The Butcher by Varavara Rao

The poem is a description of the violence spread on the streets of a well developed city. The support of the police that instead of curbing the violence, encourages and protects it, is a master stroke of irony prevailing in the social system. The whole poem is steeped in irony as the poem, with the advancement of the narrative, delineates a number of discrepancies pervading the socio-political system of the country. The pervasion of violence, also inkles and pervasion of beastly instincts in the human behaviour and conducts.

The speaker of the poem is a butcher who kills animals and sells the flesh. The poet paves way for ironic delineation with the cast of the speaker of the poem. In the first stanza, the speaker introduces himself as butcher and says;

I am a vendor of flesh
If you want to call me a butcher
Then that is as you wish
I kill animals daily
I cut their flesh and sell it
Blood to me is a familiar sight

In these lines the speaker makes room for the surprise of the coming lines as he admits that ‘blood to,’ him, ‘is a familiar sight.’ The forthcoming experience is also manifest is the second line of the poem when the speaker addresses the readers and say ‘if,’ they. ‘want to call’ him ‘a butcher then that is as’ they ‘wish.’ The speaker is optimistic that probably after reading the poem, the reader would not call him a butcher.

The speaker of the poem, after this self introductory stanza, moves up the incident around which the poem is structured. The speaker also structures a system of parallels and contrasts that aptly illustrates the central ideal of the poem.


But
It was on that day that I saw
The real meaning of being a butcher,
That young boy blood congealed
In the fear that had gathered in my eyes
His voice went dumb
With the words that would not leave my lips

The speaker of the poem, who is a butcher by profession, now, illustrates the real meaning of being a butcher. The sight of ‘that young boy blood congealed in the fear, works out the recreation of the meaning the word ‘butcher.’ The speechlessness of the young boy ratifies the strangulating effect of fear endured by the young boy trapped in violence. The death of the young boy makes the speaker ironically conscious of his own identity along social dimensions of the locale of the action. As a consequence the speaker realizes the ‘real meaning of being a butcher.’ The indifference and brutality of witnessed by the speaker make him confess that ‘never has the blood touched’ his ‘heart.’ He further admits that on that day ‘the blood spilled not on the street but on’ his ‘heart.’ He, in a fit of impulse, turns to the readers and asks:




Who among you will extend
A humane hand
And unburden my heart
Of the weight of that horrendous sight?

The poem takes overtly political meaning when the speaker refers to the ‘butt of the rifle’ and the oblique reference to false allegation of ‘attacking with a knife.’ The speaker further highlights the contrast by referring to himself and says;

I too kill animals
But I have never hated them,
I do sell flesh
But never and to none have
I sold myself

The pervasion of fear result into the infusion of surrealistic images into the description. The speaker, shares the company with the by standers and observes that ‘the thousand watching eyes are tearful.’ The speaker further observes that ‘his own eyes are dry.’ The comparison of the young victim with the goat, further highlight the contrast that subsists between two different forms of cruelty.


Unlike the goat under my knife
He does not shout `Ba ba⦮bsp;
He appears to be looking into tomorrow.

The succeeding stanza emancipates the brutal murder from the possibility of any personal cause and establishes a political origin of the brutal activity. The speaker is little confused, if it was yesterday or the day before yesterday and he claims that ‘you can not drive that memory from’ him ‘as long as there is breathe in’ his ‘body.’ He further ratifies the analogue between two different forms of cruelty and says;


O, brothers and sisters
We do not kill even a snake like that.
I, who kill goats daily, understood that day
The cruelty that combines and conspires
To take a life

In the succeeding lines the speaker makes it clear that he cruelty attributed to him is not the cruelty witnessed by him on the street. He makes his stand clear by revealing his aims and remains uncertain about the motif of the brutal killing of the young boy.



I am a vendor of flesh
Yes, I am a butcher
The meat of sheep and meat of goats
I sell for a living

The last stanza of the poem makes the idea more clear by referring to various sections of the system and supporting and encouraging the brutal killing of the innocent persons.
That minister himself
Gives to policemen
Prizes and promotions
Medals and weighty purses
For the taking of human lives

The transformation of the meaning and experience takes place when the speaker of the poem realizes that he is not the butcher but the butcher is the state. The butcher further confides:

That the minister means the government
That the police are our guardians
Whose government it is and
Whose guardians they are
The life of that boy
Fleeing into eternity
Told me
I realized then that
The real butcher is
The state

This last stanza of the poem makes clear the ultimate experience of the speaker of the poet and highlights the bare truth about the state.

The poem is written in free verse and doest not follow a conventional rhyme pattern but there is a rhythmic grown in the thought content that impress us of the latent rhythm not manifest in the rhyme pattern. Irony is obviously the most scintillating aspect of the technical frame work of the poem which is set into being in the first stanza and it grows with the system if parallels and contrasts. The dramatic element is another very conspicuous technical manipulation of the poet. He renders and situation to the theme and designs the character accordingly. The speaker who is a butcher, is obviously the most outstanding creation that involves the dramatic motif. The poem appears to be a part of the dialogue between two characters of a play. However the other role can be assigned to the reader.

Love Poetry of Kamala Das

Kamala Das (1934), daughter of V. M. Nair and Balamani Amma has published four volumes of Poetry in English Summer in Calcutta, published in 1965 was the first collection that created the ripples in the horizon of Indo–English poetry. It was followed by The Descendant (1967), The Old Playhoue and Other Poems (1973) and Stranger Time (1977). It is also remarkable that there are as many as eighteen of her uncollected poems is British Nandy's anthology titled Indian Poetry in English (1947–1972). Gauri Deshpande's An Anthology of Indo–English Poetry has eight poems of Kamal Das. Her Collected Poems appeared in 1984. My Story, her autobiography originally written in Malayalam, is also one of the reputed title credited to her.
The development of a love poet, can be traced easily by subtle analysis of various strains that define different moods and shades of love. The great metaphysical poet, John Donne provides a great instance of this kind of analysis of the poem. The first phase of Donne's love poems are conspicuous for exasparation and eccentricity that owes its genesis to peculiar notion that woman is essentially unfaithful and the object of sexual pleasure only. The second phase begins with the realization of the sentimental worth of a woman and in the third phase the poet enjoys the bliss of Platonic love where body, despite lingering functionality, ceases to matter and love is manifest at spiritual level.
Kamala Das, in her long career as a love poet, has passed through many phases and has lived in the emotions of love as various planes leading to a gradual and systematic development and at the same time a rich variety of strains defining the emotion. It is, however, not justified to read and appreciate the poetry of Kamal Das without locating these strains defining various phases of her development as a love poet. These strains serve to define the inextricable relationship that subsists between her poetry and her life.
Yearning for love is the first important aspect of the love–poetry of Kamala Das. The strain embodies numerous expressed and unexpressed pains of her life that owe their genesis to the birth and consequent rupturing of the ideal she enshrined in her heart in those long years of seemingly endless neglect and inevitable loneliness. The quest began and the ideal took shape in the lonely hours of childhood when she realized that her 'father was not of an affectionate nature' that resulted in to the vacuum that despite success and glory could not be filled. The poetess admits that she was 'aware of' herself as 'neglected' child resulting into a 'strong relationship of love, the kind XXXXX may feel for his mate who pushed him on a hand cart when they went on their begging rounds'1. The reverberations of loneliness and the echo of neglect grew more tormentry after her nuptial conjugation with a monster who has throughout been insensitive to her needs :
My husband was immersed in his office work, and after work there was the dinner followed by sex. Where was time left for him to want to see the sea or the dark buffaloes of the slopes2.
Obviously the ideal nurtured by the poetess has another strangulating disaster that brought in to prominence a quest for liberty and escape from this male dominated society. Kamala Das' beautiful poem – "A Request" aptly reveals her pains and quest with precise simultaneity and comparable intensity.
O Krishna, I am melting, melting, melting
Nothing remains but you
You ...
(A Request : The Descendants)
The lines quoted above are conspicuous for the use of Krishna myth. It is remarkable that in Devotional Poetry of Bhaktikal, Krishna is a symbol of pure–love. The melting of Radha in this context leads to mean the decay of human body caused by the absence of the ideal of love.
"Dhanshyam" is another poem in which Kamala Das invokes Radha–Krishna myth. The poem is also a revelation of painful purgatorial quest for the ideal of love. The quest compels her to say that she sees 'the beauteous Krishna in every man'. She also puts forth the bold assertion that 'every Hindu girl is in reality wedded to Lord Krishna'3. Summer in Calcutta has a fairly large number of love–poems bearing different shades of love. The poetess herself admits that there is too much love in her poems but she justifies that 'love is a beautiful emotion' and it is 'the foretaste of paradise'4. It is remarkable that Kamala Das in her poems doesn't advocate free love nor puts forth a plea for lust, but she maintains a clear distinction between love and lust. She, in much anthologized poem, "An Introduction" reveals :
I asked for love when not knowing what else to ask
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.
(An Introduction)
The lines quoted above clearly illustrate poet's longing for love and the vacuum which was created as an aftermath of yearning for love that meets no desired end. In 'My Grandmother's House" she discloses her nostalgia about the house at Malabar where she spent her childhood.
There was a hour now far away where once
I received love ... That woman died,
The house withdrew into silence, snakes moved
Among books I was then too young.
(My Grandmother's House)
The lines quoted above provide strong emphasis on the despair that makes her present through an oblique reference to past when she received love. To the poetess, love is a memory not the present : the oblique reference makes it clear that the present is deprived of love and justifies the quest for love. The paradise enshrined in the above poem recurs in another famous and much anthologized poem, "Vrindavan" in which Kamala Das says that Vrindavan 'lives in every woman's mind'. Kamala Das, in her poetry as well as occasional writings, maintains a clear distinction between love and lust. The poetess feels proud in recollecting her grandmother's house because the house gave her love in its purest form, the emotions that could not be enjoyed again by her. The pride expressed in the poem owes its genesis to the love she received there. She admits :
... you cannot believe darling.
Can you, that I lived in such a house and
was proud and loved ... I, who have lost
My way and beg now at stranger's doors to
Receive love at least in a small change ?
Harish Raizada locates the 'hunger' of woman and reaches 'simple love which she considers a necessity of her life'5. K. R. Ramchandran also feels that the 'woman's ideal relationship is based on mutual love, without lust, passion without desire and possession without condescension'6. Kamala Das's plea for pure love expressed in her poetry is manifest candidly in Meet the Author Programme organized by Sahitya Academy. She firmly asserts :
A man not loving a woman but only feeling lust has no right to touch her and defile her. He should not enter her. I think, it is like counterfeit money7.
The words of Kamal Das seeks ratification in the famous poem, "The Seashore"
... love can take us to world's where life is
Evergreen, and you, just at these moments raise your
Red–eyes at the smile perhaps at the folly
Of my thoughts.
The ideal soon gets ruptured. The 'red eyes at the smile' suggest the quaintness of the ideas and ideas. She further writes :
I see you go away from me.
And feel the loss of love I have never once received.
(The Seashore)
The absence of pure love obliges the agony of a prisoner and she feels that the relationship without 'simple love' is a prison house. The yearning for love draws a close parallel with the escape from the prison house. In "The Prisoner", she writes :
As the prisoner studies
His prison's geography
I study the trappings
Of your body dear love,
For I must some day find
An escape from its shore.
(The Prisoner)
It is an obvious that a reference to Krishna myth or to the imaginary ideal of Vrindavan is a quest and simultaneously, it is an attempt to escape. Sudhir Kakkar, interpreting the myth, points out that Krishna 'encourages the individual to identify with an ideal primal self released from all social and super ego constraints'8. She reveals her pains in her poem, "Maggots" by transferring her experiences to Radha, who after the blisful love relation which Krishna, feels like being a corpse after her marriage :
At sunset, on the river bank Krishna
Loved her for the last time and left
That night in her husband's arms, Radha felt
So dead that he asked, What is wrong
Do you mind my kisses, love ? And she said
No, not at all, but though what is
It to the corpse of the maggots nop ?
(The Maggots)
Kamal Das's poems show strong sense of consciousness towards the feminine psyche. Iyengar takes her to be writer of 'fiercely feminine sensibility'9 while Satya Dev Jaggi affirms that 'she is intensely conscious of herself as a woman'10. This consciousness is often reflected in quick apprehension of male desire and the sharp and prompt reaction to it.
... these men who call me
Beautiful, not seeing
Me with eyes but with hands.
And even ... even ... love
(Summer in Calcutta)
The quest for the ideal attains the climax of pain and agony in the poem titled 'Love' in which she encompasses her resilience in a manner which is personal. She writes :
Until I found you.
I wrote verse, drew pictures.
And went out with friends
For walks ...
Now, that I love you
Curled like an old mongrel
My life lies content in you.
(Love)
The most piercing revelation of the feminist sensibility of Kamala Das is expressed in the image of the womb in her poem, "Afterwards". "Son of her Womb" looks ugly in loneliness and is advised to 'walk the world's bleary eye like a grit'. She confides :
The earth we nearly killed is yours
Now, the flowers bloom again,
But a savage red; it takes
Time to forget blood or quick gasps
Of the dying. And the sudden pain
But the sun came again and rain.
(Afterwards)
The poetess identifies herself with calm of quite existence of the earth : the primordial image of motherhood. In the context of sexual union of the poetess with her man there emerge with new shades of meaning of the blooming flowers. The blood and the quick gasps are attendants upon the act of sex.
There is another very important theme that runs parallel to the theme of the quest for ideal of love : that is the theme of disillusionment in love. 'The Freaks' are the two lover which in the poem have been identified with the poet and her husband. The lover, instead of being attractive and charming falls on the other side and appears to be repulsive. The abnormal situation also contributes significantly to this theme. They decide in favour of love but their mind keeps wondering away just because there is no emotional contact between them, and, as a result of this emotional void the lovers feel like walking along a narrow lane with a stink of filth, that symbolize lust and void. The rhetoric makes the feeling enshrined in the poem more clear and vibrant as there is no fulfilment in love :
Can this man with
Nimble finger tips unleash
Nothing more alive than the
Skin's lazy hungers ? Who can
Help us who have lived so long
And have failed in love ?
(The Freaks)
The poet's scorn for the man – reduces the love to lust and affords no satisfaction. There is scintillating contrast between the exalted and common place that provides intensity to the poem. The question marks used successively twice raffled the painful compromise of the poet that she is left with no other option but to suffer and endure in the snore of love.
"A Relationship" is another poem dealing with the theme of identification between love and desire. The poet candidly claims that 'it was her desire that made him male' and confesses that she 'shall find her sleep, her peace and even death nowhere else but there in her betrayer's arms' (A Relationship). The poem encapsulates the history of her love–hate relationship with her love.
"The Bangles" symbolically represent the agony caused by the rupturing of the ideal of love between husband and wife.
... At night
In sleep, woman lashes
At pillow with bangled arms, in
Vain she begs bad dream to fade
The man switches on the light and
Looks into her face with his
Grey pitiless eyes ...
(The Bangles)
The poem is a profound realization of the sufferings of a woman. The protagonist, with obvious shade of the poet is deprived of love and in turn, is enslaved by the whims of the husband.
"The Sea Shore" opens with the death, imagery and consequently expand upon the inter–dependence between love and death. The experience on way while passing by the cremation ground is of tremendous important from the point of view of love–death relation as theme :
On same evenings I drive past a cremation ground.
And seem to hear the crunch of bones in those vulgar
Mouth of fire, or at times I see the smoke in strands.
Slowly stretch and rise, like serpent's satiated,
Slow content, and the only face I remember
Then is yours ...
(The Seashore)
It is an interesting observation that Kamala Das reminds us of major metaphysical poets like John Donne and Andrew Marvel in the cast of death imagery. It is, however, interesting that the death image is metaphysical poetry, performs a distinct function from that in the poetry of Kamala Das. Donne, in "The Canonization" writes :
The phoenix riddle hates more wit,
By us; we two being one are it
So to one neutral thing both sexes fit
We die and rise the same and prove
Mysterious by this love.
In the light of the above quoted lines it is easy to infer that the death image used by Kamala Das has the poignancy of John Donne, though thematically it performs a distinct function. It is ironical that Kamala Das has always been accused of vulgarity and advocacy for lust whereas she discards sexual pleasure in the absence of emotional satisfaction. 'In love' is her remarkable lyric which deals with the same theme. The speaker of the poem identifies herself with the fire of the sun and reminds her of 'his mouth, and his limbs like pale and carnivorous plants reaching out for her ... (In love). It is important to note that the poem is set against the scorching sun that drews a close analogue with the scorching soul of the poetess. The tension in the poem is expressed well by Devendra Kohli, who says that 'it is difficult to say whether Kamala Das succeeds in resolving her tension between physical and spiritual aspect of love'12. C.N. Srinath also emerges with similar view and takes genuine love to be her 'main preoccupation, her obsession'13. It is, however, a great irony that many critics have been interpreting the poems of Kamala Das as expression of lust and the pivot of the dynamics of themes and images has been ignored in the assessment.
"Summer in Calcutta" is one of the most anthologized poems of Kamal Das. The image of April sun stands for heat and intoxication whereas the juice of April sun sparks with sensuousness. There is induction of the mood of sensuality through repetitive occurrence of the words like 'drink' or 'drunk'
What is this drink but
The April sun squeezed
Like an orange in
My glass ?
(Summer in Calcutta)
Devendra Kohli opines that 'the poem is an Indian poet's reaction to the torture of the Indian summer'14. It is evident that the noted critic fails to appreciate the deeper layers of meanings and experience XXXX in the poem.
"The Looking Glass" is Kamala Das' effort to externalize plains and humiliations that occur as aftermath of the disaster in the realization of the ideal. The mirror constitutes a complex symbol that embody the pride of man and the humiliations of woman.
... Stand nude before the glass with him
So that he sees himself the stronger one
And believes it so, and you so much more
Softer, younger lovelier ... Admit
Your admiration. ...
The poem ironically suggest the lack of realization of the worth of woman on her part. She 'notices the perfect of his limbs' but has only a shy walk across the bathroom floor'. She further confides :
... All the fond details that make
Him male and your only man.
(The Looking Glass)
The poetess balances the jerky ways he urinates with 'the scent of long hair' and 'the musk of sweat between the breasts'. The balance work at the painful contradiction between man–woman relation.
... Oh yes, getting
A man to love is easy but living
Without his afterwards may have to be
Faced ...
The complex theme of the poem also defines Kamala Das's concept of love which lead to the experience beyond sex through sex. She candidly admits her participation into extra marital sex–relation and doesn't feel ashamed of it. She reveals :
... You let me toss my youth like coins
Into various hands, you let me mate with shadows
Seek ecstasy in other arms.
(A Man is a Season)
The frustration caused by the disaster in the quest for the ideal of love leads to frustration that seeks purgatorial outlet through her poetry. The need for other man is born of the need of fulfilment in love. The poems of early phase show bursting frustration.
Oh Sea, let me shrink or grow, slash up.
Slide down, go you way,
I will go mine.
(The Invitation)
It is, however, noteworthy that she in later poem emerges as a matured poet, and, the maturity is attributed to her profound insight in to human psychology. Her frank views on sex bear the impact of the psychological researches of Freund and Jung. The revelation of suppression of sex is present in the subconscious. Nasreen Ayaz rightly points out :
Repressed sex instincts are present in the subconscious and this uncconscious is the basis of human behaviour. This psychological dimension of love is a significant aspect of modern poetry which is full of the emotions of anxiety, frustrations, hollowness and chaos.
It is an easy inference that the poetry of Kamala Das is a vision of love–experience through the Kaleidoscope of her personal experiences of set–backs in instituting ideals which leads to the inference that a woman is nothing more than a passive partner in the enactment of lust. The quest and the consequent disaster is the pivotal aspect which determine the experience in this strain of her love poetry. However, besides interpretations it leads to numerous misinterpretations also that bring forth hostile criticism. Bruce King too comes out with similar views. He comments :
Her poems are situated neither in the act of sex nor in the feelings of love : they are instead involved with the self and its varied, often conflicting emotions, ranging from the desires for security and intimacy to the assertion of the ego, self dramatization and feelings of shame and depression.15
Devendra Kohli is also little liberal when he says that her poetry is a sort of "compulsion neurosis"16 and the form and function of the poetry originates from several alignments and extringements exploring the meanings and experiences of love, lust and sex. The image of death is also variedly used image in the poetry of Kamala das which invites a vast range of possibilities of interpretation. Life and death are judge in juxtaposition with each other that together imply that one without the other cease to mean. There is also mystic interpretation of death in some poems like "Words and Birds" and "A Holiday for Me". Death is manifest as a metaphor of fulfilment of love, milestone on the way to eternal quest that obliges her to like death as the "only reality" and the endless stretching "before and beyond our human existence"17. The mystic concept of love provides serenity to the quest for the ideal of love. "The Old Playhouse" offers to our scrutiny a sharp and scintillating correlation between love and life and death while the latter two are taken to mean two sides of the same coin.
Love is Narcissus at the water's edge, haunted
By its own lovely face, and yet it must seek at last.
An end, a pure total freedom, it must will the minors.
To shatter and the kind night to erase the water.
(The Old Playhouse)
The above discussion makes its clear that Kamala Das imparts new dimensions in the genre of love poetry. The first strains of her love poetry deals with the quest for the ideal of love which aims at the feeling beyond sex, passing through it. The failure of her efforts to institute ideals lead to the depression and frustration that acquire new shades and complexion in the light of the biographical realities of the poetess. The other strain of her love poetry provide a logical perpetuation of this strain of love that she candidly puts to our scrutiny.

References
1Kamala Das, My Story (New Delhi : Sterling Publications, 1976) 2.
2Kamala Das, "I have lived beautifully", Debonair III No. 5; May 15, 1975; 41.
3Das, My Story, 5.
4Kamala Das, "Obsenity and Literature", Weekly Round Table; April 1972, 32.
5Anisur Rehman, Expression Forms in the Poetry of Kamala Das (New Delhi : Abhinav Publications, 1981) 33.
6K. R. Ramachandran, The Poetry of Kamala Das (New Delhi : Rehana Publishing, 1993) 98.
7Kamala Das, "My Instinct My Guru", Indian Literature XXXIII, 5; Sept–Oct 1990; 159–160.
8Sachin Kakar, The Inner World : A Psycho–Analytic Study of Childhood and Soiety in India (New Delhi : Oxford, 1981) 98.
9K.R.S. Iyengar, Indian Writings in English (New Delhi : Sterling, 1983) 680.
10Satya Dev Jaggi, "A Feminine Awareness", Thought, Vol. XIII, No. 6, April 16, 1966; 17.
11John Donne, "The Canonization", John Donne – The Complete English Poems (1971; London : Penguin, 1975) 47.
12Devendra Kohli, Kamala Das (New Delhi : Arnold Heinemann, 1975) 49.
13C. N. Srinath, Comtemporary Indian Poetry in English – The Literary Criterion, Vol. III, No. 2, Summer 1968; 62.
14Kohli 73.
15Nasreen Ayaz, "Conept of Love in the Poetry of Kamala Das", Perspectives on Kamala Das's Poetry, ed. Iqbal Khan (New Delhi : Intellectual Publishing, 1995) 110.
16Bruce King, Modern Indian Poetry in English (New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 1987) 150.
17Kohli 20.

Select Bibliography
A. Primary Sources
Summer in Calcutta. New Delhi : Everest Press, 1965.
Dass, Kamala. The Descendant. Calcultta : Writer's Workshop, 1967.
Dass, Kamala. Old Playhouse and Other Poems. Madras : Orient Longman, 1973.
Dass, Kamala. My Story. New Delhi : Sterling, 1976.
Dass, Kamala. Alphabet of Lust. New Delhi : India Paperbacks, 1977.
Dass, Kamala and Pritish Nandi. Tonight His Savage Rite : Love Poems of Kamala Dass and Pritish Nandi. New Delhi :
Dass, Kamala. "Obscenity and Literature". Weekly Round Table, April 23, 1972; 31–32.
Dass, Kamala. "I have Loved Beautifully". Debonair III, No. 5, May 15, 1974; 40–41.
B. Secondary Sources
Ayaz, Nasreen. "Concept of Love in the Poetry of Kamala Dass", Pespectives on Kamala Dass's Poetry. Ed. Iqbal Kaur, New Delhi : Intellectual Publishing, 1995.
Donne, John. "The Cononization". John donne : The Complete English Poems, 1971; London : Penguin, 1975.
Iyengar, K.R.S. Indian Writings in English. New Delhi : Sterling, 1996.
Jaggi, Satya Dev. "A Feminine Awareness". Thought, April 16, 1966.
Kakkar, Sudhi. The Inner World : A Psycho–Analytic Study of Childhood and Society in India. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 1981.
King, Bruce. Modern Indian Poetry in English. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 1987.
Kohli, Devendra. Kamala Dass. New Delhi : Arnold Hernemann, 1975.
Ramchandran, K.R. The Poetry of Kamala Dass. New Delhi : Rehance Publishing, 1993.
Rehman, Anisur. Expressive Forms in the Poetry of Kamala Dass.
Srinath, C.N. Contemporary Indian Poetry in English – The Literary Criterion. Vol. III, No. 2, Summer 1968.

Science and the Modern World

It is unequivocal that the new dimensions and definitions of modern world, with all its magnificence along various aspects of human existence, owe their genesis to the technological advancements that took place in the last two decades. The essence of human existence, socially, economically and even culturally seeks definitions along the multidimensional space of technological advancements that cover each and every aspect of man as an individual as well as collectively when perceived against the larger backdrop of mercurial changes that deny old existing concepts and demand new definitions. Technology, now, after a subtle and swift intervention into the lifestyle of the common man, redefines and re-determines even the most fundamental aspects of our existence, and obliges preparedness for a new age with new fundamentals.
The integration of knowledge and the consequent births of new disciplines are the phenomena that make us realize the new responsibilities- individually as well as collectively. The realm of knowledge is realized chiefly in terms of the convergence of various branches of knowledge with different origins. The coalition of medical science and modern technological advancements is the most conspicuous instance with great immediacy of acquaintance. It is not too old to recall the era when the medical science and physics were almost distinct with a very small area of common applications, but, every new invention the field of computers contributes quite significantly to the working of doctors by reducing the tyranny to space in life of man. It is the convergence, the convergence of knowledge into a point of application determined by human needs and human aspirations, which makes us more versatile and more perceptive to new branches of knowledge and enables us to enjoy and utilize new destinations of human intellect, born of such syntheses.

It is obvious that we people the new are world defined in terms of convergence and intellectual unification. It is an interesting paradox that the new world, on one hand, witnesses almost imperialistic hike in human reach, and, on the other hand, it is the world with astounding diminution of the old parameters that ruled supreme with unquestioned autocracy. The parameters of time and space are more hostile to each other than ever before. Spaces cease to matter while time is demanding new units in micros and mini micros. The meteoric rise of communication technology metamorphosed the pre- existing order almost completely and firmly established the need of new parameters and new definitions. It is again beyond any doubt that communication technology unifies various seemingly scattered ramifications of knowledge and accounts for the convergence into one ethereal identity that surmounts all the geo-political barriers and redefines our existence. The birth of nanotechnology is another great event in the intellectual history of man which further unifies the remote areas of knowledge and contributes to the formation of a new world with little skepticism about human welfare. The convergence of health care and pharmaceutical industries makes a fine instance of the dimensions of new world defined in terms of convergence. The concept of tele-medicine ratifies the hope and possibility of human welfare beyond human imagination.
The cultural significance of the unification of technologies is not less important. The internet is a boon that unifies the Globe and reduces it into a small screen with all its magnanimity and trivialities. The narrow domestic walls have begun to crumble down as the emotional, and paradoxically economical, sharing across the globe is as easy as a courtesy visit to a neighboring house. It is another significant step towards the new formation with virtual images of the 36 Parallels and Redcliffs demarcating the countries and the culture defined chiefly in terms of intellectual unification and emotional oneness.

Views on Stories

Love Poetry of Kamala Das

William Golding's The Lord of Flie

William Gerald Golding was born in Cornwall, England on September 19, 1911. His father, Alec Golding, was a school master and his mother, Mildred Golding, was an active worker on behalf of women's suffrage and other causes. Golding's parents encouraged him towards science as an educational pursuit but, in his second year at Brasenoze College, Oxford, young Golding shifted his educational emphasis to literature. Today, he also admits to a fondness of archaeology, but it is rather a highly sophisticated knowledge of anthropology that crops us in his first two novels.
Golding's first published work was a slim volume of poetry, which appeared shortly after his Graduation from Oxford in 1934. He claims to have "wasted the next four years". When World war II began, he joined the Royal Navy in which he served with distinction for over five years. During this service, Golding had a variety of experiences, highlighted by his participation in the D–Day invasion of France. When Golding was discharged from the Navy at the war's end, he held the rank of lieutenant. There is no question that Golding's experiences in the Royal Navy were the most decisive of his life, particularly in his development as writer.
Lord of Flies is undoubtedly one of the most pronounced illustration of the split of human cycle and the consequent transformation of man into a beast. The theme of the novel advances upon the pillars of Allegorical parallels and contrasts that structure the world lived in and realized by the author. It is also said to be a forceful allegorical representation of evil in human heart.
The novel begins with the recreation of architypal pattern of a lonely individual in the disserted island. The beginning of the novel reminds us of Danial Defoe's Robinson Cruso (1719) swifts Guliver Travels Jules Vernice – The Mysterious Island. The architectural opening of the novel serves to intensity the effect, i.e. developed all along the length and breadth of the novel. At the same time, this opening renders a universal significance and value to the piece of fiction. The introduction of the location the island peopled by frightening vamparish image is imparted the pronounced metaphorical value and in turn is made a microcause of the world enduring onslaughts of the War on socio–cultural fabric of the world in general and Europe in particular. The views Ian Watt capture our attention. He in his appreciation of the first paragraph of The Ambassador says :
The primary location of the narrative in a mental rather than a physical continuum gives the narrative a great freedom from the restrictions of particular time and place.1
Evidently the locale of the novel serves to emancipate the theme and action of the novel from the Tyranny of time and space, and imparts it a sound metaphorical value that serves to universalize the latent meaning and experience.
Irony is unquestionably the most powerful weapon used by the author. The structure of the novel is built on the bricks of Irony and is veneered with the thick coat of allegory. The new habitation in a deserted island as an aftermyth of the ship–wreck is a new beginning where the dawn is fogged with dark clouds of various shades of evil. The antithesis is inevitable but the victory of evil over innocence and the defeat of intellect elucidated by the murder of Piggy by Rozer is a sound rectification of the meaning inherent in the narrative. It is obvious here that children are no longer children with conventional innocence but they are metaphors shaped by the whittling edges of irony. It is clear that the children in the novel issue forth an impression of graver reality that is shaping its own existence in an essential vicious and hostile world that is manifest along more than one direction. The views of Narcus Crouch invite our attention. He elevates the treatment of child characters and says :
Some of the children's novels are about identity, about children exploring – in William Penn's phrase – 'The house of their mind'. These too are books in which the distinction between the adult and child is at its most indistinct2.
Some of the best treatment in literature of entry into 'children's experience' and 'vision of living' are to be found in books that were written not for children but for adults. Our modern concept of childhood is built largely on the intelligent anti–determinant concern for children that has been enshrined in folklore, which was highly developed by Blake, Dickens, Charlotte Bronte and others. But, the most fashionable novels of our time often represent a complete rejection of those English tradition, as readers today admire the brutally selfish and anti–social man.
Philosophical biology finds men to be an animal with an extral cultural dimension closely related to his need for freedom. William Golding's novels fall within this scope of post–war fantasy–fiction which is a psychological exploration.
Lord of the Flies (1954) turns the long established boys' romance desert island tale into an intense, compelling allegory of the growth and corruption of political power3.
This simple story starts with a few boys wrecked on an uninhabited island with no grown ups around. It slowly builds up the tension of a thriller. The characterization in the novel is quite detailed as the story hangs on three principal figures who serve as human landscape, besides the picturesque island. Each one stands for a different cause reflecting his background, nature and values inherited. They depict the three essential qualities in man, i.e. intelligence, rational thinking and passion.
In effect it is a present day reconstruction of R.M. Ballantyne's famous 19th century adventure story Coral Island. But whereas the ship wrecked boys in his book soon organize themselves into a reasonable imitation of victorian God–fearing British Society, most of those in Golding's novel just as quickly relapse into savagry ...4
Golding is a man haunted by his own sense of human inadequacy, as, this novel does not belong to the eddifying and counter eddifying stream of anger – instead, it is a bold search which reflects his own vision of man. Through its portrayals of human beings and human problems, it brings forth important general principles of human behaviour and human relations. It demonstrates that humans are capable of intense evil, as a result of their own nature and not because of any outside factor. Ignorance and evil seems to drive the boys with the Fruedian ID which is an unconcious, a moral force within the human mind; whose function is to ensure the survival instinct.
The first Chapter opens with Ralph the hero. The story is about his psychological development from childhood to maturation. He encoutners a fat boy named Piggy; while wandering near the water the boys discover a large 'Conch'. It is a beautiful creamy pink shell which later on becomes the symbol of authority and sacredness as all the children are expected to show regards for it. The others who join in are some little ones, who later on are addressed by the generic title of 'littluns'. The rests are the members of a choir with a leader called Jack Merridew. Initially, everything goes on fine as Ralph becomes the chief with a wise counsellor Piggy; Jack and his choir members become the hunters besides, they are to take care of the fire on the mountain which is lighted to signal out for any passerby ship. Soon they form a society where shelter are built, water for drinking is stored and the rock serves as lavatory. Whole picture is of an ancient tribe with a chief and his kingdom. Ralph cheerfully says –
This is our island. It is a good island. Untill the grown ups come will have fun5.
Golding subtly explores the human psychology and gives a forewarning about Jack by hinting at the amount of pleasure he gets from the power he weilds. He is ruthless power–hungry, physically strong villain who is portrayed with ignoble instincts, leading to the formation of necessary evil in the society. Symbolically, the difference in the nature of the two boys is hinted through their hair; fair–headed Ralph signifies his faith in being fair at everything as compared to the red–headed Jack. Red colour signifies passion, fire, blood and lust. The seed of rivalry is sown right in the beginning though Jack is only sub–consciously aware of it. Diana Neill rightly points out –
Moral evil is the subject of Lord of Flies ...... The subject darkness in the human heart is made even more horrible by the fact that characters in the novel are children, young ones at that6.
As the novel proceeds we get a view at the evil streak in the heart of human, though mildly put, yet Golding has raised a very important point, when a big one "Maurice" tries to be mean with a littlun percival.
In his other life Maurice had received chastisement for filling a younger eye with sand. Now, though there was no parent to let fall a heavy hand. Maurice still felt the unease of wrong doing. At the back of his mind formed the uncertain outlines of an excuse7.
It is believed that much evil and most human vices are due to repressive and overly demanding ways of life, caused by adherence to the false conventions and values of civilization. In most cases, it destroys the essentially good and human qualities of people like Maurice and big bullies like Roger; who throws stones at young Henry though to miss; .....
as invisible yet strong was the taboo of the old life round the squatting child was protection of parents, school, policement and law8.
but he later on becomes a ruthless hunter and 'terror' as he beats us samneric and mercilessly and forces them to join in their tribe and work against Ralph.
The only child set apart from the rest is, Simon, who is bashful in public, wanders off alone; He appears as a shining hope; an epitome of wisdom; a Christ–like figure. This character is portrayed like a ray of hope that exist in the novel. Culture is seen as taking a foremost place in human make up and especially in the development of child : and when this restrain is lifted they gradually develop from ordinary to extra ordinary–evil or good. The choir group degenerates into a primitive tribe with painted faces and long hair. They are successful in killing a pig, but they neglect fire with the result a passing ship goes off without noticing them. This event symbolizes their rejection of life and siding with death. A lurking note of irony is discernable here; the choir which used to sing the Angels prayers on soft rhythms of music, now dances and sing.
"Kill the Pig, Cut her Throat, Spill her Blood"
and their laughter becomes a blood thirsty snarling at,
The knowledge that they have outwitted a living thing imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink9.
At this point Ralph realizes that a link between Jack and him has been snapped, and the islands too seems to split into two worlds.
There was the brilliant world of hunting lactics, fierce exhilaration skill; and there was the world of longing and baffled common sense10.
In ancient literature, we have instances, in which first advance was the rejection of idols in favour of a single God. This diety reflected a society where there is a tribal chief whom his people obeyed and he held supreme powers. The value of conch has been suggested and emphasized time and again by Golding. The Leader must possess it, equating him with the Sea–God 'Proteus' who blows a horn.
There is a symbolic association between Piggy and the conch. For Piggy it is something sacred, precious, God given and it is supreme. His worth as an intelligent friend and counsellor Ralph has slowly realized. With it has come the painful realization that the understandable and lawful world was being disintegrated, as the rules set initially were followed less and less.
A sensation is created where a dead parachutist drops on the mountain top and is called 'beast from air'. It is not surprising because the atmosphere prevailing is anything but congenial. It is born out of evil of ignorance.
The God of flies is none other than the Devil, lurking in the hearts of those fledglings, and waiting to reveal himself only until such time as he is no longer held in check by the taboos of civilization11.
The hero too, is only human as he gets immense pleasure when he is successful in piercing the flesh of a pig with appearance. While, Jack and hunters drop down from the level of humanity and are called 'savages'. They involve themselves in the gruesome act of sheer violence when they spot a sow and injure her, chase her excitedly as though 'wedded to her lust'. This phrase has added a sexual connotation symbolically signifying the adult intimacy with evil. They perch the head of the sow on a sharpened stick as a gift for the Beast. The blackening blood has lot of flies gathered around and the pig head looks like Lord of Flies. Golding has omniously placed the children in the primitive situation where God was military and jealous, and not the merciful Lord Jesus. Quite unawarely the choir group cease to be Christian and become the followers of Beelzebub who was known as the Lord of Flies. The description of the devil compels us to agree with Diana Niell,
particularly striking is his power to communicate the terror in Human heart before the unknown in nature and the all too clearly discernable cruelty in man12.
Simon watches the whole scene from his small paradise where butterflies are dancing around. The Lord of Flies tries to communicate to Simon.
The half shut eyes were dim with the infinite cynicism of adult life. They assured Simon that every thing was a bad business ...13
He urge him to go back to others as entirely good has no chance on the earth. He resembles Mephistophilis who warn Dr. Faustus about the consequences and tries to pursue him to go away. It is as though the devil is trying to communicate to Christ realizing fully well that Christ even today will be crucified. Simon is sure that the only evil is 'in us', so, he goes to the mountain top and solves the mystery of beast and discover it to be a dead human being. He untangles the dead body and runs down to tell others that they need not be scared of it any more. But the satanic looking figures with painted faces were so soaked in their lustful dance, that they refuse to acknowledge him 'as one of them' and mercilessly stab him to death. The storm breaks in all its fury, and boys run for shelter and the body of Simon and dead Parachutist is washed out by sea.
Ralph and Piggy were out of it all yet, they feel guilty and responsible for the act against Nature. Jack on the other hand refuses to acknowledge that they have committed a murder. He turns out to be an absolute dictator. He beats us a boy called Wilfred after tying him up for several hours, raids the shelters and runs away with Piggy's broken glasses and refuses to listen to any reasoning for returning them. The abuse of his power over the 'outsiders' leads him to a feeling of wild abandonment during which the symbol of sensible orderly procedure that is the coach is not merely destroyed but broken into a thousand fragments. The Conch and Piggy, the last of the civilized society, are smashed down together. Roger hurls a big stone, only this time not to miss, but to kill Piggy. Roger has now freed himself from the civilized world of parents and laws, policemen, which is remote and distant.
It is the story told with meticulous realism and at the same time with a visionary clarity that shows up everything as symbolic; of a group of small children wrecked on a desert island degenerating into a society based on fear, violence and tyranny14.
Golding has visualized his memory of World War II and the brutal slaughter of human life, transferred it to the world of children, the tragedies of the adult world are re–enacted, where under extreme stress, they show capacity for self harm. Ralph is chased and sought like an animal in utter barbarism with pass words, arrows, clay daubings and ceric battle cries. They put the entire island on fire creating the picture of war.
The final nightmare scene is ended abruptly by the arrival of a rescue ship. Yet, there is no sense of relief since the darkness revealed in the human heart leaves little hope for future15.
Ralph wept for the end of innocence and for Piggy. In the last encounter scene, with the officer, Ralph immediately replies to him that he is the Chief while Jack shrinks. He finds himself unprepared to own his crime and hesitates.
Moral evil then, is the subject of the novel, where original sin destroys the garden of innocence. The human race has time and again shown that Golding's vision is an accurate one. But he offers no direct solution to the problem he presents. Yet he hints at certain saving graces like Piggy and Simon. Knowledge of a problem is a great step in arriving at a solution. The movement is from specific to universal.
Golding has made a major contribution in the field of self awareness as every reader feels actively involved in it. The outcome of the struggle in the last scene can be conceived optimistically or pessimistically, depending upon how he interprets the miraculous rescue in the last scene. However, deficient our modern society might seem but civilization is the only thing that restrains mankind from a life of barbarianism and dehumanization. Goldings view has a lesson of morality to teach humanity that the civilized behaviour is the only hope for mankind to achieve a higher and more desirable ethical state.

References
1Ian Watt, The First Paragraph of The Ambassador 20th Century Literary Criticism : A Reader, ed. David Lodge (London : Longman, 1989) 533.
2Marcus Crouch, The Nesbit Tradition The Children's Novels in England 1945–70 (London : Earnest Benn Limited, First Pub. 1972, This Ed. 1972) 196.
3John Holloway, The LIterary Scene, The New Pelican Guide to English Literature – The Presented Bories Ford (London : Penguin Book, First Pub. 1983, This Ed., 1987) 101.
4Gilbert Philips, The Post–War English Novel (Pelican Guide) 435.
5William Golding, Lord of the Flies (London : Faber and Faber Limited, First Pub. 1958, This Ed. 1982) 38.
6Diana Neil, A History of the English Novel (New Delhi : Kalyani Publications, First Pub. 1962, This Ed. 1979) 389.
7Golding 65.
8Golding 67.
9Golding 75.
10Golding 76.
11Emile Legoise, Louis Cazamian, The History of English Literature (New Delhi : Macmillan India Limited, 1979) 149.
12Neil 389.
13Golding 152.
14David Daiches, A Critical History of English Literature (New Delhi : Allied Publishers Limited, First Ed. 1979, This Ed. 1992) 1175.
15Neil 389.

The Waste Land; Women Characters

Women Characters in The Waste Land
The Waste Land is the most anthological poem of T.S. Eliot. The poem earned a distinct reputation in the history of English poetry and the fame of the poem, now, is nearly same as that of its composer.
The Waste Land was conceived in the embryonic form about a decade back but the poem was published in 1922. It was first mentioned by the poet in a letter to John Quinn in 1919. The letter was dated 5 November. Eliot's interaction with Ezra Round contribute quite significantly to the design and form of the poem. When Eliot offered The Waste Land to Pound on 20 January 1922, he commented that the poem "will have been three times through the sieve". (Jain, 127) The views of Pond make clear his reservations against the volume of the poem. "Pound's role", as Manju Jain opines the editing of The Waste Land has been the subject of much critical controversy. (p. 128) However, his contribution in rendering shape and form to the poem cannot be denied. Eliot himself confesses the role of Pound in transforming The Waste Land 'from a jumble of good and bad passages into a poem'. (p. 128) There are, however, many critics like Bernard Bergonzi who raise objections to the editing done by Pound still the fact cannot be denied that the unity and coherence of the poem can be credited to Pound, who, as Tom Moody points out, is the man behind distinguishing between the veritable and genuine and the false or factitious writing. (p. 317)

Technical complexity and the idea of form are two principal associations of the poem. The complexity of the poetic technique is undoubtedly the most conspicuous aspect of the poem. The use of the technique of the point of view, of allusions and references, the use of myth are some very important aspect of the poem that have been integrated into unity of form.
The technique of the point of view is the parameter of appreciating a piece of fiction. The term come into existence after the publication of Percy Lubbock's The Craft of Fiction in which the critic keeps into view various limitations of human mind and takes the point of view of the story–teller to be the governing principle of the technical appreciation of a piece of fiction. 'It is' Lubbock tells about a novel, revealed little by little, page by page and it is withdrawn as fast as it is revealed. (p. 7) In the light of the natural predicaments of man, Lubbock takes the 'whole intricate question of method' to be governed by the point of view – 'the question of the relation in which the narrator stands in the story'. (p. 248). Eliot, to confirm his respect for the technique of the point of view makes use of the technique of dramatic monologue. It is important that the technique of dramatic monologue endures but little change during the poet's journey up to Poems 1930. In The Waste Land also Eliot makes use of the same technique of dramatic monologue but the voice of the speaker in this poem ceases to be singular. It is split, fragmented, bifurcated along many dimensions. There are interpenetrating voices constituting the voice of the speaker and the voice comes from different times, different spaces and even from different genders. Tiresias, the protagonist of the poem is the device used for fusing different times and places and even genders. Tiresias, the bisexual sage cursed for blindness and blessed with sight beyond times and places performs the task of the speaker of the poem. In "The Fire Sermon", he makes his identity and function clear. The speaker says :
I, Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dogs.
Perceived the scene and foretold the rest
I too awaited the expected guest.
He, the young man carbuncular arrives,
A small house agent's clerk with one bold stare,
One of the law on whom assurance sits
As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.
(128–134)
The lines quoted above make it clear that there is a complex intricacy of many distinct voice fused into one identity. The voice vary along times, spaces and genders as well. The interpenetration of sexual identities seek reflection in the lines quoted above. The first person pronoun used in the poem cannot have a definite singular identity, but, quite paradoxically, it becomes a monologue with many voices. In becomes the voice of hyacinth girl when she says : "They called me the hyacinth girl" (L.36). These subtle variation make the real fabric of the poem characterizing the complexity of theme and technique.
Allusions and the use of myth are other very prominent aspect of the poetic technique of Eliot. I.A. Richards justifies the fucntionality of these illusion and takes them to be 'a device for compression' as in the poem is equivalent in context to an epic and in the absence of this device, "twelve books would have been needed". (290–291).
There are two main sources of the poem. Eliot in his notes written after the poem, acknowledges his debt for two main books – Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough and Jessie L. Weston's From Ritual to Romance. The title of the poem has been taken from Ms Weston's book From Rituals to Romance. The land in her book is blighted by the curse of impotence. These corpse do not grow, animals can't reproduce and the king of the land has been rendered impotent. The curse may be eliminated only by the appearance of a knight who would ask the meaning of three symbols and if the three questions are replied well, the land would get rid of the curse of impotence and infertility.
The poem has been divided into the five parts. The first section of the poem is titled "The Burial of the Dead". The second section is titled "The Game of Chess", the third section, "The Fire Sermon", the fourth section is titled, "Death by Water" and the title of the last section is "What the Thunder Said".
It is with this background that we proceed to examine the role of woman in The Waste Land. The discussion will advance section by section that is from "The Burial of the Dead" to "What the Thunder Said".
"The Burial of the Dead" is the first section of Eliot's The Waste Land. This section of the poem details the agony of the speaker at a philosophical level. It seems that the succeeding section illustrate the philosophical expression of the agony causing pain to the poem.
The poem, reminding us of the Preface to Canterbury Tales, begins with a reference to spring. The reference to spring brings into prominence the theme of life in death and death in life.
April is the cruelest month, breeding
Likes out of dead land, mixing
Memory with desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A Little life with dried tubers.
(Ll. 1–7)
The images of weather aptly reveal the thematic complexity of the poem. The woman who first appears in the poem is Marie. It is obvious that Marie echoes the mother figure, but in the context she undergoes complete metamorphosis. George L.K. Morris locates Marie in the autobiography of Countess Marie Larisch – My Past. Morris puts forth a number of facts to justify the parallel. The countess was niece and confident of Austrian Empress Elizabeth who was famous for beauty and 'neurasthenia'. The author also confides that 'she was endowed with a surprising gift for vivid characterization'. (p. 165). Manju Jain, commenting on the allusion, says :

The specific borrowings from the books are of less importance than the picture of contemporary Europe decadence which this passage evokes through Eliot's recollection of his conversations with the Countess and through his use of details from her autobiography.
(p. 153)
Eliot refers to Marie in association with fright, thus, creates the ironic vision which is painted with the grey strokes of desolation and death. Eliot's reference to Wagner's Tristan and Isolde bring into picture the figure of Tristan and Isolde, the main characters of a medieval romance. The reference to these two characters once again brings into prominence the theme of life in death and death in life. Tristan brings Isolde from Ireland to Cornwell, where she is supposed to marry his old uncle. It is through accidental consumption of a magical juice that the two fall in love with each other before Isolde reaches her destination. Tristan is wounded when his love with Isolde ceases to remain a secret. Tristan is wounded on the bank of flowers. He is taken to the care of Brittany. He dies after the arrival of Isolde in her arms.
It is clear that the figure of Isolde bring into prominence the theme of life in death and death in life. The correlation between the Trista and Isolde and the episode of the hyacinth garden are closely associated. Hyacinth is the flower symbolizing resurrection. The reference to hyacinth girl is Eliot's contraption of combining antiquity and contemporaneity. A reference to the words of Sir J. G. Frazer becomes obligatory. He wites :
Hyacinth was the youngest and handsomest son of ancient king Amyclas ... One day playing at quoith with Apollow, he was accidentally killed ... The hyacinth "that sanguine flowers inscribed with woe" – sprang from the block of the topless youth, as anemones and roses from the blood of Adanis and violets from the blood of Athis. Like these vernal flowers, it heralded the advent of another spring and gladdened the hearts of men with the promise of joyful resurrection.
(p. 182–183).
It can be easily inferred that hyacinth girl represents life in death and death in life, the phrase that encapsulates the whole theme of the poem in general. The image also justifies the cruelty of April. The protagonist meets with the promise of a happy resurrection while meeting the hyacinth girl but, being habitual to the "warmth of winter (C.5) he finds himself neither living nor dead" (L.139–40). The confrontation between the speaker of the poem and the hyacinth girl aptly demonstrates the idea.
Madam Sosostris is another very complex metaphor in the poem. She is a "famous clairvoyant" (L. 43) . The first imprint on the mind of the reader makes us realize the pervasion of fear and uncertainty pervading the milieu. The character represents and illustrates the vulgarity of contemporary Europe. The "wisest woman in Europe" (L. 45) draws a sharp ironic contrast with a "wicked pack of cards" (L. 46).
It is another very important observation that many characters prefigure in the cards of Madam Sosostris. The myth of the drowning of Phoenician Sailor is fused with many names with reverberation of contemporaneity. The female character Belladonna is the "Lady of Rocks" (L. 49) and the "Lady of Situations". The appendages associated with Belladonna ratify vulgarity of modern Europe and the decay of Christian values. The Shakespearean line in parenthesis – "those are pearls that were his eyes (L. 48)", imply the reduction of an individual into a depersonized unit and, simultaneously, it also suggests Madam Sosostris becomes instrumental in defining irony if her character is examined in the light of Ms Weston's book, where, as Cleanth Brooks observes, after carefully examining the sources of The Waste Land that in Ms. Weston's book "Tarot-cards were originally used to determine the events of the highest order of the people". He confirms the ironic overtones in the character of Madam Sosostris that she has fallen a long way from the high function of her predecessor" (p. 133). The name of Belladonna also scintillates with paradoxical shades of meaning. The word, in Italian, literally means a beautiful lady while the same word also means a poisonous tree. Eliot fuses the two implications. Women character, that, again becomes a metaphor of cultural disintegration and decay of values and Christianity. Mrs. Equitone is yet another character who sparkles with figurative suggestions. It reverberates with modern suggestion and appears to be a client of Madam Sosostris.
Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
Tell her I bring the horoscope myself.
One must be careful these days.
(L1. 57–59).
The character of Mrs. Equitone, like Belladonna is enriched with ironic suggestions. She seems to be a kind of socialites and a alien of Madame Sosostris.
The last stanza of the poem begins with a reference to a poem by Charles Baudelaires Les Septs Vieillords (The Seven Old Man). The unreal city ceased to be meaningful. The difference between the real and the unreal is the same as that between the living and the dead. The theme of life in death and death in life recurrs when the poet alludes to Dante's Inferno and says : "I had not thought death has undone so many/Sigh's short and infrequent were exhaled (L1. 63–64)". It is a reference to the Limbo where the people are neither cursed nor blessed and lived without praise or blame". Dante comments that these wretches who never were alive (Brooks, 135). It is again obligatory to quote Eliot to confirm his concept of life in death and death in life. He says :
So far as we do evil or good, we are human : and it is better, in a paradoxical way, to do evil than to do nothing : at least we exist (Brooks, 135).
The excerpt–quoted above from the preface to Lancelott Andrews aptly and clearly defines the view of the poet and his concept of life in death and death in life. Eliot acknowledges his debt to Dante in his famous essay "What Dante Means to Me" and writes :
Reader of My Waste Land will perhaps remember that the vision of city clerk trooping over London Bridge from the Railway Station to their offices evoked the reflection - "I had not thought death has undone so many", and that is another place I deliberately modify a line of Dante by altering it - "Sighs short and infrequent were extruded". And it gave the references in my notes in order to make the reader who recognized the allusion, know that I meant him to recognize him.
(p. 128)
Dante, provides essential poetic value to the poem. It is also clear that woman characters play an essential role in illustrating the thematic contents of the poem. The reference to Dante fused with a reference to Baudalaire makes the picture clear before us, and it is the spiritual landscape of Modern Europe. The reference to Dante and Bundalaire is followed by a reference to Frazer's The Golden Bough, the ritual in which the priest used to bury effigies of Osiris made of earth and corn. The sprouting of corn is associated with the body of Osiris.
That corpse you plant if last year in your garden.
Has it begun to sprout ? Will it bloom this year ?
Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed ?
(Ll. 71–73)

The reference to Webster's dirge sung by Cornelia for her son in The White Devil further intensify the milieu of fear and at the same time this reference consolidates the prominence of the theme of life in death and death in life.
O keep the dog for hence that is friend to men
Or with his nails he'll dig it up again.
(Ll. 76)
In the concluding line of this section has been taken from Baudelaire's "Au Lecteur". In this line Baudelaire takes the reader also to be a victim of this spiritual inertia, boredom and inaction. Eliot, in the last line of "The Burial of the Dead" generalizes the implications of poem and identifies the readers with the agony caused by spiritual hollowness and decay of Christian values.
"The Burial of the Dead" generalizes the thematic contents of the poem and presents before us a philosophical interpretation of the contemporary Europe. The poet perceives the whole picture as wrecked and fragmented. The role of women in painting the landscape is of great importance. The women in this section of the poem are delineated with great metaphorical significance, and serve to illustrate the complex theme of the poem.
The second part of the poem highlights the theme of the poem in a more concrete manner. If "The Burial of the Dead" gives the general abstract statement of the situation, says Cleanth Brooks, "the second part of The Waste Land, "A Game of Chess", gives a more concrete illustration" (p. 137). The protagonist explores two different kinds of life in Europe and observes same finding in both the constituent sections of the society.
The title of this section of the poem has been taken from Thomas Middleton's play Women Beware Women. In the play, Bianca, is being seduced by the duke while duke's accomplice Livia keeps Bianca's mother in law busy with the game of chess and confines her attention. It is also remarkable that each and every move of the game is synchronized with the steps taken to seduce Bianca.
The title of this section of the poem and its source and background make it clear that women play a dominant role in the poem and are delineated with great metaphorical significance.
The opening lines of the open offer apparent ironic contrast to the main theme of the poem. The opening lines of the poem are full of romantic passion. The lines owe their genesis to Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, where Enobarbus describe Cleopatra's first meeting with Antony.
The opening lines of "A Game of Chess" portray Cleopatra in modern European spirit. The women is surrounded by the images of cosmetic glory and artificial glow. The protagonist says :
The Chair she sat in like a burnished throne.
Glowed on the marble, where the glass
From which a golden Cupidon peeped out.
(Another lid his eyes behind the wing).
Doubled the flames of seven branched
candelabra.
Reflecting light upon the table as
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it
From solia cases poured in rich profession.
In voils of ivory and coloured glass.
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic
perfumes.
Unguent, powdered, or liquid–troubled confused
And drowned the sense in stirred by the air.
That freshenol from the window, these ascended
In fattening the prolonged candle–flames,
Flung their smoke into the laquearia.
Stirring the pattern on the cattered ceiling.
(Ll. 71–93)
The images around Modern Cleopatra create a milieu of waste and boredom : a kind of inertia being compensated with the help of artificial glory knit around the woman. There is ironic recreation of the milieu of spiritual inertia and void pervading Modern European woman. The contrast that exists between Modern Cleopatra and Shakespearean Cleopatra vibrates with meaning and experience. The woman also reminds us of the principal woman character, The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope. The conventional images undergo a natural and undeniable distortion. The golden cupidon refers to a sculpted god of love and dehumanization of the emotion of love and its transformation into a mechanical act lacking spiritual magnificence. The reference to Virgil's Aeneid reminds us of the Queen of Carthage deserted by Aeneas and, eventually after being deserted, she kills herself on a funeral pyre. Thus, Modern Cleopatra re–enacts the theme of life in death and death in life. Hugh Kenner points out that the Modern Cleopatra 'lacks nerves, forgetting after ten words its confident opening to dissipate itself among glowing and smouldering sensations' (p. 175). The echo of Pope's mock epic reveal the advancement of the idea along the movement of time.
The philomel myth brings another woman character into picture who shared agony and identity with Modern Cleopatra. Eliot's notes refers to Ovid's Metamorphosis, in which the king of Thrace–Terenis, rapes Philomel, the sister of his wife Proche. The king, in order to hide the news from his wife cuts the tongue of the victim so that she may not disclose the act to her sister. However, she disclosed by weaving some words on a garment. Philomel was later, metamorphosed into a nightingale.
And still she cried and still the world pursues.
Jug Jug to dirty ears.
And other withered stumps of time.
Were hold upon the wall : staring forms
Leaned and leaning hushing the room enclosed.
(Ll. 102–106).
In these lines, Eliot contrives parallel between the past and the present and simultaneously he also identifies Modern Cleopatra with Philomel. There are implied allusions to Cordelia and Ophelia – the Shakespearean heroines of Hamlet and King Lear.

It is thus clear that modern woman draws a sharp ironic contrast with Cordelia and Ophelia. It is again remarkable that both these Shakespearean heroines embody strong emotional exuberance, whereas the woman in the opening lines of "A Game of Chess" is reduced to a deharmonized mechanical identity, as against the emotional magnificence of the two Shakespearean heroines. She offers a sharp ironic contrast to the Modern Cleopatra. The Philomel myth, in a brilliant complimentation with allusions to Ophelia and Cordelia intensify the ironic contrast between life and death. The sharp ironic overtones are further intensified by simultaneous occurrence of the past and present.
The last few lines of this section confide the pervasion of psychosis, neurosis and other similar disorders characterizing spiritual inertia and life of inaction which makes the agony of the poet :
And other withered stamps of time
Well told upon the walls; staring to forms.
Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.
Foot–steps shuffled on the stair.
Under the fire light, under the brush, her hair.
Spread out in fiery points
Glowed into words, than would be savegely still.
The first part of "A Game of Chess" deals with the upper section of social stratification, whereas, the second section of the poem deals quite exclusively with the lower section of the social order. The pervasion of neurosis, psychosis and such disorders unify the two sections of the society in to one singular perception of defining significance.
My nerves are bad tonight. Yes bad, Stay with me.
Speak to me, Why do you never speak ? Speak.
What are you thinking of ? What thinking ? What ?
I never know what you are thinking. think.
(Ll. 111–114).
The lines quoted above, are echo of feminine reverberation. They illustrate cultural disintegration and consequent disorder owes its origin to feminine psyche. They also illustrate the spiritual and ritual disentanglement between the two sexes and pervasion of mechanical bond replacing the emotion of love. 'The effect is of', says David Craig, "landing up with final disenchantment face to face with the unpleasant reality of life today (202). The milieu of neurosis is further extended to the re–enact the repeated theme of life in death and death in life, amidst the mass of spiritual waste. The recreation of the Shakespearean line – "Those are pearls that were his eyes" (L. 125) brings forth the re–echo of the theme of life in death and death in life which is further ratified by the fear of death in the succeeding lines :
Are you alive or not ? Is there nothing in your
head ?
(L. 126)
The irony is manifest at its best when the game of chess in Middleton's Women Beware Women is juxtaposed with the same game played by Ferdinand and Miranda in Shakespeare's The Tempest, where, it symbolizes love and harmony.
The reference to Shakespearean Rag "written by Buck, Ruby and Stampar for 1912 Ziegfeted Follies, accounts for the expansion of thematic contents of the poem to the U.S.A as it seems Eliot might have heard the lyric in Harvard. Eric Sigg opines that Eliot might have called The Waste Land "a kind of rag, a rhythmical weaving of literary and musical scraps from many hands into a single composition" (p. 21). The reverberations of the agony of disintegration sterity and spiritual vacuum is further heard again in the feminine voice.
What shall I do now ? What shall I do ?
I shall rush out as Jam, and walk the street
With my hair down, so, what shall we do
tomorrow ?
What shall we ever do ?
(Ll. 131–138)
The reference to Women Beware Women is recreated with new vitality. The speaker of the poem – Tiresias, identifies himself with one of the chess players of Middleton's paly – Livia and Bianca's mother in law and "waits for a knock upon the door" (L. 138). The metaphor owes its origin to Middleton's play Women Beware Women. It is evident that Eliot delineates his female characters with high metaphorical significance.
Life of inaction and life in death and death in life is further checked when Eliot introduces another female character Lil. She represents lower section of the society and offers a sharp contrast to Modern Cleopatra, the women in pub. Fear and frustration, illustrating psychic disorders of modern world again play a pivotal role in the characterisation. She is afraid to get herself "some teeth" (L. 143) or Albert "is coming" and she has to 'make' herself 'a bit smart' (L. 142). The fear of Lil clearly illustrates the nature of relationship between the two characters.
He's been in army for four years, he wants good
time.
And if you don't give it him, there's others will I
sure.
(Ll. 148–149)
It is clear that having good time is the only function of human relation. F. O. Matthisson views capture attention. "Sexual indulgences", he says, 'which lose sight of any higher relationship'. He points out the reduction of human relation to the 'level of beasts' (p. 92). 'Pills' used to 'bring it off' (L. 163) further distances sex with its primordial ritualistic function. The beasteal aspect of sex is further confirmed when Lil asks : What you get married for, if you don't want children ? (L. 165). The last lines of the poem perform a complex function perpetuating the implications inherent to the poem :
Goodnight Bill, Goodnight for Goodnight May
goodnight.
Tata Goodnight, Goodnight.
Goodnight ladies, goodnight sweet ladies,
goodnight, goodnight.
(L1. 170–172).
The reference to Ophelia's song heightens the irony. It also offers a sharp contrast to the working class milieu of Albert and Lil and at the same time there is implied reference to the Modern Cleopatra as well. Thus, there is a repeated enactment of the theme of life in death and death in life.
The second section of The Waste Land, "A Game of Chess", illustrates the pervasion of the latent experience and meaning of the poem across every corner of the society. The vacuum, hollowness and sterility pervades every corner of the society. There is spiritual sterility in the first part of this section when reader confronts a women delineated with the riches of Shakespearean Cleopatra. The other section of European society – the working class, also suffers the same agony of death in life.
"The Fire Sermon", the third section of The Waste Land deals chiefly with the theme of purgation. The title of this section has been taken from the Buddhist philosophy. It is a reference to the sermon preached by Buddha against vulgar passions having conformity to seven deadly sins. However, there is fusion of Buddhist and Christian point of view. The irony created by the fusion of two different points of view is the point of principal importance. In The Waste Land fire is delineated with paradoxical shades of last and purgation. One of the earliest sermons of Buddha can be read as follows :
O Priest, all is burning ? What is burning, the eye is burning the rupa is burning, the eye object consciouness is burning, the eye object impression is burning, and sensations of joy, sorrow, no joy no sorrow produced by eye object relation are all burning.
(p. 32).
The passage from the sermon preached by Buddha accounts for the real poetic value to this section of the poem. It is, however, undeniable that Christian point of view regarding purgatorial function fire simultaneously contributes to the meaning and experience of the poem.
The poem opens with a landscape symbolizing shelter in summer. Eliot fuses symbols and allusion to illustrate the picture. There is a reference to Spencer's Elizabethian nymphs with reminiscence of Shakespeare's Ophelia to intensify the ironic contrast between Elizabethan's love, modern concept of love which is in vogue.
Sweet Thames run softly till I end my song.
The river bears no empty bottles sandwitch
papers.
Silk handkerchiefs, coral board boxes, cigarette
ends.
Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs
are departed.
(Ll. 176–179)
There is recreation of Philomel image in modern context. When the speaker, identifying himself with some female soul, says : By the heaters of Leman, I sat down and wept (L. 182).
A reference to Mrs. Porter clay and Sweeny recolours the milieu with vulgar sexuality and ratifies the status of Mrs. Porter as a metaphor. There is poignant irony born of the fusion of the romantic symbol of 'the moon' that shine bright on Mrs. Porter and on her daughter (L1. 199–200). The irony, defined through Mrs. Porter and her daughter acquires culmination which 'they wash their feet in soda water' (L. 201). The final image of Philomel without tongue culminates the function of irony defined through the female characters.
Twit twit twit
Jug, jug, jug, jug, jug, jug
So rudely forc'd
Tereu
(L1. 203–208).
The last line quoted above 'Tereu' is the vocative form of Tereu. It confirms the repetition of the myth recreated earlier in the second part of the poem. The speaker of the poem makes his identity clear and says :
I Tiresias, though blind throbbing between two
lives,
Old man with wrinkled female breasts can see
At the violet hour, the evening here that strives
Home ward and, brings the sailor home from sea.
(228–231)
Tiresias, the speaker of the poem introduces the typist. She is delineated with the action symbolizing death. She is delineated with waste and worthlessness. It is the association of the typist with the worthless and inertia that makes her a great metaphor of cultural disintegration endured by the contemporary Europe. The relationship between the typist and the well "awaited guest" is aptly metaphorical to the real picture of England and Europe after the first World war.
I too awaited expected guest
He, the young man carbancular arrives,
A small house agent's clerk, with one bold stare
One of the law on whom assurance sits
As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.
(Ll. 230–234).
The relation between the clerk and the man with unspecified identity, is based on lust and sexual need, lacking any ritual or spiritual support.
She turns and looks a moment in the glass.
Hardly aware of her departed lover :
Her brain allows one half framed thought to pass :
Well now that is done : and I am glad its over.
(Ll. 249–252)
It is clear from the lines quoted above sex is manifest only at physical level. The succeeding lines further confirm the idea :
When lovely woman stoops to folly and
Paces about her poem again alone,
She smooths her hair with automatic hand
And puts a record on the gramophone.
(Ll. 253–256)
It is indisputable that the typist is one of the most important female characters of The Waste Land. It is also clear that her importance rests chiefly in the metaphorical values that determine her place in the poem.
The delineation of beauty draws sharp ironic contrast to our scrutiny. The beauty of the landscape draws a sharp and scintillating contrast to the background of spiritual hollowness.
Elizabeth and Leicester
Beating oars
The stern was formed
A gilded shell
Red and gold
The brisk swell
Rippled both snores
South–west wind
Carried down stream
The peal of bells
White towers
(Ll. 279–289)
The landscape given above has to represent Elizabeth and Leicester but in the light of the background of spiritual hollowness, the beauty seem ironical. Matthissen rightly points out that the 'mention of Elizabeth and Leicester brings an allusion of glamour', but he further says that on close scruitny it is revealed that 'the state presence of their relationship left is essentially as empty as that between the typist and the clerk' (p. 113). Matthiessen's remark aptly justifies the centrality of the female character – the typist and also the metaphorical contents inherent in the poem. The lines recall Enobarbus's description of Cleopatra and consequently brings into picture the ironic contrast between Shakespearean metaphor of love and its modern twentieth century counterpart. There is, in a oblique manner, identification of the typist and modern Cleopatra. Eliot's notes about the lines quoted above (Ll. 266–306) bring into prominence the three Thames daughters, taken from the works of Wagner's opera. The Thames daughters in The Waste Land offers a sharp contrast to their original identity and, at the same time, they also offer a sharp and scintillating contrast to Spencer's "Daughters of the Flood". The myth is coloured into modern sensibility by inclusion of 'trams and dirty streets' (L. 292) and references "Moorgate" (L. 292) and to Margate Sands (L. 300) complete the parallel between Modernity and antiquity and culminate the function of myth in the poem.
Women in this section of the poem finally perform the most significant function of culminating the ironic overtones in the reference to Buddhist philosophy. The interplay of the meanings inherent in the reference to fire and burning acquires new scintillation determined by the experience.
Burning burning burning burning
O Lord Thou pluckest me out
O Lord Thou pluckest burning
(Ll. 308–311)
The women characters play dominant role in fusing Buddhist point of view with Christian view of purgation. The simultaneous application of the two concepts of fire account for the actual perception of the meaning and experience inherent in the poem.
The fourth section of the poem "Death by Water" assimilates all the previous associations of life and water. The irony is manifest at the level of symbolic manifestation of water. The life giving element of the planet becomes the cause of death :
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell.
He passed the stages of his age and youth.
Entering and whirlpool
(315–318)
It is the only section of the poem which does not have a direct reference to any woman character. It is knit around the myth of Phlebas the Pheonician and the symbol of water.
The fifth section of the poem "What the Thunder Said" is about the paradisiacal possibilities that the speaker foresees on the crowd of waste. In the opening stanza, the speaker of the poem reiterates his adherence to the theme of life in death and death in life :
He who was living is now dead.
We who were living are now dying.
With a little patience.
(Ll. 328–330).
The search for the Holy Grail draws a close metaphorical parallel with the life in Europe as the men undertaking journey to Emmaus find "no water but only rocks (L. 335)". The fusion of a reference to Robert Shackleton's trip to Antarctica fairly inkles the presence of Divinity in the barren land. Though it is eclipsed by skepticism, the speaker apprehends the presence of 'the third who walks always beside' the other person undertaking the same journey (L. 359). However, he does not 'know whether a man or woman' (L. 364). The woman who makes a sudden appearance amidst "falling tower" (373), reminds us of the hysteria of Lil of "A Game of Chess". She 'drew her long black hair out tight' (L. 377). The emergence of the woman is full of surrealist intensity. The most pronounced image of the woman in this section occurs when the speaker elaborates the parameter of sacrifice, laid down in Brihdaranyak Upnishad.
Da
Datta : What have we given ?
My friends, blood shaking my heart.
The awful daring of a moment's surrender which an age of prudence world never retract.
By this and this only we have existed.
(400–405).
The lines quoted above firmly establish Eliot's sensitive attitude towards the metaphorical worth of a woman in his poetry.
It is clear from a detailed appreciation of The Waste Land that the theme of cultural disintegration has been enacted very successfully chiefly through women. It is also a reply to the common feminist view that Eliot is a misogenist or a women hater. A critical analysis of Eliot's poetry acquaints us with the fact that he was highly sensitive to metaphorical worth of women and in his poetry and specially in The Waste Land delineates them with great metaphorical implications.


Works Cited
Brooks, Cleanth. "The Waste Land : Critique of the Myth". The Waste Land - A Casebook, ed. C. B. Fox and Arnold, P. Hinchliffe. London : Macmillan, 1975, 128–161.
Craig David. "The Defeatism of The Waste Land". The Waste Land - A Casebook, ed. C. B. Fox and Arnold, P. Hinchliffe. London : Macmillan, 1975, 200–215.
Eliot, T.S. "What Dante Means to Me". To Criticize a Critic. London : Faber and Faber, 1978.
Frazer, Sir James George. The New Golden Bough. New York : Doubleday, 1941.
Jain, Manju. Selected Poems and A Critical Reading of the Selected Poems of T. S. Eliot. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 1992.
Kenner, Hugh. The Invisible Poet. London : W. H. Allen, 1960.
Lubbock, Percy. The Craft of Fiction. London : Jonathan Cape, 1965.
Moody, A. D. Thomas Stern Eliot : Poet. London : Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Richards, J.A. Principles of Literary Criticism. London : Routledge, 1978.
Sigg Eric. "Eliot as a Product of America". Thomas Stern Eliot : Poet. London : Cambridge University Press, 1980, 14–30.
Warren Henry Clark. Buddhism in Translation. London : Cambridge University Press, 1953.

Climax of My Short Story- The Toss

Rahul took out the lucky coin from the valet and remembered the previous judgments delivered by it. He played with it without grudges and grievances. ‘I know you won’t tell me a lie.’ He spoke to the lucky coin and smiled. ‘Head for tearing it into pieces and tail for gifting it to Moly.’ He decided. He set the coin on the knot of the thumb and the index finger, flung it up without curiousity or desire. The coin flew high above his head. It went across many images that now had been reduced to simple objects. It flew across the translucent watery vapours rising above the painted bank of the river on the oil sheet; it flew above the thick water blued by a dead brush without making an elliptical shadow on the pigmented surface; it cut across the curious spaces between the dolphin and the ball without disturbing the attention of the metaphors but no longer living ones; it went past the thick folds of the skirt of the elf on the swing without disturbing the carefully manipulated numbers; it went past the thin layers of the wings on the delicate shoulders of the elf without tearing it into three or four or five. It flew higher and went above the head of the painter and touched the peak. It left behind the altitude of the setting sun and went above to defeat the crescent moon. It struggled a bit hard to surpass the height of the sliced moon on the oil sheet and reached the peak. It was still in indecision for a second, like the painter’s heart that forgot to beat and took a new course of action with great promptitude, unlike the painter’s heart. It began to come down but through a different medium. It was a fall; a fall from one world to another; from existence to death. It came spiraling down the violent melody of the rebellious falls with retarded velocity of a defeated soldier. It came past the seductive whispering behind the rocks of the Angel’s Resort. It was a fall; a fall from one world into the other. The coin, the lucky coin, swam down the basketball ground leaving behind the impatient dolphin hopping curiously for a glimpse of the tireless player. It cut across the curious space between the dolphin and the player without disturbing the attention of the metaphors that were no longer painted ones now. It spared the watery flames on the painted surface that marked the origin of the sedative whisperings and made its way down to the wooden surface of the table. The coin, the lucky coin reached the surface with an alarming noise and Rahul covered the revelation with his right palm. It was not a brown patch of the Burnt Umber and Yellow Ochre with occasional green, but a rough palm of the painter. Rahul looked at his own palm and smiled; he looked at his masterpiece and smiled. He remembered Moly, he also remembered Gaurav and Toyota Qualis and smiled. He thought about the result.
‘What will it tell me?’ He mused upon the possibilities.
‘Will the masterpiece survive?’ He questioned himself again.
‘Can I dare remove the palm?’ There was a new birth in his mind.
Rahul drew his palm along rough surface of the table and meticulously tied his fist so as to avoid a look on the verdict of the coin, the lucky coin and kept it carefully into the valet.