Text of Poem:
The Roman Catholic Goan boys
The white washed Anglo-Indian boys
The muscle bound Islamic boys
Were earnest in their prayers.
They copied, bullied, stole in pairs
They bragged about their love affairs
They carved the table broke the chair
But never missed their prayers.
The Roman Catholic Goan boys
Confessed their solitary joys
Confessed their games with high-heeled toys
And hastened to the prayers
The Anglo-Indian gentlemen
Drank whisky in some Jewish den
With Moslems slowly creeping in
Before or after prayers.
To celebrate the year's end;
Men in grey or black,
Woman, bosom semi-bare,
Twenty-three of us in all
Six nations represented.
The wives of India sit
They do not drink,
They do not talk,
Of course, they do not kiss.
The men are quite at home
Among the foreign styles
(What fun the flirting is!)
I myself, decorously,
Press a thigh or two in sly innocence.
The party is a great success.
Then someone says: we can't
Enjoy it, somehow, don't you think?
The atmosphere corrupt,
and look at our wooden wives..
I take him out to get some air.
This she said to herself
As she sat at table
With the English boss,
Is it. This is the promise:
The long evenings
In the large apartment
With cold beer and western music.
Lucid talk of art and literature;
And of all the changes India needs'.
At the second meeting
In the large apartment
After cold beer and the music on
She sat in disarray.
The struggle had been hard
And not altogether successful.
Certainly the blouse
Would not be used again.
But with true British courtesy.
He lent her a safety pin
Before she took the elevator down.
Stanzawise Summary of Poem:
Stanza.1:
Always, in the sun's eye, Here among the beggars,
Hawkers, pavement sleepers,
Hutment dwellers, slums,
Dead souls of men and gods,
Burnt-out matters, frightened
Virgins, wasted child
All in noisy silence
And tortured animals
Suffering the place and time,
I ride my elephant of thought
A Cezanne slung around my neck.
Explanatory Word-Meanings:
Hawkers = a peddler. Pavement sleepers = those who sleep on the footpath. Hutment dwellers = those who live in huts. Frightened = afraid. Virgins = girls who have yet not been married. Tortured = oppressed, tormented. Slung = hung.
Paraphrase:
Whenever the sun rises in India, it casts its glance or sees beggars, hawkers, people who sleep on footpath, live in huts and in dirty areas. It also sees men and gods whose souls are dead; it means they are insensitive to the suffering of man. Here are found burnt mothers, and terrified unmarried girls and animals who have been tormented and oppressed. Sufferings reign supreme. One may find people undergoing suffering everywhere and every time.: The poet only thinks about it (India) and the whole picture moves before his eyes or becomes fresh in his mind.
Stanza.2:
The Roman Catholic Goan boys
The white washed Anglo-Indian boys
The muscle bound Islamic boys
Were earnest in their prayers.
They copied, bullied, stole in pairs
They bragged about their love affairs
They carved the table broke the chair
But never missed their prayers.
Explanatory Word-Meanings:
Roman Catholic = Christians who believe in Roman Catholicism. White washed = faces. Muscle bound = robust and strong. Earnest = sincere, zealous, ardent. Bullied = tyrannized the weak. Bragged = boasted, to talk with too much pride. Carved = to make design by cutting wood or stone etc.
Paraphrase:
Young boys belonging to the Roman Catholic creed, Anglo-Indian boys with their painted faces, and Muslim boys known for their physical strength were very sincere in saying their prayers. They were involved in various vices such as they copied others, terrified others, stole abundantly and boasted of their love affairs, made all sorts of mischiefs but they never forgot to say their prayers.
Stanza.3:
The Roman Catholic Goan boys
Confessed their solitary joys
Confessed their games with high-heeled toys
And hastened to the prayers
The Anglo-Indian gentlemen
Drank whisky in some Jewish den
With Moslems slowly creeping in
Before or after prayers.
Explanatory Word-Meanings:
Confessed = admitted their sins. Solitary = alone, only. High-heeled toys = girls wearing high-heeled sandals. Den = a cave, a private retreat for doing something.
Paraphrase:
The Anglo Indian boys were interested in deriving pleasure in the company of high heeled girls who looked like toys and admitted the sins they committed with them. But when it was the time of their prayer, they made haste in saying their prayer. The Anglo-Indian gentlemen drank whisky in some Jewish Den or secret place where Muslims also came to drink before or after their prayer.
Stanza.4:
To celebrate the year's end;
Men in grey or black,
Woman, bosom semi-bare,
Twenty-three of us in all
Six nations represented.
Explanatory Word-Meanings:
Bosom = breast. Semi-bare = half naked.
Paraphrase:
New Years Eve (the year's end) is celebrated here with great enthusiasm and young and old participate in it. Women join it with their half naked breasts. The poet and his twenty three friends represented six nations.
Stanza.5:
The wives of India sit
They do not drink,
They do not talk,
Of course, they do not kiss.
The men are quite at home
Among the foreign styles
(What fun the flirting is!)
I myself, decorously,
Press a thigh or two in sly innocence.
The party is a great success.
Explanatory Word-Meanings:
Quite at home = feel easy and comfortable. Flirt = to play the coquette. Decorously = decently. Sly = cunning, secretively.
Paraphrase:
The wives of India do not participate in this merry making. They maintain a distance from it. Neither they drink nor do they talk and kiss. But men feel at home and enjoy the party as the foreigners enjoy. They take interest in flirting. The poet himself participates in it zealously and in a cunning and secretive way he presses a thigh or two decently. The party is considered a great success.
Stanza.6:
Explanatory Word-Meanings:
Wooden wives = wives who look dull, uninteresting and bore.
Paraphrase:
Then someone in the party says that they cannot enjoy it for in his opinion the atmosphere of the party corrupts them and pointing towards the wives, he says that they feel bore and indifferent to all this merry-making. They look like wooden piece for they do not like it at all. The poet takes him out in the fresh air so that he may feel better in the open atmosphere.
Stanza.7:
This she said to herself
As she sat at table
With the English boss,
Is it. This is the promise:
The long evenings
In the large apartment
With cold beer and western music.
Lucid talk of art and literature;
And of all the changes India needs'.
At the second meeting
In the large apartment
After cold beer and the music on
She sat in disarray.
Explanatory Word-Meanings:
Large apartment =a single room or set of rooms designed for dwelling. Lucid =clearly expressed, easy to understand. Disarray =in disorder.
Paraphrase:
An Indian woman said something to herself as she sat at a table with her English boss. Then she makes a promise and then the two pass the long evenings in the large apartment where they enjoy cold beer and western music and exchange view on art and literature in a lucid manner. They also talk about the changes that should take place in India. Their meeting is not the last one. They meet the second time in the large apartment, enjoy cold beer and western music and after that she was found sitting in a disorderly manner.
Stanza.8:
The struggle had been hard
And not altogether successful.
Certainly the blouse
Would not be used again.
But with true British courtesy.
He lent her a safety pin
Before she took the elevator down.
Explanatory Word-Meanings:
Courtesy = good and urbane manners. Elevator = a lift.
Paraphrase:
It had been a hard struggle between the two (the Indian woman and the English boss). The poet does not make it clear what that struggle had been. The possibility is that the English boss made assault on her but somehow she succeeded in getting herself free from his clutches. That is why the poet says that it was ‘not altogether successful'. The following lines that 'certainly the blouse would not be used again and the boss lent her a safety pin' also reveal that there was some sort of struggle between the two and in that struggle her blouse was torn or damaged and so in order to keep it in proper condition, the boss lent her a safety pin before she goes down the apartment by the lift.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
Introduction:
The Poem “In India” was published in 1960 in the fourth volume of Ezekiel’s poetic collection. 'In India' is one of the fine poems written by Nissim Ezekiel. Ezekiel is a Jew by birth but he has settled in India and is very much a poet of India. He takes his theme from Indian life. He is fully aware of Indian culture, its traditions, its way of living and he loves India in spite of its poverty, heat and filthiness.
The poem is divided into four parts. Each part of the poem gives us a picture of some aspect of Indian life. The picture of life as Nissim presents in his poem is realistic and based on his close observance of the life and people living in India. He does not hide the ugly aspect of Indian life nor does he exaggerate its vices.
Depiction of the Poverty Indian People:
The first part of the poem depicts the poverty of the people of India. As the sun rises, the beggars are seen begging from door to door, hawkers move from street to street trying to sell their wares. People become active. Those who sleep in footpaths wake up, slum dwellers come out of their surrounding and spread everywhere in search of their living. The condition of women and children is worse than men. Mothers seem to be burnt out and virgins are frightened, children waste their lives in wandering aimlessly. The souls of both men and gods are dead. Man is unkind to man and gods does not help to their devotees. Poverty and suffering may be seen everywhere. This is the picture of life of big as well as small cities. Skyscrapers, big markets, industries, shopping arcades, bars, hotels, restaurants and clubs are there in every big city of India. But behind this glittering veil of progress and prosperity is hidden the ugly face of poverty—of jhuggis, of naked children, of half fed men and women selling their bodies. Nissim is said to be a poet of city. No doubt he writes about city life but he is not blind to the poverty and misery of the people who live in slum and ghettos.
Hypocrisy of Indians:
The second part of the poem tells us how hypocrite we Indians are. Outwardly we are religious; we are punctual in saying our prayers. But we do not understand the spirit of religion. We are involved in vices, we cause trouble to others, we steal, terrify and boast of our love affairs but when it is the time of prayer, we hasten to it we may be seen at the places of prayer but before and after prayer one may find us “in some Jewish Den" enjoying our drink. No one can deny that we are not so. Nissim keeps an eye on the people living around him and whatever he sees he presents it in the language of poetry.
Activities in Parties:
The third part of the poem portrays our activities at parties we boast of our culture, but we are adapting ourselves to the western culture. In the celebration of the year's end', we do not leg behind the foreigners. The party is considered a great success if there is ample flirtation and thigh rubs to thigh and breast to breast.
Realistic Picture of Women:
The fourth part of the poem shows how advance our women are. When they are among various people, they remain reserved pretending that they feel hurt to see this revelry and merry making. But when they are alone with their bosses and dear ones, they are totally a changed person. Nissim has given a realistic picture of the 'game' that is played between 'respectable people' behind the closed doors of large apartments. Thus, none of the aspect of the Indian life has been left untouched.
Language of Poem:
The language of the poem is easy. The ideas are clearly expressed. The poem is written in unrhymed words, but in the second part of the poem, the first three lines of three stanzas are rhymed and the fourth verse is unrhymed. For example,
“They copied, bullied, stole in pairs
They bragged about their love affairs
The carved the table broke the chairs
And hastened to the prayers.”
