INDIAN SCENES IN KEKI N DARUWALLA`S` THE KEEPER OF THE DEAD`

Indian Scenes In Keki N Daruwalla`s `` The Keeper Of The Dead``
BY
DR. RAM SHARMA
SENIOR LECTURER IN ENGLISH
C-26, SHRADHAPURI PHASE2
KANKERKHERA, MEERUT, U.P.
Keki N.Daruwalla got Central Sahitya Akademi Award for his poetic collection ``The Keeper Of The Dead`` in 1984.He has become a significant name in Indian English poetry today.This poetry collection consists three sections entitled The Keeper Of The Dead, The Unrest Of Desire and In The Shadow Of Imambara``.
The first section consists of nine sections- Hawk, The King Speaks to the Scribe, Pestilence in Nineteenth Century Calcutta, The Revolutionary, You Are Sipping Past, The Mistress,Comet and Dream, Kohoutek and Mehar Ali, the Keeper Of the dead
In the Hawk, the poet deals with the burning problem of ever growing exploitation of the weak and innocent. Hawk standa as symbol of revolt in the poem.
`` I saw the wild hawk-king this morning
Riding an ascending wind
As he drilled the sky
The land beneath him was filmed with salt
Grass-seed, insect, bird
Nothing could thrive here.But he was lost
In the momemtum of his gyre
A frustrated parricide on the kill
The fuse of his hate was burning still[ p-9]
``The King Speaks to the Scribe`` presents expression to the heartfelt sorrow of the king, most probably King Ashoka when he faced the ugly reality of war.The following lines presents Indian Scenes
``---------------There may be huts where
They have nothing to burn on the hearth-fires
Spare me the same. And no taboos, please
Forbidding the caponing of roosters
Or drinking of spirituous liquors
The castration of bulls and rams and
The branding of horses [p-12]
``Pestilence In Nineteenth Century Calcutta`` presents a moving picture of the death toll caused by calamities diseases like cholera, plague and dysentery.The poet mockingly narrates that the Britishers were so perplexed with the fear of death that when the Sahib was informed about the death of his Sikhabdar, on his winter tour to the Hooghly , that he voluntarily opted to meet the funeral expenses.
`` The funeral expenses would be his
He said, choking a little, and
Ashamed of tears he held back
The bill presented on a tray next morning
Made him blink. It read
`Five rupees for roasted Sardar. ` [ p-17]
The Revolutionary` presents how many innocent people were hanged to death in the apprehension of their being revolutionaries by the Britishers.Actually some of them had nothing to do either with revolutionaries or with their ideals because they were too coward to do anything.
The Mistress presents the poet`s sense of wit at the distorted and improper use of English words by the Indians.
`` No, she is not Anglo –Indian. The Demellos would
Bugger me if they got scent of this
And half my body would turn into a bruise
She is not Goan, not Syrian Christian
She is Indian English, the language that I use [ p23]

The second section of the poem The Unrest Of Desire consists seven poems entitled The Night of the Jackals, Love among the Pines, From the Snow in Ranikhet, The Unrest of Desire, The Parsi Hell, The Son Speaks to the Dead Rake and To My Daughter
Rookzain``
From the Snow in Ranikhet present Indianness in spirit.This poem is addressed to a newly wedded friend of the poet. So using wit and humour, the poet advises him how to make the maximum use of the physical pleasure.
`` The earth will speak, it has to,
Still chews her cosmic cud
Her mastication brings forth
Green leaf and golden bud
Fish will erupt from larval beds
And go downstream with the flood` [ p-41]
The Parsi Hell highlights the poet`s religious beliefs and ideas.This poem carries out the poet`s own religious conviction
The Son Speaks to the Dead Rake satirically presents a dialogue that takes place between a son and his deceased father. The son comparatively examines his own achievements with that of his father
The third section of this volume entitled In The Shadow Of The Imambara consists five poems entitled Aag – Matam, Sixth Moharram , Lucknow, Apothecary, On The Contrariness Of Dreams, The Mazars Of Amroha
Actually Daruwalla posted as a police officer at several places of India and this Indianness is the hallmark of Daruwall`s poetry.In Aag –Matam , he pictures the emotional dedication of the mourners to the cause of Alams and hence they crumple burning fire under their feet, without expressing even a word of sorrow and pain.
``The fir-bed is fanned with a reed-mat
And sparks fly as if the wind has scattered
A concourse of glow-worms. Calling on his name
And the grief that was his and the iron claw
Of fate that marked him for his quarry
They stamp barefoot across the fire-stubble
Cinder and fire ash rising to their knees`
[ p-53]
As the mourners suffer with the Imam and his supporters in the battlefield of Karbala, they become quite oblivious of their suffering. Through this the poet preaches stoicism one of the main attributes of the Indian ethos
Sixth Moharram, Lucknow, presents a moving picture of the mourning that takes place in Lucknow. Due to mass-partipation of the people, the traffic in the street comes to a halt and the wailing sound of the mourners is only audible in the midst.
`` Between the Imambara and the Rumi Gate
Traffic has clotted like an epileptic tongue,
The mourners neither press forward nor recede,
Their toros swaying over rooted legs
Like the upper reaches of a windlashed tree,
Behind the veil a woman murmurs to her child
`The spreading weal across their chest recalls
The omen red of the Karbala-sun`` [ p-54]
In the poem entitled The Mazars of Amroha , the poet describes the mazars situated at Amroha
`` This was no dargah where qawwals
Exercised their lungs at night
And royalty came barefoot
Asking for son or kingdom
Just a tree that spirallled out of the grave`[ p-61]
In the end we can say that Daruwalla has used his traveling experiences to replete this poetry volume with Indian scenes.
Works –Cited
1-Daruwalla, Keki .N- The Keeper Of The Dead, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1982