International Journal on Multicultural Literature (IJML) (eBook)

K. V. Dominic’s Winged Reason: A Portrait of Social Realism

D. C. Chambial

Abstract: K. V. Dominic in his maiden collection of poems Winged Reason exhibits his penchant for social themes such as religious harmony, poverty, corruption, suffering, human cruelty, mafia crime, old age problem of aloofness, misappropriation of money, haves and havenots, problems of the handicaps, female foeticide, the evil of dowry, corruption, disparity, unemployment and neglect of intellect in India. In addition to these themes, the poet has also taken care of dignity of labour, service unto humanity as service unto God, maternity, and beauty. Dominic’s poetry projects him as a social realist and champion of the down-trodden concentrating particularly on his own state, and obliquely on humanity in general.

Keywords: Social Realism, Human Suffering, Dignity of Labour, Ecology, Economic Disparity, Religious Discrimination, Social Harmony

Prof. K.V. Dominic, a versatile teacher, editor, poet and critic—all in one—is well-known in the field of Indian English literature as ex-editor of Indian Journal of Post Colonial Literatures (IJPCL). He is now the Secretary of Guild of Indian English Writers, Editors and Critics (GIEWEC) and editor of its biannual refereed journal, Writers Editors Critics (WEC). He is also the editor and publisher of the refereed biannual International Journal on Multicultural Literature (IJML). Dominic has also emerged as a poet of social realism in the debut volume of his poems—Winged Reason (2010). This paper aims to study his poems in the present volume for his social concern.

K. V. Dominic, like professor Shiv K. Kumar, is also a “late bloomer” in the world of Indian English poetry. In this very first volume of poems, he exhibits his penchant for social themes such as religious harmony, poverty, corruption, suffering, human cruelty, mafia crime, old age problem of aloofness, misappropriation of money, haves and have-nots, problems of the handicaps, female foeticide, the evil of dowry, corruption, disparity, unemployment and neglect of intellect in India. In addition to these themes, the poet has also taken care of dignity of labour, service unto humanity as service unto God, maternity, and beauty.

POEMS ABOUT HUMAN SUFFERING

In ‘A Nightmare’ (22-23), the poet presents a comparison of the haves and have-nots. On the one hand, he pictures those who have things aplenty, and on the other, those, who don’t have even the bare minimums of things that sustain life. The protagonist of the poem thinks himself to be “a hawk hovering in the sky.” In his flight, he, first of all, sees “an obese boy / whose mother was beating him to eat more.” Whereas in the nearby hut lived a famished child “crying for a crumb.” Then the hawk moves to another sight of a “lavish wedding feast” full of “rich delicacies” being enjoyed “by the pompous guests.” Outside “the town hall”, he saw “two ragged girls … / struggling with the dogs in the garbage bin” to find something to eat to keep their bodies and souls together. The poet juxtaposes affluence and dearth.

Thereafter, the hawk moves to a “public School” where the teacher has made a poor boy stand in the verandah in “the humid weather of forty degrees” for not wearing a tie. The hawk’s wings take him to a spectacle where a large number of men, looking like ants, were standing outside a wine shop “run by government.” What gave him the greatest surprise was that even the beggars stood there in that line for wine. The poet wants to show how the people squander their money on wine while poor women stand in a long line and wait for their turn for rations. This also shows men’s wasting money on wine and women suffering for their concern for the family. The male folks’ concern is limited to their enjoyment of themselves with wine, while women sacrifice their comforts for the sake of their homes and families.

He, then, describes another scene where the “public water tap” flows incessantly wasting the water and there are some taps that remain dry. The protagonist’s heart goes out for the poor people of the neighbourhood who wait and wait for water for hours in vain. In the next stanza, the poet gives pictorial description of rich people living in luxurious buildings in their old age and their wards gone to foreign lands; in the adjoining slum live three generations together in the same room. This poem is a picture of opulence and scarcity to focus the attention of the governments: state and centre that seem to have become blind to the needs of the needy.

‘Anand’s Lot’ (26-27) is about the child-pickers. They pick up young children and force them into begging. Anand is one such young boy. The poet begins by telling how jubilant and happy he was while living with his parents. Every day his mom loved him. He looked smart in his school uniform. One day, while going to school along with his other school-mates, suddenly, a car stops beside him, picks him up and whisks away to some unknown place. Now begins the saga of his suffering. When he tries to call for help, while being taken away, a man with whiskers gags his voice with a towel. Ultimately, he is taken to “a house and shut in a room.” He is given dry bread to eat and made to sleep on cold and hard floor. After some time, he is again taken in a car to a strange city and dressed in torn clothes. He is threatened to be killed if he dared defy their orders. Then the boy narrates his pitiful tale in these words:

These lines reveal the abject condition in which such children have to live. Though this may not be a real story, yet a simulation of the lives of a number of such other children lifted by these gangs and forced into begging. Their dream of a life full of modern amenities turns into a life of hell. Dry, cold bread and stinky clothes, what they hate, are thrust upon them. Such children, often, wonder about their parents, if they still remember them. A host of human atrocities are heaped on them: “Go to the shops and beg or I’ll kill you.” This becomes the fate of the apples of their parents’ eye. Their dreams are shattered. They have no choice except begging and living a wretched life. The poet, in this poem, seeks enactment of government measures to stop such evil and unsocial activities and enforce law to bring to book such gangs.

‘Gayatri’s Solitude’ is about the loneliness of a lady, who is already eighty years old. She has five children living in the United States of America. She, in her old age, lives in an “old-age home” as there is none to look after her in her palatial home that her children have built in the town. Her children live under an illusion that “their mother is cozy.” This old lady suffers solitude despite all the things of this world at her call. She has lost appetite and sleep. Her pathetic condition finds expression in these lines:

Her utmost misery, due to estrangement from her children and grand-children, is described in these lines: “The depth of maternal love, / and the pangs of separation / no child can gauge” (32).

Certainly, children are never aware of the agony of maternity until they themselves get singed in the same fire. This poem throw light on the suffering of the aged people living an estrange life.

The poem, ‘Tsunami Camps’, deals with the sufferings of people during Tsunami. They are made to live in camps, in shelters built of GI Sheets, in scorching heat. Despite the fact that people donate a large sum to provide relief during such natural calamities, a huge portion of it “is hoarded in the government exchequer, / or diverted for some other purposes.” This is how the government misappropriates the money so received and plays with the sympathies of the people/donors. Life in camps is so miserable that they prefer death to life. They lament: “”It is better to kill us than to torture like this.” They get neither sufficient food, nor drinking water. The last couplet of the poem sums up the plight of the Tsunami sufferers: “Unending wails and unending sobs; / not even gods listen to their cries.” They feel that neither the government, nor the God listens to their woeful cries. It is an unending tale of their suffering. In this poem, the poet satirises government’s apathy for the sufferers and misappropriation of the money received for the purpose.

‘Old Age’ describes the woes of the old people: at this age body weakens and one becomes dependent on others even for one’s personal needs before death. In one’s old age, even one’s dearest children “turn ungrateful. / They hate and curse / And never care.” Old age is contemptible, but it is the truth of life and cannot be evaded. All those who live up to old age have to bear with its ignominies. This poem pleads care from children whom...