TS 9th Class English Guide Unit 8B Father Returning Home
My father travels on the late evening train
Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light
suburbs slid past his unseeing eyes
His shirt and pants are soggy and his black raincoat
Stained with mud and his bag stuffed with books
Is falling apart. His eyes dimmed by age
fade homeward through the humid monsoon night.
Now I can see him getting off the train
Like a word dropped from a long sentence.
He hurries across the length of the grey platform,
Crosses the railway line, enters the lane,
His chappals are sticky with mud, but he hurries onward
Home again, I see him drinking weak tea,
Eating a stale chapati, reading a book.
He goes into the toilet to contemplate
Mans estrangement from a man-made world.
Coming out he trembles at the sink,
The cold water running over his brown hands,
A few droplets cling to the greying hairs on his wrists.
His sullen children have often refused to share
Jokes and secrets with him. He will now go to sleep
Listening to the static on the radio, dreaming
Of his ancestors and grandchildren, thinking
Of nomads entering a subcontinent through a narrow pass
Questions and Answers:
Answer the following
Questions
Question 1.
Is the father comfortable on the train?
Answer:
The father is not comfortable on the train
Question 2.
What does the dress of the father Indicate?
Answer:
The dress of the father indicates the state of mind of the old man. He is dull and tired. The dress also shows his insignificance in this world
Question 3.
A word dropped from a long sentence. What does It refer to?
Answer:
It refers to visual picture of an old man dropping off from the train as though he is no longer relevant to the train which will now move forward with other people to their destinations. The old man is just a word in the syntax of life. The sentence that is long enough to carry several words forward each contributing to its overall meaning now drops off one stray word, which is no longer required
Question 4.
How can you say that the father Is In a hurry to go home?
Answer:
He is very much concerned about his family. He is eager to meet them after days work. So he is in a hurry to go home though his chappals are sticky with mud
Question 5.
What might be the contemplation of the father in the toilet?
Answer:
He might be contemplating on the mans estrangement from a man-made world in the toilet
Question 6.
What image do you get from the line, A few droplets cling to the greying hairs on his wrists?
Answer:
Since the father is old he has no significance in the family. Just like the droplets cling to the greying hairs on his wrists he clings to the family
Question 7.
Why is the father thinking of nomads?
Answer:
The father is totally alienated from the family. He is trying to think about his ancestors who had entered the sub-continent through the Khyber
Father Returning Home Summary in English
The poem speaks about the inner loneliness of the poets father. He is experiencing alienation in the twilight years. His children do not take care of him. They dont share anything with him. All the while he is trying to think about his ancestors who had entered the sub-continent through the Khyber Pass in the Himalayas in some distant past. The poet uses some fine imagery to describe the pain and misery lurking in the old mans soul as he travels in the local train. His bag stuffed with books is falling apart. It indicates the state of the old mans mind
At the outset the poet describes his father coming home in an evening train. Father is silent and is unmoved by the sights of the suburbs because they are too familiar to him to catch his eye. His clothes are damp and dirty, his bag is disintegrating with the heavy load of books. Being old, he has lost the brightness of his eyes. The poet visualizes him getting out of the train and hastening along the platform. The old man is just a word in the syntax of life. The sentence that is long enough to carry several words forward each contributing to its overall meaning now drops off one stray word, which is no longer required
At home, the alienation is not lessened. He is written off by his children. Even his tea is weak and the chapati he eats is stale. His children are gloomy and do not interact with him. He has to be content with listening to the "static" on the radio. His life having lost its charm, music fails to interest him. Yet his dreams are on a grander scale. They revolve round his ancestors and grandchildren
About the Poet:
Dilip Purushottam Chitre (17 September 1938 -10 December 2009) was one of the foremost Indian writers and critics to emerge in the post Independence India. Apart from being a very important bilin¬gual writer, writing in Marathi and English, he was also a painter and filmmaker. His Ekun Kavita or Collected Poems were published in the nineteen nineties in three volumes. As Is, Where Is selected English po¬ems (1964- 2007) and "Shesha" English translation of selected Marathi poems both published by Poetrywala are among his last books published in 2007
He is also an accomplished translator and has prolifically translated prose and poetry. He started his professional film career in 1969 and has since made one feature film, about a dozen documentary films, several short films in the cinema format, and about twenty video documentary features. He also scored the music for some of them
Glossary:
commuters (n) : passengers
soggy (adj) : wet and soft
stale (adj) : no longer fresh
contemplate (v) : think seriously
estrangement (n) : separation
sullen (adj) : silent and bad-tempered
static (n) : (here) noise that disturbs the signals of radio
nomads (n) : members of a tribe moving with their animals from place to place
subcontinent (n) : (here) India