An Old Woman

An Old Woman by Arun Kolatkar depicts a very commonplace scene from and the street. But in the poet’s hands it becomes a question which haunts us forever. It is written in simple English and has a very simple structure.

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.