English Notes Latest Questions

In:
  1. Athar
    Best Answer
    Athar

    There are many images used by the poet A.K. Ramanujan in the poem Obituary: dust on a table of papers: means nothing. named by a toss of coin by him: i.e. the name of young was somewhat similar to poet's father. being the burning type: it means that his father was bad-tempered. eye coins: means thatRead more

    There are many images used by the poet A.K. Ramanujan in the poem Obituary:

    1. dust on a table of papers: means nothing.
    2. named by a toss of coin by him: i.e. the name of young was somewhat similar to poet’s father.
    3. being the burning type: it means that his father was bad-tempered.
    4. eye coins: means that his eyes were greedy.
    5. changed mother: in Brahmin Society, a widow has to live a painful life as she has no value after the death of her husband.

    Read summary of this poem

    See less
    • 8
In:
  1. Parashuram Kichcha
    Parashuram Kichcha

    Poet's mum loves her champak trees. Since she can remember, they've given family women flower baskets to offer to their Gods. Her daughters trimmed down the flowers because the aroma gave her migraines. When the mother hears this, she complains passionately about her children. Unknowingly, the poet'Read more

    Poet’s mum loves her champak trees. Since she can remember, they’ve given family women flower baskets to offer to their Gods. Her daughters trimmed down the flowers because the aroma gave her migraines. When the mother hears this, she complains passionately about her children. Unknowingly, the poet’s mother becomes a passionate advocate for nature and trees via her love of trees. The poet portrays the educated contemporary man who neglects nature.
    Ramanujan loves his mother. The Red Champak tree’s blossoms gave his mother a headache. The breeze and his dwelling can’t protect her from flower pollen. He prunes the tree.

    Mom stops him. She sees the tree’s upside. The tree represents her age, she explains. It provides flowers for worshipping Gods and decorating girls. Bird droppings germinate it. Good omen. It may cause headaches. The poem demonstrates the poet’s family focus. His mother loves the tree. So she won’t let him cut the tree.

    See less
    • 3
In:
  1. Athar
    Athar

    A.K. Ramanujan was born in India and later on went to USA and married a Syrian Christian girl. Hence after coming back to home, he started to see the society with a different perspective. He calls his father greedy and emotionless though he made other believe that he has special powers (as he was aRead more

    A.K. Ramanujan was born in India and later on went to USA and married a Syrian Christian girl. Hence after coming back to home, he started to see the society with a different perspective. He calls his father greedy and emotionless though he made other believe that he has special powers (as he was a Brahmin).

    The poet also seems to be disappointed with the patriarchal nature of the society because after the death of his father, the burden of family was laid on him. He had to feed an old mother, an unmarried sister and a young child.

    After the funeral, the body is cremated. The poet believes that it pollutes the air. The priest suggests to throw remains in the water which again disappoints the poet because it pollutes the water bodies.

    And finally he does not like the practice of celebrating the death anniversary of his father for the peace of soul. He considers it as a waste of money and time.

    Read summary of this poem

    See less
    • 5
In:
  1. Athar
    Athar

    The poet describes some customs and traditions of Indian society and particularly of Brahmins. First, he talks about the problems of patriarchy. After the untimely death of his father, the whole burden of his family came on him including depts of his father. Next, he explains how Brahmins consider tRead more

    The poet describes some customs and traditions of Indian society and particularly of Brahmins. First, he talks about the problems of patriarchy. After the untimely death of his father, the whole burden of his family came on him including depts of his father.

    Next, he explains how Brahmins consider themselves as the holders of divine knowledge. However in reality they are like any ordinary human. He says so because his father died of a heart attack in market.

    Finally he also talks about the after funeral practices. The body is cremated (which pollutes air), remains are thrown in water (which pollutes water bodies) and the poet is supposed to celebrate death anniversary every year (which includes useless expenditure of money).

    Read summary of this poem.

    See less
    • 14
In:
  1. Deepak Mohapatra
    Best Answer
    Deepak Mohapatra
    This answer was edited.

    In the poem Ecology, the author returns home enraged because his mother has a terrible attack of migraine, a severe type of headache that frequently induces vomiting and is triggered by the aroma of the pollen of the Red Champak flower when it is in bloom. Ecology Poem Summary

    In the poem Ecology, the author returns home enraged because his mother has a terrible attack of migraine, a severe type of headache that frequently induces vomiting and is triggered by the aroma of the pollen of the Red Champak flower when it is in bloom.

    Ecology Poem Summary

    See less
    • 4
In:
  1. Athar
    Athar

    In the poem, Obituary, the poet seems to be disappointed by the death of his father. After living in USA and marrying a Syrian girl, his way of thinking changed drastically. For him, his father who is a Brahmin and is considered as divine, is just a normal human being who died of heart attack in theRead more

    In the poem, Obituary, the poet seems to be disappointed by the death of his father. After living in USA and marrying a Syrian girl, his way of thinking changed drastically. For him, his father who is a Brahmin and is considered as divine, is just a normal human being who died of heart attack in the market.

    After his death, the poet feels that the burden of whole family is on him as in Patriarchal society, women are not allowed to work. There is an old mother, an unmarried sister, a young child a lot of debt left by his father. Hence, the poet is very disappointed by his death.

    Read summary of this poem.

    See less
    • 4
In:
  1. Athar
    Best Answer
    Athar

    The Clay Mother-in-law is a folk tale famous in Tamil Nadu . This tale was translated into English by A.K. Ramanujan. This is a story of a submissive and loyal woman who used to consult her mother-in-law for all types of household tasks. Her mother-in-law was quite old and finally died one day. NowRead more

    The Clay Mother-in-law is a folk tale famous in Tamil Nadu . This tale was translated into English by A.K. Ramanujan. This is a story of a submissive and loyal woman who used to consult her mother-in-law for all types of household tasks.

    Her mother-in-law was quite old and finally died one day. Now the woman had no one to give instructions. She started asking silly questions about the measurement of amount of rice she would cook to her husband.

    Her husband could not bear her silly questions. Hence he made a clay statue of his mother for his wife. However she took open fingers of the clay statue as measure and started cooking more food. This made the rice bag get empty quickly which enraged her husband. Being furious, he threw his wife and the statue out of his home.

    Having nowhere to go, the sorrowful and hopeless wife went to forest. When it grew dark she was frightened and hence climbed a tree with the statue. Under the tree, some thieves came to take rest along with a big loot. She mistook them to be devils and being scared, the statue slipped off her hands and fell on the thieves. The thieves got frightened and ran away leaving the looted money.

    She remain on the tree till next morning and found the loot. She went back to home. Initially her husband scolded her for returning back. However when she told him about the loot, both of them went to the forest. They collected all the money and things and returned back to home happily.

    At home, her husband asked her to bring a big vessel from the neighbours for measurement and also warned her not to tell anybody about the loot. Wife agreed and went to her neighbour’s house. However the latter became suspicious and pasted tamarind gel in the bottom of the vessel to know what exactly are the going to measure.

    The wife came back to home with the vessel. After measuring the loot, she gave back it to the neighbours. However a rare gem got stuck to the bottom of the vessel. Hence the neighbours compelled the lady to tell everything and the latter narrated the whole story.

    Hearing the story, the neighbours made plan to do the same. Neighbour’s husband made a sculpture and asked his wife to go to the same place and do the same. When the thieves came, neighbour husband’s wife threw the sculpture on them. This time, the thieves did fear but they hid themselves behind the tree to find out who has done this.

    Assuming that the thieves have run away, neighbour husband’s wife come down and was caught. She was beaten and tied to the tree. The next morning, neighbour husband went to forest to collect the loot. However, on contrary he found his wounded wife and no loot at all.

    The story ends.

    See less
    • 9