Summary of and Critical Analysis of the poem A Hot Noon in
Malabar
Summary of the Poem:
The poetess recalls some of her experiences in her Malabar home at noon-time in the course of her
life. She looks back at those experiences fondly and longingly. How fascinating, peaceful, and
carefree was the past. She remembers of the hot noon-time when all sorts of persons used to pass by
her house. Some of them were sellers who used to cry to sell their things. They brought all sorts of
things. For selling their things they cried loudly in harsh voices. In their crying they told the qualities
of their things. The poetess first thinks of the beggars who used to come to her house for begging
alms. Some of them were in very pathetic condition. While begging alms, they spoke in their
particular voices. Their voices express their discontentment with their present lives and their vital
need for charity. Next she remembers the fortune tellers who came from the hills with the cages of
the parrots and colourful fortune cards. Due to using the fortune cards for a long time, they (cards)
were stained. Then she recalls the Kurawa girls who sold the future of their customers by reading
their palm lines. While examining the palms of their customers, they told their future in monotonous
voices. They repeated the same words. The sentences used by them greatly lacked in variety. With
the help of their long practice and experience, they were able to satisfy the curiosity of their
customers. They had known a lot about human psychology and nature. The poetess then recalls the
bangle sellers who settled great distance to sell their bangles. They wandered from village to village
and town to town selling their bangles of various colours such as red, green and blue. They walked
on foot miles and miles of the dusty roads. Due to walking on the rough paths, their heels had cracked
and they felt great pain. The dust froze on their clothes and bangles. Due to making long journey,
they were badly tired. They passed by the houses to sell their bangles to the girls and the women.
When they tried to climb the portico, they felt great difficulty. They used to spread their colourful
bangles on the floor before the girls and the women. Next she recalls of the strangers who used to
pass by her house and peep into her house through the window curtains, but they could see nothing
because the rooms of the house were dark while their eyes carried the heat and the brightness of
sunlight in them. The strangers wanted shelter to escape from the excessive heat of the Sun and to
rest for some time, so they expected some hospitality from the owner of the house and other members.
When they got no response from the house, they moved towards the brick lodged well to quench their
thirst and get some rest from the heat of the Sun. All they were strange people, and had a kind of wild
look in their eyes. They did not speak much, but when they spoke, their voices were always jungle
voices. It was all the more a torture for her now, because these noons reminded her of other long past
noons which were equally hot, but when she was happy and loved. In the present everything seems
dirty, filthy, and unfamiliar, unlike the past when everything was familiar, innocent and pure.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
Introduction:
The poem entitled A Hot Noon in Malabar was first published in the poetess's first anthology Summer
in Calcutta, in the year 1965. This poem deals with a theme similar to My Grandmother's House. It
also deals with the nostalgic yearning of the poetess for happy and love filled childhood and the
family home in Malabar. Like other poems in Summer in Calcutta, this poem scatters its fallout of
heat, sweat and weariness over the heat, urban modes, vital heat, urban sophistication.
Thought-Content:
Kamala Das recalls some of her experiences in her Malabar home at noon-time in the course of life
there. She looks back at those experiences fondly and longingly. She recalls the beggars who used to
come to her house to beg alms in their characteristic voices expressive of their discontent with life
and their need for charity. Next she thinks of the men who came from the hills with parrots in a cage
and fortune- cards, all stained because of the long time during which those cards had been used again
and again. Then she thinks of the brown-complexioned girls who belonged to the community of
basket- makers and makers of bird-catching traps. These girls were a common sight in Malabar.
These girls told the future of their customers by seeing the lines of their palms. Next she thinks of
the bangle sellers who walked miles and miles of the dusty roads in order to sell their bangles of
various colours. Next she thinks of the strangers who used to come and peep into her house through
the window- curtains, but they could see nothing because their eyes were filled with excessive heat
of the sun and the brightness of the sunlight. They (strangers) expected the sympathy and hospitality
from the members of the home. They wanted to get shelter for some time in that home, but when they
got no response, they turned to the well to satisfy their extremely thirst and to have some rest. The
poetess experiences an intense longing to go back there and to look at all those men at whom she
used to look during her life there. The feeling that she is now so far away from that home is a torture
and unfamiliar, unlike the past when everything was familiar, innocent and pure.
The Use of Realistic Imagery:
In the present poem, we get a whole catalogue of the sights which Kamala Das had beheld when she
used to live there. She has depicted men and women who passed that house or visited it. Those men
and women included beggars, fortune-tellers, Kurawa girls offering to read palms, bangle sellers
carrying their wares, and strangers who sought shelter or aid of some other kind. The imagery is
perfectly realistic and, therefore, imparts the quality of authenticity to the poem. The realism of the
imagery is enhanced by such details as the bangle-sellers being covered with the dust of the roads
and the cracks on their heels, and also by a reference to the 'brick-ledged well".
Style and Language:
In the choice of words, Kamala Das exercises a special cure; and her words and the combination of
those words into phrases, clauses and sentences, she shows a rare understanding of the meanings, the
appropriateness, and the subtleties of words. In the poem, some of the phrases including a couple of
similes show the verbal felicities which Kamala Das is capable of devising in her poem. 'The bangle-
sellers' feel 'devouring rough miles', the hot eyes of the bangle-sellers 'brimming with the sun', and
the strangers who rarely spoke so that when they did speak, their voices ran wild 'like jungle-voices'
are among the verbal felicities here. The feeling of home-sickness has effectively been expressed in
the words: 'To be here, far away, is torture. The poem is characterised by the maximum possible
economy in use of words. The poetess is capable to write rhythmic lines, though not using any rhyme.
The use of commas, whenever they are needed in this poem, certainly contributes to its clarity.
Her Feeling of Alienation, Irony and Pathos:
Summer heat is a torture to the poetess but it reminds her of hot summer noons which she experienced
in the family home in Malabar. How happy she was then! Everything seemed to be familiar and
intimate, innocent and pure. But now everything is strange and conveys a feeling of alienation and
horror. She yearns for the bygone time, for summer noons in her old family home in Malabar. But
the pathos and irony lie in the fact that despite her passionate yearning for the old family home, she
cannot relive the past. She has to live in the unpleasant and horrible present.
