See also Madhavikutty Kamala Suraiyya (born Kamala; 31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009), also known by her one-time pen name Madhavikutty and Kamala Das, was an Indian English poet and littérateur and at the same time a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. The poem is a strong remark on Patriarchal Society prevalent today and brings to light the miseries, bondage, pain suffered by the fairer sex in such times. Poetess says it’s better to call her Amy, Kamala or still be Madhavikutty. The poem is a strong remark on Patriarchal Society prevalent today and brings to light the miseries, bondage, pain suffered by the fairer sex in such times. [amazon_link asins=’8172238975,0143421042,0143068350′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’getproduct0d-21′ marketplace=’IN’ link_id=’923b23da-c7a5-11e7-9295-ff80cd347fff’]. These include fitting in and dressing in “saris.” The “categorizers” might tell her not to, […] peep in through our lace-draped windows. He’s every other man who wants a woman, like the embodiment of the hungry rush of the river, while she’s every other woman, the embodiment of patience like the tireless waiting of the ocean. symbolism inherent in purdah also finds its subtlety and simplicity in alien cultural setting. The poem is written in vers libre or free verse. She introduces this section by stating that she only felt older as she grew because she was told of her own physical changes. She wore her brother’s trousers and a shirt and cut her long hair short. She rather prefers a national identity. If you liked "An Introduction poem by Kamala Das" page. This was not all; the narrator is further instructed: “Don’t cry embarrassingly loud when/jilted in love”. It is not her “mother-tongue.” Whenever she is criticized for how she speaks and writes she feels as if she is alone. All that makes it more human is its imperfections, making it similar to what we term normal. By being tomboyish, she attempts to overcome such embarrassment. An Introduction is very strongly confessional and may be one of the most confessional poems by Kamala Das. It reveals the pathos of the female speaker who is deprived of her individuality and freedom by her lustful husband and dehumanized her beyond limits. She chose to move her life beyond the traditional and therefore expand her presence in the world. We all are a balance of both. ”. A bilingual writer, her works in English and Malayalam include ‘Summer in Calcutta’ (1965), ‘The Descendants’ (1967), ‘The old Playhouse and Other Poems’ (1973), ‘My Story’ (1974), an autobiography. In the next thirteen lines, the speaker goes on to describe herself as “half English, half Indian.” She sees the humour in this combination and acknowledges that fact as it is “honest.” This seems to be one of the most important parts of her, a desire for authenticity and honesty. This ended with her marriage at sixteen and the closing of a bedroom door. Learn how your comment data is processed. As river rushes towards oceans for union with the latter, so the lover moves towards the beloved for the fulfilment of his sexual desires. Kamala Das again goes deep exploring her private experience being a wife in her early age, she got a husband in her early age. SUMMARY. Shout questions, submit your articles, get study notes and smart learning tips and much more...! She goes on to describe a time in which she met and loved a man. I too call myself I. What is so special about the statement “I too call myself I”? I too call myself I”. ‘The hungry haste /of rivers and the ocean’s tireless/waiting’ represent the psychological states of men and women respectively. “I am sinner, I am saint, I am the beloved and the betrayed”. Amy, or be Kamala. In “An Introduction” we see the use of ellipsis in – “Then …. It’s clear that Kamala Das had no happiness in her married life. ‘An Introduction’ by Kamala Das was published in her first collection, Summary in Calcutta in 1965. Her images are drawn from the familiar and the common place, are symbolic and thus they increase the expressive range of her language. The poem is remarkable for its compression and for the compactness of its structure even though it contains a diversity of facts and circumstances. Poetry, English Poetry, Kamala, Kamala Das, contribution . They are critics “Everyone.”She directs the next line at this group, asking them why they care what she speaks. What is the significance of the word ‘for’in the beginning of the last stanza? Being a poetess Kamala Das is successful in portraying her private zone of her life, such as love, marriage, sex kids etc., even the sexual encounters too. Human speech is to humans as roaring is to lions. Then she asked for love, and what she got was a husband who performed the sexual act with her in the crudest possible manner. I would have been a happy human being.” Kamala Das begins by self-assertion: I am what I am. Hailing from an illustrious family which has a cultural background, her poetic style has a freshness and vigour seldom displayed by any other Indo-Anglian poet. I place on record here that the list that I have compiled is based on the compilation done by P.P.Raveendran, in the poetry collection Best of Kamala Das (1991).In this collection he undertakes a decade wise listing of her poems. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. “I met a man, loved him. The poem An Introduction by Kamala Das portraits her own life experiences. Nor does it echo the “funeral pyre’s incoherent mutterings.” Rather, it has its own intrinsic natural coherence. In this poem, the question of whether or not Indians should write in English is put to rest. An Introduction” is Kamala Das’s most famous poem in the confessional mode. Womeness is not just sitting in the four walls of a room, “Amy, or be Kamala. She has employed functional imagery rather than decorative.Ezra pound remarks: ―An image is one which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time‖ (qtd. The rules of punctuation have been fully observed. 3. Comment maximum in 50 words.Answer: Most of Kamala Das’s poems are autobiographical in tone. At one point, at the height of her emotions, she asks the “man” who he is. Coming to Kamal Das,“An Introduction” is itself a polyphonic text with several of the poet’s voices seeking articulation in a single verbal construct. When the poem comes to it’s end the egoistic “I” slowly migrates to poetess, she also starts calling herself “I”. It is often suggestive that the Brooke often represents pearl. The poet then ends by saying that this “I” should not be different from “her,” and so I am both the sinner and the saint, both the betrayer and the betrayed, as well as the man and the woman. Despite the request from her friends and family poetess says that, lion roars, cawing is to crows, and likewise Kamala Das use her own style of language that can express her longings, hopes and joys, thus it is useful to her. The sun and heat, house and window, cremation and burning, objects of nature, human anatomy, sleep, sea, the mythic grandmother and krishana constitute her whole range of … Each and every line of the poem is a capsule, zipped to comprise all her sadness and strong objection to the patriarchal society. Women are not the self-sacrficial model of virtue or promiscuity. With wild abandon she 'eats' them and consumes them until they become a part of her. The hitherto premises of male hegemony are violently shaken by Kamala Das who can defy the conventional ideological discourse of sexism and love. A few of her stories, originally in Malayalam language, published in ‘Modern Indian Short Stories : An anthology’ (1974). Eventually, a reader comes to understand that she is trying to come to terms with her own independence and identity as both “saint” and “sinner.”, She is trapped between her own need for a free life and the world which tries to keep her contained. Talking about the English language the narrator says, “It is as useful to me as cawing is to crows or roaring to the lions…” What is the literary device used in this line?Answer: The literary device used in this line is a simile. She stresses that all the imperfections and queerness is her own, the vocabulary she speaks becomes her own. He calls himself “I” – Kamala Das felt ashamed of this domination over her. 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