Written By: R. Parthasarathy

Written by : R.
Parthasarathy
FROM HOMECOMING
I am no longer myself as I watch
the evening blur the traffic
to a pair of obese headlights.
I return home, tried,

my face pressed against the window
of expectation . I climb the steps
to my flat, only to trip over the mat
Outside the door. The key
goes to sleep in my palm.
Contd…
I fear I have bungled again.
That last refinement of speech
terrifies me. The balloon.
Of poetry has grown red in the face

with repeated blowing. For scriptures
I, therefore, recommend
the humble newspaper: I find

My prayers occasionally answered there.
I shall, perhaps, go on.
Contd…
Like this, unmindful of day
melting into the night.
My heart I have turned inside out.
Hereafter, I should be content,

I think, to go through life
with the small change of uncertainties.
NOTES
 Rajagopal Parthasarathy was born in 1934 at
Tirupparaiturai near Tiruchchirappalli. He was
educated at Don Bosco High School and Siddharth
College , Mumbai and at Leeds University , UK , where
he was British Council Scholar in 1963 - 64.
 He was Lecturer in English Literature in Mumbai for
ten years before joining Oxford University Press in 1971
as Regional Editor in Chennai.
 He moved to New Delhi in 1978. He is Associate
Professor of English and Asian Studies at Skidmore
College in Saratoga Springs , New York , USA .
Contd…
 His works include Poetry from Leeds in 1968 , Rough
Passage brought out by Oxford University Press in 1977 , a
long poem and edited Ten Twentieth-Century Indian Poets
published by Oxford University Press in 1976 which went
into Sixteenth Impression only in 2002.
 His translation into modern English verse of the 5th-
century Tamil epic, The Tale of the Anklet: An Epic of South
India brought out by Columbia UP in 1993.
 It has received significant awards including the Sahitya
Akademi Translation Prize in 1995 and The Association for
Asian Studies, Inc. - A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for
Translation in 1996.
Contd…
 As the poet-persona returns home, he thinks he is no longer his former self.
 He watches the evening blur the traffic to a pair of fat headlights.
 He finds himself quite tired. His face is pressed against the window of expectation, as
if he were going to make some discovery on reaching home.
 He climbs the steps to his flat and trips over the doormat just outside the door.
 Meanwhile, the key in his hand seems to go to sleep.
 He fears that he has done badly once again.
 I is terrified at the latest refinement of his mother tongue.
 The balloon of poetry seems to have grown red in the face with repeated blowing.
 So he no longer recommends the scripture but only humble newspapers in their
place.
 He finds that his prayers are occasionally answered in the newspapers.
 He thinks that he will perhaps go on like that, unmindful of the day as it melts into
night.
 He has turned his heart inside out, as one turns one's pocket inside out. And he will
go on through life with the small changes of uncertainties that he has found there.
Contd….
 R.Parthsarthy’s poem “Homecoming” portrays a picture of his native state, Tamil
Nadu as he returns after his sojourn abroad.
 He perceives a marked change in his native language.
 He comprehends that it was his lack of familiarity with the native language that
rendered the language alien to his perception.
 His persistent use of the foreign tongue dispossessed him of his inherently rich
native language.
 His association with English appears to be like imprisonment as he wrestles with
English chains.
 His mother tongue is emblematic of his rich Dravidian heritage that he cherishes.
In his chains, that disable him to move freely, he falters, he stumbles.
 He also stumbles as he has lost his ground.
 His native language is now relegated to other concerns.
 At the time of Thiruvalluvar, the language was an insignia of the rich heritage.
 He senses that the language has begun to deteriorate as it is adulterated, and
declines owing to the lack of use. The language proves to be an effervescent medium
with the savant Nammalvar who handled it as it were a bull held by its horns.
 She penned several devotional songs that were par excellence, and therefore
favorites with the masses. In the present situation, the language is like a dead
animal, infested with fleas at Kodambakkam.
 The figure of speech enhances the theme of stagnation and decay.
Contd…
 In section III titled 'Home coming' the poet portrays his experience with
the present problem of settling down to a mode of living life fully with
contentment.
 Rough passage is from England to Bombay to Goa (Exite), then to Calcutta
(Trial).
 In this poem he finally comes to Tamil Nadu (Home Coming).
 The poet looks for relationship through reflection and gains the
knowledge that the self can perceive itself only in relation to others.
 About this section Parthasarathy himself explains "In attempting to
formulate my own situation, perhaps I stumbled upon the horns of
dilemma.
 From the beginning I saw my task as one of acclimatizing the English
language to an indigenous tradition."
 The poet is conscious of the hiatus between the soil of the language he
uses and his own roots.
 Parthasarathy also admits this "Even though I am Tamil specking and yet
write in English, there is the over whelining difficulty of using image in a
linguistic tradition that is quite other than that of my own."
 Parthasarthy advises Indian English Poets to return to their respective
linguistic traditions.

Written By: R. Parthasarathy

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Written By: R. Parthasarathy

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Written by : R.

I return home, tried,

Of poetry has grown red in the face

the humble newspaper: I find

Hereafter, I should be content,

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