. The poet is hinting at the human conscience, where man is entangled in this materialistic world and eventually has turned into a selfish creature.

The poet is doubtful if there resides a master in the house or not. The master here is a direct reference to God, and that by having a perverted mind, He surely will not be present in the house. This statement is put in a form of a question, only to be more rhetoric, indicative of the fact whether the individual has begun to clear his conscience or is still struggling to learn the proper ideals.

Further, the poet strikingly highlights at the major flaw in man and that is he is never true to not only others but also to himself. As Shakespeare says,

"This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."

Man is failing to be truthful, he easily succumbs to lying and cheating others, while being oblivion to the fact that he is not being true to himself. Man is lustful by nature - living in this materialistic world, he now is driven by lust and possesses the immense thirst for power, for materialistic wealth. The poet sternly asserts that the God does not reside in a body like such, where the mind is corrupted. The particular God that the poet refers to is Lord Shiva. According to the poet, Lord Shiva is the representation of the self-existent truth - this concept advocates the wearing of 'Linga' upon the body of each person so that the body becomes a temple fit for God to dwell in. Thus, it becomes a symbol of the presence of God not in the far-off heavens but in the very cells of the body.

*Advaita Vedanta - an interpretation of the whole body of Upanishads - which refers to the identity of the true self, Atman, which is pure consciousness, and the highest reality, Brahman, which is also pure consciousness.

eliot's "Tradition and Individual Talent"

"No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone."

Eliot's Tradition and Individual Talent showcases the meanings of the terms tradition and individual talent, and how it is perceived by those who create art (poetry). According to Eliot, tradition is not separate from individual talent as tradition speaks and carries with it the immortal voices of the past and the individual absorbs this only to create something new; yet something that fits into the line of tradition.

Eliot talks about how criticism is indispensable as it helps us to understand the texts and lead us to an intellectual engagement with these texts. A constructive criticism is one where a poet's work is judged by the intensity of artistic process present in it rather than by considering the biography of the poet. When this type of a criticism is done, we tend to see that no poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. This is to say that tradition is not an imitation of something which already exists, but it is a key to create novelty keeping in mind the historic sense.

The historic sense constitutes to the assertion of the mind of Europe - meaning the great minds of the past, on the individual. Thus, the new works carry in them, somewhere, the voices of the great minds of the past. Tradition is inseparable from individual talent for literature lives in continuity. Eliot tells that the tradition cannot be inherited but must be obtained by great labour.

Eliot calls the poetic mind to be a catalyst that helps in accelerating the rate of a reaction and yet it remains unchanged towards the end. Such should be the poetic mind as well for it should hold the past in its bones and create something new; and yet does not work to show the poet anywhere in the poetry that is produced. By saying this, Eliot emphasizes on the concept of the pastness of the present. Just as how the past directs the present, similarly, the present must conform to the past. Only then, will the new work be anything different from the old, yet fitting in to the whole stream of tradition.

In order to obtain this high standard, one must go through a continual surrender of himself. Eliot terms this as the poetic depersonalization. New ideas and aspects must be learnt only to add to the already existing information in the mind; and this sort of an attitude can be cultivated when one has an unprejudiced mind while assessing the poetic works (art works). It is not a single work of art of an artist that gives an actual estimation of the artist and his work; it is to consider several of works in comparison and to set him (the artist) in comparison and contrast with his predecessors. This judgment is a constructive one and it ameliorates the artist, and certainly not degrade him or amputate him (only metaphorically).

The meaning that an art work gives is something that is new yet it shows the conformity to the old. Eliot emphasizes on the concept of the artistic process where the artist must be capable of creating something new, with keeping in mind the essence of not the dead artists of the past but of the living essence of the past.

"An Introduction" by Kamala Das

Kamala Das

An Introductionis a poem which provides a focus for an exercise in autobiography. Kamala Das impresses by being very much herself in this poem and the tone is distinctively feminine. Critical response to Das’ poetry has been intimately connected to critical perception of her personality and politics; her provocative poetry has seldom produced lukewarm reactions.

Kamala Das’ poetry has been often praised for the originality, bold images, exploration of female sexuality, and intensely personal voice; however, there is a lack of structure and craftsmanship in her verses. We, the readers, often find powerful feminist images in Das’ poetry, focusing on critiques of marriage, motherhood, women’s relationships to their bodies and power over their sexuality, and the roles women are offered in traditional Indian society. Many critics have analyzed Das as “confessional” poet, writing in the tradition of Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and Denise Levertov. Though Das does not adapt to the poetry writing in the traditional aesthetic form, she has created a new language for the expression and many scholars agree that Das is an important figure whose bold and honest voice has re-energized Indian writing in English.

Das’ An Introduction is a poem which experiences a few shifts in the mood; what starts of as a sarcastic comment on politics and on the label of ‘Indo-Anglian’ later shifts to the personal and biological aspects of the narrator, which according to Das is a story of ‘every woman’. By the end the poet calls herself a ‘human’ who is very much sensitive to everything just as how a ‘man’ is.

The poem begins with a note on ‘history’ and how ‘memory’ plays its role in storing the past. The poet says that she knows all the names of those who were and are in power and can recite it anytime but one thing she doesn’t know is the role of ‘politics’. By saying so, Das mocks at the political embodiment in the society and by whom is this political organization run by.

Kamala Das touches upon the issue of language as well. She detests all the categorizers and who tell her to write in her regional language instead of writing in English and her reply, as she quotes, is;

          “… I speak three languages, write in

          Two, dream in one…”

Though Kamala Das prefers writing in English, she claims that it is original and still Indian and the distortions and queerness present in her writings is her own. She uses simple animal and natural imagery to substantiate that she can best express herself in English than in any other language. Also, this particular issue is seen in yet another poem which can serve as a good reference here - Don’t Call Me Indo-Anglian by Syed Amanuddin deals with almost the same issue. The poet is categorized under the title ‘Indo-Anglian’, meaning an Indian writing in English language; and he too abhors the ‘label-makers’ justifying his say by giving various nostalgic moments from his life and stay in India.

An Introductionthen shifts to a different mood where the poet talks about her early youth and how she asked for love but was deceived.

Kamala Das as Kamala Suraiya

          “...For, he drew a youth of sixteen into the

          Bedroom and closed the door, He did not beat me

          But my sad woman-body felt so beaten.”

These lines show how Kamala Das (as an autobiographical character in the poem) felt insulted not because she was a victim of abuse physically but her character and the ‘womanliness’ was misused and abused. After having said the bitter instances of her past, Das now turns to raise a voice of protest where she ignores her “womanliness” by wearing a shirt and her brother’s trousers and cutting her hair short. She steps out of the so-called “domestic arena” and begins to add weight to her say in the world. The poem rests on a very impacting message to those women who need immense support in voicing out their opinions. A reference can be made to a poem, Trouser Enthusiastby Paula Glynn, where she too begins the poem by saying that she is a ‘feminist’ and that she too has equal rights to see, learn and enjoy, what the world offers, in great depths.

          “…I have no joys that are not yours, no

          Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I.”

These lines depict the very heavy emotions of a human being, meaning, the poet wants to be treated equal and that she is no less than ‘man’ in holding responsibilities. Also, we, the readers, get to know the sense of ‘identity crises’ being portrayed. The very word ‘I’ which is referred to someone who can take a firm stand in the society and someone who can make decisions and enjoy freedom; and ‘I’ in this context is referred to a man, but Das contradicts this and substantiates by calling herself as ‘I’, as someone who should be respected.

In a way, Kamala Das’ work, to an extent, is connected to larger historical and cultural contexts and complicated, shifting postcolonial identities. Though many scholars do not approve of Kamala Das as an aesthetic poet, they still find her as a prominent figure for the explicitness, honest and bold expressions in her writings.

"The Wasteland" by T.S. Eliot

The Wasteland is a post-war poem of 433 lines and was published in the year 1922. Eliot has chosen the themes of alienation, unfamiliarity, isolation and disillusionment with modernity, in this poem. Also, The Wasteland is a poem which is basically a passing juncture in one’s life and it portrays the landscape of dryness in human soul. The poem is divided into five sections and they are;

1.   The Burial of the Dead

2.   A Game of Chess

3.   The Fire Sermon

4.   Death by Water

5.   What the Thunder Said

The five sections are in a fragmented form and many lines, in the poem, have biblical connotations, have relations with different fables and plays – suggesting that the poem is a collective effort when it comes to stating the aftermath of the war.

The main causes that linger throughout the poem are the advent of scientific technology and the loss of human values. There are references to the elements of loneliness, meaninglessness and the idyllic life. The structuring of the titles of each section in the poem delineates a sort of pessimistic notion and simultaneously reveals a sense of sinister element attached to its meanings.

The poem begins with a highlight on the change in the seasons and it is seen as one of the major themes of The Wasteland. The poem opens with an invocation of April, “the cruellest month” – indicative of the fact that ‘what brings life into the world also brings death’. The seasons fluctuate; spinning from one state to another, yet in its own cycle maintains stasis and this is very evidently pictured towards the end of the poem where the ‘wasteland’ becomes almost season-less, devoid of rain, of propagation and of real change. The world hangs in a perpetual limbo, waiting for the dawn of a new season. Also, the arrival of a new season is sort of a mockery at the humans for no matter how high and evolved man’s thinking becomes, nature’s ways can never be challenged.

Deathis another theme which is seen as a very prominent aspect in the poem. The term ‘death’ has a synonymous meaning of ‘life’, in other words, by dying a being can pave way for new lives. Eliot asks his friend Stetson: “That corpse you planted last year in your garden, / Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?” Similarly, Christ, by ‘dying’, redeemed humanity and gave new life. The ambiguous passage between life and death finds an echo in the frequent allusions to Dante, particularly in the Limbo-like vision of the men flowing across London Bridge and through the modern city.

Themes like ‘rebirth’, ‘love’, ‘lust’, ‘water’ and ‘history’ also stand highlighted throughout the poem and these are not just words that stand alone, they too are interlinked with each other. The references to Tristan und Isolde in “The Burial of the Dead”; to Cleopatra in “A Game of Chess”; and to the story of Tiresiaus and Philomela suggest that love in “The Wasteland” is often destructive. A sense of ‘nothingness’ is brought out through this theme.

Lust, one of the seven deadly sins, is also discussed in the poem. The episode of a typist with a “carbuncular” man is a depiction of a scene as something akin to a rape. Sexuality runs through the poem taking the center stage as a cause of calamity. The act of sex is too easy and too rampant in Eliot’s London, what should be looked at as an act of reproduction, here is looked at in a perverted view, that is, sex, in other words is not sterile.

The Christ images in the poem, along with many other religious metaphors, posit ‘rebirth’ and ‘resurrection’ as central themes. Eliot finally turns to heaven to seek for the climatic change in the skies – Datta, Dayadhvam and Damyata – is the poet’s vision of a world that is neither dying nor living; to break the spell and a profound change is required. Hence, the prevalence of Grail imagery in the poem; that the holy goblet can restore life and wash away the wrongs. And this is another reason for which we see the constant references to baptisms and to rivers – both are seen as “life-givers” in either spiritual or physical ways.

The Wasteland lacks water and water is an element that promises rebirth. But we see water as a destroyer in the poem. However, when the ‘wasteland’ finally experiences the rain, it does suggest the cleaning of the sins, the washing away of the misdeeds, and the start of a new future. The hope is immediately shattered as with rain comes thunder and with thunder there is lightning and therefore perhaps the presence of ‘fire’ which becomes one of the harmful forces of the nature. Thus, the imagery of ‘destruction’ lingers throughout the poem.

History, as Eliot suggests, is a repeating cycle. At the time Eliot wrote The Wasteland, the First World War was definitely the first – “Great War” for those who had witnessed it; there had been none to compare with it in history. The predominant sensibility was one of profound change; the world had been turned upside down and now, with the rapid progress of technology, the movements of societies, and the radical upheavals in the arts, sciences and philosophy, the history of mankind has reached a turning point.

A reference can be made to The Second Coming (poem) by W.B. Yeats where a nightmarish scene is described in the beginning lines of the poem – the speaker asserts that the world is near a revelation and that the minds of the majestic living creatures (humans) are troubled and polluted. One cannot simply let go off the fear and have complete faith in the divine; instead the development of science has questioned the values of faith at the very first step itself.

Eliot, through works like The Wasteland and The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock, became the voice of Modernism and his poems use the “objective correlative” of symbolic, meaningful, and often chaotic concrete imagery. Eliot may not have as much influence on poets today as some of his contemporaries but he has had a far greater impact on poetry. And thus, in some way there is the presence of prophesying tone in his poem The Wasteland.