The scarecrow

About the author

‘The scarecrow’—one among the ‘Indigo Stories’ which has horror, fantasy, adventure, magic and supernatural stories—was written by Satyajit Ray, a famous illustrator,
writer and a movie maker. Ray was a Bengali writer who won numerous awards along with the prestigious ‘DadaSaheb Phalke Award ’ and India’s highest civilian award,
‘Bharat Ratna’. Ray has had an endless fascination towards supernatural and ghost fantasies and hence his tales turn out to be of such genre.

Summary

In this short story, the protagonist Mriganko Babu, a famous author, is stranded in the middle of nowhere when his car runs out of petrol. He sends his driver Sudheer to
fetch petrol, while he is waiting. He is on his way back to Calcutta from Durgapur where he was felicitated this morning.

He lights a cigarette and starts observing the surroundings. It is the month of January and all plants have been removed leaving miles of barren lands. There are two huts
seen with no people. In the middle of the field is a scarecrow. Mriganko Babu returns to his car and starts reading a detecti ve novel. He is all alone, but no one on their
way has stopped to help him. He started cursing the Bengalis. He is unable to concentrate on reading and so takes a book and starts jotting down some points related to
a plot. He climbs out of the car as it is boring sitting in the car.

He looks at the scarecrow again. It is a vertical bamboo pole with a horizontal one fixed to it. A torn shirt is slipped on to it and an earthen pot is placed upside down. The
pot is painted black and huge eyes drawn with white paint. Babu starts thinking how weird it is that birds get scared of this figure. He also tries to figure out why dogs
don’t mistake it for human. He again justifies himself that dogs could smell the humans and wonders if birds do have the abil ity to smell. He sees that the scarecrow is
wearing a torn, red and black printed shirt. It reminds him of someone. He is sure that he has seen someone wearing that shirt.

He drinks some tea from the flask and feels a bit warmer. He notices some change in the appearance of the scarecrow and his heart beats faster. It is slowly taking shape
of a man. He lights another cigarette and starts thinking about the possibility of a scarecrow coming to life. He now sees that it has another leg and that it is limping
towards him. Instead of the earthen pot, it now has a human head. It still has the same shirt on and a slightly dirty dhoti.

The scarecrow calls out to him, “Babu!” with a human voice. He now recognized that voice. It was the voice of Abhiram, who ha d been Mriganko Babu’s servant. Babu
recollects that Abhiram’s hometown is close to the place where he is now. He is so terrified and leans heavily against his car. The scarecrow is now much closer to him
and asks if Babu can recognize him. Babu says that he has recognized him as Abhiram. He also says that he recognized because of the shirt which he had bought for
Abhiram in the past.

Abhiram says that he was quite innocent and questions Babu why he didn’t believe him. Babu recollects past.

Abhiram worked as a servant to Babu for 22 years. He was a faithful servant but he stole Babu’s gold watch which was gi ven to him as a wedding gift. It all happened 3
years ago. When questioned about the watch, Abhiram said that he didn’t steal it. Babu’s father took the help of a witch doctor who points Abhiram to be the thief.
Abhiram lost his job.

Abhiram starts speaking again. He says that he fell ill after he left Babu’s house and so couldn’t work anywhere. He had no money to go to a doctor, or to buy medicines
or to even eat properly. He says that his son wore this shirt for a while and after it got torn, it became a shirt for a scarecrow. And, Abhiram became the scarecrow; waiting
to meet Babu, one day. He also says that he learnt something after his death. He asks Babu to search under his wardrobe after going home. He also says that Babu’s new
servant doesn’t clean properly and the watch has been lying there under the wardrobe for all these 3 years. He says that when Babu finds the watch, he will come to
know that Abhiram is not a thief. Abhiram says that he found peace and relief as he told the truth to Babu. He slowly turns hazy. He bids goodbye to Babu telling that he
must leave and disappears.

Mriganko Babu wakes up to Sudheer’s voice. He finds himself sitting in the car. He fell asleep thinking for a story plot and the pen is still in his hand. He looks at the
scarecrow and it is standing there in the distance.
On reaching home, he goes straight into his room and searches under his wardrobe. He finds his gold watch there. He decides that from now on, even if something ever
gets stolen from his house, he would never consult a witch doctor.

Mriganko Babu feels that despite being an author, he hasn’t evolved as a complete human being.

SITA
Summary:

In this poem, ‘Sita’, Toru Dutt conjures up the mythic past and tries to infuse into it the past glory. She retells the story of Sita in exile and what fascinates readers
is the beautiful description of nature in which flowers, lakes, peacocks and deer find a place. The narrator of the story is the mother who tells everything to her three
curious children who gather around her to listen to Sita story and the agonies of her exile. The beginning of the poem descri bes the dense forest. The forest is so thick
that even sun beam also cannot enter into it. But here, in this dense forest, in the centre of it, there is a cleared spot. Th e poet gives a very beautiful description of this
spot. The story of Sita is being told by the mother to her three children and when she tells them about the sad story of Sita, that Sita is weeping, they also begin to shed
tears. These three little children are bowing in sorrow listening the sad story of Sita. It is an old story, very ancient, a short narrative poem on the sad incidents of Sita’s
life. But although short, this story told by the mother is able to bring Sita from the past. The story of the mother makes Sita as if she is here now. The image of Sita melts
gradually from their minds. But they are unable to dream such a situation in their lives. There is no probability of the children again gather around their mother and the
mother realizes it in pain.

Line to line analysis of the poem in simple English:

Line 1 to 8:
 Three happy children are eagerly waiting to hear a story from their mother. They are sitting in a dark room. They are eager to listen the story of Sita and it is reflected
in their wide open eyes. The beginning of the poem describes the dense forest. The forest is so thick that even sun beam also cannot enter into it. But here, in this dense
forest, in the centre of it, there is a cleared spot. The poet gives a very beautiful description of this spot.
Huge, giant like flowers are blooming on creepers that embrace tall trees. Besides that place, there is a beautifu l lake with clean and clear water where the white
swans swim in full enjoyment making the sound of wings moving quickly from an area full of thick bushes. The peacocks also dance with joy. There are even herds of wild
deer racing among them.

Line 9 to 11:
The yellow colored grain patches add another beauty to the scene. In the alters, there are blue smoke spreading lights to the forest. Here, in this forest, the Poet-
anchorite that is hermit and great poet Valmiki lives in peace.
Line 12 to 15:
But, there is also a lady, a very beautiful lady in the ashram. She weeps, perhaps there is a great cause of her shading tears.
The story of Sita is being told by the mother to her three children and when she tells them about the sad story of Sita, that Sita is weeping, they also begin to shed
tears. These three little children are bowing in sorrow listening the sad story of Sita.
Line 16 to 22:
It is an old story, very ancient, a short narrative poem on the sad incidents of Sita’s life. But although short, this stor y told by the mother is able to bring Sita from
the past. The story of the mother makes Sita as if she is here now.
The image of Sita melts gradually from their minds. But they are unable to dream such a situation in their lives. There is no probability of the children again gather
around their mother and the mother realizes it in pain.

THE BROOK
Summary of the Poem:

In his famous poem, ‘the Brook’, Tennyson is imagining what it would be like to be a brook, or steam, running down the mountai nside and across country until it
joins a river. He contrasts the relative permanence and enduring nature of a natural feature like a brook with the impermanence and fleeting nature of human life. In the
poem, Tennyson has the brilliantly original idea of making the brook itself the narrator. Instead of seeing the beauties of n ature through the eyes of a human poet, we
see the world as the stream itself sees it.
The brook rises in a remote spot in the wooded hills, ‘the hunt of coot and hern’ and then gradually descends through thirty hills, twenty small hills and fifty bridges.
It then flows past Philip’s farm, past ‘lawns, grassy pots and hazel covers’ and eventually joins the ‘brimming river’, that is swollen, probably with the spring rains and melt
waters.
On its long journey to the river and eventually we suppose to the sea, the brook passes many different kinds of terrain, almo st like a human journey on which one
experiences adventures. As its rushes down the hills, the brook makes a kind of natural music or singing, its swirling water chattering and babbling as it dashes against
the gravel of the stream bed producing almost musical notes. The brook wanders through land that is cultivated and land that is wild and natural. It encounters fish
leaping on its journey.
Tennyson wrote at a time when it was fashionable for Victorian poets to idealize nature and to see nature as perfect an d human society as flawed and unnatural.
This view came about partly because of the industrial revolution which, in Tennyson’s day, had turned English into a land of ‘Dark, satanic mills’ in Blake’s words.
Line to line analysis of the Poem:

Stanza 1:
The brook starts out from the dwelling place of birds such as the coot (a water bird) and the hern (archaic word for heron). It makes a sudden rush as it flows out.
The presence of sunlight causes the brook’s water to sparkle as it flows among the fern. It then continues its journey by flowing down a valley. While doing so, the sound
of the flowing brook resembles that of people quarrelling. Hence the phrase, ‘bicker down a valley’.
Stanza 2:
The brook flows down along hills. Sometimes, it also glides between long and narrow hills ranges, called ridges. Thorpes refer to small villages or hamlets. Between
two small towns, the brook passes several thorpes and a large number of bridges. The numbers used in this line such as ‘thirty’, twenty’, ‘half a hundred’ should not be
taken in the literal sense. These numbers are used to give the impression of ‘several’ or ‘many ‘ and to maintain the rhythm of the poem.
Stanza 3:
Finally, the brook passes Philip’s farm and flows into the overflowing river. The brook further states that men are transient. They come and go over time. But it
outlives men and continues forever. The lines ‘For men may come and men may go, /But I go on forever,’ are repeated several times in the entire poem.
Stanza 4:
As the brook flows over stony paths, its water makes a chattering sound. This sound is high pitched, hence the phrase ‘sharps and trebles’ (both, high pitched notes
in music). As water flows past an obstacle, a reverse motion is created that leads to swirling. These are known as eddies. A lot of bubbles are also formed. As the brook
flows over pebbles, the sound it makes is similar to that made while talking rapidly. Hence the phrase, ‘babbles on the pebbles’.
Stanza 5:
The brook does not flow in a straight line. It makes a lot of turns and etches out a path full of curves. ‘Fret’ means ‘fuss’ or ‘worry’. The brook forms so many curves,
that it seems as if it is constantly troubling its banks to change shape. The brook continues beside many fields as well as fallow lands. ‘Fairy forelands’ refer to promontories.
These are masses of land that overlook the brook. These promontories are home to plants such as willow weed and mallow. The brook passes them on its journey.
Stanza 6:
As the brook flows, on its way to the overflowing river, it makes a continuous sound. The sound is like that of people talking. Hence, the line ‘I chatter, chatter, as I
flow”. The brook repeats that although men are transient, it goes on forever.
Stanza 7:
The brook coils and twists on its way to the river. An occasional flower can be seen on its surface. The floating blossom appears to be sailing on the brook. The brook
is also home to freshwater fish such as trout and grayling. The trout is a vigorous and energetic fish. Hence Tennyson calls it ‘lusty’.
Stanza 8:
Due to occasional turbulent flow, flakes of foam are produced, which float on the flowing brook. Water breaks are breaks on t he brook’s surface caused by
unevenness of its bed. These water breaks reflect the sun that makes them appear silver. Gravel is usually of brownish yellow hue. Hence the phrase, ‘golden gravel’.
Stanza 9:
The brook draws along with it, several floating objects as it flows towards the river. Here the poem’s refrain is repeated.
Stanza 10:
The brook flows by grassy stretches. It passes by land covered with hazel (a type of shrub). Forget-me-nots are low growing plants with bright blue flowers. They
often grow on the banks of streams, sometimes even touching the water surface. Forget-me-not flowers are often associated with lovers. As the brook flows, it gently
moves the flowers that touch the water.
Stanza 11:
The brook uses the words ‘slip’, ‘slide’, ‘gloom’, ‘glance’, to describe its movements. Swallows often hunt for insects on the water surface. They skim the water
surface to capture the insects. The brook glides among these ‘skimming swallows’. The brook is constantly moving. It also carries with it numerous fish, floating blossoms,
etc. Swallows often fly over it. Hence the sunlight that falls on the bed of the brook appears like a net instead of continuous entity. Sandy shallows refer to the shall ow
part of the brook that contains a lot of deposited sand and silt As the brook moves, the ‘netted sunbeam falling on the shallow bed appears to dance.
Stanza 12:
Wilderness refers to a wild and uninhabited region. Brambles are often found in such places. Hence Tennyson refers to such re gions as ‘brambly wildernesses’. In
quiet nights, as the brook passes over numerous pebbles and uneven land, it makes a certain sound. In the silent wilderness such as sounds can be clearly heard. The
sound reminds one of murmuring. It is as if the brook is talking to itself.
Shingles are accumulated masses of small pebbles. Elevated regions in a brook made of such as accumulated mass, deposited by flow, are referred as ‘shingly bars’.
Shingles are usually found in the slowest moving part of a brook. Hence the brook says that it ‘lingers’ by such places. Cresses, in this case, refer to watercress that often
grows on the edges of brooks. As the brook passes these tufts of watercress, its water seems to coalesce among the plants. He nce Tennyson uses the word ‘Loiter’ is
used.
The brook leaves the wilderness, the ‘shingly bars’ and the watercress behind and flows in graceful curves towards the river.
Stanza 13:
It ends with the refrain that although the human life is transient, the flow of the brook is perpetual.

OZYMANDIAS OF EGYPT
Summary of the Poem:

The speaker describes a meeting with someone who has travelled to a place where ancient civilizations once existed. We know from the title that he is talking about
Egypt. The traveler told the speaker a story about an old, fragmented statue in the middle of the desert. The statue is broken apart, but we can still make out the face of
the person. The face looks stern and powerful, like a ruler. The sculptor did a good job at expressing the ruler’s personalit y. The ruler was a wicked person, but he took
care of his people.
On the pedestal near the face, the traveler reads an inscription in which the ruler Ozymandias tells anyone who might happen to pass by, basically, “Look around
and see how awesome I am!”But there is no other evidence of his awesomeness in the vicinity of his giant, broken statue. There is just a lot of sand, as far as the eye can
see. The traveler ends his story.
Line to line analysis of the poem:

Lines 1 – 2:
The poem begins immediately with an encounter between the speaker and a traveler that comes from an “antique land.”
We are not sure about this traveler. He could be a native of this “antique” land, or just a tourist returning from his latest trip. We do not know where this encounter
is taking place.
“Antique” means something really old, like that couch at your grandmother’s or the bunny ears on top of your television. The traveler could be coming from a place
that is ancient, almost as if he were time-traveling. Or he could just be coming from a place that has an older history, like Greece, Rome, or ancient Egypt.
The poem begins immediately with an encounter between the speaker and a traveler that comes from an “antique land”.
Lines 2 – 4:
Here the traveler begins his speech. He tells the speaker about a pair of stone legs that are somehow still standing in the middle of the desert.
Those legs are huge (“vast”) and “trunk less.” “Trunk less” means “without a torso,” so it is a pair of legs with no body.
“Visage” means face; a face implies a head, so we are being told that the head belonging to this sculpture is partially buried in the sand, near the legs. It is also, like
the whole statue, “shatter.”
The image described is very strange: a pair of legs, with a head nearby.
Lines 4 – 6:
The traveler now gives a fuller description of the “shattered visage” lying in the sand.
As it turns out, the “visage” (or face) is not completely “shattered” because one can still see a “frown,” a “wrinkled lip,” and a “sneer.”
We still do not know whom this statue represents, but we do know that he was upset about something because he is frowning and sneering. May be he thinks that
the sneering makes him look powerful. It conveys the “could command” of an absolute ruler. He can do what he wants without thinking of other people. Heck, he probably
commanded the sculptor to make the statue.
After briefly describing the “visage”, the lines shift our attention away from the statue to the guy who made the statue, the ‘sculptor.”
“Read” here means “understood” or “copied” well. The sculptor was pretty good because he was able to understand and reproduce exactly – to “read” – the facial
features and “passions” of our angry man. The sculptor might even grasp things about the ruler that the ruler himself does not understand.
The poem suggests that artists have the ability to perceive the true nature of other people in the present and not just in the past with the benefit of hindsight.
“Tell” is a cool word. The statue does not literally speak, but the frown and sneer are so perfectly rendered that they give the impression that they are speaking,
telling us how great the sculptor was.
Lines 7 – 8:
The poem now tells us more about the “passions” of the face depicted on the statue.
Weirdly, the “passions” still survive because they are “stamp’d on these lifeless things.” The “lifeless things” are the fragments of the statue in the desert.
“Stamp’d” does not refer to an ink-stamp, but rather to the artistic process by which the sculptor inscribed the “frown” and “sneer” on his statue’s face. The word
could also make you think of the ruler’s power. Had he wanted to, he could have stamped out any of his subjects who offended him.
“Mock’d” has two meanings in this passage. It means both “made fun of” and “copied”, or “imitated.” “Hand” is a stand-in for the sculptor. So the sculptor both
belittled and copied this man’s passions.
“The heart that fed” is a tricky phrase; it refers to the heart that “fed” or nourished the passions of the man that the statue represents. But if you think these lines
are unclear, you’re right. Even scholars have trouble figuring out what they mean.
The passions not only “survive”; they have also outlived both the sculptor (“the hand that mock’d”) and the heart of the man depicted by the statue.
Note the contrast between life and death. The fragments of the statue are called “lifeless things,” the sculptor is dead, and so is the statues’ subject. The “passions”
though, still “survive.”
Line 9 – 11:
The traveler tells us about an inscription at the foot of statue which finally reveals to us whom this statue represents.
It is “Ozymandias,” the figure named in the title. “Ozymandias” was one of several Greek names for Ramses II of Egypt.
The inscription suggests that Ozymandias is arrogant, or at least that he has grand ideas about his own power; he calls himself the “king of kings.”
Ozymandias also brags about his “works.” Maybe he is referring to the famous temples he constructed at Abu Simbel or Thebes. He could also be calling attention
to the numerous colossal statues of him, such as the one described in this poem.
 Ozymandias speech is ambiguous here. On the one hand, he tells the “mighty” to “despair” because their achievements will never equal his “works.” On the other
hand, he might be telling the “mighty” to “despair” as a kind of warning, saying something like “Don’t get your hopes up guys because your statues, works, political
regimes, etc. will eventually be destroyed or fade away, with nothing to recall them but a dilapidated statue half-buried in the sand.”
Lines 12-14:
After the traveler recites the inscription, he resumes his description of the statue and the surrounding area.
We are reminded again that “nothing” remains besides the head, legs, and pedestal; as if we did not know the statue has been destroyed, the traveler tells us again
that it is a “colossal wreck.”
The very size of the statue – “colossal” – emphasizes the scope of Ozymandias ambitions as well; it is almost as if because he thinks he is the “king of kings”, he also
has to build a really big statue.
The complement the “decay” of the statue, the traveler described a desolate and barren desert that seems to go on forever: the “sands stretch far away.”
The statue is the only things in this barren, flat desert. There was probably once a temple or something nearby, but it is lo ng gone. The “sands” are “lone,” which
means whatever else used to be “beside” the statue has been destroyed or buried.
Several words in these lines start with the same letter; for example “besides,” “boundless,” and “bare”; “remains” and “round ”; “lone” and “level”; “sands” and
“stretch.” Using multiple words with the same initial letter is called alliteration.

VILLAGE SONG BY SAROJINI NAIDU

APRIL 16, 2018 SALAHUDHEEN
The poem Village Song deals with the traditional Indian village living style and the attachment of a young girl to her family. Sarojini Naidu beautifully illustrate the story
of a village girl who has gone to fetch water far away from her home, and the fear created in her mind when it’s dark mixed with the cries of owl and crane birds.
There is another poem by Sarojini Naidu on the similar title “Village Song” – (HONEY, child, honey, child, whither…….)
Read it’s summary : “Village Song“

Sarojini Naidu is known as “The Nightingale of India” because of her mesmerizing poetry. Let’s go straight to the line by line meaning of the poem Village song.

Village Song Poem Line-by-line Meaning

Even today one of the back-breaking chores of village women in India and some other country is the fetching water from long distances. Here poet talks about such a
situation where a girl has gone to fetch water far away to a river.

Full are my pitchers and far to carry,

Lone is the way and long,
Why, O why was I tempted to tarry
Lured by the boatmen’s song?

The girl is at river side for drawing water, there are many pitches with her. “Full are my pitches and far to carry” – She tells she has to walk long distance carrying the
water filled pitches to reach her house. Then she complaints to self why she is attracted by the song of boatmen. The time is almost evening, it’s dark everywhere.
Swiftly the shadows of night are falling,
Hear, O hear, is the white crane calling,
Is it the wild owl’s cry?

It’s getting night very fast, she can hear the white crane bird is crying, then she hears the crying sounds of owl these entire situation make her feel more fear.

There are no tender moonbeams to light me,

If in the darkness a serpent should bite me,
Or if an evil spirit should smite me,
Ram re Ram! I shall die.

There were no moonlight to pay her a way to home, even a tender moonbeam could give her a relief from the fear. As she lives in a village the footpath is not much
clean and plane, thus she fears if the serpent should bite her or evil spirit should haunt her. In deep fear she calls her God.. Ram re Ram!… I shall die

My brother will murmur, ” Why doth she linger? “

My mother will wait and weep,
Saying, ” O safe may the great gods bring her,
The Jamuna’s waters are deep. ” …
The Jamuna’s waters rush by so quickly,
The shadows of evening gather so thickly,
Like black birds in the sky …

In the above lines we can see her thoughts extends from herself to her home. Her mind weeps thinking of her mother and brother. She imagines her brother will
murmur saying ” Why does she linger?” and her mother will weep looking far for her daughter, saying ” O safe may the great gods bring her – The Jamuna’s water are
deep”. The Jamuna River is one of the three main rivers of Bangladesh where our poet Sarojini Naidu was born. Its water rush by so quickly, and it’s getting dark so
thickly as black birds in the sky.

O! if the storm breaks, what will betide me?

Safe from the lightning where shall I hide me?
Unless Thou succour my footsteps and guide me,
Ram re Ram! I shall die.

Her mind comes back to think self. She weeps thinking what will betide (happen) her if the storm breaks. When it’s lighting where should she hide?… Her thoughts
touch to the roof, fear increases. She calls her god again and again to protect her footsteps and guide her to reach her home.
 The Testament of a Walker
Summary of the Story:

For the author, a car is only a means of travelling. He is always satisfied if he is provided in the name of car, a seat and four wheels. He is not interested to any other
facility in a car. He thinks it as his defect in consideration to others, and even he himself own an imported car, which is very beautiful, with all the modern facilities and
everyone who saw this car expressed wonder.
The writer says that he does not have the sensibility to appreciate cars, but for this, he is not unhappy. He only believes that man’s ultimate destiny lies in walking,
because every man is provided two legs, which do not need petrol or gears. If he depends on his legs, then there is no need t o be worried about the increase price of
petrol or diesel. He says that a day will come when the price of the fuels reach the highest point and no more increase will be possible . He adds that it may be like for
travelling one kilometer, the cost will be one thousand rupees. In that situation, the human beings will realize the use of his feet. When these days will come, the petrol
wells overflow because of the lack of users or buyers and the petrol civilization finishes. As the author’s car was of special quality, it is not advisable to allow any ordinary
garage to open the bonnet. The good service centre with mechanics wielding special tools was a hundred miles away to Bangalore. A customer who came to this shop
was expected to be tolerable who did not raise questions on petty matters like price of a part. Instead, he was expected to deliver the cash without questioning. The
writer was obliged to visit the workshop every other week to do the repairing of his car and he began to fear that at this ra te, he would soon reach bankruptcy. He felt
that he was in a strange world, without knowing them, he began to depend on them!
He was shattered by the previous experiences and expenses of his car. He began to think that actually he did not require a ca r at this moment as he had no office
or outside engagements. He considered that owing the car was the most thoughtless thing he had done in his life. He decided to get rid of it, locked it up i n the shed as
soon as possible to turn his energies again to write stories.
The author confesses that he is not like those who enjoy getting under the car on a Sunday. He gives an example of his friend who likes to enjoy by driving his
imported car. This friend did not have any trust in any mechanic or workshop in our motherland. All his time was spent in collecting spare parts from far and near. He was
successful to collect enough spare parts and if he desired, he could easily assemble a couple of new cars.