AN
INTRODUCTION || INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH || KAMALA DAS
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR OF “AN INTRODUCTION”:
Kamala Das
also known as Kamala Suraiyya was an Indian author and leading Malayalam
author. She was born on 31 March, 1934 in Kerala. She was born in India when
there was British. She grew up in Calcutta. She always stood up and speak
against domestic violence, marital problems, sexual oppression and about
prostitute in more than 20 books. Her famous works are Padmavati the
Harlot, My story, A Doll for Child
Prostitute. She was rewarded with many awards like Vayalar Award,
Varkey Award, Kerela Sahitya Akademi Award for Story, Muttathu Varkey Award
and more. She died on 31 May, 2009 in Pune, Maharashtra.
SUMMARY OF “AN INTRODUCTION”:
In the
beginning of the poem “An Introduction” the poet says that she is not
interested in politics but she claims that she can name all the politician who
have been in power right from the time of Nehru. By stating that she can repeat
them as assuredly as days of week, or name of month. She secondarily states the
fact that politics in the country is a game of few chosen privileged who paradoxically
rule a democracy. And same people have been in power time and again.
She says that she is an Indian, born in
Malabar and she is very brown in colour. She speaks three languages, two for
writing and one for dreaming. People asked her not to write in English since
it’s not her mother tongue. English was colonial language dominant as medium of
communication during British time. She had encountered many criticisms in her
life from critic, friends and relatives.
She asks
that why she can’t speak any language she likes it’s her choice to chose any
language. She highlights that the language she speaks becomes her own, all the
imperfections and queerness become her own. The language which she uses is
half-English and half-Hindi which seems funny but the point is that it’s honest
and the imperfection makes it more human, portrait it close to what is call
Natural. The language expresses her joys, grief and hopes. For her it’s like
cawing is to crows and roaring is to lion i.e. is an integral part of her
expression.
She further
says that her speech is the speech of humans that minds can understand and not
strange and queer like the sounds of trees in the storms or of monsoon clouds
or of rain or of dead as these voices cannot be understood.
She moves on
telling her own story, she was a child and later people told her that she is
now a grown up as her body had started showing signs of puberty. But she didn’t
understand as her heart and mind was still of a child. When she asked for love
from her husband not knowing what to ask, he took the sixteen-year-old girl to his bedroom. Here is a strong criticism of
child marriage. She says that she was not beaten by him yet her womanly body
felt body felt to be beaten and wound thus she got tired of her body. He
genitals seemed to her as some burden that has crushed her. She started hating
her female body because it is her body that given her so much of pain. Thus she
tries to overcome such humiliation by being tomboyish.
At the end
of the poem, the poet describes her encounters with a man. She does not take
names for it is the symbolism in her relationship that she seeks to convey.
Hence like him, she can also attribute the title of ‘I’ to herself. Like
men she is also sinner and saint, beloved and betrayed. Her joys and pains are
no different than those of men. Hence she liberates herself to the level of ‘I’.
Thus “she” is “I” too.
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