16. KAMALA DAS POEMS
(An Introduction and The Old Playhouse)
for APPSC TGPSC TREIRB JL/DL
Kamala Surayya (born Kamala; Thrissur,
Kerala, 31 March 1934 – died, Pune, 31 May 2009)
Kamala Das (known as Mother of
Malayalam Literature) was an Indian poet, novelist, and
short story writer who wrote openly and frankly about female sexual desire and
the experience of being an Indian woman. She was born as Kamala, known by her pen name- Madhavi Kutty, her married name Kamala Das; and converted to Islam in 1999 and changed her name as Kamala Surayya. She is confessional poet (like Robert Lowell,
Silvia Plath, Anne Sexton….).
Her literary works, written equally
well both in English and Malayalam, spanned several genres, and she is often
hailed as one of India's most prominent and controversial literary figures.
‘The mother of Modern
Indian English poetry’- by Times Magazine.
Kamala Das was born in a conservative
Hindu Nair family, a circumstance that greatly influenced her understanding of
societal expectations and gender roles. Her father, V. M. Nair, was a managing
editor of the widely circulated Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, and her mother, Nalapat
Balamani Amma, was a well-known Malayalam poet. She grew up in what is now
Kerala and in Calcutta (now Kolkata), where her father worked. She received a
private education till she was 15, and was given in marriage at 16. She married
Madhava Das, a banking executive (an R.B.I. Officer) many years her senior, and
they moved to Bombay (now Mumbai). She had three sons.
Kamala Das began writing poetry at the
age of 6. She was only 14 when P.E.N. India published her first poem. The most
common themes in Kamala Das's Works are Female Sexuality and Desire, Identity
and Self-Exploration, Critique of Patriarchy, and Religion and Spirituality
Perhaps her best-known work was an
autobiography, in Malayalam, Ente Katha (1973), and in English, My Story (1976). A shockingly intimate
work, it came to be regarded as a classic.
In the 1970s, she entered the
political arena and served as a member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly. From
1971 to ‘72 and again from 1978 to ‘79, she was the poetry editor of The
Illustrated Weekly of India.
She received many literary awards, Kerala
Sahitya Akademi Award 1968- for Story – Thanuppu; and Kendra Sahitya Academy Award 1985
(English) for– Collected Poems; and Asian Poetry Prize in 1998. She was also nominated
for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1984.
On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a
hospital in Pune, after a long battle with pneumonia. She was buried at the
Palayam Juma Masjid at Thiruvanathapuram with full state honour.
Poetry:
1. Summer in Calcutta 1965- 1st book
of 50 poems. debut in the world of English literature. The poems in this collection
explore themes of love, desire, and the complexities of human relationships.
a.
Dance of Eunuchs is the first poem in the collection- Das
sympathises with eunuchs.
b.
An Introduction- poem- She can
speak three languages, write in two, dream in one. She says that she doesn’t
know politics, she discusses her puberty, marriage, sex in her life boldly.
Ends with “I too call myself I”
c.
A Hot Noon in
Malabar- is a poem about climate, surrounding in a town in Malabar. The people
may be annoyed by the heat, dust and noise but she likes it.
d.
My Grandmother’s
house- poem- autobiographical poem in which the poet’s longing for her
parental house in Malabar, ruined after death of her grandmother.
e.
The Wild
Bougainvillea- philosophical poem that shows the extension of life after death. It ends
on a note of optimism
2. The Descendants 1967- 2nd
book of 23 poems- Kamala Das continued to look into the intricacies of emotions
and relationships. Her poems are marked by a confessional style that lays bare
her personal experiences.
3. The Old Playhouse, and Other Poems (1973)– 3rd
book of 33 poems, This collection is
known for its exploration of the female psyche and the challenges women face
within the confines of societal expectations.
a.
The Old Playhouse
1973: discovers love making has made her mind old playhouse. She feels like a
sparrow captured by husband, feels only death can help her.
4.
Tonight, this Savage Rite: The Love Poems of
Kamala Das and Pritish Nandy (1979) – collection of 34 poems
5.
Collected Poems 1984- volume-1
6.
Anamalai Poems 1985- depressed after the parliament election results-1984 (contensted from
thiruvanthapuram constituency) and took rest at her sister's house in Anamalai
hills.
7.
The Best of Kamala Das- 1991- collection of poems
8.
Only the Soul Knows How to Sing (1996): Kamala Das's exploration of themes like love, identity, and
spirituality. It showcases her evolving perspective on life and relationships.
9. My Mother at Sixty-Six (1999) -poem is set en route the airport from the poet’s parents’ house. explores
the irony in a mother-daughter relationship, and it also includes the themes of
aging, growing-up, separation and love.
10. Closure: Some
Poems and a Conversation (2009)- collaborative work with Suresh Kohli.
It includes poems by both and a conversation between the two.
Prose:
1. Ente Katha 1973 (published in English
as My Story 1976) -Autobiography,
written in Malayalam, translated to English. My Story was
supposed to be an autobiography, Das later admitted that there was plenty of
fiction in it. The book provides a raw and unfiltered narrative of her
experiences as a woman in a conservative society. She wrote it when she was
ill, and thought she will not survive. The book, with 50 chapters, follows
Aami's (Kamala) life from age four through racist discrimination innmissionary
schools in Calcutta, her relationship with her husband; her sexual awakening;
her literary career; extramarital affairs; the birth of her children. Ente Katha was serialised in 1972 in
Malayalanadu weekly.
2. Alphabet of Lust 1976 -her famous
novel. The main character of the novel is a poet Manasi. She has a daughter
Suparna, who is studying in a collage at Lucknow. Her husband is an exploited
government employee and she is an unhappy wife. Manasi uses Vijay Raje, a
corrupt minister, as a ladder to reach to Prime Minister, another lustful
widower. She uses her sexual card to win Padmashri and ascends the success as a
cabinet minister. Kamala Das expresses her feministic views through her
character Manasi.
3. Short stories:
a.
“A Doll for the
Child Prostitute” (1977)
b.
“Padmavati the
Harlot and Other Stories” (1992).
4.
Notable Malayalam
works:
a.
Thanuppu (1967;
“Cold”)- the short-story collection
b.
Balyakalasmaranakal
(1987; “Memories of Childhood”).- the memoir
An Introduction (1965)
Background/Context:
Kamala
Das’ An Introduction is an autobiographical and confessional poem
that voices out her concern about gender bias, patriarchy, starting from
politics to sexual politics. The poem expresses some incidents of her life, her
rejection of patriarchal norms, and her rebellion against the gender role as
well.
It is published in her first English poetry collection Summer in Calcutta (1965). It is a sixty-one-line poem that is contained within a single stanza. It has no specific metrical pattern/ proper rhyme, written in free verse. The meaning of one line is carry forwarded to another, (enjambemnt) making the whole poem runs as a single portion of a speech. Anaphora repetition of one word or line is seen (“I” is repeated several times in the poem.)
Short Summary:
The poet begins the poem with one
aspect of Indian politics. There is little space for women in Indian politics.
Though she does not know politics, she can repeat the names of politicians.
Just as days of the week or names of months are repetitive, the names of Indian
politicians are repetitive, all are male. There are very few names of women on
the list.
After politics, she comes to talk
about her introduction. She can write in two languages: Malayalam and English.
But the critics, her friends, and cousins don’t like her for writing in
English. They prohibit her because English is a foreign language.
In response to that, she asks everyone
to leave her alone and give her the freedom to write in any language she likes.
Writing in a colonial language like English does not mean she must follow the
standardized form of the language.
Like language, the agents of
patriarchy also come forward to impose norms of the society. They make her
realize that she is grown up, and this implies that she is ready for marriage.
When she feels the need for love, her family and relatives forcefully fix her
marriage with a youth of sixteen.
In her married life, she undergoes
pain and suffering. Consequently, she starts to feel repulsive toward her
womanliness and rejects her womanliness.
Seeing the change in her, the agents
of patriarchy again remind her of the roles that she needs to follow.
Indifferent to them, she goes on to search for love. She falls in with a man.
He is every man who wants a woman, and she is every woman who seeks love.
She asks everyone their identity, and
the answer is ‘I’. In pursuing the ‘I’, she identifies with every woman who is
having different experiences in life.
Themes:
1. Identity and Self-Expression: The
poem is a powerful assertion of the poet’s individual identity—as a woman, a
writer, and a human being. The poem challenges
patriarchal norms that define women’s roles (wife, mother) and asserts the
speaker’s right to self-expression. "I am sinner, I am
saint"
2. Gender and Patriarchy: Das
critiques the restrictive gender norms in Indian society. She exposes how women
are silenced and expected to conform: “Be Amy, or be Kamala. Or better / Still,
be Madhavikutty.”
3. Language and Power: Language
becomes a symbol of identity and resistance. Critics mocked her for writing in
English, but she defends it as her own voice: “The language I speak / Becomes
mine.”
4. Rebellion and Defiance: The
poem is a bold rejection of traditional gender roles . She embraces her
desires and autonomy: “"Dress in sarees, be girl / Be wife, they
said... I wore a shirt and my brother’s trousers, cut my hair short
and ignored my womanliness.”
5. Female Sexuality and Desire: She
openly discusses love, longing, and heartbreak, breaking the taboo around women
expressing desire. Her confession of seeking love in unfamiliar men is both
honest and defiant. "The weight of my breasts and womb crushed me"
Motifs/Symbols:
1. The "I" (First-Person Voice): Repeated
several times, the "I" symbolizes unapologetic selfhood and
resistance. It transformed the poem into a manifesto of individuality.
2. Language and Speech: Motif
of silence vs. speech reflects oppression and liberation. "Why not let me
speak in / Any language I like?" – Demands linguistic freedom.
3. Clothing and Nakedness: Sarees
vs. "shirt and pants" symbolize enforced femininity vs. rebellion. "Nakedness"-
represents raw, unfiltered truth.
Line by line Summary
Lines 1-3
I don’t know politics but I know the names
Of those in power, and can repeat them like
Days of week, or names of months, beginning
with Nehru
The
poetess is ignorant of politics yet she is well aware of the politicians of her
country from Nehru to the ones of her own times.
It shows the poetess has memorised the names
of all the politicians like the days of the week or the names of the month.
One
point is clear that the male dominates in the arena of politics as the remained
in fewer hands, especially the politics of power in which Nehru strikes her
mind, not her daughter.
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The Old Playhouse (1973) |
Background/Context.
The Old Playhouse is a 30 line poem,
published in 1973 in The Old Playhouse and Other Poems, is a poem
of protest against patriarchy in which
Kamala Das voices against the domination of the male and the consequent
dwarfing of the female. The poetess expresses the common expectations of the
male dominated Indian society. In the male dominated society a women is expected to play certain
conventional roles, and her own wishes and aspirations are not taken into
account.
The title of the poem, The Old Playhouse, constitutes its central image, and the speaker finally discovers that love-making has made her mind ‘an Old Playhouse with all its lights put out’. It is like a deserted old playhouse having no life of its own. It has almost become non-functional and inert due to the disastrous physical-cum-mental strains. She has lost all her value as a woman in this life of confinement and suffocation.
Short Summary.
The poem is written in the first
person point of view. The persona in this poem is a woman, who gives an account
of her unsatisfactory and disappointing conjugal life with her husband. She
compares herself to a swallow and her husband a captor
who wanted to tame her and keep her fully under his control by the power of his
love-making.
The husband wanted to make her forget
all those comforts which she might have enjoyed in her home before being
married; but, in addition to that, he wanted also make her forget her very
nature and her innate love of freedom by keeping her in a state of subjection
to him.
The speaker says that she had come to
her husband with a view to developing her own personality. But all she has had
from her husband are lesson about him. Her husband, who is a self-centered
person, makes love with her and he feels pleased by her bodily response to his
love-making. He approves her state of mind and her mood when he makes love to
her and he feels pleased by the tremors of her body during the sexual union.
He, however, fails to understand that
her response to his love-making is purely physical and ,therefore, superficial
because she never experiences any feeling of oneness with him. According to the
speaker, the notions of love and affection mean nothing to her husband. To him
she is nothing but a plaything, a sexual partner and a housewife. In the course
of the sexual union, he kisses her very hard , pressing his lips against hers
and letting his saliva flow into her mouth. He presses her whole body against hers
with great vehemence, gratifying his sexual desire in this process.
In this physical union, her husband is
successful as he is able to penetrate every part of her body and make his
bodily fluids mingle with hers. But he never realizes that she is still
emotionally unsatisfied and hungry. In the emotional and spiritual sense,
he completely fails.
The
husband’s monstrous ego kills all her reason and deprives her of her will and
reason. The stifling, crippling atmosphere of her husband’s house with its
male-dominated setting has made her lose her zest for life. Her life has now become
an old playhouse where, with all its lights put out, the zest for life has
gone.
Themes
1. Marital Oppression & Loss of Self: The
poem critiques patriarchal marriage as a cage that suffocates female identity. "You
planned to tame a swallow, to hold her / In the long summer of your love"
– The husband's attempt to control reduces the wife to a pet.
2. Female Sexuality & Disillusionment: Contrasts
the speaker's youthful sexual curiosity with the sterile reality of marital
duty. Her individuality is suppressed by her husband’s authority and
self-centeredness.
3. Nature vs. Domesticity: Wild,
natural imagery clashes with the stifling "playhouse" of marriage.
4. Emotional Abandonment: The
husband's indifference leaves the speaker spiritually hollow. "You
dribbled spittle into my mouth" – Love is forced, not shared.
Symbols
1. The Old Playhouse: Represents
the domestic space that traps the speaker. Once imagined as a space for love
and joy, it turns into a symbol of emotional imprisonment.
2. Swallow/Bird: Symbolizes
freedom, movement, and lightness. Her being “tamed” implies the loss of those
qualities in marriage. The word ‘sparrow’ stands for the poetess who is
captured by her cruel and heartless captor (husband) who denies her any
identity or freedom.
3. Mirror: The
mirror reflects not just her physical change but the loss of identity: The
image of mirror is very relevant because it faithfully mirrors the loneliness
and anxieties of her face.
4. ‘summer’ and ‘autumn’ show
the bright and dark phases of her life. The comparison between the poet’s mind
and the ‘old playhouse with lights put out’ is equally very appropriate and suggestive.
5. Narcissus -shows
that Kamala Das’s love for her husband is all shattered by her egotistical
husband and she is haunted by her own face which is reflective of her
loneliness and desolation.
According to the story in Ovid’s
Metamorphosis, Narcissus is a hunter and beautiful young man (Greek
legendary) who rejected the advances of all women, instead fell in love with
his own image reflected in a pool of water. His love for himself was so deep
that he couldn’t leave his reflection behind, even to eat or drink. His
fruitless attempts to approach this beautiful object drove him to despair and
death, giving rise to the narcissus flower.
Line by line Summary
Line1-5
You planned to tame a swallow, to hold her
In the long summer of your love so that she
would forget
Not the raw seasons alone, and the homes left
behind, but
Also her nature, the urge to fly, and the
endless
Pathways of the sky. ………..
Kamala
Das shows her total disenchantment with her married her married life and its
disastrous consequences on her life. It is an open protest against her
egotistical husband who does not think beyond the gratification of his sensual
desires. The female persona accuses her husband for domesticating her like a swallow after marriage in a well-planned
manner.
She
also blames him for depriving her of the thrills of romantic love and the
desired woman’s freedom. She was forced to live in the long summer of his love and forced to forget winter and autumn seasons. He has spared no
efforts to make her forget her colourful past in which she enjoyed perfect
freedom and distinct identity. He wants to make her forget her true nature as
well as the very desire to move about freely in the infinite spaces of the sky.
This
first section of the poem points to the disastrous fate of the mismatched
marriage. Marriage is not an institution limited to the gratification of the
sensual desires only. It is not a unilateral but a bilateral relationship based
on mutual-trust and mutual understanding. There is no place for the
exploitation and dehumanization of any partner in love.
He
put full stop to her dreams. She was considered as a mere toy for him. Being a
caged wife, she was put forth to live like his slave.
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