PU - I - ENGLISH - AN OLD WOMAN - ARUN KOLATKAR - POEM - SUMMARY IN ENGLISH

 

PU - 1- English An Old Woman Poem Summary

Arun Kolatkar

 Line by Line Explanation in English Class 11th

An old woman gets the sleeve of a traveller ( tourist) and follows him. A 'fifty paise coin' is what she needs. She promises to show him 'the horseshoe shrine' in return for the coin. The traveller leaves since he has previously seen the shrine. The old woman 'tightens her grip' and 'stumbles' along, declining to give up. Not entirely settled. She grips to him like a thorny seed pod that sticks to dress, a 'burr.'

Irritated by her determination, the traveller decides to 'end the farce' with an 'air of finality,' proclaiming that he wouldn't submit to her and, accordingly, stopping the 'farce.' He accepts that his stiff-necked reaction will drive her off. In any case, the elderly person's statement - 'what else could an old woman do to survive on these wretched hills' - raises the narrator around town like a flash of light. The narrator can 'see' her very close due to the harsh truth that stands up to him. He is shocked when he goes to look at her face. He finds that his eyes are like deep 'bullet holes'.

Her skin is wrinkly, and breaks (cracks) around her eyes and her skin seemed to grow. Everything appeared to be disintegrating around him. The atmosphere then goes through an enormous change. A disaster has happened. The sky plunges as the hills breakdown, the temples break. The old woman, then again, remains as an image of all over decay.

The traveler goes through an emotional change at exactly the same second when the woman remains alone. He is humiliated. He has been diminished to a bit (smidgen) of progress in the heartland. His confidence is diminished because of this understanding. The picture of the woman as somebody who is just irritating the tourists for money has changed in the mind of the speaker.

He presently understands that this woman not entirely settled and likes to acquire her life all alone. His spiritual arousing to 'real' causes him to feel 'irrelevant,' similar as the penny in her palm. The end of the poem states that not a single person should be judged or underestimated.