Migrations - Migration Notes PDF

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Migration Notes...

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About the Poet: Keki Daruwalla is a leading figure in Indian poetry in English today. Keki Nasserwanji Daruwalla was born in 1937 in Lahore in undivided India. He was a former Indian Police Officer. He was awarded Sahithya Academy Award and Padma Shri Award and he also won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Asia. He moved to Junagarh (Gujarat) in 1945 and then to Rampur in India (Uttar Pradesh). He did his MA in Literature in Ludhiana (Punjab) and spent a year at Oxford as a Queen Elizabeth House Fellow. His work as a police officer gave him opportunities to work in different parts of the country and he was widely travelled and experienced. Nissim Ezekiel applauded his work as “impressive evidence not only of mature poetic talent but of literary stamina, intellectual strength and social awareness”. His writings are characterized by strong distinguishing characteristics: an ironic stance, an evocation of the multi-layered contradictory realities of Indian life, a preoccupation with diverse cultural, historic and mythic landscapes, a terse, vigorous and tensile style, supple imagism, sustained narrative drive, an ability to segue between metrical patterns and free verse, and a capacity to combine an epic canvas with a miniaturist’s eye for detail. He presented the harsh realities of life as the substance of his poetry and draws heavy inspiration from personal experience

About the Poem: Keki Daruwala, as a government servant (IPS) through his nostalgia talks about the difficulties and realities that the migration brings in the life of an individual as well as in the history of a nation. Daruwala gathers all the events in his mind while talking about the metaphysical concept, migration. According to him, the migrants have to tolerate many things such as new circumstance, new culture, etc. He also uses the mother as well as grandmother image to describe the role of time played in his psyche.

Themes in the poem: • • • • • •

Pain and loss due to migration Causes, process and effects of Migration – a large part of any country’s history Nostalgia for places and past Alienation with reference to place and time Physical and emotional distance with respect to time and place Alienation in relationships

Summary: Stanza 1: Migrations are painful and difficult. The reasons for migrations include natural calamities like drought, disease like plague and even political reasons like India Pakistan partition in 1947. Whatever might be the reasons, the events which caused migrations to happen was painful and the whole process of migration was also painful. He says if the readers doubt him, they refer to any of the historical books (chronicles) and they will contain large descriptions if migrations that have happened down the centuries. The poet says the history books are voluminous as they contain detailed narrations of migrations. He even says if the migrations had not happened, we will not have enough history to read about or interesting things to discuss about in history. Stanza 2: The poet says travelling back in time and to places from where people had migrated is also difficult because things would have changed a lot in those places and going back there and trying to recall the past times will bring only pain and suffering and not happiness. The poet says when we ask anyone who has travelled back to their places about their experiences, they will speak with pain and say that they found strangers in the places and buildings which belonged to them long back. The migrants cannot call those places and the houses their own because it belongs to somebody else now. Though the new people try to understand the feelings of these migrants and try to be polite, empathetic and respecting their sentiments and tell them to feel at home, the migrants do not feel comfortable there and feel that they have become strangers in the place where they had lived. The places referred to in this stanza are in Pakistan and expreses the poet’s nostalgia or longing for those places. Stanza 3: The poet says if the migrants think about a particular time in the past, their mood becomes very upset, sad and deeply thoughtful. Thinking about the past always brings in a feeling of longing for the past and that is why the poet says, they become pensive. The poet compares the sad and pensive mood of the migrants to the sky filled with heavy, dark monsoonal clouds that is ready to break into heavy downpour any time. the poets tries to indicate that the heart of the migrants have become heavy with sadness thinking about the past that they might break into tears any time. in this stanza, the poet introduces a metaphysical theme of time as a “frozen object” concept. He addresses time as a object or a stone that is frozen and without life. Also he says time in the past cannot be called time as it does not ticks and moves. So he says it the time in the past is dead and gone or has become frozen like a corpse. Whatever the migrants might do or try, they can never change or alter the past and that, their inability to change or bring back the past is the reason for their grief.

Stanza 4: The poet brings in personal experiences in this stanza. It is autobiographical in nature. He recalls the time when hismother used to ask about her mother (the poet’s grandmother) to the poet. The mother is already upset thinking about her mother and is trying her best to go back in her memory lane to relive the memories of her mother. She expects the poet to remember her mother (his grandmother) and waits for his answer. She expected him to recall the grandmother and share his memories of her with her (mother). The mother even tries to help him remember the grandmother by listing out the moments he had spent with his grandmother. Bu the poet remains quiet and does even respond to his mother’s question about his grandmother. His silence pains the mother as she thinks that the poet does not remember anything about his grandmother who had showered him with love and care in his younger days. Further, the poet’s silence makes the mother to think that he is not even ready or willing to speak about the grandmother and so he is quiet. So, her already upset and sad mind and face becomes more upset and sadder. Then the poet’s subconscious mind starts to question him of what will his reaction or feelings be if he tries to recall his mother after she is gone and he is not sure how he will be able to handle himself during that situation. He end the poem saying that migrating (growing up) in years is also difficult as we grow up we will miss out on so many people and other things....