Summary and Analysis of Father Returning Home by Dilip ChitreStanza 1: The first stanza of Father Returning Home describes the train journey of his father while returning home one evening. The father stands among commuters in the yellow light of a local compartment. The poet describes his father’s reaction against the sights of the suburbs that pass by. His father remains unmoved by the sights because they are too familiar to him. That is quite normal, isn’t it? We hardly pay attention to those places where we travel every day, unless the place has something interesting to offer. Same was with the poet’s father. The poet then describes his father’s pathetic condition, as he travels during the rainy season. His clothes become damp and dirty. The black raincoat that he wears becomes stained with mud. His bag crumbles with the heavy load of the books.Due to old age, the poet’s father’s eyesight has become poor and therefore he finds difficulty to move about in the dark. The poet says that he can see his father getting down the train ‘like a word dropped from a long sentence.’ The sentence is highly unique and it provides an evocative image of an old man who gets down from the train as if he is no longer relevant to it. The poet then sees his father hurrying through the long, grey platform. The man seems to be as old as the platform, who has been using it as a part of his routine. He crosses the railway tracks and hurries home through muddy lanes on a rainy day. This is indicated by his chappals which are sticky with mud. This stanza portrays the monotonousness of the old man, who sustains the vagaries of weather as well as the estrangement from the man-made. Stanza 2: The second stanza, the poet represents the alienation of his father that he experiences in his own dwelling. The poet tells us that his father drinks a weak tea and eats a stale chapatti when he comes back home. This shows that the even his basic requirements are not properly carried out by his family. A sense of pity for the poet’s father arises in us, what do you think? The father is then seen going into a contemplative mood after reading some kind of a philosophical book. He goes to the toilet and contemplates over man’s alienation from the man-made world. This exhibits that the man is visibly upset with his predicament. He is terribly shaken when he comes out of the toilet and trembles while he washes his hands at the wash basin. It seems that he trembled not only because of the cold water but also due to the thoughts that came into his mind while he was thinking in the toilet. The father finds himself all alone in his room as he is written off by his children. The children do not interact with their father; they do not share their joys or sorrows with him. To compensate their company, the father listens to the radio. Then he goes to sleep. In his sleep, he dreams about his ancestors and grandchildren. Trisha September 12, 2013 ISC Poems, Poem Analysis (by Poet), Poets with initials A to E Dilip Purushottam Chitre was one of the foremost Indian writers and critics of the post Independence India. Apart from a being a writer, he was also a painter and a filmmaker. He graduated from the University of Bombay in 1959. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award (1994) for his Marathi book of poems Ekun Kavita. Father Returning Home is a short and appealing poem about an old man in a cosmopolitan city where his own sons and daughters treat him as an alien. He himself is estranged from the man-made world. Through this poem, Chitre has denounced the urban rootlessness and alienation. Summary and Analysis of Father Returning Home by Dilip Chitre Stanza 1: The first stanza of Father Returning Home describes the train journey of his father while returning home one evening. The father stands among commuters in the yellow light of a local compartment. The poet describes his father’s reaction against the sights of the suburbs that pass by. His father remains unmoved by the sights because they are too familiar to him. That is quite normal, isn’t it? We hardly pay attention to those places where we travel every day, unless the place has something interesting to offer. Same was with the poet’s father. The poet then describes his father’s pathetic condition, as he travels during the rainy season. His clothes become damp and dirty. The black raincoat that he wears becomes stained with mud. His bag crumbles with the heavy load of the books.Due to old age, the poet’s father’s eyesight has become poor and therefore he finds difficulty to move about in the dark. Father Returning Home focuses on the theme of alienation or estrangement experienced by the aged in their twilight years. The children do not interact with their father. Then he goes to sleep. who is isolated from his family as well as from the outside world. they do not share their joys or sorrows with him. The poet then sees his father hurrying through the long. He is terribly shaken when he comes out of the toilet and trembles while he washes his hands at the wash basin. The father finds himself all alone in his room as he is written off by his children. Style: Dilip Chitre’s poetry follows the tradition of dramatic monologue. we get to know the alienation. especially in cities. It seems that he is trying to communicate with his ancestors who had entered the subcontinent through the Khyber Pass in the Himalayas in the past. This exhibits that the man is visibly upset with his predicament. In his sleep. isolation and misery experienced by elderly people. To compensate their company. what do you think? The father is then seen going into a contemplative mood after reading some kind of a philosophical book. devoid of any human contact. He has brought out the emotions of his father. This is indicated by his chappals which are sticky with mud. the poet talks about his father’s loneliness and alienation from the man-made world. Imagery in the poem: The poet uses some fine imagery to describe the lurking loneliness in the man’s soul as he travels in the local train. He crosses the railway tracks and hurries home through muddy lanes on a rainy day. Have you ever felt so alienated like this old man in Father Returning Home? Theme: The poem. the father listens to the radio.’ The sentence is highly unique and it provides an evocative image of an old man who gets down from the train as if he is no longer relevant to it. He goes to the toilet and contemplates over man’s alienation from the man-made world. To convey the ‘twilight atmosphere’ the poet has used a number of . In the poem Father Returning Home. Dilip Chitre talks about his own father and through the poem. This shows that the even his basic requirements are not properly carried out by his family. It seems that he trembled not only because of the cold water but also due to the thoughts that came into his mind while he was thinking in the toilet. The poet tells us that his father drinks a weak tea and eats a stale chapatti when he comes back home. 00:00 Share Playlist Link Copy to clipboard: Ctrl+C / Cmd+C Embed Copy to clipboard: Ctrl+C / Cmd+C Click here to Subscribe to Beamingnotes YouTube channel The poet says that he can see his father getting down the train ‘like a word dropped from a long sentence. He has painted the mundane and fatiguing routine of his father in order to highlight the darkness and misery lurking inside his father’s soul. who has been using it as a part of his routine. This stanza portrays the monotonousness of the old man. The dream mirrors that the old man is either thinking about his past (his ancestors) or his future (his grandchildren). who sustains the vagaries of weather as well as the estrangement from the man-made. he dreams about his ancestors and grandchildren. grey platform. A sense of pity for the poet’s father arises in us. the poet represents the alienation of his father that he experiences in his own dwelling. The man seems to be as old as the platform. It is a kind of relief to him from his mundane routine. Stanza 2: The second stanza. returning home from work in the Indian city of Mumbai. it signifies his feelings that he has suppressed in himself and cannot express openly. like evening train.The uniqueness of the image lies in the highly evocative visual picture of an old man dropping off from the train as though he is no longer relevant to the train which will now move forward with other people to their destinations .gray platform. the utter alienation he is experiencing in the twilight years (man’s estrangement from a man-made world) as he ceases to matter to his children who no longer share anything with him. He dreams about his ancestors and his grandchildren. fade homeward and gray platform.The old man is just a word in the syntax of life. through the racial conscious. which occurs in the poem again and again. Therefore. . yellow light. The imagery of dream has been used to show the connection the poet’s father has with his past and his future. All the while he is trying to evoke. the invisible connection with his ancestors who had entered the sub-continent through the Khyber Pass in the Himalayas in some distant past (the allusion is perhaps to the migration of the Aryans to the Indian subcontinent from Central Asia). This imagery is used to depict the monotonousness and meaninglessness in the father’s life. He speaks about the loneliness that his father goes through in his everyday life. Above all we may look at the dexterous use of words to convey the “twilight” atmosphere in the poem : evening train. his eyes dimmed by age fade homeward . Don’t be a silent reader. The poet says that he can see his father getting down the train ‘like a word dropped from a long sentence.descriptive words in the poem. is highlighted.’ The sentence is highly unique and it provides an evocative image of an old man who gets down from the train as if he is no longer relevant to it. An example of imagery is found in the following lines describing the father’s routine of travelling by a local train. Dilip Chitre and Father Returning Home Father Returning Home focuses on a certain individual. the pathos of an old father. The sentence that is long enough to carry several words forward each contributing to its overall meaning now drops off one stray word. unseeing eyes. The other interesting image is the eyes and vision. The poem speaks about the inner loneliness of the poet’s father. his eyes dimmed by age. a thought or two would be appreciated. The poet uses some fine imagery to describe the pain and misery lurking in the old man’s soul as he travels in the local train . yellow light. which is no longer required. The poem draws a picture of the poet’s father. returning to his mundane home late in the evening. we can conclude that the poem Father Returning Home is autobiographical in nature. Thus. A wonderful image is used to describe his getting down from the train: Like a word dropped from a long sentence . The suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes is a pretty image. a commuting father. although it could be any large city anywhere in the world.His bag stuffed with books is falling apart refers to the state of the old man’s mind which has turned senile after all that knowledge it has acquired through years of dedicated study.- “My father travels on the late evening train Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light Suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes His shirt and pants are soggy and his black raincoat Stained with mud and his bag stuffed with books Is falling apart. The second one is his eyes dimmed by age fade homeward. unseeing eyes . A wonderful image is used to describe poet’s father getting down the train.” In the above mentioned lines. Father Returning Home: about the poem Father Returning Home by Dilip Chitre is probably the most famous poem by this Indian poet. . even after being the lone bread-earner for the family. he is returning home standing on the foot-board. The yellow light is not the best thing either to promote any cheerfulness. ‘Late evening train’ may indicate how long the father works so that it regularly gets that late for him to return home. It is now an account of any old man who does the hard work for his family but leads a monotonous life where no one is there to take care of him. critic. is rather gloomy and pessimistic. to converse with him or to understand his feelings. The poet has also been influenced by this city: “Mumbai figures in my early Marathi and English poetry in different ways and at several levels. and perhaps it had a great influence upon his career. I perceived the metropolis in juxtaposition with primordial nature as perceived in my childhood. Father Returning Home: Line by line analysis My father travels on the late evening train The poem begins with the speaker’s description of his father’s travelling home. There is little emotion shown as the father ends another day at work and hurries back to a house that is not altogether a home. the speaker closely observing the actions of the unhappy protagonist.The atmosphere within the poem. Dilip himself went on to publish one named Shabda along with Arun Kolatkar and Ramesh Samarth. There was a discord. the generation gap. It is an autobiographical poem where the poet shows the loneliness and world-weariness of an old man in the modern society by depicting a picture of his own father returning home from work. his father.the father has become a figure of pathos and has lost his raison d'etre. Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light The father is standing among the silent passengers in the yellow light inside the train compartment. The ‘silent commuters’ are not friendly enough to converse with him or among themselves. is said to be the inspiration for this poem as he migrated from his birth town of Baroda to Mumbai to try and better his life. His father used to publish an important periodical Abhiruchi. Dilip Chitre: about the poet Dilip Purushottam Chitre (1938-2008) was a notable Indian poet." In the poem life is not so easy any longer . old age in a modern society. The language is easy and simple but full of symbolic expressions and poetic devices like simile. It is written in free verse with no particular meter or rhyme scheme followed. Purushottam Chitre. After working so hard. This line is indicative of his sufferings during the journey. Read more about him at Wikipedia. as he doesn’t get a seat there to relax. painter and filmmaker of the modern era. The poem consists of two stanzas of 12 lines each. The father is travelling in a late evening train after finishing his work for the day. It is in first person narrative where the poet-speaker narrates how his father returns home and what he does thereafter. The major themes include: alienation. Dilip Chitre. But the poem ‘Father Returning Home’ has gone beyond its autobiographical significance. The poem is a true account of the poet’s father Purushottam Chitre’s life in 1957 when they moved from Baroda to Mumbai. isolation. He realized how neglected and uncared-for his father was. And the lack of rhythm is symbolic of the poet’s father’s uncared-for life. His Ekun Kavita or Collected Poems were published in the nineteen nineties in three volumes. narrated by a son or daughter. taps into his own father's biography and creates a powerful and imagistic poem. The poem is expressive of the poet’s feeling for his father at a later stage. rootlessness. All these things further intensify his agony and make the journey monotonous. There was a sense of manmade alienation that haunted me. He also edited An Anthology of Marathi Poetry (1945–1965). He was one of the most important figures behind the “little magazine movement” of the sixties in Marathi. painter and film-maker as well as poet. cultural identity. Suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes The suburbs are sliding past the moving train. Moreover. His eyes dimmed by age fade homeward through the humid monsoon night. enters the lane. A few droplets cling to the greying hairs on his wrists. Now the poet gives us an impression of his father’s age. The toilet seems to be the only place the man has to go to contemplate over his loneliness. His sullen children have often refused to share Jokes and secrets with him. The cold water running over his brown hands. The father looks homeward with his low vision through the humid monsoon night. The poet hints at how nobody cares for him even at home. The speaker observed him trembling at the sink when cold water was running down his brown hands. . The poet sees his father reach home again like the other days. But the hope is diminished as he reaches and finds the same indifference there. It does not really make any difference whether he got down or not. The bag he was carrying was stuffed with books and he was struggling to handle it. Now I can see him getting off the train Like a word dropped from a long sentence. Coming out he trembles at the sink. The father is indeed aware of his estranged situation and hopes to find some support in the family when he hurries towards his home. He goes into the toilet to contemplate Man’s estrangement from a man-made world. He is not that relevant to the rest of the world. He just wants some solace at his own home. His father’s dresses are all wet with the rain water and the black raincoat is damaged with mud. not that unimportant that one would think from his ordinary routine journey. The second stanza of the poem Father Returning Home begins here. He says that his father gets down just like a word dropped from a long sentence. He crosses the grey platform and the railway line and finally enters the lane. The gloomy atmosphere also adds to the dullness of his life. It gets even worse in the rainy season. But the poet’s father has no intention to look at those. Here Dilip Chitre has used a fine simile in comparing his father to an unimportant word in a long sentence. His trembling might be due to his old age. Home again. He hurries across the length of the grey platform. But the man does not have any complain with his tea or food. This is quite unique. A few drops of water clinging to the grey hairs on his wrists may have some greater implication. His chappals are sticky with mud. grey platform and muddy streets where no one would care for him. he rather concentrates on reading a book while having his tea. The poet has used the word ‘hurries’ twice to bring in a sense of escapism from the dull humid atmosphere. Crosses the railway line. In this stanza the poet depicts the isolation of his father in his own home. The poet indicates how unimportant his father is to the crowd in the train. He is unmoved by these scenes. These lines are again indicative of the difficulties poet’s father has to face during his journey. The father comes out from the toilet and goes to wash his hands at the wash basin. The poet’s father gets down from the train. His eyesight is dimmed by his old age. The black raincoat might indicate the lack of colour in his dull life. reading a book. So. Eating a stale chapati. Again his bag full of books hints that he was an educated and scholarly man. His ‘sticky with mud’ chappals can’t prevent him hurrying onward. as he is used to it. but he hurries onward. Then he sees him drink weak tea and eat a stale chapati. Now the speaker’s father goes into the toilet with a thought of how men become isolated from the man-made world. And this line nearly sums up the theme of the entire poem. He has probably given up on expecting more care form his family members. So the sliding landscapes also add to the sense of monotony. for he has seen those many a times and finds nothing new or interesting in it. As we see. I see him drinking weak tea. the toilet might act as a symbol of how small his world has been. His shirt and pants are soggy and his black raincoat Stained with mud and his bag stuffed with books Is falling apart. Water generally symbolizes life and grey hairs stand for the old age. the coldness of the water and also the fearful thought of his isolation from the rest of the world. After getting off the train the father hurries towards his home. This life has no significance to anyone else. the old man’s life is just holding on to his old age. Now the poet makes us know that it was a rainy day. his message is well delivered here. When we first see the old man. This is a common theme in literature all the world over. Rather they regard him as an outdated. It is an attempt to escape from his mundane routine-life devoid of human contact. When the old man comes home after a tiring day at work. thinking Of nomads entering a subcontinent through a narrow pass. dreaming Of his ancestors and grandchildren. they don’t share a close and friendly association with their father. Background Dilip Chitre is one of best known poets. he dabbled in painting and film making too. This poem has given the poet a lot of respect and popularity through all these years. Others have said that this poem is about the increasing alienation of the older generation and a father who feels increasingly lonely in his world and with his family who no longer relate to him. his grandchildren and of the Aryans. unwanted burden. The tragedy of the old man is not unique but one that is seen commonly in cosmopolitan cities. However. Ironically. Most of his writing is centered on Mumbai where a lack of security or a sense of belonging and alienation were problems encountered by people who came to the city in search of livelihood. Now the poet goes on to talk about the old man’s relationship to his family members. the poem ‘Father Returning Home’ by Dilip Chitre sympathises with the old neglected people in our society. giving another reference to the old man’s miserable life. he is travelling home in . No doubt. the people entering the Indian subcontinent through the Khyber Pass in the ancient time. That said. He will now go to sleep Listening to the static on the radio. Now this modern world has no place for the elderly people. though he seems to be the only earning member of the family. has no one to think about their loneliness or care for them. independent India has produced. His bad- tempered children refuse to share jokes and secrets with him. Having somewhat succeeded his children have grown up to be different to him and their more affluent background means that feel they cannot relate to him. We are in the final stage of the poem where we see the father going to sleep listening to the radio and thinking of many things like his ancestors. He wrote in both English and Marathi which was his mother tongue. Again. I actually see this as a poem about a dedicated father who has worked his skin to the bone in order to drag his family up from the gutters. Summary The shabby old man is the archetype of the individual who faces alienation in society. This estrangement is reflected even in his relations with his family. Nevertheless I see a sense of pride in where the father has helped him family go and recognising his role in the rise and success of his bloodline. there is no one to care for him or engage him in conversation. Overview I interpreted this completely differently to the majority of analysis I read before creating this post. Metaphorical Inference The theme of this poem is modern man’s estrangement with the manmade world. The sound of the radio is even noisy (static). Apart from writing poetry. the manmade world teams with people but man grows more and more remote from those around him. Thus. but I will give you both interpretations. his dreaming of his ancestors and grandchildren gives the impression that he finds some solace in thinking about his past and future generation. his thought of the Aryans may indicate that he is thinking of how the society has changed since the ancient times when they had come here. He is well beyond the age to work but he plods on as he needs to earn money. The description of the old man emphasizes his weariness and isolation. Even his thoughts on man’s estrangement in the modern world have to be in the privacy of his toilet without an audience. His departure from the train is also unremarkable.the crowded train sandwiched by other silent commuters. . the old man watches the city flying past. It is only when he sleeps that he has animated dreams. He has a family but they do not bother to bring any mirth or joy into his life. Dressed in soiled clothes marked by the dirt and squalor of the teeming city in the intense conditions of the monsoon. he dreams of his country being run over by the conquering hordes of nomads. No one notices his entry into the house as he is left to drink his tepid tea and eat his chapatti in silence. “like a word dropped from a long sentence”.
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