Hello Friends,
This blog is my response to the task of thinking activity about the award winning poem "When God is a Traveller" by the poet Arundhati Subramaniam given to us by our Prof.Dr.DilipSir. So here my response, read and enjoy. Happy Learning!
☆ Introduction:
This poet Arundhati Subramaniam and her Poetry Collection titled as "When God is a Traveller" got Sahitya Akademi 2021 award in English language. The above poem is the titular poem from the collection.
This poem is based on an old story from Indian mythology, old like all Indian myths are. The great God Shiva held out the fruit of knowledge to his two sons, Kartikaya and Ganesha. And he said the one who travels the entire world and returns first will get the fruit of knowledge. Kartikaya jumps on to his peacock and takes off for this expedition around the world. Ganesha, wiser simply circles his parents. He recognizes them for who they are.
What more could I ask for and so Shiva hands him the fruit and many years later Kartikaya returns and flies into a rage and he says this is not fair. These is one of the rules that the fruit ought to have been mine. And Shiva draws him close and says, but you're the fruit, don't you see. And I wondered whether Kartikaya would have been able to hear that piece of wisdom before he left on his journey. I suspect he wouldn't. And so this is the story like so many others in the world mythology and literature that replaced the whole journey from innocence to experience in its own way.
By Arundhati Subramanian
(Wondering about Kartikeya/ Muruga/ Subramania, my namesake)
Trust the God back from his travels,
His voice wholegrain (and chamomile),
His wisdom neem, his peacock, sweaty-plumed, drowsing in the shadows.
Trust him who sits wordless on park benches listening to the cries of children fading into the dusk, his gaze emptied of vagrancy, his heart of ownership.
Trust him who has seen enough-
revolutions, promises, the desperate light of shopping malls, hospital rooms, manifestos, theologies, the iron taste of blood, the great craters in the middle of love.
Trust him who no longer begrudges his brother his prize, his parents their partisanship.
Trust him whose race is run, whose journey remains, who stands fluid-stemmed knowing he is the tree that bears fruit, festive with Sun.
Trust him who recognizes you-
auspicious, abundant, battle scarred, alive- and knows from where you come.
Trust the God ready to circle the world
all over again this time for no reason at all other than to see it through your eyes.
☆ Questions
Q-1 Can you identify the central theme of this poem?
Q-2 Can you explain this poem?
Q-3 What is it that the poet wants to say through this poem?
☆ Answers
A-1 Central theme
The central theme of the poem is that the poet wants each and every individual to trust the God, the Almighty, the Omnipotent, the Omniscient, the Omnipresent, who is present everywhere, in each and every form, in each and every individual. The poet wants us to trust in God and do the right. The poet wants us to trust in God who is the most powerful and that the complete power is in his hands.
A-2 In the first stanza of the poem, the poet says that to trust the God who is in form of a traveller and is back from his travels, his voice is compared to whole grain that fills our appetite and like Chamomile that helps like a medicine to cure many diseases. His wisdom is compared with neem which is bitter but very beneficial to cure all troubles and difficulties. His peacock which signifies beauty and its long feathers, that the traveller is covered with sweat and tired and so almost asleep in the shadows which signify dark night and away from harsh sunlight, away from all the tensions of life and to take some rest.
In the second stanza the poet sees God in the form of a person who is sitting on the park benches and listening to the cries of children, observing the children playing and the people around, at the twilight. He stares the beggars and feels sympathy for them and feels himself to be superior to them, more privileged than them, at least that he is owner of his own heart and is not a beggar, not dependent on somebody else but the owner of his own will.
In the third stanza, the poet tells to trust the one, the God, the individuals who have seen many changes, promises, the serious lights of shopping malls, serious so that people are attracted to go there, which are a must to get more customers, visitors in the malls, the lights that is the man made world, the scenery, seriousness, the prayers, the fears, the cries of hospital rooms, manifestos, in which people in political party explain their views, in which they tell to do to accomplish various tasks after they win in election.
The one who has seen religious beliefs among people, who has seen battles, accidents, injuries and the bloodshed and hence has the iron taste of blood. The one who has seen craters, that is holes, faults, mistakes, problems in the greatest love stories. The gaps in the love stories, the gaps between the lovers that prevents them from getting united.
The poet in the fourth stanza describes God in the form of a grown up person who no longer feels sad for the prize his brother has won, his grief for the one-sided support that parents show for his brother, more love and care for the siblings but as the person is grown up so now no more he grieves over the past memories.
In the fifth stanza the poet tells us to trust God, for every individual has the presence of God in them, whose life is like a race and one takes part in race as one lives the life, then life is compared with a journey, the person is travelling in the journey of life, going to the destination, achieving some goals and then to the final destination called death. The person is like fliud stemmed means the person is like a tree whose branches, stems are growing, life is like a fluid that is flowing like a water in the river, here the life of a person is also compared with a tree that bears a fruit in the season. So there are fruits that is success in the life of a person in the time that is decided by the life itself. There is a season of fruits that is decided on the basis of the sun and the revolution and the rotation of the Earth, in the same way success comes in the life of person just as fruits in the tree. That time becomes a celebration of special events in the life of person. So it tells that there's time and place for each and everything in the world.
In the sixth stanza the poet asks us to trust the God who knows us very well, who knows that the person is going to be successful very soon, for whom one is more than enough, a person who is battle scarred, it means he has been in a war or fight and shows the signs of injury and still able to survive inspite of all the injuries, physical or mental ones, and the one the God, who knows from where the person comes from.
In the seventh stanza, the poet tells us that God is ready to circle the world that is to take a round across the world once more all over again, to see the life again, but this time the only reason is that God will see the world through our eyes. This tells us that God is present in each and everyone of us. And when we travel that is go through life, God is within us guiding us all the way.
A-3 In the poem "When God is a Traveller" by the poet Arundhati Subramaniam tells us that the life of a person, its various phases, shades and various colours of life and tells us that although there seems darkness but very soon the Sun will rise and to trust the God and to keep the hope in our hearts alive.
The poet tells us to trust that invisible power, that is responsible for the life and death, and all that is there in the life, all the moments, the difficulties, the pain and pleasures, that to trust God or that invisible power, that guides us through the life.
The poet wants us to trust the God when it is very difficult to go on, to continue with life, when it is impossible for one to continue, at those hard times, difficult moments poet tells us to trust that super power, the creator and go on in life.
The poet also tells that there's God in each and every individual, God is omnipresent and that our whole life is guided and surrounded by God. And that the only thing we need to do is to keep our trust in him. God is taken as a ttaveller in the journey called life and God travels with us every now and then, in each and every moment, in each and every aspect of life, in each and every phase of life. In all situations God is with us in various forms and we only need to put our trust in him.
☆ FIGURES OF THE SPEECH
In this poem, the poet uses the figure of speech Anaphora which is seen in the repetition of words 'Trust him' in the beginning of most of the stanzas. This repetition emphasizes the words while adding rhythm to the passage, making it more memorable and enjoyable to read.
1,681 Words.
☆ Works Cited
1. Subramaniam, Arundhathi. When God Is A Traveller. HarperCollins, 2020.
