SHORT QUESTIONS EEG 8

SHORT QUESTIONS

EEG VIII

Who is Dean Mohamet ? Why is he considered to be an important figure in the history of Indian Writing in English?

Sake Dean Mahomed was a Bengali Anglo-Indian traveller, surgeon and entrepreneur who was one of the most notable early non-European immigrants to the Western World. He introduced South Asian cuisine and shampoo baths to Europe, where he offered therapeutic massage. He was also the first Indian to publish a book in English. Published in Ireland in 1794, the book was called “The Travels of Dean Mahomet,A Native of Patna in Bengal Through Several Parts of India While in the Service of the Honourable East India Company, Written by Himself in a Series of Letters to a Friend”. The book begins with the praise of Genghis Khan, Timur and particularly the first Mughal Emperor Babur. It describes several important cities in India and a series of military conflicts with local Indian principalities. Editor Michael Fisher suggested that some passages in the book were closely paraphrased from other travel narratives written in the late 18th century

Sake Dean Mahomet began to lose prominence by the Victorian era and until recently was largely forgotten by history. The literary critic Muneeza Shamsie notes that he also authored the books “Cases Cured” and “Shampooing Surgeon, Inventor of the Indian medicated Vapour and Sea Water Baths” etc. Modern renewal of interest in his writings followed after poet and scholar Alamgir Hashmi drew attention to this author in the 1970s and 1980s. Michael H. Fisher has written a book on Sheikh Dean Mahomet: “The First Indian Author in English: Dean Mahomet in India, Ireland and England “. Then he came to the light and now he is considered as the first Indian to publish a book in English.

Locate and annotate:

“The new poets still quoted
the old poets, but no one spoke
in verse
of the pregnant woman
drowned, with perhaps twins in her”

The above line is taken from A.K. Ramanujan’s , “A River”.

The tone of the above line is based on sarcasm and irony. During the rainy season, when the floods come the people observe the river Vaikai very anxiously. They remember the rising of the river inch by inch from time to time. They remember how the stone steps of the bathing place are submerged one by one. They see how three village houses were damaged and carried off by the floods. They now see how two cows named Brinda and Gopi were carried away. They also know how a pregnant woman was also drowned in the river during the flood. Both the old and new poets have mentioned these things in their poems. But the way they have described these things in their poems shows that they were not much alive to or sympathetic with human suffering. They did not mention the name of the woman who was carrying twins. Before their birth, she was drowned in the flooded river. At the time of drowning, most probably the twins must have kicked the sides of her womb. She must have got much pain out of this. But both the new poets and old poets did not refer to all these miseries of the woman in their poetic creations.This becomes ultimately clear that they are not sympathetic with suffering human beings. They are totally callous and indifferent. This kind of attitude makes their poetry weak and unappealing, dry and cheerless.

 “Not only flesh and bone but myths of light

With darkness at the core ...” Explain the phrase “myths of light”.

The above line is taken from Nissim Ezekiel’s “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”. Here, with the employment of the phrase, “myths of light”, the three elements- courtship, bird watching and poetry are related; in each case, the attitude that is recommended is of passive alertness, not of anxiety, hurry, aggression, or hyperactivity. The more one is agitated, the less one gains. The one who is loved is not chased like a quarry, but daring. Ultimately, the rewards of such worshipful patience are great: what is gained is not just, “flesh and bone but myths of light/ with darkness at the core.”

Here we see that for Nissim, love and poetry are means to a special knowledge, wisdom transcendence even.  There is a major miracle that the two bring about: “The deaf can hear, the blind recover sight”. Poetry, then, like love, is ultimately a different way of perceiving reality of seeing, hearing and experiencing differently.

 

Explain the following observation of Chandan in the play Tara:

“Those who survive are those who do not defy the gravity of others. And those who desire even a moment of freedom, find themselves hurled into space, doomed to crash, with some unknown force.”

 

The above quoted line is Chandan’s (Dan’s) speech taken from Mahesh Dattani’s Tara. The speech brings into surface the hard reality behind his sister Tara’s tragedy. Though Tara is born from the same womb from which Chandan is born, she never gets her due share in her whole of her life. She never gets a chance to fulfil her desire. Her whole life is manipulated by her parents and grandfather. Even the doctor, the second god shows his intention that he does not favour a girl child. He forgets her medical ethics. She is just like, ‘an object in a cosmos, whose orbits are determined by those around. Moving in a forced harmony’. But this forced harmony can remain for long only when one object does not disturb others. As Dan says: “Those who survive are those who do not defy the gravity of others. And those who desire even a moment of freedom, find themselves hurled into space, doomed to crash with some unknown force.” And here Chandan’s reflection truly earns the significance of universality through the individual tragedy of Tara.................................................................................................................

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