Discussion on the Husband-Wife relationship between Marco and Rosie in Narayan's novel "The Guide" .

Introduction : A young couple , Marco and Rosie, arrived at Malgudi (Rosie came one day after Marco's arrival) and started boarding at Anand Bhavan Hotel which was properly arranged by Raju the tourist guide. From the behaviour of this couple and the description of Raju we get a realistic picture of  husband-wife relationship adeptly maintained by Marco, the research scholar and his highly qualified ( M.A. in Economics) wife  Rosie.  

Husband - Wife Relationship : Marriage is an institution that helps to establish the husband-wife relationship. A young man and such a woman start their conjugal life through marriage which is generally performed amidst incantation, rites, blessings and benediction of the priests, superiors and other well-wishers. The Sanskrit Mantra " Jadidang Hridyang Taba, Tadastu Hridayang  Mama" (the heart of the groom and that of the bride  become one) is distinctly uttered by  both bride and groom. In the midst  of the marriage troop it is a sort of promise  that would maintain and strengthen the husband-wife relationship like the everlasting one. Different marriage rites are prevalent in different community throughout the world and it is the old traditional arrangement.

Come to the point and concentrate on a Newspaper advertisement : "Wanted an educated, good-looking girl to marry a rich bachelor of academic interests. No cast restrictions ; good looks and university degree essential." This was Marco's advertisement and Rosie was not ready to miss the chance. What happened is in Rosie's words : "Well, we met, he examined me and my certificate,we went to a registrar and got married." No congregation was found, no conch was blown, no incantation was uttered, no blessing was showered. The best relationship in the life of  Marco and Rosie started through a commercial instrument and a professional individual.God knows how smooth would this relationship run and how long it would exist. It is indeed  a legally established marriage and this wed-lock has tied Marco and Rosie in the husband-wife relationship.

Relationship is a sentiment and it is to be maintained properly. Social code of conduct and the existing laws of the land may monitor a relationship, may control it to a little extent but can not maintain it, can not develop it. It is the temperament and the characteristics of both the parties that maintain a relationship properly and bring healthy development. When the mentality, taste and activity of two persons become similar to a certain extent a relationship is developed.Quite naturally, the taste and temperament of Marco and Rosie contribute much in the  husband-wife relationship between them. Let us throw some light on this matter.   

Marco is a highly qualified person and  now he is engaged in his research work of  cave painting in the Malgudi area. Some odd behaviour and eccentricity are the elements of Marco's  character. Only the research work, no other thing is important to him. He is a very methodical man who maintains the punctuality and observes the discipline in every step of life. The problem is that he is blunt to the finer feelings and emotional appeal of others,  particularly of his wife Rosie who is  considered as a living domestic machine to him. Rosie,his wife hails from 'a family traditionally dedicated to the temple as dancers', but she is unconventional and unorthodox. Rosie is educated, beautiful and to some extent modernized. What is more, she is sexually fascinating and she does not care for the norms of loyalty and chastity. These two types of individuality can not be well-matched.

 That the  husband-wife relationship between Marco and Rosie  is very much loose is marked at the very moment of their arrival and it is clear from some  words of Raju : " Her arrival had been a sort of surprise for me . The man was the first to appear. I had put him up at the Anand Bhavan Hotel. After a day of sightseeing he suddenly said one afternoon, 'I must meet the Madras train. Another person is coming'. " Marco's  arrival without Rosie and the delayed arrival of Rosie may be due to some unavoidable circumstances,but Marco's mention of his wife Rosie as 'another person' is not normal. Some bitterness in the husband and wife  relationship is exposed from such utterance. 

The meaning  of the relationship in which the  parties are involved must be known first by both of them and then they should realize it properly. This is enough for the smooth development. A good relationship must grow imperceptibly. The true meaning of wife is not clear to Marco who wants such a woman as his wife who would take care of his household and would help him in his academic  career, in every matter of life and would support him both mentally and physically. Marco provides all sort of comforts, money and ornaments. He allows Rosie to move freely but within a protected area. Rosie seems to be a free lady, though she is dealt with a very conservative way. Rosie is destined to be a gifted dancer, but Marco,in no way, would allow her to take part in any dance. Like a caged bird Rosie would have to live with broken wings. She may jump and hop, but would not be allowed to open the wings. If she tried to cross the boundary, her wings would be  clipped again. Such a relationship can not be called  sound and healthy.

  
 

Different types of Hungers in Jayanta Mahapatra's poem "Hunger".

               Hunger   

                        Jayanta Mahapatra

Stanza - 1

It was hard to believe the flesh was heavy on my back.
The fisherman said: Will you have her, carelessly,
trailing his nets and his nerves, as though his words
sanctified the purpose with which he faced himself.
I saw his white bone thrash his eyes.

Summary :  The speaker says that his 'flesh was heavy' that means the fleshly desire or the sexual desire was strongly felt by him which he himself can not believe.The fisherman says that he (the spesker) may enjoy her ( fisherman's daughter).He says it in a casual manner, as if, offering his daughter to a customer in not immoral. He is collecting his net and also collecting his nerve i.e. pulling mental strength. The fisherman says in such an air that his words supports or sanctifies his activity, his purpose or situation which he has faced now. It is the bottomless poverty and the customer which the fisherman has faced. The fisherman is so emaciated that his bone of the cheek is exposed and eyes go deep. His poverty is prominently written on his face.

Stanza - 2

I followed him across the sprawling sands,
my mind thumping in the flesh’s sling.
Hope lay perhaps in burning the house I lived in.
Silence gripped my sleeves; his body clawed at the froth
his old nets had only dragged up from the seas.

Summary : The fisherman is going to his hut and the speaker is following him through the widely spreading sands. The speaker's mind is under the pressure the flesh. He is  eager for sex. Poet's house meaning poet's good  name and good disposition is burning, but hope is there still. Silence has caught the sleeves of the speaker ,as if, he will not be allowed for that crime . The fisherman  is dragging up his old net from the sea with utmost efforts causing tearing effect on his body.

Stanza - 3 

In the flickering dark his hut opened like a wound.
The wind was I, and the days and nights before.
Palm fronds scratched my skin. Inside the shack
an oil lamp splayed the hours bunched to those walls.
Over and over the sticky soot crossed the space of my mind.

Summary :  The small hut of the fisherman is opened.  In the flickering darkness of the evening the hut appears as a wound to the speaker. He is so psychologically affected that the sense of days and nights goes away from him. The shabby cottage is dimly lit by an oil lamp, not properly trimmed and all the hours are, as if, bunched to the walls of the hut. The sticky soot  hanging in the shack crosses the mind of the speaker indicating the pathetic reality.

Stanza - 4 

I heard him say: My daughter, she’s just turned fifteen

Feel her. I’ll be back soon, your bus leaves at nine.
The sky fell on me, and a father’s exhausted wile.
Long and lean, her years were cold as rubber.
She opened her wormy legs wide. I felt the hunger there,
the other one, the fish slithering, turning inside.

Summary : The fisherman speaks shamelessly to the speaker that his daughter is of fifteen and he may feel her as his will. He leaves the room saying that the speaker's bus would leave at nine.This is the culminating point for sexual gratification but a sense of catastrophe engulfs him. He thinks about the father's trick on him. What does the speaker find in the girl of fifteen ? He finds no warmth of teens, her body is as cold as rubber. When she opens her leg wide, she projects a wormy limb.In stead of excitement the speaker feels a repealing effect.The speaker feels another hunger that  easily suppresses his sexual hunger. The speaker feels inside his stomach a moving sensation, like the movement of fish. Now he realizes the effect of hunger on human beings.

Different types of Hungers :

Literally Hunger means the desire for food when one feels appetite and in a broad sense hunger is the strong  desire or craving for something. In Jayanta Mahapatra's poem Hunger we find two different types of primal hunger : one is the hunger for  food and the other is the strong desire (hunger) for sex. The poor fisherman and his helpless daughter are the victims of the hunger for food, while the young man who met with the fisherman felt the hunger for sex . These two types of biological hunger stand face to face.

Two sorts of hunger in this poem project two ugly sides of our society and also two types of men living in this society. The grim reality is that a type of people who constitute the major part of our society are caught in the financial web which is the sequel of the uneven and unscrupulous distribution of wealth in our society.  

The poem " A River " of A.K. Ramanujan is the criticism of some poets.

Introduction :

"A River" is a famous poem taken from the collection "The Srtiders" of A.K.Ramanujan.(Attipat Krishnaswami Ramanujan). The river meant here may be 'Vaigai', but the appeal  is not limited to this particular river. The incidents related to this river crosses the boundary of the temple city Madurai and assumes a representative status. Such a river is found in many places throughout the world and for this the poem is probably  christened as 'A River' in stead of 'The River'. The non-definiteness in the title gives the poem an universal status and makes the theme of the poem more effective and impressive. 

Summary : 

Madurai, a city of South India, is described as the 'city of temples and poets'. A river (Vaigai) runs through this city. During the Summer this river dries to such an extent that a little water trickles and the 'sand-ribs' are exposed to the viewers. The bridges which are repaired by patching stand silently  with the rusty bars and the water gates are clogged with the straw and women's hair. The wet stones seen under the bridge glisten like the sleepy blackish crocodiles and the dry stones look like the shaven water-buffalos taking rest in the Sun. This picture of the river is not the poetic to the poets - old and new.

The old poets sang about the flood  only in the river. The poets used to come to see, as if to enjoy, the flood . Obviously the river became the center of discussion then and people everywhere talked about the rising of the water level in the river inch by inch. They saw that the water ran over the limited number of the 'cobbled steps' and ultimately the bathing places. Inundation was the destiny of the area and it suddenly swept three village houses, one pregnant woman and a couple of cows which were fondly named as Gopi and Brinda. This is the devastating picture of the river in the rainy season.

The poet Ramanujan wonders that the new poets follow the path paved by the old poets and speak about the flood in the river.  According to them the river is in her prime only once in a year when she has enough water to be poetic. They eulogize the swelling of the river but never spell a word about the seamy side of it. They never mention the devastation  of the village houses and the death of Gopi and Brinda- a couple of cows. The sad end of the pregnant lady 'expecting identical twins' slips their notice. It is thought that the twin babies would have no moles on their bodies as identification marks. Only the use of  different coloured diapers would make them apart. The matter of pathos is that such a cute twins die from suffocation in the dark womb of their mother. It is unnoticed ,unfelt and unuttered by the poets , both old and new.  

Critical Interpretation : 

The poem begins in a very simple and interesting way with the name of Madurai which is a city of temple. Many poets of different ages live there and they all sing about the city of Madurai and all the temples situated here.Everything is very good. The poem suddenly takes turn to the reality , the picture of the river under mention.A vivid realistic picture of the dried-up river is presented. It is clear that every thing related to the river has a long past which is indicated by the shape of the bridge. The rusty iron bars and the patches due to repair indicate that the bridge is old and neglected enough. Through the picture of the water gates clogged with straws and women's hair the poet has given a hint of the tragedy caused by the river. As the poets come only once in a year and that is the rainy season , they get no chance to see the "straw and women's hair/clogging the Water gates". Had they come during the Summer, they would have noticed the "straw and women's hair" and it might have opened their eyes and made them humane. 

The poets have some definite duties and responsibilities to man and society. They have to discharge them, they can ,in no way, avoid it . In the poem "A River" we come across some  poets who has no mind to glance at the reality of life. One would do no unfair if one label them as imperfect and incomplete poets. As they want only the artistic and poetic picture of the river, they deliberately avoid the sad devastating activity of this rain water demon. The very thinking and  indifferent mentality of such poets are the criticism of their own. How can we say them the Romantic ? A romantic mind can not be devoid of empathy and fellow-feeling for the people at large. A true romantic, beside being nature-lover, can not help feeling about the human beings and life. Making that matter prominent a poem plays the role of the critic of the poets. And this is the skill of this poet Ramanujan.

      A river carries off the village houses and makes numberless people homeless. It not only devastates the refuge ,but also snatches the partner of life, the woman, and also the future generation, the identical twins. The hint is that the flood in the river makes the male-folk destitute , makes him cruelly alone by snatching home,wife and children. Besides, the flood plunders the source of income, the wealth of cattle, here the cows 'Gopi' and 'Brinda'. This reality, this human aspect, this havoc and this devastation is thoroughly avioded and deliberately ignored by the old and new poets who like to sing of the city and the temples. 

         The very texture of the poem "A River" is soaked with satire and mixed with irony. The turbulent swelling of the water is very exciting to the poets who have no idea about the violent mood of the river. The violent and devastating manifestation of water is sensational and poetic to them. Such sense and poetic creed are satirized   in this poem . Who will read the poems of the so-called poets and who will come to the temple to worship if the river takes away all of the people every year. Losing all one may not, can not, should not patronize  the poetry and this is the irony inherent in this poem.

Interpretation of Tagore's poem " I Cast My Net into The Sea " and the symbolism in the poem.

 I Cast My Net into The Sea.

Rabindranath Tagore

In the morning I cast my net into the sea.

I dragged up from the dark abyss things of
strange aspect and strange beauty —
some shone like a smile, some glistened like tears,
and some were flushed like the cheeks of a bride.

When with the day’s burden I went home,
my love was sitting in the garden idly
tearing the leaves of a flower.

I hesitated for a moment, and then
placed at her feet all that I had dragged up,
and stood silent.

She glanced at them and said,
‘What strange things are these?
I know not of what use they are!’

I bowed my head in shame and thought,
‘I have not fought for these,
I did not buy them in the market;
they are not fit gifts for her.’

Then the whole night through
I flung them one by one into the street.

In the morning travellers came;
they picked them up and carried them into far countries.

Introduction :   " I Cast My Net into The Sea " is taken from "The Gardener" of Rabindranath Tagore. This poem is obviously a religious and allegorical poem having the metaphorical implication. It is a religious poem as 'God' or 'Jeevan Debata' is at the center of the poem. The poem is allegorical in the sense that it bears two meanings - one is the literal meaning and the other is  allegorical meaning or inner meaning. The poem is  a prose-poem as it suffers from the lack of metrical structure and stanza pattern. Now let us take a peep into the poem and its theme.

Interpretation :  In the very first line of the poem we find the  first person 'I' : " In the morning I cast my net into the sea". The pronoun "I" is a representative character as it denotes not only the poet, but every human being of this world. The poem sounds like an ordinary story of a couple - the speaker and his beloved. The speaker has cast his net into the sea in the morning with an intention to have a good collection. When he drags the net from the  deep water, the dark abyss, he finds that the things of strange appearance and strange beauty are in his net. The things are no doubt very attractive- some are shining like a 'smile', some are bright like 'tears' and  some are flushing like the 'cheeks of a bride' . He comes home with this 'precious  burden' gladly to share with his beloved who is found "sitting in the garden idly tearing the leaves of a flower".He offers all things and stands silently. The beloved of the speaker glances at them (the rare collection) and rejects them commenting that all these  things are of no utility. Shame for this rejection makes him bow. He thinks that these things can not be fit gifts for beloved one as there is no struggle , there is no sacrifice, in procuring  these things. Being dejected the speaker throws all of thing one by one into the street through the whole night. When day breaks travellers come, pick them up and carry them to far countries. 

On the face value it sounds like an ordinary story of a couple related to some domestic matter , related to the liking or disliking of a lady, the beloved of the speaker. The subject matter of this poem seems to be realistic and worldly. But a mindful reading brings another layer of meaning, hints a deeper meaning underneath. The theme of the story in the poem is obviously philosophical and religious one , spiritual rather. In few lines of this poem the poet has captured the life of a human being and his purpose of coming to this world. Tagore has allegorically  painted  the story of this casting of net and collection. The life of human being has metaphorically been projected in the poem " I Cast My Net into The Sea".

Contrast and comparison  are  the two prominent elements of this devotional poem. The contrast between the world of 'materialism' and that of 'spiritualism' is the pivotal theme. The allegorical and metaphorical matters emanate from this contrasting point. From the symbolic point of view the speaker's 'love' represents 'God' and the 'sea' where the net is cast is nothing but the human life and world of "Maya' . It is  'Maya' which makes us oblivious about our origin and our original duty.  Coming to this world we are so absorbed with the sense-objects and sensuality that we  forget about our 'Parampita" or God. Occasion comes to remember him, to pay offerings to him. Then we try to make him please,like the speaker of this poem, with all  beautiful but transient things which are smeared with  'smile' and 'tears' or 'joy and woe' and 'cheeks of a bride' or sensuality. God can not be please with this material objects. If we can not realize this, we lose God's grace.

God's grace is not a trifle thing, it can not be achieved easily. The speaker of this poem can realize it and for this he bows his head in shame and thinks deeply. The expression ‘I have not fought for these' means that the speaker makes no struggle for collecting the gifts. Actually, we get material things by merely taking it or by deceiving others. The speaker says that he has not buy the gifts from the market that means he has not sacrificed even a single penny for it. Our 'First Love'  wants such gifts which are earned by our toil after sacrificing our 'self'. Such a thing is called 'Devotion' which can be achieved through the path of 'total surrender, to God.

 To have  'Devotion'  we have to exercise much throughout our life. In this poem such exercise of the speaker begins when he starts flinging the mundane collections one by one. Material things are, of course, necessary for running our life , but we should not be the victim of  the 'Moha'(attachment). We must denounce the unnecessary things which obstruct the gate-way of spiritualism; which make a gap between man an God, between human spirit and super power i.e. Atma  and Param Atma. There are so many travellers in this world who are ready to pick up those rejected things and carry them far lands. As they go far, the 'Moha' or the attachment with those things is gone and we are blessed to live in a bright world, the world full of divine light, the world of spiritualism. 

In Tagore's poem the speaker meets his 'love' in the garden. It is the garden of paradise where one can meet with God. He is tearing the leaves of flower one by one that means God is subtracting  one  year after another from our life which has bloomed in the earthly heaven. The persons who meet the 'love' (the grace of God) early ,before losing a lot of petals , are lucky enough as they can be gifted with the divine guidance. The speaker flings the sense-objects for the whole night and whenever all such objects rejected from mind the morning came. How long such things are with him, it is darkness in his life, without these he is in divine "Good-morrow". The unlucky and blind ones are very much happy picking these things and they are still in the 'dark abyss', entrapped in this mundane existance.

"Cradle song " of Sarojini Naidu -- A brief discussion.

Introduction : The "Cradle  song " of Sarojini Naidu is a lullaby, a sort of song which is sung to a child so that the melody, tune and  rhythm of the song make the child sleep. It is usually sung by mother or other nearest person who is very intimate and close to the child. A lullaby is generally composed on the familiar natural atmosphere where the 'Flora' plays  a vital role. Sometimes a lullaby centers round the fear provoking elements and agents like rubber , ghost or supernatural atmosphere. However, a lullaby is a very powerful instrument  that has immense  impact  on the child. Though the songs are composed for comforting the children, these are of much literary values and these songs have made a prestigious place in the arena of literature.

   Stanza - 1  

  From groves of spice,  

 O'er  fields of rice, 

 Athwart the lotus-stream, 

 I bring for you,

A glint with  dew 

A  little lovely dream.

Summary : The lullaby is about a beautiful dream that the child will have before sleeping. It is not an ordinary dream and it will be enriched with different  sweet smell and bright colours. The mother says that she will bring different lovely things from different fields which are  enriched and decorated by Nature. The mother will, as if, fly over the rice field, will cross the streams full of beautiful lotus and  will reach the groves of spices (most probably cardamom and cinnamon) to fetch the sweet fragrance for the dream of the child.  The  lovely dream will shine with due drops.

Stanza - 2 

  

Sweet , shut your eyes,

The wild fire-flies

Dance through the fairy neem ;

From the poppy-bole

For you I stole

A  little lovely dream.

Summary : In this stanza we find another type of dream and it will be brought from the familiar neem tree which the child has probably seen. This tree is the abode of fairies and numberless of 'fire-flies' or glow-worms have been dancing around the neem tree throughout the night. The sweetheart is said to close his/her eyes and to perceive  the dream land. The mother will bring a dream from the poppy bole which has sleep inducing property. 

Stanza - 3 

Dear eyes, good-night,

In golden light

The stars around you gleam ;

On you I press

With soft caress

A  little lovely dream.

Summary : From the expression 'good-night' it is clear that the child is asleep. The starry sky diffuses a sort of golden light which has made the atmosphere a dreamland. The mother caresses her darling and leaves him/her in the custody of the dream.

A brief discussion about "Chaitanya" -- A poem written by Arun Kolatkar

About the poet:

Arun Kolatkar who was born in Kolhapur in Maharashtra was a famous Indian English poet as well as an artist of repute. He was a bilingual poet as he wrote poems both in English and in Marathi,his mother tongue. His "Jejuri" , a well-known collection of poems, is praised in high term by the poets and critics like Nissim Ezekiel and Salman Rushdie and bagged him the Commonwealth poetry Prize. The poem "Chaitanya" is included in the collection  "Jejuri".

The poem  "Chaitanya" 

come off it

said chaitanya to a stone 

in stone language

wipe the red paint off your face

i don't think the colour suits you

i mean what's wrong 

with being just a plain stone

i'll still bring you flowers 

you like the flowers of zendu

don't you 

i like them too.

    

Summary & Interpretation: Sree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (Chaitanya) , the Avatar of Bengal in India is the speaker here and he addresses  a deity made of stone in a very simple and casual manner but in 'stone language'. It is  'stone language' as it is only understood by the stone image of god, it is ineffective to the ordinary human beings.He requests the deity to be detached from him/her present state  of manifestation.

 

Once again he requests the deity to wipe off the red colour , the vermilion , from his/her face as the red colour does not fit the stone, it is unbecoming to the deity. It would look better if the deity becomes a 'plain stone ', not besmeared with vermilion. No wrong is found by Chaitanya if the stone image becomes a plain stone. A plain stone would rather become appropriate and acceptable universally.

 

Chaitanya promises the stone deity that he would still bring him/her beautiful flowers, the 'zendu' flower, no matter whether the stone is being besmeared with vermilion or not . He likes  'zendu' flower and god too would like the  'zendu' flower.

The stone is not the ordinary stone, it stands for the deity. The so-called image of a deity which is made glossy with oil and vermilion come to the mind. This stone-deity is worshiped by common people as the living god. Here we find the objection of Chaitanya. The red colour or the vermilion is used as an essential element of worshiping of one or more commu -nity. We find only the touch of religious rites in besmearing of vermilion on the stone deity. All these are paganism. 

       First  Chaitanya requests the stone-image to "wipe the red paint" and then says in interrogative form what is the wrong if the image becomes a plain stone. A plain stone-image would be more becoming , more meaningful and more dignified. We know that Chaitanya was the 'Avtar of Love' (Premabatar) and love (Prem) is the only way to reach to God, as he said. No religious rite and aids are necessary for gaining God's grace. For this, Chaitanya says, it is not wrong with being just a plain stone without vermilion. So far we  know vermilion is a worshiping  material particularly to Hindu. If the stone-image is thoroughly besmeared with vermilion the people of other religious faith and creed may avoid the image as their own. Chaitanya disliked any caste and creed barrier among people and he embraced everyone irrespective of shape, complexion, caste, creed and race. The way of religion was very simple and straight to him and he preached the same to his followers.

 

It may be that the stone-image in not merely a stone to Chaitanya because he visualized the living god in image , in all material existence. For this mental state and devotion he utters in this poem : " you like the flowers of zendu / don't you"  Actually Chaitanya  finds living God in the stone.