Blood by Kamala Das

Blood by Kamala Das

Q.1: What makes the depiction of a crumbling village house so authentic in the poem? Is this a common feature of most village houses in the context of rapid urbanisation? Is the poet speaking from actual experience?

Ans: The depiction of a crumbling village house seems so authentic in the poem as it is a personal experience of the poet herself.

The poet remembers vividly her childhood days when she was playing with her brother and her great grandmother lamented the crumbling house. The poet describes every little bit information of the falling house:

The walls are cracked and torn

And moistened by the rains,

The tiles have fallen here and there

The windows whine and groan

Rapid urbanisation is forcing rural people also to renovate or reconstruct their houses matching the demands of modern life. It is visible in the most of the villages of India that people don’t bother to preserve their old havelis and buildings.

It is personal experience of the poet as she tells in the beginning of the poem:

When we were children

My brother and I

Our great-grandmother said one day,

You see this house of ours

Q.2: What aspects of Indian society and history get highlighted in the poem?

Ans: The poem talks about the decline of the nobility in India after the independence. It presents the sad aspects of the families of such nobilities. The women lament the past glory; especially their personal moments of luxury and happiness. The poet’s great grandmother is one such member of a noble family. She finds solace in her great grand daughter whom she shares her moments of joys:

And, told us of the jewel box

And the brocade from the north

And the perfumes and the oils

And the sandal for her breasts

And her marriage to a prince

The poet shows sympathy and assures her ‘When I grow old, I said, And very very rich, I shall rebuild the fallen walls, And make new this ancient house.’

The poem also highlights our belief in the purity of the blood; ‘That we had the oldest blood, My brother and she and I, The oldest blood in the world, A blood thin and clear and fine.’

The poem also hints the neglect of present generation towards preserving their heritage, the pressure of rapid urbanisation and above all the condition of the women in a patriarchal society.

Q.3: Does the poem bring out the contrast between tradition and modernity? Illustrate your answer with examples from the poem.

Ans: The poem presents a stark contrast between tradition and modernity. On the one hand the great grandmother presents tradition and the poet when grows up presents modernity. Tradition refers to the age-old culture that is being transferred to us through our ancestors. Modernity refers to contemporary behaviour.

The great grandmother’s lamentation for the old collapsing house shows her attachment to the past. But after the death of her husband the way she leads her life is a fine example to show how the old woman adheres to traditions:

she was really simple.

Fed on God for years

All her feasts were monotonous

For the only dish was always God

And the rest mere condiments.

When the great grandmother is on the death-bed, the poet realises how she lived a life of compromises. It shows the poet has attained a level of modernity and has become critical about the way of the life her great grandmother has lived. She has become rational also as she says:

I had learnt by then

Most lessons of defeat,

Had found out that to grow rich

Was a difficult feat.

Finally, the poet carries on her life from one city to another but always feeling sorry that she could not rebuild her ancestral house.

Q.4: While the poet respected her grandmother’s sentiments of royal grandeur, we can also see that she revolts against it. Identify the lines which bring this out.

Ans: The poet listens to her great grand-mother patiently while she describes the falling ancestral house. It seems the poet shares her grief and gets sentimental. That’s why she assures her that she would re-build the house when she grows old and rich. But finally, we are made to understand that she can not keep her promise due to her hectic schedule of city life.  She enjoys great grandmother’s remembering the past glory of her childhood. But she felt pity for her life as a widow; hardly eating anything and always remembering the god.

She was really simple.

Fed on God for years

All her feasts were monotonous

For the only dish was always God

And the rest mere condiments.

The poet ponders on the compromises that the great grandmother would have made to boast the life of nobility.

A woman wearied by compromise

Her legs quilted with arthritis

And with only a hard cough

For comfort

Q.5: Which lines reveal the poet’s criticism of class distinctions?

Ans : The great grandmother boasts the purity of blood of their family to establish supremacy of nobility over masses. She says to the poet:

That we had the oldest blood

My brother and she and I

The oldest blood in the world

She further says:

A blood thin and clear and fine

While in the veins of the always poor

And in the veins

Of the new-rich men

Flowed a blood thick as gruel

And muddy as a ditch.

Here it seems the poet does not approve her views and she sounds critical about the class distinction forcefully maintained by the nobility in India.

Q6. Is it 'selfishness' and 'callousness' that makes the poetess break her childhood promise to her grandmother of renovating the house? Why does she do nothing about rebuilding the house?

Ans: The poet listens to her great grandmother’s lamentation over falling ancestral house sensitively. She feels the helplessness, pain, agony and misery of her great grandmother. She gets sentimental makes a promise to rebuild the 300 years old house. But when she comes across the harsh realities of life, she realises that it is extremely difficult to earn money.

Elements of nature such as rainfall, hot sunrays and winter and cold also start to weaken the house, so she seeks forgiveness as she is unable to protect, restore and renovate the house. We know that it is not purposeful; it is her inability as she settled in some other city. So it is not her selfishness and callousness but helplessness that stops her to perform her duty.

Q7. What do you understand of the conflict in the poetess' conscience?

Ans: The poem begins with the poet describing her playing with her brother in the sand, drawing birds and animals. And one day she is introduced to the harsh realities of the life by her grandmother; she expresses her deep agony talking about their ancestral house that is falling down now. She gets sentimental and promises her grandmother that she will re-build it when she grows old and rich. The grandmother boasts the glory of the past as well as the nobility of their family. The poet feels the pitiful condition of her grandmother; on one hand she glorifies her past and on the other hand it seems that she has made compromises throughout her life.

The poet seems to be facing conflict in the conscience. At one time she feels enchanted by the glorious past of her family as described by her grandmother. Another time she sounds rational when she declares:

I had learnt by then

Most lessons of defeat,

Had found out that to grow rich

Was a difficult feat.

But once again she faces the moral duty of keeping the promise she made unwittingly:

I have let you down

Old house, I seek forgiveness

Even she cries out in a tone of asking for forgiveness:

Call me callous

Call me selfish

But do not blame my blood

It seems finally she consoles herself saying:

But do not blame my blood

So thin, so clear, so fine

The oldest blood in the world

That remembers as it flows

All the gems and all the gold

And all the perfumes and the oils

And the stately

Elephant ride...