Critical Commentary: Minnie - Essay Example

Minnie Little Minnie with dimpled smile Very fair and really rare. Ahsweet and cute. At age of four, responsible and answerable Bonnie boy is here,You are the 'Big Sis'. Compromises, compromises. all the childhood days. (Oh, sis you are a girl!) Minnie with stunning curls, Wedding bells and diamond ring. Those moonlight rides, loving glances very short and obsolete. Wise woman, wake up Adjustments, readjustments Elation, but mostly in depression. (prudent woman, respect man!) Minnie at senescence, Granny, of a little child, With age spots and snowy hair She often cries. Water, water give some, there is a long time, for his son to come. Compromises, adjustments At the end of age. Critical Commentary: No matter by what extent the humanity makes progress towards a better life, the societal norms yet to see some amendments. Today, even there are societies where man and woman are not considered to be equal in all perspectives. Male dominance is widely prevalent making the issue of gender bias a global concern now. This poem "Minnie" is set in a society where the women folk are considered to be the weaker section and are always suppressed. The melancholic tone of the poem is evident by seeing the pains, depressions of a woman described in the three stanzas of it. Gross gender discrimination is explicitly stated in every stanza. In the first stanza it is described about how the "sweet and cute" little Minnie becomes a responsible sister "at the age of four". In spite of her tender age since a baby boy is borne after her she has to take care of him. The line 'you are the big sis' connotes that the caring attitude and attention of the elders is now diverted from the girl child to the baby boy. Not only that, the girl is considered as big enough to take care of her little brother. The girl succumbs to the pressure of the elders and makes "compromises" throughout her childhood. Here "compromises" means the character Minnie has abandoned her rights of being loved and cared in her playful days for the reason that she is borne as a girl child and there is a boy already there who deserves more attention as per social norms. The second stanza provides a good continuity to the narration where Minnie, the character of the poem is in her youthful years. By the line "Wedding bells and diamond ring" it is intended that a girl in her nubile age can be of very romantic and contemplative about the beauties of everything. She dreams of love, romance, and an understanding life partner. The beautiful days, she dreamt of are not so long lasting for her. After marriage she hears from everybody that she has grown up to a "wise woman" and she should make adjustments with her husband, with the in-laws and with every situation. The line "Prudent Woman, respect man" is intended to the voice of the society which clearly speaks of male dominance and their presence at the helm of affairs. The allusion of male chauvinism can be very well deciphered from the above line. The third stanza typically describes the plight of woman particularly during her old age. Minnie is now completely alone. She has her children but has been deserted by all. Though she has poured her love, affection to all members of her family but those are hardly remembered by them. A widow who has not learned to face the challenges of the outer world often cries in the lone life. But what she can do except accepting the situation as they are and making compromises. The poem reiterates the prevalence of gender discrimination in the contemporary society, where woman has to take a backseat in the social hierarchy. Least importance is being given to their cause and comfort. Throughout their life they suffer by adjusting to the adverse situations. A Short Story: Independence Day It was an early awakening for Zayed. He sat and looked at his Grandpa's photograph. Usually, he wakes at six (of course after Mama's yelling), keeps his bedding and sleeping mat in proper place, brushes in few seconds and goes out to bring a pouch of milk. Everyday Zayed used to remember his Dada's (Grandpa) smiling face with a very few number of teeth. The way he used to call him and give him a tight hug, often comes to his mind. Grandpa had told him about his country, country men, freedom struggle and independence. After all, he was a freedom fighter himself, spent almost ten years in the jail for the independence of the country. One thing, he taught for whole of his life to everybody, to love the country and its fellowmen. Zayed's father Javed, a Mill worker by profession was the perfect successor of his Grandpa. Javed inherited all his father's qualities. Suddenly somebody rushed in that stopped Zayed's thought. "Oh Zoya, so early in the morning" said Zayed. "Don't you remember the date!" seven year old little sister asked very innocently with a big question mark in her face. Zayed denied with a smile, very mischievously. How can he forget these dates! They celebrate it with great gaiety. There are very few occasions when the siblings get chance to wear new clothes, eat delicious dishes and have fun and frolic, and tomorrow is such a date; Fifteenth August, the Independence Day. As today, the day before the Independence Day, is a Sunday, happiness has been doubled. Kids have no school and they will get more time for tomorrow's preparation. Today Zoya accompanied her brother for fetching milk and they strolled for the junction. It was a small gathering place of milkmen and some vendors selling tea, biscuits, bananas etc. They met some of their friends there and both invited them for tomorrow's celebration. Even the milkman, Jamir with his four year old daughter Juhi was also invited to the ceremony. Zayed knew Jamir uncle from his childhood. He was a schoolmate of his father. Uncle's father was also a freedom fighter, who lost his life during the freedom struggle, but Uncle adopted some bad habits like liquor and drugs after which they have lost everything. He had no house to live; even his children did not get a full square meal per day. But, thank God, Uncle is trying hard these days to earn and perhaps left all his bad habits. Zayed sometimes sees Jamir uncle to discuss seriously with some strangers, may be trying to expand his business. While returning to home, the brother-sister duo made all their plans for the celebration and moved for their father to tell. Looking at the enthusiasm of his children, Javed remembers his childhood days. He was also planning like them. His Father always wanted to inculcate love and respect for the country in him. Today he feels pride for his country and loves his motherland like his mother. After discussing with children, Javed went out for work very promptly as he was very punctual and honest for his work. Looking Jamir standing near his stall, Javed did not forget to invite his old mate for the occasion. Jamir looked irritated and commented "Who says we are independent We are being looked down upon as minority community. Our fathers had fought to their last breath for the freedom of this country but what this country has given us" Javed did not like Jamir's argument and preferred to keep mum. He took leave from Jamir as he was getting late for his workplace. In the evening, Zayed was waiting with her mother and sister, for his father to come from his work, at Platform no.8 as planned. Then, they will move to big market area for shopping. A new silken flag will be bought at first, as the old cotton one is faded now. The shopping list include many number of small flags, tri colour paper sheets, badges and brooches, marker pens, color pencils, flag shaped erasers, new clothes, eatables and many more. It took almost three hours to shop. All were happy, Zayed and Zoya for the celebration and their parents for their children. They waited for the local train to come. It takes about forty five minutes to reach their home through the train. "We have to wait ten-fifteen minutes more, I think" said Javed looking at the Train time display board. Little Zoya demanded for some peanuts. Zayed was dreaming about the coming day, sitting on the bench and his mother was busy watching TV, which was hanged from the ceiling. Suddenly, Zayed heard his father's voice loudly saying to some body "Going home" Oh, it was Jamir Uncle with two other persons standing near to him. "No, no I have to go some other place" he answered with a little irritation. He was looking restless and nervous. "Perhaps uncle is bit busy" Zayed thought. "Uncle, don't forget to come tomorrow morning at seven with Juhi" said Zoya rushing to him. Jamir uncle smiled reluctantly and lost in the crowd with those two persons very quickly. As it was a day before a ceremony, platform was much more crowded than any other day. Number of trains were arriving and departing. It was announced that the train for which Zayed and his family were waiting will be late for ten minutes. "So, boring" Zoya uttered hitting her foot on the floor. Zayed was feeling tired. Her mother was busy bargaining with the vendor, selling banana. "Javed, can you do me a favour" Javed turned and saw Jamir was asking. "Please, give this bag at my home as I have to go to some other place and it will be late. Juhi's medicines are there in the bag and she needs them early" Jamir added. He handed over a small black carry bag to Javed for delivering at home and again disappeared in the crowd. At that time, two of Javed's colleagues came and asked "Who was that" Javed answered "An old friend". Finally, they heard the hooter and train arrived. It was really rush. Zayed, Zoya and their mother moved into the compartment, were many ladies were trying to get in. Keeping the big shopping bag with him Javed handed over the small carry bag of Jamir to Zayed and rushed to another compartment. With two of his colleagues, he moved inside and sat. After some seconds the train started running. Cool breeze was coming inside; Javed was feeling tired and sleepy. His eyes were closed automatically. Javed opened his eyes; he was feeling pain and was not able to see properly. A drop of something falls on his eyes. He rubbed his palms over his face and found some reddish substance. Blood!! Javed could not understand anything for a while. He saw people were running here and there. He was lying on the Platform. He was able to see the platoons of policemen deployed there. Some light flashed on his face. It was a TV journalist trying to ask him something about the bomb blast. "BOMBBLAST!!!" he could not believe his ears. Javed felt like loosing his sense for a while. After just a second, tried to stand up, but failed again and again. Finally, somebody gave him support to stand up. He was able to see the deserted train compartments. The top of the compartments were totally ripped off. He rushed forward painfully to search his family. Papers. Bags, shoes, many kinds of things were lying here and there. The place was filled with smoke and smell of burnt substances. Mangled bodies of passengers were hurled out and of the survivors, many were bleeding profusely, and some were crying and shouting, jostled to come out leading to chaotic scenes. He searched like a mad for his family but could not able to see anyone. Some persons, may be volunteers, were trying to ask him something, but he was unable to speak and stand stable. Policemen were gathering the dead bodies in one place. Suddenly, he was able to see the hand of a small kid, "God!! Zoya was completely burnt". Javed lost his sense by seeing this. It was a massive terrorist attack. About three hundred people lost their lives and thousands of people got injured. Many people lost their son, daughter, husband or wife and some lost their entire family. Javed was arrested as one of the terrorists, who caused the explosion as it was investigated that the small black carry bag was containing the bomb. Jamir was absconding but the colleagues of Javed were the eyewitnesses, whose statement made Javed arrested for the incident. Javed died of heart attack after two days. Jamir was killed in police encounter after some days. Terrorism takes and ruins people's lives leaving sorrow and grief, it has never yielded happiness. Critical Commentary: In spite of the best endeavor of all the nations to live in peace and harmony, a new but most important issue is emerging now for which the whole world is concerned is the issue of "Terrorism". This form of agitation is most dreadful and the survival of the entire mankind is at a stake on the face of this terrorism. This short story "Independence Day" describes the horrors of such a terrorist attack in which so many innocent people have lost their life and livelihood. The plot of the story speaks that how in the guise of religion and communalism people not only kill others but also kill their own friends. Jamir, the villain of the story by using his innocent friend Javed as a pawn created havoc by making blast in a local train. This plot though seems simple but depicts how happiness is being destroyed by the declining human values among few power hungry people. The entire story may be divided to two parts. In the first part the sense of patriotism in the family members of Javed has been beautifully described while in the second part how the religious fundamentalism and separatism creates terror for the innocent people has been depicted vividly. Distinction has been made between two characters of the same community, Javed and Jamir. Javed, whose father was a freedom fighter has got utmost respect for his country lives happily with his patriotic family. Zayed and Zoya the chidren of Javed are so keen to celebrate the Independence Day in a ceremonial manner brings in the feeling of patriotism in the mind of reader. On the other hand Jamir whose father lost his life in freedom struggle of the country has gone wayward and lives in a very miserable condition. Zayed, the son Javed saw Jamir to "discuss seriously with some strangers" connotes some suspicion about his character. This suspicion got strengthened when Javed invited Jamir to celebrate the Independence day at his place and got answer "Who says we are independent We are being looked down upon as minority community" On the very day at the railway platform Jamir with another two persons "was looking restless and nervous" makes the reader to believe that something bad is cooking in his mind. This bad planning in the mind of Jamir manifested in the form of bomb blast inside the local train causing havoc in the minds of people. The fate of Javed, the innocent chap was made to become doom in the story is only to give the reader an impression that in such horrified incidents often innocent people get trapped and victimized and from their peers another terrorist is created. Hence the story beautifully described the consequences of terrorism. Setting the incidence on just before the Independence Day and at a public place like railway station makes it appreciable in the present day circumstances of terrorist attacks. The story serves the purpose of spreading the message that terrorism will ruin the entire mankind if not suppressed intelligently. Read More