2.5 Father Returning Home

Title: 

It draws a portrait of suburban commuter. His life is dull, monotonous, exhausting, and equally pitiable daily routine. It describe a forced alienation at home. Mentioning of the stale food, weak tea and sullen children depicts his loneliness. His children refuse to share their joys and sorrows with him which resulted into forced solitude. 

Difficult words: 

 commuters: those who travel regularly from one place to another typically for work. 

suburbs: adjoining area of city 

soggy : wet and heavy 

stained : spots on clothes 

stuffed : filled with dimmed : less bright / unclear 

humid: damp/ contain water 

hurries : moves quickly 

stale : lefover / cooked earlier 

contemplate : think deeply 

estrangement : alienation 

man-made : made by human 

droplets: drops of water 

cling: stick 

secret : something that is not or must not be known by other people गोपनीय बात (जो दूसरों को न पता हो न पता चले), दूसरों से छिपाने योग्‍य बात 

sullen : bad tempered 

static : no interest/ undersirable 

ancestors: a person in your family who lived a long time before you पूर्वज, पुरखा, पूर्वपुरुष 

nomads: wanders/ a member of a tribe that moves with its animals from place to place ख़ानाबदोश या घुमंतू जनजाति का व्यक्ति (ये अपने पशुओं के साथ जगह-जगह घूमते रहते हैं)

Video Link:

 2.5 Father Returning From Home

Appreciation of the Poem:

‘Father Returning Home’ is the famous poem by Dilip Chitre, taken from 'Traveling in the cage'. He is known as bilingual poet. He has translated ‘the popular Marathi Abhangas (Spiritual Poem) 'Says Tuka' into English. He received the Prestigious Sahitya Akadami Award for his remarkable contribution in poetry as well as in Translation. The present is an autobiographical poem where the poet shows the complete solitude and lethargic life of an old man in the modern society by depicting a picture of his own father returning home from work. Thus the main theme of the poem is "Man's Isolation from materialistic man made World". The poet expressed his feelings for his working father. He realised that his father was neglected and uncared inspite of being the lone bread-earner for the family.
Though the poem ‘Father Returning Home’ has autobiographical touch, it goes beyond its autobiographical significance. As its an account of every old man of suburban area who does the hard work for his family but leads a monotonous life where no one to converse with him, to understand his feelings and to look after him.
The poem consists of two stanzas of first stanza is of 12 lines and second stanza is of 13 lines. It is a free verse where there is no rhyme and no rhythm.The poem is very symbolic the very structure of the poem is also symbolic as the lack of rhythm is symbolises that the poet’s father was uncared for life. The language is easy and simple but full of imagery and symbolism. It is in first person narrative where the poet himself is the speaker who narrates the isolated life and monotonous routine of his father. The prominent figures of speech in the poem are Alliteration, Simile and Onomatopoeia. The poet expresses his feelings for his old father, but every old father has almost same condition so we can take moral from the poem that 'we must look after the elderly members in our family and society' I like the poem very much as it depicts the real picture of monotony and lethargic life of the elderly hard working person in the modern society.