2:5 Father Returning Home
By - Dilip Chitre
----------------------------------------------------About the poet -
Dilip Purushottam Chitre was a notable Indian poet , painter and filmmaker of the modern era .He was felicitated by Sahitya Academi Award for his poetry as well as for his translation work .
___________________________________About the poem -
It is an autobiographical poem. In this poem , the poet shows the loneliness and world-weariness of an old man in the modern society . This poem is taken from the book ' Travelling in a cage ' , It draws the portrait of suburban commuters daily routine .It describes a forced alienation at home .
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Difficult words with their meanings -
Commuters = Those who travel regularly
Slide = to move
Soggy = soaked
Stuffed = packed
Contemplate= think deeply
Estrangement= isolation
Trembles = shakes
Sullen = gloomy
Nomads = members of group
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BRAINSTORMING
A - 1 - ( i ) Discuss with your friends the difficulties faced by the father in the poem .
Answer -
The difficulties faced by the father in the poem are -----
a) While returning home from work he had to travel late in the evening . He even doesn't get a place in a crowded train.
b) During the rainy season he had to wear soaked clothes
c) in a hurry ,had to cross the railway line without bothering about his safety .
d) had to eat stale chapati . His basic requirements were also not catered .
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(ii) Discuss the character sketch of the father with the help of the given points .
( His pathetic condition , the treatment he receives at home , his solitude , the way he tries to overcome it )
Answer -
The father in the poem is the most neglected person . Even though he is the lone bread earner for the family . He Leaves home early in the morning and returns late in the evening . He ate stale food . His eyes are dimmed by age . He works continuously without bothering the rain .His condition is very pathetic .He hurries to reach home by crossing railway lines but at home he is neglected by his children .They refuse to share jokes and secrets with him . He goes into the toilet and thinks deeply about this alienation . To comfort oneself ,he listens the programme on radio and sleeps dreaming of his ancestors and grandchildren .
___________________________________ A - 2 - ( i )
Given below are the ideas conveyed through the poem . Match the pairs and draw out the hidden meaning from those expressions .
Expressions
a ) Children avoid expressing themselves.
b) father was deprived of refreshing hot beverages or nourishing diet .
c) The father hurries home crossing railway lines
d) The father was destined to listen only to the cracking sounds on media .
e) His sordid present is devoid of any hope .
f)The father's endless commuting distance him from his children.
g) Suburban area, visible through the train ,is past unnoticed .
h) He is just as a small word , dropping from a sentence.
i) He doesn't get a place in a crowded train .
Meaning
1) Father is so eager to meet family members that he doesn't bother about his safety .
2) Hostility of children.
3) Indulge into his past and future
4) Uncomfortable journey .
5)His basic daily requirements were also not catered to.
6) Father is not less than any tribal wanderer , a modern nomad.
7) Has least value in the society where his presence or absence might hardly make any difference
8) Because there is hardly any thing enchanting/ interesting in the monotonous routine journey to look out of the window .
9) The father couldn't even fulfil the least expectation of entertaining himself .
Answer -
a= 2 ; b = 5 ; c = 1 ; d = 9 ; e= 3 ; f = 6 ; g = 8 ; h = 7 ; i= 4 ;
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ii) Find the lines to prove the following facts from the poem.
(a) Father is deprived of good food .
Answer -
' Eating a stale chapati , reading a book '
(b) Children did not have a healthy relation with the father.
Answer -
' His sullen children have often refused to share jokes and secrets with him .'
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iii) The poet deals with the theme of man's estrangement from a man-made world. Analyze it with the help of the poem .
Answer -
The poet's father is a commuter. He leaves home early in the morning and returns late in the evening . He accepts the alienation from his family voluntarily because he is the only bread earner of his family . When he hurries towards his home in the the hopes to spend some time with his children . But the hope is diminished as he reaches home , he finds that his bad tempered children refuse to share jokes and secrets with him .He goes into the toilet to isolate himself from the man-made world . To make one's entertainment , he listens radio. Toilet is the only place where the man goes to contemplate over his loneliness .The toilet act as a symbol to show how small his world has been . This father has no significance to anyone else .
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(iv) The father contemplates about his past and peeps into the future. Give reasons .
Answer -
The father contemplates about his past because he has no significance at his own home . Children are bad tempered and refuse to share jokes and secrets with him .He is tired of this alienation .
To find some solace , he contemplates about his past and future .He thinks of his grandchildren . It is an attempt to escape from his mundane routine - life devoid of human contact. He is tired of this man-made world .
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A- 3 - Complete the following using suitable describing words as appeared in the poem with the help of the words given in the brackets :
(weak ,dim ,muddy , soggy ,stale)
a ) Father's attire
b) Father's tea
c) Father's footwear
d) Father's food
e) Father's eyesight
Answer -
a = soggy ; b = weak ; c = muddy;
d = stale ; e = dim
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A - 4 - 'Fade homeward through the humid monsoon night .'
In the above line the weather is humid , not the night .The epithet or adjective is transferred from the weather to the night.This figures of speech is Transferred Epithet .
Find out such other expressions from the poem .
Answer -
1) ' He hurries across the length of the grey platform '
- The epithet 'grey ' is transferred from man( hair's colour) to platform .
2) ' Home again ,I see him drinking weak tea '
- The adjective ' weak ' is transferred from ' person ' to 'tea'.
3) 'The cold water running over his brown hands ',
- The adjective ( epithet)' brown' is transferred from' colour ' to 'hand '.
4) ' His sullen children have often refused to share jokes and secrets with him '.
- The adjective 'sullen' is transferred from 'mans mood ' to ' children '
5)' standing among silent commuters in the yellow light '
- The epithet ' yellow ' is transferred from ' train' to' light'
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(ii) Identify and write the lines from the poem which express the following figures of speech .
Simile -
' Like a word dropped from a long sentence '.
---------------------------------------------------Alliteration -
1) ' Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light ' 2)' Suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes ' 3) ' His shirts and pants are soggy and his black raincoat '. 4)' Stained with mud and his bag stuffed with books '. 5)' He hurries across the length of the grey platform '. 6)'He goes into the toilet to contemplate '. 7)' Man's estrangement from a man-made world '. 8)' The cold water running over his brown hands'. 9)'A few droplets cling to the greying hair on his wrists '. 10)'Of his ancestors and grandchildren,thinking '
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Onomatopoeia -
1) ' Listening to the static on the radio , dreaming '
- The word ' static ' expresses sound .
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(iii) I see him drinking weak tea, eating a stale chapati .
Here ' stale chapati ' stands for stale food /Non-textual nourishing food or diet , where the part symbolises the whole,i.e. food.Guess the name of the figures of speech .
Answer -. 'Synecdoche '
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A - 5 ( iii )
Appreciation
Write an appreciation of the poem ' Father Returning Home '.
Answer ---
About the poem/poet and the title ------------
' Father Returning Home ' is a poem . It is written by Dilip Chitre .He is a bilingual poet .He is a translator , painter ,film-maker and columnist . In this poem the poet depicts a picture of suburban commuter .It is a story of a hard working father who goes to work early in the morning and returns late in the evening .This leads him alienation from his family. His children too have no time to share jokes and secrets with their father .
Theme -
The theme of the poem is man's estrangement from a man-made world . The poet shows the loneliness and world-weariness of an old man in the modern society by depicting a picture of his own father returning home from work .
Poetic style ----
The poem consists of two stanzas of twelve lines each . The poem is written in a free verse . There is no particular meter or rhyme scheme followed.
The language/poetic devices used in the poem ------
The language of the poem is easy and simple but full of symbolic expressions and poetic devices. It is in a narrative form . The poetic devices used in the poem are Simile , Alliteration , Onomatopoeia 'Synecdoche and transferred epithet . 'going into the toilet ',' The Sound of the radio ' , ' trembling of his hands ' , ' clinging droplets to the greying hair ' are some of the expressions that enhance the beauty of the poem .It is written in a free verse . There is no rhyme scheme followed in the poem .
Special features -----
The poem is full of symbolic expressions . The poem depicts the very painful loneliness of a Father through various symbolic expressions. The poem consists of two stanzas of 12 lines each
Message ,Values , morals in the poem ------------
The poem gives the message that old people are neglected and not cared in the modern society . This modern world has no place for elderly people .No one thinks about their loneliness or care for them .
Your opinion about the poem. ----
It is an eye - opening poem .The pathetic condition of the father, the treatment he receives at home , his solitude and the way, he tries to overcome all this man made problem is beautifully placed before the reader .The use of symbolic expressions such as the ' cracking Sound of the radio' expresses the miserable condition of the old man . To find some solace from this man-made world, he goes in the toilet and he contemplates there . Actually it is an attempt to escape from the human contact and find solace to oneself . Overall it is the best poem , bringing forth the problems of Old age people in the metro cities .
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