He describes an old woman who grabs hold of the
passers-by and goes along with them begging for such a small amount as fifty
paise. In return she offers to guide them to a shrine. But they have seen it
already. They miss the point that ‘the help given to the poor is what takes you
to God and his shrine’.
But she has no choice but to push them to give her
something.
She hobbles
along any way
and tightens
her grip on you
People get irritated and they sternly say ‘no’ to her.
She won’t let them go.
You
know how old women are
They stick you like a burr.
A burr is a prickly seed case of plants. It sticks to
clothes. This is an exact description of this old woman. Being a woman, she is
able to generate life like a seed. But being old, she is only a seed case. A
burr sticks to clothes, and the old woman is so weak that she too is supported
by the cloths she wears.
The old woman now tells them how difficult her life is
among those wretched hills. The hills her represent the wealthy and the mighty.
They don’t yield anything. Then people take a look at her and they find how
devoid of hope her life is. Her eyes are sunken deep and through her eyes they
‘look at the sky.’ In her eyes they see no hope, an empty sky, with neither
clouds not silver linings. Her misery encompasses them too.
Suddenly people find how farcical
the society and its institutions are. The hills hoard and do not yield, the
temples offer and do not deliver, and the sky has turned empty of gods. There
is nothing to help her get over her misery. There is nothing that offers hope
for the poor. While everything loses their significance, the woman in her
misery stands there as the only reality there is. She is able to put up with
everything, unlike whatever is around her.
The passers-by may give her some
coins. Whatever she is given is what she considers them worthy of. This is a
moment of choice for them. They can give her a handsome amount and be great in
her eyes and in theirs. They can give her a petty amount and be petty in their
eyes and in hers. Either way she is strong enough to take it (the shatterproof
crone). It is the image of those who are around her that shatters ‘with a plate
glass clatter’.
Arun Klatkar successfully drives a
point home. The poem opens our eyes not only to the old woman’s pitiable
condition but also to how we deserve to be pitied for the poverty in our souls.
Moreover, the old woman is able to see it clearly.
And you are reduced
to
so much small change
in her hand.
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