IGNOU MEG Made Easier

Hey there! Welcome to my Blog. I have made this account to support IGNOU students MEG. Here you can get free notes for British Poetry, British Novels and British Drama. The complete syllabus for Masters of Arts in English Literature from IGNOU. I know it gets difficult to study and work or manage your family. So I decided to come up with this platform where I can share all the notes and tricks and tips to make it easy. Check the Labels to cover all important topics and notes.

Wednesday, 4 June 2025

MEG 5 – Literary Criticism Block-4 New Criticism Complete Notes From each unit with Exam questions from old question papers

Block-5 Marxist View of Literature Notes from all units with Important questions from previous question papers

IGNOU MEG-03 British Novel Important Questions from each block- Based on previous years Question paper

IGNOU MEG-05 Literary Criticism and TheoryBlock-6 Feminist Theories Complete Notes From Each Unit with Important Questions:

MEG 5 – Block-6 Feminist Theories

IGNOU MEG-05 Literary Criticism and TheoryBlock-6 Feminist Theories Complete Notes From Each Unit with Important Questions:

MEG-07 Indian English Literature Important Questions Based on Previous Year Question Papers

MEG-16 Indian Folk Literature - Important questions for exam bases on all previous years question papers

IGNOU MEG 5 - Literary Criticism & Theory Block-8 Contemporary Literary theory

IGNOU MEG-5 - Literary Criticism and Theory Block-7 Deconstruction Complete Notes from each unit with Important questions for exam

MEG 03 - British Novels : Important Questions for EXAM 2025

MEG 4 - Aspects of Language - Important questions - 2025

Important questions MEG14 - Contemporary Indian Literature in English Translation

Study Plan for IGNOU MEG - Contemporary Indian Literature in English Translation

MEG 4 important questions from each block

Meg 4 blockwise Que

MEG 5 Block-wise Important questions

MEG-7 : INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE Old Question Papers From 2011 to 2024 June

June, 2021 MEG-7 : INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

MEG2 - Block-1 Christopher Marlowe : Doctor Faustus

Block-1 Christopher Marlowe : Doctor Faustus

The Victorian Poets - Browning, Rossetti, Oscar Wild

IMPORTANT STANZAS FROM ALL POEMS BASED ON OLD QUESTION PAPERS MEG-14 : CONTEMPORARY INDIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION

IMPORTANT STANZAS FROM ALL POEMS BASED ON OLD QUESTION PAPERS MEG-14 : CONTEMPORARY INDIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION Of MASTER OF ARTS (English) Term-End Examination

MEG-5 LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY Old Question Papers From 2011 to 2024

December, 2021 MEG-05 : LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY

OLD QUESTION PAPERS Of MASTER OF MEG-14 : CONTEMPORARY INDIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION

From 2011 to 2024June

MEG-14 Block-4 Short Story-I

Unit-1 Mahasweta Devi : Salt

Salt- by maha swetadevi. Translation by sarmishta dutta gupta.

Written in Bengali

1st phase - 1873-1890

Great public interest in short story in Bengal.

Later phase-

Rabindranath Tagore

Humour and satire

Pramatha Chowdhury and saratchandra chatterjee

Major themes-

Rustic life

Complexities of human relationships

Child psychology

Tradition and modernity

Women writers

The romantic wave

World war 2 and after

Post independence narratives

Mahasweta devi - born in dhaka in 1926 moved to Kolkata after 1938. Married in 1947. 1948 first son. Divorced and got remarried and divorced again.

First book - Rani of jhansi in 1956. Wali and Noti in 1957.

Awards- Amrita Puraskar in 1968, Saratchandra memorial medal in 1978, Sahitya Akademi Award in 1979.

Story from page 8 to 9

Themes-

Exploitation of innocent tribals.

Nature and human

Characters

Purti central character

Uttamchand villain

Youth community

Headman

Ekoya - the elephant

Narrative techniques

Satire

Myth

History

Science

Translation issues - using 3 names for salt in Bengal but only 1 in English.

Unit-2 Vaikom Muhammad Basheer : Birthday

Malayalam fiction writer- Vaikom Muhammad Basheer.

Story originally in Malayalam then translated in English by the author himself.

Analysis on-

Structure

Atmosphere

Characterization

Humour irony and contrast

Meaning

Vaikom Basheer 1908-1994

No education at all. Birthday is believed to be on 20jan in Kerala. Great Gandhi follower. To participate in the freedom struggle he ran to ccj in 1930 dropping all his education. Sent to jail for dandi march and beaten up by the police. So he stopped believing in ahimsa and became a follower of Bhagat Singh and others and started writing revolutionary pieces and fled the police. Played many roles and led different lives.

Was in jail for quite some time.

Awards- tamrapatra for freedom struggle, kerala sahitya akademi award in 1981, padmashree in 1982.

Self directed humour and satire which are the strongest.

Women's rights fighter

Environmentalist

Page 7-10 - all major novels and stories. List of all his writing - page 11-12.

Birthday-

Unit-3 Nirmal Verma : Birds

Unit 3- Birds by Nirmal Verma and translation by Jai Ratan.

Nimal Verma- born 1929 to 2005. First story was published in Kahaanee.

Award- sahitya akademi award in 1959, jnanpith award In 2000

Criticism against Nirmal Verma

-he is too westernised in his thinking and make up.

- unambiguous condemnation of western culture.

The title birds is symbolic of the flux of life

Characters-

Latika

Mukharjee

Hubert

Captain Negi

Julie and other girls in the hotel

The feminine and introvert approach throughout the story.

Narrative technique - the writer strictly remains detached, neutral observer. Third person voice.

Unit-4 Ismat Chughtai : Tiny's Granny

https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/39684/1/Unit-4.pdf

Unit 4 - Tiny's Granny by Ismat Chughtai, translation by Ralph Russell

Originally in Urdu

Ismat Chughtai 1911-1991 most courageous and controversial woman writer. Born in UP.

Work - first book - Fasaadi in 1937, Kaghazi Hai Pairahan (autobiography), Terhi Lakeer, Lihaaf (1942) list of published work on page 7 RFB

Unit-5 Gopinath Mohanty : Tadpa

Tadpa by Gopinath Mohanti, translation by Sitakant Mahapatra

Odisha=Odras=Kalinga=Utkal. Odiya literature is 500years old.

Mohanty born in a small village called Nagabali near Cuttack In 1914. Died in 1991.

Work- 1st novel Managahirara Chasa in 1936.

Work of fiction can be divided in 3 phases-

1. During tenure years as civil servant. Novels which deal with exploitation and suffering of tribal people.
2. Lives of townsfolk.
3. Only 1 novel, an epic on Oriya village life - Danapani

Jnanpith award in 1974.

Tadpa- eponymous story of the protagonist Tadpa

Story focuses on-

1. A tribal's lack of fear

2. Importance of song and dance and togetherness

3. Acceptance of death as a sleep in the lap of Dharthi.

4. Sense of communal responsibility towards outsiders.

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MEG 14 - Block-5 Short Story-II Unit-1

MEG 14 - Block-5 Short Story-II

Unit-1 Indira Goswami (Mamoni Raisom Goswami) : The Empty Chest

Translation by Pradipta Birgohain from Assamese.

Assamese writing history-

Excelled in poetry and short stories.

First Assamese magazine was published in 1892 by American Missionary.

From 1892 to now short story could be divided in 3-

1- Jonaki yug

2- Avahan Yug

3- Ramdhenu Yug

All 3 are magazines.

Lakshminath Bezbaruah, father of Assamese language and Assamese short stories.

2nd yug till world war 2.

3rd yug is post independence

Indira Goswami or Mamoni Raisom Goswami

Jnanpith award in 2000, sahitya akademi award

Born on 14Nov 1942 in Assam. Was widowed when she was 25. Within a year of her marriage.

Got PhD in 1973. 25 novels and 100 short stories in Assamese.

She says "writing is like worshiping"

Works-

Novels, short stories and translated works and awards pg 5to7.

The empty chest

Toradoi, Saru Bopa, Haibor

Narrative technique-

Speaker is an omniscient third person narrator. Narrator focaliser.

Intense and cryptic style.

Expressive language.

Vivid and unconstitutional similes.

Extreme symbolism.

Hijol tree, the chest,

Title-

Ironic, empty marriage and hopes. Empty physically and mentally.

Unit-2 Motilal Jotwani : Very Lonely, She

https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/39687/1/Unit-2.pdf

Translation by Dr. Nandlal Jotwani

Sindhi is the only language which isn't a state language of any particular State.

It's written in both Perso-arabic and Devanagari script.

Motilal Jotwani born in Sukkar, Sindh(now pakistan) in 1936.

Total 55 works - short stories, novels, poetry, essay and criticism and 1 autobiography. List on pg 2and3.

Sindhi language and literature has been greatly influenced by the migration from Pakistan during the partition.

1.Preparation childlike writing era where all characters are black and white.

2.Post partition human psyche stories of adulthood

3.Second wave by mid 60's with the forces of urbanization and industrialisation.

Very lonely she

Third person narrator- Manohar. He is also the focaliser.

Pooran Mausi

Unit-3 Afsar Ahmed : Headmaster, Prawn, Chanachur

Translation by Chandan Dutta from Bangla.

Afsar Ahmed 1959born.

Works- Novels- Gar Garasti, Basbas, Alowkik Divrat.

The story-

First person narrator by Arupda who is also the focaliser.

The writer uses the technique of monologue.

Pramita - wife

Tinni - daughter

Policeman

Multiple death/dacoit/boy falling in manhole news.

3d aspects of words- literal, metaphorical and contextual. All 3 combine to give abstract, contradictory, illogical sequencing of words.

Devices like imagery, paradox, hyperbole, personification and black humour.

Title 3 words headmaster, prawn, chanachur these 3 are very close to a Bengali heart. Individually they convey some sense but together they become nonsense.

The narrator vacillates between periods of no sense and phase of lucidity. Afterall he doesn't have the complete luxury of slipping into meaninglessness, the world awaits him in the form of work, family etc.

Unit-4 Vijaydan Detha : The Compromise

Translation by Shyam Mathur from Rajasthani

Vijaydan Detha was born on 1st September 1926 in Borunda district Jodhpur. marwadi dialect in rajasthani language in this area.

Sahitya Akademi award in 1974.

Total 8 dialects of Rajasthani language. 4 are VVIP - Marawari, Mewati, Vagari, Dhundhari.

Hindi's supporting language includes Rajasthani, braj, Avadhi, bhojpuri.

Rajasthani is a dialect of hindi. It's evolving from dialect to a language. In the process of evolution the relationship between Hindi and Rajasthani is becoming uneasy.

The story-

Written in the style of an autobiography to involve the readers into the story.

Main character- Aaskaran is a Charan(caste). He stands at the mirror and fights with Aaskaran inside, which is his consciousness. In the end as a compromise he breaks the mirror and becomes a corrupt policeman.

At the end of the story no one questions him or calls him bizarre as they previously used to do. He is considered normal

A symbolic story.

MEG 14 Block-6 Poetry

Unit-1 K. S. Nongkynrih : Requiem (Khasi)

Assamese poetry-

1st phase- early 20th century- romantic trend with patriotism and mysticism.

2nd phase- 1960s symbolism and esotericism

Khasi poetry- Kynpham sing Nongkynrih

Kynpham resides in Shillong in the capital of Meghalaya. Born on 4April 1964.

Works- 2 poetry book in English- Moments (1992) & The sieve (1992). And 3 books in khasi. Also translated 10 books for children in khasi.

Poem- Requiem

Poet takes us into the social world of a close community which has gathered together after the death of a woman - Meri.

Refrain- I heard them.

Someone who is stunned in silence by the moan of someone who is going to die.

They are asking what is wrong with Meri. It's ironic because what could be wrong or right with a dying person?

First part is meditative while the second is descriptive about the pre-cremation ceremonies.

Death disturbs the living more than the dead.

The term ‘requiem’ means a song, sung at the funeral ceremony of a dead person.

Kokborok poetry- Chandra kanta Murasingh

Murasingh lives in Agartala, Tripura. Born 1 April 1957. Writes in Kokborok and Bengali.

Awards- bhasha sanman award from sahitya akademi.

Works- 5 collections of poems.

Poem- The stone speaks in the forest.

Read here - https://www.monash.edu/arts/monash-indigenous-studies/literary-commons/literary-commons-stories/the-stone-speaks-in-the-forest

By Chandrakanta Murasingh

Writing Sample : a poem translated into English

The pretty golden deer grew restless

And suddenly came running

Into this amlaki grove

Looking for a mate.

The stone did not speak,

The deer will leave now.

One day the King arrived, lights played

He stood, with his foot

Pressing the forehead of the stone

And looking to find which way

His prey was on the run

The weight of feet tormenting the hill

The stone was silent because

The pain was not his alone.

A man with a broken heart came today

Accompanied by his lady love

Sprayed dreams and tears on the stone

And went away rowing upstream.

They will build their home in the deep forest.

Water runs, the laidom leaves quiver

Hachukrai drags his bamboo raft

There is a market downstream, on a sandy islet,

Wondering, who will respond now

The stone speaks in the forest

With bow and arrow in hand

Rfb

Manipuri poetry - Yumlembam Ibomcha singh

From Imphal Manipur. Born on 21 August 1949. 2 collection of poetry. Published 90 short stories. Manipur state kala academy award in 1974 and sahitya akademi award in 1991.

Ibomcha's early poetry was rebellious. Protest to social and political oppression. Part of a literary movement group of poets called young angry poets.

Later as an escape route his poetry moved to dream-like sequences.

Poem- the last dream

Theme of death. Unreal death, a fantasy or ritual death against life. RFB

Unit-2 Haribhajan Singh : Tree and the Sage

Modern Punjabi Poetry starts from 1850.

Progressive movement from 1936 as India was fighting against colonials. It declined during the 60s.

Post independence panjabi poetry inherited progressive ideology from the pre independence development and the partition sharpened this outlook with a sense of loss and tragedy.

During the 60's experimental movement raised its voice against romantic progressive and traditional poetry.

Neo progressive poetry or naxalite poetry was against traditional progressive and experimental modernist poetry.

Panjabi poetry abroad

Harbhajan Singh 1920-2002

Born in Lamding Assam on 18august. Stayed in Lahore and Delhi. Worked in college. Awards- punjab state award-1933, sahitya akademi award-1969, sahitya kala parishad award in 1978 etc. List RFB

First poetry Book- Laasan in 1956. In 1957 a poetic play- Taar-tupka. In 1962 Adhraini a collection of lyrics. 1967- na dhupe ba chhaven

Rukh te rishi tree and the sage.

Long narrative but complex poem. Abstract autobiographical details are there. The poem has 6 cantos, 1 adika and antika. Explanation in book RFB

Outline of modern hindi poetry

The Bhartendu period from 1868-1900 began with the same poet based on the new nationalist thinking because of British imperialism.

Dwivedi period from 1900 on the poet. He felt the Bhartendu poets were not focusing on the correct Hindi and writings were mostly in khari boli or braj bhasha . Mahaveer prasad Dwivedi was an idealist and didn't publish any romantic poems.

Chhayavaad or influence of romanticism was from 1918-1938.

Progressive poetry from 1936 under the influence of socialist realism, Russian revolution or marxism. Munshi Premchand was the main voice.

Anti Poetry or experimentalist movement or akavita from 1960.

Raghuvir Sahay

Born on 9dec 1929. First poem published in 1947. Collection of poetry sirion par dhoop main in 1960, 1972 short stories collection 1979 translated Shakespeare's Macbeth. Sahitya akademi award in 1984 for his book log bhool gaye hain.

Total 5 volumes of published poetry

The stare

It was written in 1972. In the very first line common facts about death are visible. The centre signifier gives death multiple meanings. Signifier makes an image but this image is always moving, never staying at one meaning that's why it becomes a floating signifier. It is always more poetic.

Unit-3 Dina Nath Nadim : The Moon

Dina nath nadim - the moon translation by j.l. kaul.

Dina nath was born on 18 march 1916 in Srinagar. Poverty and weak health affected Nadim all his life.

Kalhana award in 1985 and sahitya akademi award in 1986. Sharda samman in 1993 posthumously. Died on 7april 1988 suffered from partial paralysis.

Upto 1930 poetry only existed in oral tradition in Kashmir.

Nadim has been compared to a deodar tree which is associated with elegance and strength. As he took major social and political issues using strong propagandist language.

The moon(zoon)

Read here - https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/sonnet-5

Sonnet

by Dina Nath Nadim

Such are days I can believe the moon to be

Unleavened bread, but for scars I see unseam

A neck so collared in every dissolute color; I’ll believe,

Instead, the moon is cut from threadbare Pampur tweed.

The moon is bread, if through a spent halo in decline

She yet shines, something too finely used or unseemly old,

Something a man may slip in with money owed

The peasant girls—this moon is counterfeit coin.

The moon is unleavened bread and the mountains

Hunger. The Clouds again put out kitchen fires.

But in woods I’ll see by glimmer light and glean faeries

By the glow of their cooking stoves and on distant peaks I’m sure

There’s a little rice that’s trying to grow. I’ll let my hunger know,

I’ll heave my eyes to the heavens.

Nadim used an Italian model of petrarchan sonnet. Moon is compared to a pancake or chapati because that's how it would appear to a hungry person rather than a lover.

Padma Sachdev born in 1940 in jammu in a family of Sanskrit scholars.

1971 sahitya akademi award also j&k culture academy award twice.

Padma Sachdev- the moment of courage translation by iqbal masood

Read here- https://pyotra.tumblr.com/post/141531400396/to-the-right-of-our-hill-there-is-a-well

The moment of courage

"To the right

Of our hill

There is a well

Shining, brimful.

Last year

Summer covered it with

The green of mango blossoms.

It tempted a calf

Which fell in and drown

Since then

No one drinks

Of that well.

At night

Like a thief

I bathe in it.

I cup my hands

and drink.

But love is not quenched

Nor thirst.

In the deep dark

Of the well

There are wistful shadows

Waiting

For the maidens who hung

A rope on its nail

But never came back

To draw water.

The dark of the well

Longs for that moment of courage

When in full sight of all

My hands

Will stretch out

For a drink." -

A sensitive poem about the close relationship between human and nature, lements of nature and superstition and caste consideration that keep people away from the well after the drowning of the calf. But the poet drinks water from the well and takes showers from that water only at night. As she is waiting for that moment of courage to be able to do it in broad daylight.

Unit 4 -Kondepudi Nirmala : Mother Serious

Telegu poetry was best for feminine perspective. Women began to assert and establish their rights to a free, frank and fearless expression. No innuendo or euphemism. Irony and satire were used extensively.

Kondepudi nirmala- mother serious translation by k. Damodar rao. In telegu

K. Nirmala was born on March 26, 1958. List of writing and awards on pg4 RFB.

Mother serious was published poetry column in a weekly magazine on 1-12-1989.

Serious denotes someone who is in a critical condition. Everyone is waiting for her death and even the mother has given up on living.

Abbee- dear son.

Vimla- kitchen translation by k. Damodar Rao. In telegu

Vimla was born in 1963 in a middle class family in Hyderabad. Lived in a liberal environment father was an active telengana struggle member.

Read here - https://englishlanguage-lit.blogspot.com/2019/12/kitchen-vimala-summary.html

Kitchen-

Kitchen: Vimala

I remember the kitchen’s ,

Flavor upon flavor,

A mouthwatering treasury,

Pungence of seasonings,

And the aroma of incense

From the prayer room

Next door. Each morning the kitchen awoke

To the swish of churning butter

The scraping of scoured pots.

And in the center, the stove,

Fresh washed with mud, painted

And bedecked, all set to burn.

We saved secret money in the

seasoning box, hid sweets too,

and played at cooking with lentils and

We played Mother and Father,

In the magic world of kitchen

That wrapped childhood in its spell.

No longer playground for the grown up girl

Now trained into kitchenhood.

Like all the mothers and mothers’ mothers

Before her, in the kitchen

She becomes woman right here.

Our kitchen is a mortuary,

Pans, tins, gunny bags

Crowd it like cadavers

That hang amid clouds of damp wood smoke.

Mother floats, a ghost here,

A floating kitchen herself, her eyes melted in tears,

Her hands worn to spoons,

Her arms spatulas that turn

Into long frying pans, and

Other kitchen tools.

Sometimes Mother glows

Like a blazing furnace,

And burns through the kitchen ,

Pacing, restless, a caged tiger,

Banging pots and pans,

How easy, they say,

The flick of a ladle and the cooking ‘s done

No one visits now.

No one comes to the kitchen except to eat.

My mother was queen of the kitchen,

But the name engraved on the pots and pans is Father’s

Luck, they say, landed me in my great kitchen,

Gas stove, grinder, sink, and tiles.

I make cakes and puddings,

Not old-fashioned snacks as my mother did.

But the name engraved on the pots and pans is my husband’s

My kitchen wakes

To the whistle of the pressure cooker,

The whirr of the electric grinder.

I am a well-appointed kitchen myself,

Turning round like a mechanical doll.

My Kitchen is a workshop, a clattering,

Busy, butcher stall, where I cook

And serve, and clean and cook again.

In dreams, my kitchen haunts me,

My artistic kitchen dreams,

The smell of seasonings even in the jasmine.

Damn all kitchens, May they burn to cinders,

Our lives, eat out days- like some enormous vulture

Let us destroy those kitches

That turned us into serving spoons.

Let us remove the names engraved on the pots and pans.

Come, let us tear out these private stoves,

Before our daughters must step

Solitary into these kitchens.

For our children’s sakes,

Let us destroy three lonely kitchens.

The poem ridicules the system where a woman is reduced to a moron and a machine in the kitchen.

K. Ayyappa panikar - I met Walt Whitman yesterday-an interview. Translation by a.j. thomas in Malayalam

K. Ayyappa 12 sept 1930 in Kerala to 2006. Did his PhD in US.

India's background to walt Whitman - writer, humanitarian who believed in innate dignity of man and disregarded social convention and public morality. Loved Hindu spirituality.

I met walt Whitman yesterday-

Has a special kind of structure that of an imaginary interview in the reverse mode with the subject asking all the questions.

Poem is a dialogue poem between poet Whitman who died in 19th century in US. Poem is in 2 parts. Pg 17 to 20 explanation of the poem.

Unit-5 Ramakanta Rath : Sri Radha

Ramakant rath - sri radha translation by the poet oriya poetry.

Orissa- old name utkal or kalinga. Oria poetry is almost 500years old. 15 to 19 century is ancient or medieval period followed by modern period. These are further subdivided.

1st period of religious poetry with themes of Mahabharata and ramayan.

2nd phase from 16 to 19 centre saw the emergence of descriptive poetry subdivided in 3-

Secular writing

Classic epics and Kavya

Bhagabata includes lyrics and other shorter forms.

Modernism in oriya poetry

1930 to 1970 as indian part of anglo American modernism. Followed by post rautray phase of modernism in oriya poetry.

Ramakant Rath born in 13dec 1934 at Cuttack was given to foster parents in a village district of Puri.

President of sahitya akademi after his retirement.

Sri radha is a long poem comprising 61 sections arranged in a particular sequence to convey a congeries of emotions felt by the protagonist, a lovelorn woman, Radha, for her lover. However Rath denies that his radha has anything to do with the mythical one. He didn't plan it to be a long poem but while writing he realised that he can connect some of his prewritten work and so the end result was sri Radha.

Intertextuality.

In vaishnavism it is common that for all devotional community there is only 1 male god, since all devotees are female in relation to him. God as purusha and nature as prakriti the woman. So male dressed as female call themselves brides of krishna and reincarnation of Radha.

13to16 page description of the stanzas 1to7.

Shakti chattopadhyay- just once try translation by sibnarayan ray in Bengali.

The hungry poet generation was short-lived yet significant in the sixties. They were influenced by angry young man movement.

Fake famine, partition between east and West Pakistan, naxalite movement affected Bengal.

Shakti chattopadhyay 25nov 1933 in Bengal to 23 march1995 died of heart attack. Lost his father in 1940 which might be the reason of re-appearance of images of death. Grandfather died in Hindu Muslim riot when he was 15. He joined communist party was a member till 1955. Barely completed his education as he didn't like to attend rigid classes. Didn't like the idea of fixed circumscribed job either. Travel and alcohol were his addiction.

Sahitya akademi award in 1983.

Just once try combines the experience of love and lovessness, nature and civilization, spontaneity and artifice to the extent that they cease to exist as binaries but flow into each other. The poem can be read as an address to a woman 'you' who is urged to try to love or as a self directed soliloquy voicing of an interior need to acquire the ability to love.

The poem is written in free verse.

Read here - http://sunflowercollective.blogspot.com/2015/11/poems-shakti-chattopadhyay-translated.html

Try just once to love

You'll see rocks tumbling from the breast of the fish in the river

Rocks rocks rocks and the river and ocean water

Blue rocks turning red, red rocks, blue

Try just once to love

It's good to have a few rocks in your heart - they echo sounds

When every walking trail is treacherous, I can arrange the rocks one after another

And go all the way to the distant door of autumn's pale stars for a look

At the naked use of poetry, of waves, of Kumortuli's idols in gaudy, sequined, embroidered costumes.

It's good to have a few rocks in your heart

There's no such thing as a letterbox - leaving it in the cracks in the rocks is good enough

The heart does want to build a home sometimes.

The rocks in the breast of the fish are slowly occupying our hearts

We need it all. We shall build houses - erect a permanent pillar to civilisation.

The silver fish left, shedding rocks

Try just once to love.

Unit-6 Sitanshu Yashashchandra : Orpheus

11-12 century AD history of Gujarati poetry.

1450 to 1850 medieval or bhakti period. 2 famous poets Narsimha Mehta- vaishnav jan ko ...... and Mirabai.

Before 1960 idealism and romanticism was widespread. Hence the main concern was reform and society.

Contemporary period came after 1960.

Sitanshu yashashchandra- Orpheus translation by the poet. In gujarati

He was born in bhuj gujarat on 19 August 1941. Completed education in different states. Studied science in bombay but didn't like it. So he completed literature and went to US as a scholar.

1st collection of poem published in 1975 - Odysseusnum Halesun.

In 1986 jatayu won sahitya akademi award.

Orpheus was a charming young man from greek epic poetry. Full story on pg-6.

Story if garuda on pg7.

Orpheus by sitanshu is apparently a lyricsong, which upon closer look turns out to be both anti lyrical and anti song bcz the original story has been replaced in the poem with their opposites.

Pg7-8 explanation of the poem.

Namdeo dhasal- A notebook of poems and autobiography translation by sathosh bhoomkar in marathi dalit poetry

Marathi is the southern most indo Aryan language. Meeting point of North and South by virtue of geographical location.

1278 is the oldest marathi literature found.

Second current was pandit kavya or traditional learned poets

Third current belonged to shahir poets for lavani and powada.

Modern Marathi period - First phase

Keshavsut 1866-1905 the father of modern Marathi poetry.

Ravikiran mandal or circle of sun beam group started a new era of poetry. Talking about the emotions of a common man, invented new patterns of prosody and content including everyday subjects in the poems.

Patriotic and nationalist stream. Eg Savarkar.

Modern Marathi period second phase-

After 1945 B.S mardhekar revolutionized marathi poetry. His content was declared obscene and pervert almost criminal.

Muktibodh trend included the marxist views.

Scene after 1960 - ultra modern and post modern.

Dalit poetry- poetry of rebellion or Ambedkari kavita

Sanskrit adjective Pada- dalit meaning crushed under feet. pg 13-14

Namdeo Dhasal- born on 15feb 1949 in a small district of Pune. Co founder militant activist movement dalit panthers. Over 300 cases were filed against him and his panthers. Associated with Thackeray and shiv sena. Awarded padmashree in 1999. Pg15 list of his books and plays.

First published collection Golpitha in 1972.

A notebook of poems - appears in the collection ya sattet jeev ramat nahi . The original title in marathi is Kavitechi vahi. The original marathi poem has 3 stanzas whereas the English translation has printed in 2.

The poet has reached his destination but someone is not opening the door. You is representing the system.

Second Stanza has the intertextuality of Kabir's doha.

Autobiography the last poem in the same collection ye sattet.... Is atmacharitra. It begins with the assurance that the image in the mirror of water is the poet's own image. Pg 17 -19.