Question

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.

Answer 1

Kamala Das, a woman of respect culture religion love peace. Her grandmother was her favorite person which can be seen through her literature as she was the one who taught her to love, forgive and devote oneself to the service of the less fortunate. She could empathize with the struggles of everyday women and it is blatantly seen in her work.

Poet could feel the defeat- pain- miseries of her grandmother, so she promises herself to save the royal ancestral 300-year-old house for her grandmother.

But reality strikes her. She learns the bitter reality that making money is not easy. She could feel the old house breaking down, white ants climbing, rats running fearlessly and she asks for forgiveness as she is incapable of protecting- recovering- restoring the house.

She feels guilty for not completing her promise to her grandmother (the house) and flung it into death’s pyre. But still, she too is proud of her royal old blood even though she is not powerful enough to renovate the old house, her great grandmother loved. Lines “I set forth again……. Mouth of Arabian Sea.” show despite respect to her grandmother and her promise she left to the other town.