Poet: Dilip Chtre
Dilip Purushottam
Chitre was one of the foremost Indian poets and critics to emerge in the
post-Independence India. Apart from being a very important bilingual writer,
writing in Marathi and English, he was also a teacher, a painter and filmmaker
and a magazine columnist.
He received the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, both for poetry as well as for his well- known translation work ‘Says Tuka’, popular abhangas (spiritual poems) by Sant Tukaram. He had started translation of literary work of saints in Marathi at the age of 16. Exile, alienation self-disintegration and death are observed to be the major themes of h works.
About
poem
‘Father Returning Home’ this poem is taken from ‘Travelling in a Cage’. It draws a portrait of a suburban commuter. Poet here depicts his father’s dull, monotonous, exhausting and equally pitiable daily routine. It describes a forced alienation at home. His children refuse to share their joys and sorrows with the hardworking father who as a result is forced to live into solitude. This very painful loneliness is a symbol of man’s isolation from the materialistic man-made world.
ICE BREAKERS
1) List the difficulties that you
face while commuting to and from the college by public transport.
Answer:
a) Do not get place to
seat many times.
b) Have to face
unhygienic area due to extra crowd.
c) Bad and dirty
smell.
d) Broken seats and
noisy atmosphere.
e) Shouting of
sellers.
f) Garbage.
2) Suggest solutions to give relief
to the commuters on the way to their workplace.
Answer:
a) to give them our
place to sit.
b) to help them to
enter and go out from public transport.
c) to support them to
buy tickets.
d) to talk them to
feel comfortable and happy.
e) to share rides.
f) to offer lift.
3) Complete the following table.
|
A |
B |
|
The way
our elders take
care of us |
The way you
can take care
of elders in
your family. |
|
1.
Love and protect us |
1.
Help them in daily chores. |
|
2.
Give money to spend |
2.
Speak kindly and share information |
|
3.
Help to solve our problems |
3.
Take care of their physical problems |
New words:
Commuters : those who travel regularly from one
place to another typically to work
Soggy : wet or heavy with water
Stained : soiled or discoloured spot
Falling apart : breaking into pieces
Fade : to lose freshness
Humid : damp
Grey platform : ‘grey’ suggests old age, dullness,
sordidness of a father’s life.
Contemplate : think deeply
Estrangement : alienation, loneliness
Stale : not fresh Contemplate
Tremble : to shake involuntarily
Cling : to adhere, to remain
Sullen : bad tempered
Static : not changing or developing (Here tedious
voice of the radio)
Ancestors : a person in one’s family who lived a
long time before.
Subcontinent : a large landmass that forms part a
continent
Nomads : migrants, gypsy
Narrow pass : the Khyber Pass , Aryans, the people
enter the Indian subcontinent through the Khyber Pass in the ancient time.
Brainstorming:
A1.
(i) Give
the difficulties faced by the father in the poem.
Answer: The difficulties faced by the father
are-
a) The father is
returning late in the day.
b) His eyesight is
dimmed due to old age.
c) The father has to
stand in the train during journey.
d) He struggles to
handle the bag of books.
e) He is in wet
clothes for a long time when he is travelling.
(ii) Write
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:
a) The father has to
stand in the train when he is returning home late.
b) He drinks weak tea
and eats stale chapati at home.
c) There is no one to
communicate or share views with him at home.
d) He tries to
overcome it by dreaming his golden past and expectations from the future.
A2.
(i) Given below are
the ideas conveyed through the poem. Match the pairs and draw out the hidden
meaning from those expressions.
Answer:
|
|
Expressions |
Meanings |
|
|
(a) |
Children avoid
expressing themselves. |
Hostility of children. |
|
|
(b) |
Father was deprived of refreshing hot beverages or nourishing diet. |
His basic daily
requirements were also not catered to. |
|
|
(c) |
The father hurries home crossing railway line. |
Father is so eager to meet family members that he even doesn’t bother
about his safety. |
|
|
(d) |
The father
was destined to listen only to the cracking sounds on media. |
The father couldn’t
even fulfil the least expectation of entertaining himself. |
|
|
(e) |
His sordid
present is devoid of any hope. |
Indulge into past and future. |
|
|
(f) |
The father’s endless comminuting distance him from his
children. |
Father is
not less than any tribal wanderer, a modern normed. |
|
|
(g) |
Suburban
area, visible through the train, is past unnoticed. |
Because
there is hardly anything enchanting/
interesting in the monotonous routine journey to look out
of the window. |
|
|
(h) |
He is just
as a small word, dropping from a sentence. |
Has least
value in the society where his presence or absence might hardly make any
difference. |
|
|
(i) |
He doesn’t
get a place in a crowded train. |
Uncomfortable
journey. |
|
(ii) Find the lines
to prove the following facts from the poem.
a) Father is
deprived of good food.
Answer:-
Home again, I see him
drinking weak tea, 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.
Dr. Tukaram Babulal Salunkhe
(M. A. B.Ed. M.Phil. Ph.D.)
Janata Shikshan Sanstha's
Shri Shivaji Vidya Mandir & Jr. College, Aundh, Pune-07
Ice Breakers- (Part-1)
Father Returning Home-Dilip Chitre
English Language Department
ICE BREAKERS -Father Returning Home
Ice Breakers- (Part-2)
Father Returning Home-Dilip Chitre
English Language Department
ICE BREAKERS-Father Returning Home
Poem-Father Returning Home - Dilip Chitre
English Language Department
2.5 Poem-Father Returning Home - Dilip Chitre
Father Returning Home by Dilip Chitre
Poet-Dilip Chitre
One of the foremost Indian writers and critics to emerge in
post-Independence India.
Wrote in Marathi & English
A painter, filmmaker, and magazine columnist
A critic, An Artist and Translator.
Born in Baroda
Family moved to Mumbai in 1951
Awarded by Sahitya Academy for poetry and translations works, started at
the age of 16.
Published poems –
"Collected Poems(1990)".
"Anthology of Marathi Poems(1945-65)".
The poem- Father Returning Home
Alienation of the elder person in a modern world
Isolation of old age
Estrangement from family
Loneliness in modern cities
Modernisation
Loss of historical and cultural identity
It is taken from "Travelling in a cage".
It draws a portrait of suburban commuter.
It depicts poet’s father’s dull, monotonous, and pitiable daily routine.
The theme of the poem –
A Forced Alienation, separation from the Modern Society, loneliness,
isolation from the family.
New words:
Commuters : those who travel regularly from
one place to another typically to work
Soggy : wet or heavy with water
Stained : soiled or discoloured spot
Falling apart : breaking into pieces
Fade : to lose freshness
Humid : damp
Grey platform : ‘grey’ suggests old age,
dullness, sordidness of a father’s life.
Contemplate : think deeply
Estrangement : alienation, loneliness
Stale : not fresh Contemplate
Tremble : to shake involuntarily
Cling : to adhere, to remain
Sullen : bad tempered
Static : not changing or developing
(Here tedious voice of the radio)
Ancestors : a person in one’s family who
lived a long time before.
Subcontinent : a large landmass that forms
part a continent
Nomads : migrants, gypsy
Narrow pass : the Khyber Pass , Aryans, the
people enter the Indian subcontinent through the Khyber Pass in the ancient
time.
Explanation of the poem
My father travels on the late evening train
The poem begins with the speaker’s description of his father’s journey
to home. The father is travelling in the late evening train after finishing his
work for the day. ‘Late evening train’ indicates that the father works for a
long time. So, he regularly returns late home.
Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light
The father is standing among the silent (commuters )passengers in the
yellow light inside the train compartment. This line shows his sufferings
during the journey. After working so hard, he is returning home standing on the
foot- board, as he doesn’t get any seat to relax. The ‘silent commuters’ are
not friendly enough to talk to him. The yellow light is showing dull
atmosphere. All these things intensify his agony and reflect the monotonous
journey.
Suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes
The sub-urban part of Mumbai is disappearing in the moving train. The
poet’s father has no intention to look at these places. He has no interest to
see these scenes as he has seen them many times. He finds nothing new or
interesting in it. So, the sliding landscapes also increase the sense of
monotony.
His shirt and pants are soggy and his black raincoat
Stained with mud and his bag stuffed with books
Is falling apart.
Now the poet makes us aware that it is a rainy day. His father’s dress
is all wet with the rainwater. His black raincoat is stained with mud. The bag
he is carrying is filled with books. He is struggling to handle it.
These lines are again show the difficulties of poet’s father. He faces
the difficulties during his journey. It gets even worse in the rainy season.
The black raincoat might indicate the lack of color in his dull life.
His bag is full of books. It hints that he is an educated and scholarly
man. But it doesn’t have any importance in his ordinary routine journey.
His eyes dimmed by age fade homeward through the humid
monsoon night
Here the poet gives us an impression of his father’s age. His eyesight
is dimmed by old age. The father looks homeward with his low vision through the
humid monsoon night. The gloomy atmosphere also reflects the dullness of his
life.
Now I can see him getting off the train
Like a word dropped from a long sentence.
The poet’s father gets down from the train.
Here poet Dilip Chitre has used a fine simile in comparing his father to
an unimportant word in a long sentence. This is quite unique. He says that his
father gets down just like a word dropped from a long sentence. The poet
indicates how unimportant his father is to the crowd in the train. It does not
really make any difference whether he got down or not. He is not that relevant
to the rest of the world.
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.
After getting off the train the father hurries towards his home. He
crosses the grey coloured platform and the railway line and finally enters the
lane. His ‘sticky with mud’ chappals can’t prevent him hurrying onward.
The poet has used the word ‘hurries’ twice to bring in a sense of
escapism from the dull humid atmosphere, grey platform and muddy streets where
no one would care for him. He just wants some peace at his own home.
Home again, I see him drinking weak tea,
Eating a stale chapati, reading a book.
The second stanza of the poem ‘Father Returning Home’ begins here. In
this stanza the poet depicts the isolation of his father in his own home.
The poet’s father reaches home like the other days. The poet sees him
drinking tasteless tea and eating a stale chapati. The poet shows how nobody
cares for him even at his own home.
The father concentrates on reading a book while having his tea. He does
not expect more care form his family members and accepts the weak tea and stale
chapati without complaint.
He goes into the toilet to contemplate
Man’s estrangement from a man-made world.
Now the speaker’s father goes into the toilet with a thought of how men
become isolated from the man-made world. And this line nearly sums up the theme
of the entire poem. The father is indeed aware of his estranged situation and
hopes to find some support in the family. But the hope is diminished as he
reaches and finds the same indifference there.
Moreover, the toilet might act as a symbol of how small his world has
been. The toilet seems to be the only place the man has to go to contemplate
over his loneliness.
Coming out he trembles at the sink,
The cold water running over his brown hands,
The father comes out from the toilet and goes to wash his hands at the
wash basin. The speaker observed him trembling at the sink when cold water was
running down his brown hands. His trembling might be due to his old age and the
coldness of the water. He may have the fearful thought of his isolation
from the rest of the world.
A few droplets cling to the greying hairs on his
wrists.
A few drops of water clinging to the grey hairs on his wrists may have
some greater implication. Water generally symbolizes life and grey hairs stand
for the old age. So, the old man’s life is just holding on to his old age. This
life has no significance to anyone else.
His sullen children have often refused to share
Jokes and secrets with him.
The poet shows the old man’s relationship to his family members. His
children refuse to share jokes and secrets with him. They don’t have a friendly
association with their father. They regard him as an outdated and unwanted
burden.
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.
At the end of the poem, we see the father going to sleep listening to
the radio and thinking of many things like his ancestors, his grandchildren and
of the Aryans, the people entering the Indian subcontinent through the Khyber
Pass in the ancient time.
The sound of the radio is even bored (static). It gives another
reference to the old man’s miserable life. However, his dreaming of his
ancestors and grandchildren gives the impression that he finds some solace in
thinking about his past and future generation. It is an attempt to escape from
his baseless routine-life devoid of human contact.
His thought of the Aryans may indicate that he is thinking of how the
society has changed since the ancient times when they had come here. Now the
modern world has no place for the elderly people. There are no one to think
about their loneliness. Thus, the poem ‘Father Returning Home’ by Dilip Chitre
sympathies with the old -neglected people in our society. It shows the harsh
reality of isolated and neglected old persons.
Activity No. 1
Q. Read the extract and complete the activities given
below.(10)
|
My father travels on the
late evening train |
A1. Choose (2)
Choose the correct statements from the following and
write them.
1) The father travels by late evening bus.
2) The father is not an old person.
3) The clothes of the father are very wet and unpleasant during the
journey.
4) The father crosses the railway line to come home.
A2. Give proof (2)
The season described in the extract is rainy season. Give the proof from
the extract.
A3. Personal response (2)
Describe any four problems of train journey that a common man faces in a
general bogie.
A4. Poetic device (2)
Write one example with explanation of each of the following figures of
speech from the extract.
1)
Alliteration
2) Simile
A5. Poetic creativity (2)
Compose a short poem in about four lines on your father.
See answers in the following book-
Activity Workbook for Std. XII
Price Rs. 400 + Courier/Postage Rs. 50
Total Rs. 450
Send amount by Phone Pay or Google Pay to-
Prof. Tushar Chavan 9850737199
See Video Presentation of the poem - Father
Returning Home
Created by-
Prof. Sanju Pardeshi, Chembur, Mumbai
