“Obituary” By A.K.Ramanujan

                                               “Obituary”

              A.K.Ramanujan is considered to be the greatest Indian English poet. he has written innumerable poems, throwing lights on Indian culture, custom and family life. the present poem “Obituary” is written by him. the poem appears in the book “collected poem” more specifically it appears in “book two” ‘relation’ of the same book.

                                                                                     

          In the poem “Obituary” Ramanujan reminiscence  ( to remember) his father’s death . the poem begins with the following lines :

“ Father ,, when he passed on, left dust, on a table …left debts and daughters, a bedwetting grandson…..”

            These line opening shows the list of things . which the father left behind as a legacy. the list includes the table heaped with dusty newspaper, debt, daughter etc… the speaker of the poem talk about his father and his contribution to the family. however, the father has given very less contribution in the development of the family when he died, he just left out-dated newspapers. moreover he left debts due to the lack of creativity and productivity. since daughters are considered to ne source of burden in India, it has increased tension of the speaker when his father died…… the reason is that he has to get them married . however, the speaker would have willingly accepted the responsibility of marriage , if the father had left something worthy behind his death. on contrary he left much debts to pay.

            The speaker even talks about the grandson . who is named after the father by tossing the coin. all these details shows that the father left nothing but only memories in the form of debris.

           Later in second stanza he again announces that when a father died he left-

“……….A house that leaned slowly through our growing years . . . .”

            Here, the worse situation of the speaker become quite clear. the father left a house as a part of legacy. however it is very old and broken house. the house has bent or leant on coconut  tree day by day  . it indicate the deterioration in the quality of a house as well as in life. moreover, the metaphoric use of learned house indicates that the family has to live parasitic life by borrowing from others. later the poet describes the process of cremation . he says ;

“ Being the burning type he burned properly at the cremation”

            After the burning process his eyes appeared as cons perhaps. the speaker wants to highlights that his father was money minded and materialistic. moreover the cremation process left the half-burned spinaldises .the priest advised to throw them or to immerse them in triveni  sangam . this detail indicates the importance of the immersion of dead person’s.

  

              After cremation everything gets over no tombstone was created for the father about the birth and death dates. this indicates the insignificance of person’s birth and death. even his birth and death were came very easily . since father had caesarean birth and death due to heart fail. he did not have to put in much effort. he didn’t struggle much for emancipation. death come quite easy to him in fruit market.

              Toward the conclusion of the poem the speaker talks about the triviality of human life. he says that the entre life of the father  worth nothing what he gains at last is only two lines of obituary in Madras newspaper. moreover , he got obituary in those newspapers which become out dated and dusty the next day and will be sold to the  hawkers . later the hawkers sold them to the grocers who used them to pack salt , coriander , juggery etc…… this information clearly indicates the triviality  and absurdity of whatever the father achieved.

               However, due to the death of father one thing is changed curlier the speaker used to read newspapers for fun only but after his father’s death he read newspapers in hope to find couple of obituary line for his father.

             Finally the poem concludes with the following lines;

“ …….. and he left us a changed mother and more than one of annual ritual …….”

              Till the end of the poem the list of legacy is not ended. the speaker says that in Addison to the list the father left one changed mother and one religious annual ritual . which the poet has to perform, without fail why poet calls “changed mother” is because more sensitive and emotional due to her husband’s death , so now, the poet has to take extra care of his lonely mother. secondly  he has to perform and go through one annual ritual so that father’s soul may rest in Pease.