Arjunpuri in Qatar

Commas and common sense

2012-02-12T21:10:00.000+03:00

The comma is a powerful punctuation mark with an impressive array of uses. No matter how the comma is used, its purpose is to make the meaning clear. Authors struggling with a gray area of comma usage should consider the meaning they hope to convey and make the choice that seems best. Clarity always wins out over strict adherence to comma rules.

Lynne Truss explains in her book on punctuation -- Eats, Shoots & Leaves -- how the superfluous comma can create havoc. The title of her book illustrates the author’s point when she tells the story of a panda.

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

“Why?” asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

“I’m a panda,” he says, at the door. Look it up.”

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

“Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”

Obviously, the panda doesn’t consider that the sentence might contain an extra comma! And Lynne Truss says: “So, punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death.”

Most superfluous commas will not change the meaning of a sentence that drastically. In fact, most do not change the meaning at all. They just make us to pause when a pause is neither needed nor wanted.

I know this is a provocative topic. I can’t think of anything that gets writers and editors more fired up than debating the pros and cons of the serial comma. And, as author Lynne Truss says, “Never get between these people when drink has been taken.”

Also, I don’t argue for or against the use of the serial comma. I just want to point out that the rules for this particular punctuation mark varies from style guide of one media to another. The serial comma, also known as the Oxford comma, is the mark that appears before the conjunction in a list. “I don’t want to hear any whining, complaining, or name-calling.” The comma before the “or” is the serial comma.

Some style guides, such as the AMA Manual of Style and the Chicago Manual of Style, advocate for the use of the serial comma to avoid ambiguity. For example, a serial comma in the following sentence would make its meaning more clear: “Please state name, age, sex and housing requirements.”

Other style guides, as the AP Style Guide, say to avoid the serial comma. One argument for leaving the comma out is that it’s unnecessary in simple sentences, and leaving it out often does not change the meaning of the sentence. The classic example: “The flag is orange, white and green.”

The media I worked in India followed AP style and we never used the serial comma, but here, I mean in the Middle East, I see most media using the serial comma. What I have learnt is using the commas and not using them at the right place -- an unbreakable punctuation rule during my education – is really a style choice. All I have to do is adjust my style accordingly. It’s more like unlearning the learning. No matter where we stand in the serial comma debate, it is essential to stay flexible and apply the rules according to the “in house style” of the publication or website for which we write.

Here are a few articles on commas, which I read and enjoyed. Of course, these made me to remember my grammar teachers and journalism gurus. Then, I will start first with the one written by a journalism professor.

Ranly's rules for those pesky commas

Journalism professor Don Ranly sets us straight on why and when to use commas.

If you’ve spent some time editing copy or working around writers, you’ve discovered at least three attitudes people have regarding commas.

1. Those who hate commas. They quote Mark Twain as saying, “As to the comma, when in doubt, leave it out.” I don’t think Twain ever said that. He did say, “As to the adjective, when in doubt, leave it out.” That’s a bit different. These comma haters take commas out whenever ever they can, or they go by the ridiculous rule, place a comma only where you want the reader to pause. How dumb is that!

Now if the subject of commas makes you comatose, for heaven’s sakes, stop reading this. If you don’t care about being correct and consistent in your use of commas, there’s nothing I can do for you. Go away.

2. Those who use commas for no particular reason other than that they feel better—or that they take them out because they feel better. The sentence seems to need them or doesn’t seem to need them.

3. And those who put commas everywhere. They love them. They will separate every set of adjectives and every compound subject and compound predicate with a comma every time.

I hope to persuade those of you who don’t think so that there are clear guidelines for many of the uses of the comma—guidelines that you can use every day of your writing and editing life. I shall go through these guidelines one by one, and then in the end, I shall present a page that I have given thousands of students and attendees of my seminars over the years.

Now I am not denying that you might have been taught different rules or that grammar books, even good ones, might have different guidelines that those I shall give you. What I promise you is that my rules are practical and for the most part, quite simple to follow. Most of all, they will enable you and your staff to be on the same page when you edit copy.

Staffs waste an enormous amount of time and energy when they don’t have guidelines. One person puts the comma in, the next person takes it out, and the battle continues. Nonsense.

Ranly’s rules: Punctuating for consistency

1. Always place a comma after words in a series but not before and or or unless the meaning is unclear. So there you go. The first rule is not an always. It also contradicts what many if not most of us were taught in grammar school about so-called “serial commas.” The rule comes from the Associated Press. You need not follow it—but why not?

Here’s an example AP cites as an exception: “I had orange juice, toast, and ham and eggs for breakfast.”

2. Always place a comma after an introductory dependent clause in a complex sentence. I know, that’s a mouthful. But it’s all a matter of vocabulary. Words and putting together words are what writers and editors work with.

Suppose you were in an operating room, and the surgeon said to a nurse, “Hand me that sharp thing over there. I don’t know what you call it.” Wow. Or if a carpenter wanted to drive in a nail and asked someone to hand him that thing with the steel head on it. Not too professional, eh?

Yet writers sometimes brag about not knowing grammar. They rely on editors to catch their errors and save them from embarrassment. The usual statement is, “Well, I used to know it.” Well, maybe.

A student once asked me why I called a word a gerund. I told him: “I don’t know. What do you want to call it? Why do you call a chair a chair?

If you don’t understand the words in Guideline No. 2, take a look at the definitions in the side bar. For most of you, this is just a refresher.

Here’s an example of a complex sentence that begins with a dependent clause.

Example: Since you began reading this, you have become more confused than ever.

Note the comma before the subject of the main clause. This is an every-time rule. There are NO exceptions.

Note, however, if the complex sentence begins with the independent clause, there is no comma before the dependent clause.

Example: You have become more confused than ever since you began reading this.

3. Always place a comma after an introductory independent clause in a compound sentence before the coordinating conjunction.

Example: She had a great grammar teacher in the seventh grade, and she has benefited from that experience all her life.

Note the comma before the and. Again, this is an every-time rule. There are NO exceptions. However, if the pronoun she did not follow the and, the sentence would not be compound, and it would not have a comma before the and.

Example: She had a great grammar teacher in the seventh grade and has benefited from that experience all her life.

Here we do not have a compound sentence but a compound predicate. Never separate a compound predicate (or a compound subject) with a single comma.

Some vocabulary for the unwashed

A clause has a subject and a predicate.

A sentence is an independent clause. It can stand by itself; it expresses a complete thought.

There are three types of sentences:

A simple sentence has one or more subjects and one or more predicates.

A complex sentence has a dependent subordinate clause and an independent clause or a relative dependent clause and an independent clause.

A dependent clause usually cannot stand alone. It begins with a subordinating conjunction, words like until, after, if, because,
since, etc.

A relative clause cannot stand alone either. It begins with a relative pronoun: who, what, which, that.

A compound sentence has at least two complete sentences. They are either joined by coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, or, nor, yet, so), or, if the two complete thoughts are closely related, by a semicolon.

A complex compound sentence has at least one complex sentence and at least one independent clause.

I’m sure you agree that this is more than enough for my first column on commas. Warning: There’s more to come. Promise: It will get less complicated. Don’t hesitate to contact me with questions or disputes at ranlyd@missouri.edu or www.ranly.com.

Don Ranly is professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism where he taught for 32 years. Ranly has worked as a newspaper reporter, a magazine editor, a weekly columnist, a radio host and television producer, director and host.

Commas Count: Necessary Commas

Frances Peck
(Volume 35, No. 4, 2002, page 9)

Ah, the comma. Doesn’t every wordsmith have some tiny wrinkles, etched somewhere in the mid-brow region, because of this capricious mark?

Nearly everyone has questions about the comma. Should we use a comma with and? What about after an introductory element? Is the comma even necessary today? Or is it a quaint, old-fashioned remnant of an era when readers had time to savour sentences, to pause between ideas instead of rushing madly onward, scanning for content before tackling the next task, as we so often do now?

It’s true that modern writers use commas more sparingly than their forebears. Pick up a novel by, say, Charles Dickens. Open it to any page and you will see them — dozens of commas, swarming through sentences like ants through spilled syrup. But things are different today. Today our commas, like our workplaces, like our very lives, are streamlined and economical, designed for speed and efficiency, not for lingering and reflection.

Still, some commas are as necessary today as ever. Properly placed commas enable readers to follow ideas and interpret meaning. Moreover, they prevent misreading. In the sentence Lynn, Massachusetts is an excellent location for our new headquarters, the omission of the comma after Massachusetts makes us think the author is assuring Lynn that Massachusetts is a great location.

The key to understanding the modern comma is to know when it’s required and when it’s not. This is no easy task; the guidelines for this minuscule mark fill dozens of pages in some texts. Thankfully, Sheridan Baker, author of The Practical Stylist, practically (as his title promises) divides necessary commas into four main categories:

The Introducer after an introductory clause or phrase
The Coordinator between two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
The Inserter a pair around an inserted word or remark
The Linker when adding a word, phrase or clause to the main sentence

The Introducer

With an introductory clause, the decision is easy: use a comma (remember, a clause is a group of words that contains both a subject and a verb).

After the hospital had completed its fundraising campaign, an anonymous donor contributed an additional $30,000. (introductory adverbial clause)

With an introductory phrase, the decision is harder (a phrase is a group of words that does not contain both a subject and a verb). If the phrase is relatively long, use a comma.

From the east wall to the west, the "dream cottage" advertised in the real estate brochure measured just twenty feet. (long prepositional phrase)

If the phrase is short and naturally flows into what follows, do not use a comma.

By midnight my new boyfriend was slavering and baying at the moon. (short prepositional phrase that flows on)

If the phrase is short but does not naturally flow into what follows, use a comma to show the separation. A comma is particularly important after an introductory participial phrase—one that contains the present participle ("-ing" form) or the past participle ("-ed" or irregular form) of a verb.

Seeing this transformation, I wanted to flee like the wind. (participial phrase)
Paralysed by fear, I stood transfixed while my friend lumbered forward, wild-eyed and hungry. (participial phrase)
Despite his fangs, I still thought my date was kind of cute. (phrase does not flow naturally into what follows)
Fearful yet curious, I debated what to do. (phrase does not flow naturally into what follows)

The introducer may also appear after an introductory word that does not flow directly into the rest of the sentence, especially after a sentence adverb (an adverb that modifies the entire sentence rather than just one word in it).

Fortunately, I still had the leftover rare steak I had taken away from our lavish dinner together, so I threw it in his path to distract him. (introductory adverb)

The Coordinator

Place a comma before a coordinating conjunction that joins two independent clauses (clauses that can stand as sentences). Remember to put the comma before the conjunction, not after.

René wrapped the fresh fish in three layers of newspaper, but his van still smelled like trout for the next week. (two independent clauses)

If the independent clauses are short and closely related, it is preferable to omit the comma.

He chose the restaurant and she chose the movie. (short, related independent clauses)

It’s important to check that the coordinating conjunction is really joining two independent clauses and not two phrases.

The dog whipped his head around and caught the frisbee between his teeth. (two phrases)

The Inserter

Think of the two commas around insertions as detour signs: the first tells you where the detour begins, the second where it ends.

John Irving’s first novel, Setting Free the Bears, contains many of the themes and images that run through his later works. (insertion)

Sometimes it’s hard to decide if a group of words is an insertion. A true insertion interrupts, meaning you can usually remove it without changing the sentence’s main message. The grammatical term for an interrupting element is "non-restrictive." A non-restrictive element must be set off with a pair of commas.

The employees, who had finished their work, went home for the day. (main message: the employees went home for the day)

A restrictive element, on the other hand, does not interrupt the message; it is instead integral to it. Restrictive elements are not set off with commas.

The employees who had finished their work went home for the day. (main message: only the employees who had finished their work went home)

The Linker

Use a comma whenever you link extra (often non-restrictive) information to the main sentence. The added information often provides elaboration.

My sister loves low-budget horror movies from the fifties and sixties, especially those featuring killer vegetables from outer space. (added phrase)
The sea was like a boiling cauldron, even though the wind had abated hours earlier. (added clause)

Commas also link elements in a list or series.

Nathan took a radio, a hair dryer, the latest Vanity Fair and a canister of pepper spray on his first wilderness camping trip. (items in a list)

Should there be a comma before and in a list? It’s a perennial question, one that authorities differ on. The bottom line—either approach is acceptable. The modern tendency is to omit the comma unless it’s needed to prevent misreading.

Eileen’s favourite sandwiches are tuna, watercress, ham, and cheese and bacon. (comma needed before and for clarity)

A Pause for Reflection

Knowing when commas are needed is only half the battle; knowing when they’re not is the other. And between the two poles lies a vast and bewildering territory where comma use is subjective, dependent on such vagaries as authorial intent, emphasis, personal taste. So understanding the principles of necessary commas likely won’t erase our wrinkles (we’re not talking Botox here). But it may relax them, somewhat.

5 cases of mistaken meaning cured by a comma

The location of this oft-misused piece of punctuation has a significant impact on what message is conveyed, says Mark Nichol in this article.

A simple lesson about the strength of the mighty little comma can be learned by noting the difference in meaning that results depending on its presence or absence at the end of a parenthetical phrase.

More specifically, in the types of sentences shown below, when an attributive phrase—one that identifies the source of the information provided in the framing sentence—is inserted in the midst of the sentence and a comma precedes the interjection but none follows it, what is said is often not equivalent to what is meant:

1. “Every nine years, it was decreed that the fragment must be conveyed to another place of sanctuary.”

The point of this sentence is that an action is described as having occurred every nine years, and that this action was decreed. That latter detail is the content of the attributive phrase. But without a comma closing the interjection, the implication is that the decree was issued every nine years.

However, what the sentence means is that a decree was issued requiring the action to occur every nine years—that’s a much different idea, and this slightly revised sentence correctly expresses it: “Every nine years, it was decreed, the fragment must be conveyed to another place of sanctuary.”

2. “By the end of the century, estimates are that one in three people will be living in poverty.”

This sentence is not as far afield from the intended meaning as the original sentence in the previous example, but it does suggest that such estimates will be released by the end of the century, rather than that current estimates predict the stated outcome.

This revision states the point more clearly: “By the end of the century, estimates are, one in three people will be living in poverty.”

3. “Instead of embracing our civil rights future, the commission’s report says the Bush administration has begun backsliding into the past.”

At first glance, this sentence seems to have the same not-quite-right structure of the second example, but it actually introduces a serious miscommunication. The suggestion is that the commission report, not the Bush administration, is failing to embrace our civil rights future, and that the commission is making the statement in place of that responsibility.

The mere insertion of a comma sets the sentence right (in this case, an optional that is not included, so no deletion of same is necessary): “Instead of embracing our civil rights future, the commission’s report says, the Bush administration has begun backsliding into the past.”

4. “Up to my junior year at the University of Michigan, I am forced to admit that I had always tried to get A’s.”

The writer, this sentence suggests, was forced to make an admission until reaching their third year of college, at which time the confession was no longer required (but in that case, am should be replaced by was).

But the admission is parenthetical to a different thought, which is that the writer strove for the highest letter grade for only their first two years in higher education: “Up to my junior year at the University of Michigan, I am forced to admit, I had always tried to get A’s.”

5. “As far back as his childhood, he told me he had wanted to be a scientist.”

As punctuated, this sentence tells the reader that the would-be scientist had shared his ambition with the writer since the other person had been a child. If this is what the writer means, the beginning of the second part of the sentence should include had (“he had told me”).

But if the writer is relating what the other person had shared more recently about his childhood goal, a comma should follow me to set off the attributive phrase “he told me”: “As far back as his childhood, he told me, he had wanted to be a scientist.”

This article originally ran on DailyWritingTips.com.

Comma chameleon: How it changes the color of your meaning

A look at the utility infielder of the punctuation team by Rob Reinalda.

The comma is such a little mark, but it can prompt big confusion—and heated debate—about its use.

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s jump right in. (Believe me, we will not cover everything about commas here, but we’ll give it a shot.)

Compound sentences

A compound sentence comprises two independent clauses. Each clause has a subject and verb and could stand as a sentence unto itself. It takes a comma before the conjunction (and, but, or, etc.):

The dog barked at a cat, and the cat ran up a tree.

My uncle is sick, but the highway is green.

I can bring you along while I shop for shoes, or you can stay home and watch sports all day. (Decisions, decisions …)

In the following case, the dog is the subject of both verbs, so there should be no comma:

The dog barked at a cat but didn’t chase it. (You would use a comma if it were structured this way: The dog barked at a cat, but he didn’t chase it.)

Here we have modifying phrases for the cat.

The dog barked at a cat, which then ran up a tree.
The dog barked at the cat that had run up the tree.

(Here, the modifying phrase specifies a particular cat. There may have been other cats, but the pooch barked at the one up the tree. No comma.)

Often we see commas misplaced in sentences with a complex predicate and a modifying phrase:

Wrong: The dog barked at the cat, and for no apparent reason, ate a cantaloupe.

Correct: The dog barked at the cat and, for no apparent reason, ate a cantaloupe.

(The reason is abundantly clear, of course; the dog is a melon collie.)

Then there is the dreaded comma splice. This occurs when two independent clauses are separated by a comma with no conjunction.

Wrong: The cat barked at the dog, it traumatized the poor pooch.

Either add a conjunction or substitute a semicolon; I prefer the latter.

The cat barked at the dog, and it traumatized the poor pooch.
The cat barked at the dog; it traumatized the poor pooch.

Noun of direct address

Set this off with a comma or two, depending on its placement in the sentence:

Xavier, I’ll be out of the office on Tuesday.

Please call me if anything urgent arises, Xavier.

I’ll be off Tuesday, Xavier, so please don’t do anything stupid in my absence.

Supplemental information

In the following cases—the last two are appositives—the information set off by a comma or commas is important content but not essential to the structure of the sentence:

Natalie, who does yoga every weekend, has never undergone major surgery.

Godfrey, an amateur taxidermist, has dreams about opening a cafe.

An accomplished xylophonist, Darryl frequently is asked to perform at funerals.

When setting off an appositive midsentence—such as a title or job description—don’t forget the second comma before proceeding with the predicate.

Descriptive versus identifying modifiers

My brother Jeremiah has a unicycle with training wheels. (This presupposes I have more than one brother.)

My sister, Calliope, enjoys writing heroic poetry and playing the steam organ. Here the commas indicate that I have only one sister.

The same follows for corporate writing:

Gloopnox Corp.’s director of marketing, Leonardo Gloopnox, has been with the company six weeks. He’s the company’s one and only marketing director. (He’s also the CEO’s son.)

Vexco marketing coordinator Lila Langerhans recently announced plans to tweeze her eyebrows. No commas if she’s one among several with that job designation.

Note, too, the following instances:

This summer I’ll be traveling to the city where I was born.
This summer I’ll be traveling to Walla Walla, where I was born.

The term “the city” needs amplification for the purposes of identification.“Walla Walla” could stand on its own, but the phrase that follows the commas delivers supplemental information.

Dependent clauses

Here we have instances of a dependent clause that precedes and modifies an independent clause:

If I win the lottery, I’ll send my whole family to Europe—one-way.

Because the smell of maple syrup makes me queasy, I avoid going into pancake houses.

After Melvin detained Gregory and caused him to be late for his shift in the coal shaft, Melvin was accused of contributing to the delinquency of a miner.

How about the following?

In 2009 the senator voted to filibuster on 53 occasions. In 2005, that same senator called filibusters “obstructionist.”

Why the comma in the second instance? I suppose it’s a judgment call, but to my mind it emphasizes a contradiction in the senator’s two positions; it’s shorthand for “however.”

Certainly, one might just add “however” and make it explicit:

In 2005, however, that same senator called filibusters “obstructionist.”

The series

What follows is a long yet simple series; commas alone can do the job:

I went shopping for eggs, coaxial cable, an electric pencil sharpener, macadamia nuts, a lathe, a pocket calculator, three pounds of figs, a post hole digger, radicchio and a pewter corkscrew.

In the following, there is a series of series, so, for the sake of clarity, the groupings are set off with semicolons:

I went shopping for eggs, radicchio, macadamia nuts and three pounds of figs for tonight’s dinner; a post hole digger, coaxial cable and a lathe for some weekend projects; and a pocket calculator, an electric pencil sharpener and a pewter corkscrew to bring to work. (A corkscrew? Judge not, lest ye be judged.)

A series of modifiers

The modifiers can be adverbs:

Garth hastily, sloppily, noisily ate his papaya and smelt sandwich. (“And” could sub in for that second comma, if you like.)

They can also be adjectives:

Maximilian is a loud, uncouth, malodorous, vindictive philatelist.

At least he has a hobby.

There are three fat, brown, male dachshunds on the porch.

In this sentence, note that the more elemental the trait, the closer it is to what it modifies. The number is most easily changed—pick up a dachshund (at your peril, of course)—and remove it, and the number changes. The doggies could lose weight; that’s a variable, too. Brown—well, some pet salons do perform dye jobs. But even if neutered, a male dog remains a he.

Also note that no comma is placed between the number and the other modifiers. In some election stories, you might see this: Five candidates are vying for three, three-year seats on the council. That comma after three is no more necessary than it is in the sentence about the dachshunds.

Also notice that in this sentence from before—But even if a male dog is neutered, he remains a he.—there is no comma immediately after “But.”

Some people prefer the serial or Harvard comma; some abhor it. Generally it’s unnecessary with a simple series. Garner’s Modern American Usage recommends it: “… omitting the final comma may cause ambiguities, whereas including it never will.” In business writing, it can come in handy, particularly when the series at hand includes compound elements:

Please notify the people in charge of security, operations, IT, legal affairs, internal and external communications, employee recruitment and retention, research and development and marketing and advertising.

Adding a comma after “development” eliminates potential ambiguity about the number and descriptions of the last entities mentioned.

Do you come across such contrivances often (other than in articles about punctuation, that is)? Probably not. When you do, diverting from established style for the sake of clarity is fine. You’d rather hear the question, “Egad! Why is Magdalena diverting from her established style on serial commas?” than, “What in heaven’s name is Magdalena talking about?”

An either/or question

Do you want what Jay has in the box, or what’s behind the curtain where Carol Merrill is standing?

Without the comma, you could answer, “yes”—meaning you want either of those things.

With the comma, the mandate to choose between the options is implicit: Do you want what Jay has in the box, or [do you want] what’s behind the curtain where Carol Merrill is standing?

Quoted matter

There’s a difference in the way generic and specific utterances are handled, as is shown below:

“All I want in response is a simple ‘yes, sir’ or ‘no, sir,’” Adele said.

“When I ask you if you’d like more tiramisu, just say, ‘No, thank you, sir,’” Adele told Vincent.

Sometimes you’ll have a quotation that looks like this: “I’m drowsy,” Susie said. “And no amount of coffee seems to help.”

Susie’s statement is a compound sentence, and it should be treated as such: “I’m drowsy,” Susie said, “and no amount of coffee seems to help.”

It must be all this pedantry about commas. Susie’s nearly comma-tose.

OK, we’re almost done.

Addresses and dates, cities and states

Mr. Brady went to a party at 148 Bonny Meadow Road, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Oh, what a night I had in December 1963. (No comma between the month and year if a day is not specified.)

On Feb. 29, 2000, I told Randall to take a flying leap.

Velma drove to Tuscaloosa, Ala., and then to Altoona, Pa.

In letters

Unless you are writing a formal letter, in which you would use a colon at the end of the salutation — Dear Sir or Madam: or To the Editor: — you would use a comma after the recipient’s name:

Dear Mephistopheles,

At the end of the letter, a comma would come after the signoff and before your name:

Eternally yours,
Faust

Cancelling Commas: Unnecessary Commas

Frances Peck
(Volume 36, No.1, 2003, page 25)

This is the second of two articles on commas. See "Commas Count: Necessary Commas" in the December issue.

One of the best sentences in Strunk and White’s classic writing guide, The Elements of Style, is this: "A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts."

I would go further: a sentence should contain no unnecessary commas for the same reason that a symphony should have no unnecessary pauses. True, commas add rhythm, and more importantly clarity, to our writing, something we saw in "Commas Count" in the December issue. But, if we use too many, of them, our writing becomes difficult, for people, to read, and our ideas end up fragmented, instead of connected.

For years participants in my grammar and writing workshops have magnanimously imparted their golden rule for commas: use a comma whenever you would take a breath. And for years I have regretfully but pointedly burst their bubble. That simple rule, which so many have clung to since their tender years, works occasionally (even often, if you’re a speechwriter or playwright), but it also gives rise to the superfluous commas that pollute our prose, bobbing up disconcertingly like plastic bottles in the waves.

While comma use is sometimes a matter of personal taste—something we’ll look at later—there are certain places where this mark does not belong.

Splitting grammatical bonds

What grammar hath joined together, let no comma put asunder. Don’t let a comma split the grammatical bond between a subject and its verb, a verb and its object (or its subject complement, with a linking verb like to be) or a preposition and its object, even if you think a pause is in order.

NO All duly registered members of this exclusive English equestrian club, are permitted unlimited access to the club’s stables and pubs. (splitting subject and verb)
NO The mugger was stunned to find that the elegant businessman had in his pockets, only three dollars and half a liverwurst sandwich. (splitting verb and object)
NO The only thing the lottery winners wanted was, to live their lives as they had before becoming millionaires. (splitting verb and subject complement)
NO We mailed illustrated concert programs to, every symphony subscriber and every music store and department in town. (splitting preposition and object)

Note that it is perfectly acceptable to interrupt these grammatical unions with a parenthetical element and a pair of commas (remember, a pair).

YES The mugger was stunned to find that the elegant businessman had in his pockets, besides a handkerchief, only three dollars and half a liverwurst sandwich.

Coordinating conjunctions

As we saw in "Commas Count," the coordinator is a comma that precedes a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) that joins two independent clauses. Be sure to put the comma before the conjunction, not after it.

NO The Green Party backbencher asked her question three times, but, the cabinet minister still refused to answer directly. (remove comma after conjunction)

When the elements joined by a coordinating conjunction are not independent clauses, there is usually no need for a comma (though see "Bending the rules" at the end of this article).

NO After Tiffany got Leonardo DiCaprio’s autograph, but before she could look at it, she fainted cold at the star’s feet. (conjunction with two dependent clauses)
NO Fluffy white cumulus clouds, and clear autumn air made it a perfect day to stay inside and watch TV. (conjunction with two phrases)

Restrictive elements

A restrictive element is the opposite of a parenthetical element. It is an element—usually descriptive—that is necessary to the sentence because it defines or limits (restricts) the word it describes. Do not use commas with restrictive elements.

NO The soup tureen, from the antique shop, was actually less expensive than the one I saw at the neighbourhood flea market. (element is restrictive, not parenthetical)

To test whether an element is restrictive, try omitting it from the sentence. If the sentence’s main message is no longer clear, the element is restrictive. If the main message is fine, the element is parenthetical.

NO Bob Dylan wrote the ballad, The Wedding Song, in 1974. (can’t omit the element; it is restrictive)
YES Bob Dylan’s first wife, Sara, left him soon after he wrote The Wedding Song for her. (can omit the element; it is parenthetical)

Series

Commas between items in a series stand for the word and. Don’t place a comma before the first item or after the last, since you can’t use and in either spot.

NO The developers received passionate pleas and lengthy petitions from, store owners, local residents, and area building managers. (remove first comma)
NO The children waved flags, beat on toy drums, and blew noisemakers, as the parade passed by. (remove last comma)

Remember that the comma before and in a series is optional.

And with a series of modifiers? Therein lies a bewildering comma conundrum: sometimes you need commas; sometimes you don’t. The decision depends on whether the modifiers are coordinate or cumulative.

Coordinate modifiers all independently modify the same word. You can rearrange their order and insert the word and between them. A series of coordinate modifiers requires commas.

YES She is a careful, conscientious, knowledgeable editor.
YES The caterers prepared an array of rich, colourful, tasty sweets for the buffet.

Cumulative modifiers do not separately and equally modify the word they appear with. Instead, they build or lean upon one another. You cannot change their order or insert and between them. A series of cumulative modifiers takes no commas.

YES She is a bilingual copy editor.
YES The caterers prepared a vegetarian bean soup for the buffet.

To complicate matters, a series may include both coordinate and cumulative modifiers. But if you apply the dual test of rearranging and inserting and, you should get the commas right.

YES She is a skilled bilingual copy editor. (one coordinate modifier)
YES She is an underpaid, skilled bilingual copy editor. (two coordinate modifiers)

Bending the rules

Punctuation is like any art: once you have mastered the principles, you can bend them. It’s fine to depart from the comma rules from time to time—if you have a good reason.

For clarity:

The question is, will he be able to compete in the Iron Man race and publish his book of haiku verse before he turns forty? (comma between verb and subject complement)

For emphasis:

He embraced her once again, and then walked out the door forever. (comma with coordinating conjunction joining two phrases)

For rhythm:

The parched hiker felt the hot sweet juicy trickle of the orange run down her throat. (commas omitted with coordinate adjectives)

George Bernard Shaw once said, "The golden rule is that there are no golden rules." That’s pretty much what I tell my workshop participants as I strip away their lifelong illusions about commas and breathing. Instead of one golden rule, we have many plastic ones—but that’s far more practical, especially if we plan to break one now and again.

Bibliography

Strunk, William, Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan, 1979.

Alone in the city? How about renting friends?

2012-02-11T17:09:00.001+03:00

Read an article on the Guardian which was about renting a friend, trust me “renting a friend”! The article said about how a guy meets his friend at a café and over a cup of coffee thy chat about music, current events and the ups and downs of their working lives. But they don’t spend a lot of time talking about their feelings or their relationship, or rehashing the past. It’s just not that kind of friendship. And the interesting part comes from the fact that the duo feel the same and they prefer it that way, as the guy who has invited his friend to the café is paying him to feel the same. In fact, he’s paying him £40 an hour to feel the same!

Not so long ago, friendship meant lot of happiness, wisdom and good weather that money cannot buy. In a cold and indifferent world, a friend was someone we had to make for ourselves. But after reading this article, I don’t think it is required anymore, as we can buy friendship at our own convenience, that too by the hour! It’s like for a certain consideration, we can hire some friend to go to a museum with us, or hang out at the gym, or keep us company while we shop.

Wonder where this concept originated in? In Japan. But the idea is becoming popular across the world, including the US. There’s a website – rentafriend.com – which maintains a database of 417,000 names, people for hire from all over the US and Canada. And astonishingly, some 2,000 people pay to subscribe in order to find friends to take to dinner or to invite round for some scrapbooking.

The website says: “Rent a Friend to attend a social event, wedding, or party with you. Hire someone to introduce you to new people, or someone to go to a movie or a restaurant with. Hire a Friend to show you around an unfamiliar town, teach you a new skill or hobby, or just someone for companionship. You can view all of the profiles & photos on RentAFriend.com right now for free!”

The website doesn’t forget to update the status. It says: “As of Friday, February 10th, 2012, there are over 417,000 Friends available for rent worldwide!” and goes on saying that where and all they have been featured and how famous the website is: “We have been featured on CNN, ABC, AOL, The Today Show, MSNBC, Fox News, Associated Press, CBS and thousands of other newspapers, television stations, radio programs, websites, and magazines from around the world.”

And recently, the website was launched in the United Kingdom and it says: “We are proud to announce that RentAFriend.com is now available in United Kingdom! We will be adding thousands of new Friends over the next few weeks, so please be patient as we expand globally!”

Maybe this idea will help for people who go abroad and find it difficult to socialize. If Asians are going to the Western countries, they might find it difficult to socialize with the Westerners and then this website might come in handy. Instead of feeling lonely and worrying how to socialize, maybe it is easy to find a friend on the website, of course coming at a price! Yes, when I came to Qatar last year, I longed for friends, a friend with whom I can talk and express my feelings. All the day I stayed at home and waited and waited for my hubby to return home. The whole day, I was alone at home. It was in such days I got to know about a girl from Bangalore who also had worked with the same newspaper where I began my journalism career. My joys knew no boundaries, as I thought here is a girl who is from Bangalore and I could talk to her in my mother tongue, Kannada.

But I didn’t realize the consequences of such a friendship. Every time I called her, she refused to pick my calls or answer my messages, making me feel that I’m troubling her and then I kept quiet. I thought maybe she’s busy and maybe she’s thinking that I’m calling her to ask if she came to know about any job openings, for I had sent her my CV, seeking her help to find me a job. But later I came to know when I went for an interview that she had not even mentioned my name when the Editor of a magazine had asked her if she knows any person who is interested to work. Will tell in another post why I didn’t accept the job offer from that magazine.

Coming back to the point, I had to go for a conference in India and requested her hubby if he could help me in getting some discount in air tickets. He promised me to do so by assuring that he would give the name and contact number of a travel agent. And I followed up with him for about 15 days, but in vain. All he had to do was just let me know that he couldn’t help me, but he took me for granted. But by the time I realized it, only two days were left for my journey and I had to pay twice the amount to get the tickets. Yes, a loss, economically and mental stress too!

Then, I sent her a message sarcastically thanking her husband for his “help” in getting me a “great discount” and asked if she needs anything from back home. And she was more than happy to know that her husband had helped me, when in fact he had not even bothered to just give me the name of the agent! She asked me to buy a bag for her, which fortunately or unfortunately I did, and returned to Doha. After my return, I tried contacting her, but in vain.

Later, she lost her job and she kept on calling me, and it was my turn to make her know how I used to feel when she was indifferent to my calls. Then, she and her hubby started posting personal comments to my casual status messages which surprised me. One fine day, I picked her call and finished my talk within two minutes and she felt I was rude to her by limiting myself to yes and no over the phone. And after that call, I felt bad and in the evening I tried calling her to visit us for the Laxmi puja, and no surprise, she didn’t answer my call and didn’t even bother to reply my text message.

I just left that issue at that and moved on till I found a good job at a repute company which matched her profile. I tried calling several times, but no answer and then I texted her, expecting no reply, but there it came, suddenly, asking me why I was so interested in helping her out. I replied, “Unlike others, who pretend to help and then turn their backs, I always help friends whenever I get an opportunity.” Then I sent her a mail telling her openly why I behaved indifferent, which only enraged her. Instead of accepting her follies, she wrote me back telling that I was “childish”. Emotions and “such kinda stuff has stopped bothering me 15 years ago.”

Then I wondered is she the same person who used to lecture: “I believe in the circle of life, because how else would you describe 'what goes around, comes around’...” “I believe that I'm responsible for my own actions because that alone will keep me from blaming others and causing strained relationships. I believe that relationships are built on respect, trust and love - strictly in that order. I believe that in a world of individuals comparison makes no sense at all…” and went on to say: “Sometimes, you wonder if all that you say falls on deaf ears. Sometimes, you wonder whether you took it for granted that someone will understand you when you poured your heart out… You feel let down, you feel like you deserved more, you feel like you're entitled to an answer. But most of all, you feel like you were talking to a wall. Because, sometimes, that’s all it takes - a patient ear, and an encouraging word- to let you know that the way you feel matters. No advise, no rationalizing, no logical explanations, just listening to what you have to say. That's all it takes. And then you realize, it's unfair to expect others to react the way you want them to. It's stupid to think that they would treat you like an 8-year-old if you didn’t agree with everything they said. It's even more stupid to believe that they don’t actually care…” blah, blah blah.

Her lectures never stopped there, she went on: “We all need friends. Sometimes, we need just that one friend to make it easier for us to get through troubled times. Now, trouble need not necessarily mean something catastrophic, but it does mean that you’re in need of some advice. And that call for help must be taken seriously, no matter what the situation - whether it’s a break-up, a low –attendance-at-college issue, a quarrel at home because you weren’t allowed to go out and party, victim of office gossip, misunderstanding with the spouse, not knowing what to wear for an interview, or simply trouble with choosing the right pair of shoes… So, if I call someone a ‘close friend’, she’d have to be someone who tells me the truth about that little piece of spinach caught in the gap between my front teeth, someone who gives me her honest opinion about my wearing anything luminescent and pink - the colors may be in style, but she has the ‘permission’ to say that I look like a psychedelic ice-cream cone… To me, a close friend is someone who I can pour my heart out to, someone who listens to me before dishing out any sort of advice, who does not negate every feeling that I am going through in an effort to make me feel better, who ‘empathizes’ (as opposed to sympathize), who I can call at 4 am to pick me up from the airport, who I can invite home without having to worry about the mess…all this and so much more. We might move on from college talk and gossip, but in our hearts, we’ll always remember one another the way we used to be, no strings attached. Girlfriends! You can’t live without them…” blah blah blah.

And then, I saw both she and her hubby had disappeared from my Facebook, good for me, as I and my friends no more get to see their unnecessary personal comments on my wall. As whatever she lectured, she had never followed. I agree not everyone can become Ramakrishna Paramahamsa! And now, friends, from Bangalore, I run a mile away. She has taught me a good lesson, never to trust or rely on Bangaloreans and I think twice even before I talk to any Kannadigas in Doha now!

Coming back to renting a friend, maybe I would have not been hurt or insulted by a friend had I merely rented out a friend. But I have experienced how it feels to move to a new town and not know anybody, somewhat daunting and more than a bit lonely. And now, I don’t need to search any friends, as I have met like-minded friends, I get invitations for social gatherings and I’m enjoying my stay here.

But when given a good thought, don’t you think that it’s a shame that services such as renting a friend even have to exist? A friend is someone with whom a relationship has been developed and I wonder at the very concept of buying that. And see the sad state of affairs that a day has come where people can’t even make friends for themselves!

But I wonder if all is that easy. Will the so-called paid friendship stop at that and no emotions and feelings attached? Don’t they get used to the idea, or say an obligation to keep the paid friend happy and amused always? Don’t they have the fear of losing him/her if someone else pays them better? Will this paid friendship not too selfish and self-centered, not caring about each other or not getting attached emotionally? Don’t they feel that the paid friends merely act or pretend to be a friend, while all the attention is on the money paid on the basis of hours spent with each other?

Taught not to talk to strangers, but suddenly asked to sleep with one!

2012-02-08T20:35:00.005+03:00

Saw a status message from one of my former colleagues on Facebook. The message was simple, which many times I had discussed with my friends during my college days and they had dubbed me as a feminist then. Later, whenever I tried to discuss it with my friends outside college, they too had laughed at my view. Yes, there was no Facebook then to share the ideas or ask the opinion. And now, the message brings me back so many memories.

Oh, let me tell what the message was. It read: “Arranged marriage is a funny concept. All your life you are taught not to talk to strangers; suddenly you are asked to sleep with one!”

As I write this, I see 37 of her friends, including me, liking the post and 21 comments, including mine, on it. Within an hour of her post, one of her friends says: “im gonna copy this now ryt away.”

Then another says, “superrr”, the next one says, “BRILLIANT!!!”

In between asks a friend, “who asked u to sleep ;)”

Then, my friend replies: “The 'babies' that are expected to be delivered after getting married cannot come magically, no? :)” and I reply to her adding: “that too, delivered within a year of the wedding ;)” for which she replies: “Hahahaha. You said it!”

Another friend of my colleague comments: “if u think of it literally... its true.... :)” and the next one says: “BANG BANG Ms…. SHOT THE SYSTEM DOWN !!!” to which another friend adds: “lol....super thought....”

One just laughs at the comment, while another says: “nice… take a bow... Awesome Awesome observation :D” and another says: “hahaha....s…n me used to say the same thing b4 v got married ;-)” and one of my other colleagues comments: “Thats exactly what I told my Dad at 15 and instead of a reply got a resounding hard slap across my face....”

And to this, my colleague who posted the comment replies: “Hahahahhahaa. That's exactly why I'm just posting it on FB and not even thinking of telling my Dad/Mom this line :P”

Yes, how many times have we ever thought about this? Don’t our parents and elders not teach this? Don’t talk to strangers, don’t take anything from strangers, keep a distance from strangers, etc, etc. Most women even change their surname and tag a "stranger's name" or his/his parents' surname with theirs!

I have sometimes wondered how is possible to sleep with a stranger and deliver a baby within one year of the marriage. Whenever I ask this question, my hubby laughs at me, rather say at my “stupidity”. I have seen so many people getting married and within two months telling everybody that she or his wife or his/her daughter or his/her daughter-in-law is pregnant!

So I thought of asking a few of my friends who were online while writing this. One senior friend, who was my colleague earlier said: “great thought..i hav just one take on this: arranged mrrgs r nothing but murder....love mrrgs r suicide,” and continued, “but i admire ur thots...im also suprised how india is synonym to arrngd marrigs.”

Then, I turned towards another friend who works in Doha. She always admires my feminist thoughts and I often get support from her for my views. Or maybe, we are two feminists sharing and discussing ideas ;) She couldn’t stop herself from laughter when I asked her opinion on the subject. First she said: “Let me first get done with laughing. What a pick… And what a statement.” For a moment I got doubt, if she’s making fun of me. I asked her: “Don't u think it's a fact?” She continued: “Loved it.... suddenly u r asked to sleep with one… Ha ha ha…” “Of course dear its a bitter hard fact,” she consoled me and said: “I've been trying to explain the same to my parents, family, relatives, freinds, neighbours..and who not...... THE SAME THING.”

Yes, I did ask my mom the same question and had dared to even know how did she feel to go with a stranger? And yes, instead of slapping on my face, she was nostalgic about her days. My father was still studying his degree when he married my mother and he stayed in the hostel, while my mom stayed with his parents. And she didn’t forget to mention that I was born after seven years of their marriage and they had sufficient time not only to understand each other but also to settle before even thinking about kids! How can I deny after seeing bundles and bundles of letter they wrote to each other while my father was in the hostel?! They discuss almost anything and everything under the sun, from politics to art to literature to law to science to love... I find most of them amusing, yes. They really had a lot of time to understand and know each other, discuss things with each other, like and dislike things and attitudes of each other and to adjust and compromise with each other. And now, there I get that gene, the gene of feminism… from a woman who always stood behind the success of my father, who always supported him in good and bad times, who saw ups and downs in life.

Hats off to the lady, who had the guts to reject so many other wedding proposals. She accepted my father’s proposal not because he was handsome, but because he was studious and would continue his education. My father fondly remembers that they married after six months after first seeing her. Will tell about their marriage in some other post.

Coming back to the point, maybe my mom had got a clue that maybe her daughter would not go for an arranged marriage, but neither she nor my dad ever forced me for an arranged marriage. Yes, they did try to look out for a guy for me, but fate had other plans. They allowed me to continue my studies, which I’m doing till now, and encouraged me to work. And One day when I suddenly told her that I was in love with a Malayali and wanted to marry him, she was shocked. But that shock didn’t remain for more than a day or two. Though she told me to reconsider my decision, she stood by me, even to the extent of breaking the promise given to her dying father that she would give my hand to her elder brother’s son! And I think, by this time my feminism roots are much more clearer.

Ok, I’m going astray. How many couples have we not seen who are into arranged marriages and get a kid within one year? Do they get time to understand each other? Marriage merely seems like a license to have sex and getting children. If the woman gets pregnant within two months of the wedding and when she’s five months, if she moves to her parents’ house for delivery, where is the time for the couple to know each other, understand each other? Then comes the baby and all the attention and time goes towards the kid and its upbringing. What about understanding each other? Knowing each other?! And if they don’t have a kid within one year, people will not allow them to live peacefully. As I have said in one of my earlier posts, they make the life literally a hell.

Here I should mention another incident. We had English professor by name Uma Murthy who taught us Shakespeare, Hardy and others in my degree classes. One of her relative’s daughter was newly married and was thinking of divorce. Not because her husband or in-laws were torturing her, but because she thought marriage would be like films. Going for shopping, watching movies, walking hand-in-hand on roads, sitting in the park, etc, etc. A simple girl’s simple concept of marriage. She couldn’t digest the idea beyond that. She couldn’t imagine the concept of a man and a woman within four walls. All she wanted was a happy life which she saw on TV and in films.

So I keep questing myself would it have been that easy to go with a stranger had I married a person of my parents’ choice? Would have I been happy? Don’t know. I don’t have answers for that, but all I can say is it’s really strange to move with a stranger and life would have been more strange with him, without Vij :)

In Qatar? Note these important numbers

2012-02-08T17:22:00.000+03:00

Ministries

Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs +974 4470777

Ministry of Economy and Commerce +974 4945555

Ministry of Education +974 4941111

Ministry of Foreign Affairs +974 4334334

Ministry of Interior +974 4849525/+974 4849510

Ministry of Defence +974 4614111

Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture +974 4336254/+974 4413331

Ministry of Energy and Industry +974 4846444

Ministry of Justice +974 4842222

Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs +974 4841444

Ministry of Finance +974 4461444

Institutions

Academy for Sports Excellence (Aspire) 4136000

Kahramaa 4845555/4845464

Qatar General Post Office 4464336

Qatar Foundation for Child and Women Protection 4679444

Qatar University 4852222

Qatar Red Crescent Society 4435111

Institute of Administrative Development 4406666

Family Consultation center 4892888

Qatar Post Authority 4464000

Qatar Foundation for Education, Science & Community Development 4927000

Media Institutions

Raya 446655

Al Watan 4660400

Al Saharq 4557777

Qatar Radio & TV Corporation 4859555

Al Jazeera Channel 4896666

Healthcare Centres

Hamad General Hospital

Operator of H.G.H 4394444

Administration of H.G.H. 4391001

Patients Relations 4391427

Public Relations Section 4392012

Admitting 4392049 - 4392441

Intensive Care Unit 4392108

Hamad International Medical Training Center 4883643

E.M.S. Department 4392050

Women’s Hospital

Operator Women Hospital 4396666

Administration, Women Hospital 4393939

Delivery Room 4393518

Admitting 4393117

Intensive Care Unit 4393395

I.V.F. 4393020

Emergency Unit 4393344

Health Sciences Library 4393838

Rumaillah Hospital

Operator of Rumaillah Hospital 4393333

Administration of Rumaillah Hospital 4397000

Public Relations Section 4393358

Admitting Geriatrics 4393665

Children's Rehabilitation Unit Intensive Care Unit 4393348

TB Clinic 4393270

Psychiatry Unit 4384542 - 4384502

Plastic Surgery 4393172 - 4393647

Stroke Unit 4393196

Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation 4397009

E.N.T. Unit 4393349

Prosthetics & Orthotics 4393587

Dental Section 4393082

Dermatology Section 4397026

Burns Unit 4393174

Cancer Center 4392723

Special Education Section 4397061

Speech Therapy Unit 4393107

Primary Health Centres

Al Montaza Center 4435784

Madinat Khaleefa Health Center 4862655

Al Rayyan Health Center 4803461

Airport Health Center 4675633

West Bay Health Center 4837790

Al Shammal Health Center 4731232

Al Khor Health Center 4720224

Al Wakrah Health Center 4644453

Oman Ibn Al Khatab Health Center 4667374

Abu Bakir Health Center 4681797

Al Shahanya Health Center 4718995

Um Ghwalina Health Center 4433892

Airline companies

Qatar Airways 4496666

Gulf Air 4455444/4455205

Air Arabia 4322111

Aero Asia Airlines 4430888

Saudi Arabian Airlines 4440121

Kuwait Airways 4435340

Emirates 4384477

Oman Air 4440456

Etihad Airways 4366657

Royal Jordanian Airlines 4351422

Tunis Air 4458306

Moroccan Airways 4458306

Yemenia Airlines 4458387

Syrian Arab Airlines 4412911

Egypt Air 4458325

Cathay Pacific 4458318

Lufthansa 4310633

Alitalia 4321427

British Airways 4321434

Turkish Airlines 4433028

Aeroflot 4458306

Air France 4321208

Austrian Airlines 4441161

KLM 4440320/4445101

American Airlines 4436600

Czech Airlines 4458306

Romania Airlines 4458306

Air India 4426889

Indian Airlines 4356040

Biman Air Bangladesh 4413054

Iran Air 4415318

Iran Aseman Airlines 4364799/4439333

Pak 4418022

Shaheen Air 4444440

Air China 4441161

Srilankan Airlines 4446345

Thai Air 4418666

Sudan Airways 4441159/4441161

Banks and Currency Exchange

Qatar Central Bank 4456456

Qatar National Bank 4407777

Bank of Qatar 4253555/4232222

Commercial Bank of Qatar 4490000

Doha Bank 4456000

Qatar Islamic International Bank 4385888

Qatar Islamic Bank 4448444

Qatar International Bank 4473700/4473888

Al-Rayan Bank 4253333

Qatar Development Bank 4421600

Arab Bank 4387777/4387878

Mashreq Bank 4413213

Alkhaliji Bank 4996000

HSBC 4382138/4382100

Banque Paribas 4424786/4378378

Standard Chartered 4414252

Bank Saderat Iran 4414646

United Bank Limited 4254400

Al-Fardan Exchange and Finance 4408408

Habib Qatar International Exchange 4328853

Theatres and Cinemas

Al Khaleej Cinema 4671811

Doha Cinema 4671811

City Centre Cinema 4934934

The Mall Cinema 4678666

Landmark Cinema 4881675

Amir Cinema 4424913

Palace Cinema (Royal Plaza) 4130000

Qatar National Theater 4831246

Companies

QTEL +974 4400400

Qatar National Hotel Company 4857777

Doha Securities Market 4333666

Qatar Chamber Of Commerce & Industry +974 4559111

Qatar Central Bank +974 4456456

Postal Services

DHL Qatar 4587888

Fedex 4434409

Aramex 4506611

UPS 4650606

Limousine Services

Doha limousine 4839999

Al Watan Limousine 4477999

Mustafawi Limousine 4671007

Qatar Limousine 4868688

Elite Limousine (Stretch) 4426184

Car Rental

Avis 4667744

Budget 4622678

Hertz 4677329

Europcar 4660677

Other useful telephone numbers

Police, Fire and Ambulance 999

Telephone Directory 180

International Calls Inquiry 150

Telephone Services 111

Doha Airport Air Traffic & Flights Inquiry 4629999-4656666

Qatar Metrological Department 4656590

Hamad General Hospital 4394444

Medical Commission 4679111

Customs & Ports Authority 4457457

Doha Airport Customs 4621104

Doha Port Customs 4457246

Border Points, Passports & Aliens Affairs Department 4890333

Doha Airport Passports & Security 4622105

Doha Airport (Instant Visas) 4622105

Doha Airport (Prearranged Visas) 4621751

Doha Port Passports 4457457

Traffic & Patrol Police Department 4890666

Public Relations At The Ministry Of Interior 4849444

Electricity Emergency 991

Qatar Emergency 4325959

Qatar Post Authority 4464000

Doha Securities Market 4333666

Qatar Chamber Of Commerce & Industry 4621131

Department Of Publications 4427373

Qatar Public Library 4389888

Qatar Photographic Society 4410209

Visual Arts Centre 4676251

Qatar National Museum 4442191

Qatar University 4852222

Youth General Authority 4316372

Qatar Red Crescent Society 4435111

Growing tall: Doha skyscrapers make world list

2012-02-08T17:18:00.002+03:00

The city of Doha came fourth in the world and the second in the Middle East in the number of skyscrapers completed in 2011, according to the recently-released annual report of the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH).

The Doha skyline is going to add many more skyscrapers in the coming years, including the second tallest building in the world - the 551-m Doha Convention Center and Tower to be constructed in West Bay.
Of the total 88 tall buildings with a height of 200 metres and above completed all over the world in 2011, Doha accounted for eight buildings, placing itself just behind Abu Dhabi, which had nine skyscrapers completed during the year. Dubai came third in the Middle East and fifth in the world with seven buildings.
Among the 11 countries featured in the list, Qatar came fifth and the second in the Middle East, with the UAE placed first in the region and the second in the world. China tops the list with 23 skyscrapers followed by the UAE (16), South Korea (11), Panama (10) and Qatar (8) in the next four positions, respectively.

Among the cities, Panama City (Panama) came first with 10 buildings. Busan (South Korea) and Abu Dhabi shared the second position with nine buildings each, followed by Doha (8) and Dubai (7) in the third and fourth positions, respectively.

The eight tallest buildings in Doha featured in the global report are: Palm Tower-1, Palm Tower-2 (Each 245m), Burj Qatar (236m), Courtyard, Renaissance Hotel, Merweb Hotel, Rotana Hotel and Shangri-La Hotel (Each 200m).

“It had been expected that skyscraper completions would drop off very sharply after 2011, as a result of the 2008 global financial crisis and the large number of projects put on hold. Now however, due in large part to the continuing high activity of skyscraper design and construction in China, as well as the development of several relatively new markets, this global dip is no longer expected. The effect this will have on the skylines of the world will be tremendous,” said the report by Nathaniel Hollister, CTBUH Production Coordinator and Antony Wood, its Executive Director. The buildings completed in 2011 have effected a significant change in the world’s tallest 100 buildings, with 17 new buildings added to the list.

This change continues the trends of recent years. Perhaps most significantly, for the first time in history the number of office buildings in the tallest 100 has diminished to the 50 percent mark, as mixed-use buildings continue to increase, jumping from 23 to 31.

In terms of location, Asia, now with 46 of the 100, continues to edge toward containing half of the world’s tallest buildings. The Middle East region saw an increase of three, while Europe diminished to only one building in the tallest 100, said the report.

(Source: The Peninsula)

Qatar tops per capita water use in world

2012-02-08T17:17:00.000+03:00

Per capita household water use in Qatar is one of the highest in the world. People in Qatar use an average of 310 litres of water every day, more than double the average for West European countries.

Studies show that Qataris used 1,200 litres per person per day in 2009, while expatriates consumed 150 litres per person per day during the same year.

To address the high consumption and wastage of water in the country and other water-related issues, the government will form a National Water Act by 2016, as part of the Qatar National Strategic Plan 2011-2016.

Qatar has become increasingly dependent on water produced from seawater, by means of costly and energy-intensive thermal desalination, which accounts for about half the water used in the country.

But with rapid population growth and urbanisation, the volume is soaring: use of desalinated water has tripled since 1995, reaching 312 million cubic metres in 2008.

Increasing demand of desalinated water is projected to continue — with heavy water losses, a growing population and higher household consumption.

Based on current trends, consumption through 2020 is expected to increase 5.4 percent a year for Qataris and 7 percent a year for expatriates.

Compared with other countries, Qatar has low water tariffs (free for Qatari households and low-cost for non-Qatari households) that recover less than a third of the costs of water production.

A priority of the National Development Strategy 2011–2016 is to improve the management of water resources so that future generations do not face difficulties meeting basic needs.

The presently fragmented patchwork of laws and rules will be replaced by a comprehensive water policy, codified under a National Water Act and followed by a system of integrated regulation.

Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) is investing in piping and leak-sealing operations to lower network water losses to 10 percent by 2016, from the present 35 percent.

Tariff structures that encourage conservation, coupled with public awareness campaigns and mandated use of water-efficient appliances, could reduce consumption by as much as 40 percent, according to some estimates.

The government will establish a system for monitoring diminishing fresh groundwater levels while taking stock of the full causes and consequences of Doha’s rising water table.

The government will work to eliminate excess flows into the Doha water table.

(Source: The Peninsula)

Why wonder when I call my doggies as my children?

2012-02-02T18:22:00.000+03:00

Seeing my status message a friend messaged me from Bangalore. “Where is your son? You never told me you had a son.” He was angry on me. He asked me again: “Where is your son, in Doha or India?” I replied calmly: “In India.” He went on, “In India, where?” I said, with a smile: “With my parents.” Then, he really got pissed off. He said: “You people make children & grandparents should look after them for your luxury…” I cut him short before he continued to scold me and lecturing. “I thought by this time, you got it. Gundu is my doggie. I call my dogs as sons and daughters…” My friend was more than happy to know that. Yes, we treat our dogs like family members and we call them, rather consider them as our children. What’s wrong in that? Many dog lovers do that.

When I went to my cousin’s house last year, her sons had to tell me a complaint against their mom. The boys had got a lab pup and mom had allowed it to stay with them even for a day. Morning it came and when they reached home in the evening they found the pup missing. Not that somebody had stolen it, but my cousin had sent it back with the person who had given it to the boys. My mom said desperately: “You could have given it to us.” I wondered how a dog can change our way of thinking and lifestyle.

Yeah, I remember the day when I and my brother had brought a pomeranian pup when we were in school and my mom had sent it back to my uncle’s house. It had stayed with us only for a night. When people were around, it used to be quiet and playful and cried the whole night when we slept and the whole family didn’t sleep that night and in the morning my mom said that she doesn’t allow the pup to stay with us. Times, have changed since then.

Our second dog Nimmu

We got a dog when I went to Class 9 and since then, we have dogs at home and we love them and treat them like our family members. Doggy was the first dog member, a country street dog, who entered our family and our hearts. Then came, Nimmu, a lab and German Shepherd cross, who was like my daughter till she passed away last year, after staying with us for 12 years. In between came Dinku, a naughty and cute lab, who stayed with us for only 2 months. Even my mom cried when he passed away and it took 2-3 days to convince Nimmu that Dinku was no more. It hurt us to see Nimmu searching for her little playmate around the house. Dinku’s death had coincided with my KPSC results. I had not made through the exams, I cried a lot in the class when I came to know about the death of Dinku and my students thought that I was inconsolable because I had failed in the exam! I couldn’t muster strength to go home and see him.

Four years ago, another black lab entered our family and my mom insisted that he should be called Dinku. Dinku loved everybody, especially my mom. Both shared a strong bonding and loved each other a lot.

Dinku with his grandfather

Taking care of a dog like a family member is not easy. We can’t go anywhere and someone has to stay back and my mom has done that for years. We bring dogs, but she sacrifices her outings and stays back for them.

I was not surprised when she said that she would have taken care of the dog if my cousin had given it to us. No one addresses our dogs as dogs in our family, we call them by names and he or she. My mom has been grandma, my Dad grandpa, me mom and my brother uncle to them. They are like kids to us and we treat them like that.

Sometimes, I wonder how people abandon their dogs when they become old or sick. Pets are like our own children. When we stand for our children when he or she makes a mistake, can’t the same rule apply to pets? If we decide to bring a dog into the family, we are bound to take lifelong responsibility of the animal. And those owning pets should stand up for their animals when faced with a choice to dispose of the animal.

It hurts to see dogs fully-grown, that have served as loyal companions to their masters for years together, abandoned on streets.

I would love to have dogs around and I want my children to grow up around dogs and be sensible and passionate towards them.

Subbi when she was 45 days old

Dinku had some health problems and later doctor told us that he’s suffering from throat cancer and he passed away when he was three-year-old. After Dinku passed away, my dad was so engrossed in other things that he hardly finds time to indulge in a fitness routine, forget about going for a morning walk. It was not the same with him earlier. He had a walking partner in Dinku, who liked to jump at the mention of walk in morning. Evening, he gave company to my mom. Together, they used to go for a walk, rather say, a fitness walk.

Dinku always had time for us, come rain or sunshine. He had to be taken for a walk twice in a day. It made my parents to take him along for a walk regularly. So, even if they were not in the mood for a walk, he kept them pestering, till they gave in and put on their walking shoes. When he was there, they hardly missed their walking sessions.

Six-month-old Subbi

Dogs can be great companions. Once my parents developed a routine of walking with him, he ensured that they follow it on a regular basis, that too at a fixed time. He never ever let them forget that it is the time for them to get up and get going! Specially, he had that capability of charging my dad up, enhancing his energy levels, so that he walked faster and with much more enthusiasm. Need not to say that it burned more calories and improved his overall fitness levels. People never believe that he has crossed 60 years! Dinku served as a great stress buster and walking with him helped us forget all our worries and relax our mind as well.
My dad has made several friends. Many small kids in the neighbourhood talk to him and fondly approach him for he allowed them to talk and go close to Dinku or Nimmu or Subbi or now, Gundu.

One-month-old Gundu (in my right hand) with his little sis

And today, I read an interesting story on Reuters. Bereaved pet lovers in Bangkok go to Klong Toey Nai temple by the Chao Phraya river to mark the passing of their animal friends with full funeral rites which begin with short prayers by monks, a two-hour cremation, and a trip down the river to spread the ashes.

Four-month-old Gundu

The temple started to cremate stray dogs and cats nearly a decade ago, before they began offering funeral services for pets. Now they perform five to 15 funerals a day. While most are dogs and cats, the pets have included turtles, fish, rabbits and monkeys.

Seven-month-old Gundu...

It's a Buddhist belief that cremation sends you forward into the next life while a burial might not do that, dropping chips of fragrant wood and flowers into the incinerator.

The cost of a cremation is 1,800 baht ($60), including the boat service to spread the ashes. Cremation of dogs heavier than 20 kg (44 lb) costs 2,000 baht and those who want a gold-plated wooden coffin will have to pay another 3,000 baht.

The temple in the capital, which has an estimated 800,000 or more homeless dogs, also offers free services for those who bring in strays but cannot afford to pay.

The monks chant: "This life cycle is completed. We pray that Bai Toey be born in the next life blessed with prosperity and good health, in a better form, like one of a human."

Watch for more blogs on Gundu and how he was saved even after docs had lost all hopes.

When the West doesn't know Indian saree...

2012-01-29T19:49:00.000+03:00

Once again the Indian attire is in the news, not because of commoners, but because the western media has called Anarkali dress worn by Shilpa Shetty as saree. Even though many fashion designers from India keep saying that saree, our traditional garment, is one of the best known Indian outfits in the international fashion world, Daily Mail, a UK tabloid called Anarkali dress as saree!

On Friday, the tabloid carried an article on Bollywood actrress and former Big Brother winner, Shilpa Shetty, making her first post-pregnancy appearance. While the actor wore an off white and red Anarkali suit with a duppatta, the report called the garment a saree. The tabloid, unfortunately, failed to recognise the Indian outfit. ‘Shilpa Shetty’s sari shows off her baby bump’, read the headline.

The article also read: “The Bollywood actress glowed with expectant mum pride and she looked stunning in her beautiful sari, which showed off her baby bump.”

And funnily, people also started posting comments on the tabloid website about the faux pas. “That’s not a sari. It’s called an Anarkali,” posted ZB from India.

Another comment, posted by Zak, read, “Its Not a sari it’s a freakin anarkali dress (sic).”

Radh from London said: “Daily Mail, it is not a saree that she is wearing but in fact a 3 peice outfit called a 'Lengha'.”

Then, Kudeza, also from London, said: “That's not a sari for a start! Anyway she looks gorgeous and definitely glowing.” And Kudeza goes on to explain the dress in another comment: “All those that are calling this a "Lengha" - You are all wrong too. A Lengha is a separate top + long skirt. What Shilpa is wearing is called an Anarkali Suit as the top is all one piece!!”

Shwetha Singh from Bangalore joins the debate and says: “Shilpa is wearing a traditional Indian Dress (Salwar Kameez- Anarkali Style) She is wearing salwar kameez There are many varieties of Salwar Kameez For Eg:- Patiyala Style, Plain A cut, Umbrella Cut, Chudi dar, Anarkali Style..... n many more....... so she is not at all wearing a saree.”

Indian designers feel that at a time when a global fashion giant like Hermes has come up with an exclusive sari collection and designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier have done their interpretation of the saree, such ignorance is amusing.

But is it really such a big deal? If given a thought, yes it is. There’s no wonder that Westerners get confused between an Anarkali and a Churidaar, but saree has been often worn by many global celebs!

Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova was dressed in a traditional Indian saree when she addressed a press conference in Lonavala, Mumbai.

Tennis players Serena Williams and her sister Venus Williams were in traditional Indian saree during a function on the eve of the WTA Bangalore Open Championship in Bangalore in 2008.

Russian tennis player Maria Kirilenko wore a saree during a photo shoot at the Sunfeast Open 2007.

Serbian tennis player Jelena Jankovich was in traditional Indian saree during a function on the eve of the WTA Bangalore Open Championship in Bangalore in 2008.

Tennis player Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia wore an Indian saree during the 2007 Sunfeast Open in Kolkata.

Paris Hilton had even done a cover shoot in a saree.

Actress Liz Hurley attended The Breast Cancer Foundation's Hottest Pink Party at The Waldorf Astoria in New York City, in a beautiful saree.

Ashley Judd, YouthAIDS Global Ambassador, was in a saree at the YouthAIDS Gala: Faces of India at the Ritz-Carlton, Virginia.

R&B quintet Pussycat Dolls walked the red carpet at Conde Nast Media Group’s 4th Annual Fashion Rocks in a black saree designed by designer Rocky S.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell walked the runway in a saree at the Mai Mumbai show at Lakme India Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2009 at Grand Hyatt.


Anna Kournikova in saree

Serena Williams and Venus Williams in saree

Jelena Jankovich in saree

Paris Hilton in saree

Liz Hurley in saree

Pussycat Dolls in saree

Ashley Judd in saree

Naomi Campbell in saree

Not just these, even Anjelina Jolie, Eva Mendes, Gisele Bundchen, Pamela Anderson, Tania Zaetta, Nicole Scherzinger, Madonna, Dame Helen Mirren, Ashley Judd and others were bewitched by this Indian outfit and appeared in some beautiful sarees on some occasions.

Angelina Jolie in saree

Madonna in saree

Eva Mendes in saree

Tania Zaetta in saree

Gisele Bundchen in saree

Nicole Scherzinger in saree

Helen Mirren in saree

Pamela Anderson in saree

Ok, leaving that apart and justifying their ignorance, we can just pardon them by saying even we cannot tell which is an Abaya and which is a Burqa. But will that justify it?

Who will control the web? How??

2012-01-25T19:17:00.000+03:00

The largest democracy in the world is drawing attention of the world and this time, it is for censoring internet liberty. And this is not the first time the eyes of the world are on this country, following an uneasy tension between allowing free expression to its citizens and staunching sectarian violence among its people. It was one of the first countries to ban The Satanic Verses by its own writer Salman Rushdie. It was the country’s lawsuits which forced painter MF Hussein to live in exile during the last several years of his life. And now, it is the internet which is like a galaxy of words and pictures rife with potential to inflame sentiments across the globe.

The country’s Information Technology Act, 2008 limits the liability of Internet firms for material posted on their websites by users, including anything government regulators deem objectionable. The firms are supposed to be notified of offensive content -- by users or the authorities -- and then remove that when legally warranted. What one has to wonder is then, why did the government sanction a criminal lawsuit against companies?

Even the Wall Street Journal on January 16, made a similar valid question:

“If that’s how the system is supposed to work, then why did the Indian government just sanction a criminal lawsuit against Google, Facebook and 19 other companies that all but ignores those protections in the information technology law?”

And overnight, the media attention is on Vinay Rai, a journalist -- not to forget that it is the media and media people who often cry for freedom and privacy – who has registered a criminal case against the content on Google's Orkut social networking site, YouTube, Facebook and several other smaller sites.

Rai, who works as a journalist in Akbari, a Urdu weekly, accused them of violating various provisions of India’s criminal code by allowing material that is mocking or offensive to religious and political figures to stay on their social networking sites. According to him, such content can “create communal riots across the country”.

In a sign of the growing tension, the high court judge told the companies at a hearing that they must find a way to monitor and delete offensive content, or India could go the way of China and start blocking entire websites more actively. Indian Express reported:

"You must have a stringent check. Otherwise, like China, we may pass orders banning all such websites," Justice Suresh Kait said.

The Google is still trying to cope with a far more direct and severe censorship regime in the neighboring country, China. Two years ago, Google said it would begin directing users to an uncensored search engine in Hong Kong, and now it is making a renewed push in China to market products and services such as its Android mobile phone platform.

Yes, agreed that there millions of people who use social networking sites across the world and there are thousands who create accounts with fake identities each day. Men posing as women, women posing as men, people posting objectionable, abusive content every day. But is there anybody to regulate them?

According to Google’s transparency report, India made nearly 70 requests to Google to remove content between January and June in 2010, one of the highest request rates of any country though less than the United States’ 92 and Brazil’s 224.

This is not the first time India is attempting to monitor and control electronic information. Last year, the government battled with Blackberry’s manufacturer, Research In Motion, threatening to shut the company’s service off in India if it did not allow government officials greater access to users’ messages.

Interestingly, before 2011, the public disenchantment with the government was not that great and it is exploding now through the Internet. Is it because of the public outrage over corruption and political dysfunction that is spilling into blog posts, Facebook posts and Tweets that the government is stepping up its enforcement against the web? But will the government’s decision to control the web and its content not “a clampdown on free speech altogether”?

There have been instances where people have kept themselves away from social networking sites. Users of all websites have the option to report objectionable content and that Indian laws make it essential for sites to then examine and delete content within a fixed period, if it's found to violate Indian guidelines. So it’s not just the laws, even the public can control offensive content.

Telecom minister Kapil Sibal had singled out Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi, when he had spoken to legal representatives of India’s top Web firms, the telecom minister reportedly described as “unacceptable” a Facebook page that offended her. But if it’s only to check offensive material on Sonia Gandhi, the government has to stop and think. It is this decision which led writers like Shobhaa De to tweet: “Sibalsaab, such outrage 2 protect privacy of one ‘Madam’ in a country of 100million internet users? We like our freedom and we shall have it!”, in what appeared to be a reference to Sonia Gandhi.

Not to forget, last year, Congress threatened legal action against the author of a fictionalized account of Sonai’s Gandhi’s life, which party officials described as defamatory.

When the government has plans to set up its own unit to monitor information posted on websites and social media sites, is there a need for blocking or banning social networking?

The crackdown on Web firms couldn’t come at a worse time for the emerging Internet sector in the country, which has a potential to grow from about 100 million users to more than 300 million within a few years, if nurtured.

Even the United States expressed concern over India’s effort to impose a code of conduct on web firms. US State Department spokesman Mark Toner had said: “Freedom of expression applies equally to the internet as it does in the real world.”

Hearings in the trial court will resume on March 13. Will the social networking giants recognize and learn their social responsibility by merely stepping into the court? One has to wait and watch.

Al Khor Fly-in

2012-01-14T18:25:00.000+03:00

It was already 11.50 am when Vij told me about the Fly-in at Al Khor. He wanted to visit the event not just to see the flights, but also to have a first-hand experience, sitting in those small flights. Then, we just thought of having lunch outside and left home, wondering if we would be able to see the event properly, as it was too windy.

Fly-in at Al Khor

We reached the Al Khor airport by 1 pm and as expected it was so dusty and windy. We could see people and small children covering their faces and trying to avoid dust from falling in their eyes. Though I could cover myself with the shawl, by the time we left the place, our dress, body and cameras were smeared with a fine layer of dust, not to mention the fine layer on the body of our car…

Small models for sale

This had a note saying don't sit inside ;)

There were a diverse range of light aircraft from Qatar and the Gulf region at Al-Khor Airport and we saw several aircraft enthusiasts from all over the region gathering around the flights and clicking pics. The crowd seemed to be excited, which was obvious through their cheer and smile.

Red beauties ;)

The Fly-in, fifth in the series, was organised jointly by Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA), Qatar Aeronautical College (QAC), light aircraft owners from Qatar and the region (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE), the remote flying section at the Science Club, Al-Khor Airport, the ultra-light amateurs, and regional flight clubs.

Looking what's inside...

The objective of the event was to educate Qatari youth about the concepts and practicalities of aviation, offering them an opportunity to plan their future and choose the adequate specialisation to make a career in the discipline, should they feel the urge to ‘reach for the sky’. It was also a great opportunity for those with a passion for aviation to immerse themselves in a fantastic and original experience by taking a closer look at a diverse range of aircraft - from jets, to propeller aircraft, to micro-copters and many others.

I loved that kid's glass and bunny cap :)

The event started on Friday at 8 am and the Fly-in began at 9 am and luckily we went on the second day and there was not that much of crowd. The display of remote-controlled aircraft, set to traditional, local music was an added attracted at the site. Had we visited on Friday, we could have witnessed a police squadron providing an air show accompanied by a ‘search and rescue’ scenario, followed by a flying show and then a remote-control display, accompanied by a commentary.

The potential of the Fly-in was evident by the number and stature of Qatari companies that had sponsored the event. We could see several private and government companies like Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Steel, Qafco, Ras Gas, Al-Khor Space City, Barwa Real Estate, Qatar Foundation and its partner the US Museum of Flights, and HBK Holding sponsoring the event, and their banners fluttered in the air.

Though, we went on time, we couldn’t take the flight as it was too windy! The offer by some of the small planes to take people around the airfield at a fee of QR150 per passenger seemed quite exciting and was a great draw at the event. Visitors had to register for the ride to be called in when their turn comes. There were conditions to take a ride too. The passenger had to be at least 16, fit for flying and wear protective gear.

The planes used were mostly gyrocopters, autogyros and micro light flown by professional pilots and the trip usually lasted around 15 minutes. The demand for the trip was very high and only a few had a chance Friday.

The event featured more than 30 planes, of small and light types, alongside one helicopter and a small passenger plane. Professional pilots were available next to their parked planes to answer the visitors’ queries.

After clicking some good number of pics we left the place and went to Al Khor town. We had not had any lunch and headed towards KFC for a quick bite and alas, it was sooo bland, sooo bland that we regretted going there!

Use of images and symbols in the poetry of Kamala Das

2012-01-12T18:27:00.002+03:00

Use of images and symbols in the poetry of Kamala Das

By M.P. Singh

Image in poetry is the making of a picture in terms of words. It is a device for making the experience of life vivid and life like. Poets deficient in this art of image making fail in their vocation. It exploits different sensory perceptions and pin down his experiences with precision and thereby evokes a living and pulsating picture of life.

A.N. Dwivedi says: “Imagery serves twin-purposes together-that of ‘ornamentation’ and that of arousing ‘aesthetic pleasure’ in the reader” (2000:65). The process of ‘image-making’ involves the skilful use of metaphors, similes,contrasts, and may be equated to ‘picture- making’ or ‘concretization of emotions’. Symbol is the use of an object for signifying something that is beyond the literal denotation of the object.

It is a potent tool arising out of the vibrant imaginative perception of reality. A work of art without proper symbolism is as worthless as a flower without fragrance. However rich and profound a thought may

be it has a very little significance in the realm of art and literature unless it is woven into the fabric of images and symbols. History is replete with instances that most of the poets thrived and rose to eminence with the help of putting thoughts into the pattern of images and symbols.

T.E. Hulme (1883-1917) was the chief protagonist of the imagist movement in England. Reacting sharply against theloose and facile texture of the Georgian poetry, Hulme advocated the importance of “hard, dry image” in poetry. He emphasised that poetry should restrict itself to the world perceived by senses and to the presentation of its theme in detail and precise in significance. Other pioneers of this movement were Ezra pound, James Joyce and C. Day Lewis. Ezra pound says “ An image is one which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time’(Pound 1915:349) C. Day Lewis remarks: “An epithet, a metaphor, a simile may create an image or an image may be presented to us in phrase or passage on the face of it purely descriptive, but conveying to our imagination something more than the accurate reflection of an external reality.” (Lewis 1955 :04)

Kamala Das was influenced by these writers and while she was composing her own poetry, she resorted to the imagist and symbolistic techniques in order to render it impressive, precise and compact. Kamala Das’s diction is marked by simplicity and clarity. It is the language of her emotions and she speaks to her readers as one human being to another. In this lies her originality and her distinction.

There are no abstractions, no complexities and no intricate, tortuous constructions. Her images are drawn from the familiar and the common place, are symbolic and thus they increase the expressive range of her

language. The sun and heat, house and window, cremation and burning, objects of nature, human anatomy, sleep, sea, the mythic grandmother and krishana constitute her whole range of imagery. One of the dominant images in Mrs. Das’s poetry is that of ‘the human body’. While male body is a source of corruption and exploitation the female body is a storehouse of beauty and chastity misused to the maximum. The poetess in her poem “The Freaks” presents is subtle analysis of the male physiology :

He talks, turning a sun-stained

cheek to me, his mouth, a dark

cavern where Stalactites of

Uneven teeth gleam, his right

hand on my knee......

...... can’t this man with

nimble fingure- tips unleash

nothing more alive than he

skin’s lazy hungers ? (Das 1965 :10)

The male anatomy furnishes her with images of horror and ugliness. It is represented as repulsive and destructive. A lover is generally attractive and pleasant to the beloved, but here he is replusive to the woman. His cheeks are sun-stained and so brownish in colour, and to her, his mouth seems to be ugly and horrible like a’dark cavern’. His teeth are uneven and they seem to her to be like the white, calciferous growth which often forms on the roofs of caves. Images of ugliness here focus on her

attitude of rejection and negation. It is symbolic of her revolt against male ego and the male-dominated world. It is obvious that her relationship with her husband is a forced one; there is no love lost between the two and the woman is there only because as a wife she must submit herself to the lust of her husband. Through images of repulsion and horror she brings out the emotional emptiness and sterility

of her married life and the intensity of her misery as a wife who had to submit to her husband whom she found repulsive, and with whom she had no emotional contact at all. She is conscious of the beauty and

glory of the human anatomy and is attracted by it, but its raging lustfulness disguests her and hence the use of images like these cited above. She is also consious of disease and decay to which the human

flesh is heir to, and this awareness also colours her imagery. She says in the following lines of the poem “The Looking Glass” :

Notice the perfection

of his limbs, his eyes reddening under

shower, the shy walk across the bathroom floor,

dropping towels, and the jerky way he

uninates, All the fond details that make

Him male and your only man. Gift him all,

Gift him what makes you woman, the scent of

Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts,

The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your

endless female hungers. (Das 1967 :25)

The images concretize her fond awareness of the intimate human details. They express adequately her abiding love for the human body as also her aversion to it. Indeed, images are her themes as well as the modes of expression. They dramatise her passion and impart certain depth and resonance to her feelings.

Another recurrent image is that of the sun and the heat it generates. It is used most frequently as a symbol of lust & corruption. ‘In The Dance of the Eunuchs’ and ‘Summer in Calcutta’ and in a host

of other poems the sum with its scorching heat is an agent of pain, suffering & lustfulness. “The Dance of the Eunuchs “ is powerful and bold and displays an admirable sense of proportion in the use of imagery

and metaphor. It displays a very skilled use of imagery and symbolism.

The poetess is eminently successful in creating the impression of summer heat. The poem consists a number of excellent images. The poetess sympathises with the eunuchs who neither constitute the male

nor the female genre and suffer a peculiar irony of fate :

It was hot, so hot, before the eunuchs came

To dance, wide skirts going round and round, cymbals

Richly clashing, & anklets jingling, jingling,

Jingling, ....... Beneath the fiery gulmohar, with

Long braids flying, dark eyes flashing, they danced and

They danced, oh ! they danced till they bled. (Das 1965:10)

The funeral imagery in the poem is symbolic of the inner vacuity and sterility of the eunuchs as well as of their decrepit bodies. The poetess uses the funeral imagery with a view to portraying the decrepit figure of

the eunuchs :

They were thin in limbs and dry ; like half burnt logs from

Funeral pyres, a drought & a rottenness

were in each of them. (Das 1973 : 01)

The image creates the visual impression of the eunuchs who survive and suffer endlessly like “ half-burnt logs from funeral pyres”. Unable to find fulfilment as a woman or to give satisfaction as one, the poetess

sees in the eunuchs ‘ writhing in vacant ecstary’ a devastating image of her own sterility.

In the poem “In love” the drama of sterile love which brings no emotional fulfilment is enacted against the background of scorching heat of the summer scene, a symbol of the poet’s own scorching frustration as a woman. The title is ironic because poetess is not at all in love, but disgusted with the man who had her body. A sense of revulsion takes possession of the poetess and this is expressed through the use of powerful imagery. She compares the mouth of her lover to the sun which brings, in turn, both the heat and loss of love :

Of what does the burning mouth

of sun, burning in today’s

Sky, remind me ........ oh, yes, his

Mouth, and ........ his limbs like pale and

Carnivorous plants reaching

out for me, and the sad lie

of my unending lust. (Das 1973 :1)

We find a network of evocative and concrete imagery in the poem “The Old play- house “ The title of the poem is a metaphor. The poetess compares herself to an old play house with its all the lights put out. Light here is symbol of hope and poetic illumination of the poetess and lights put out symbolises her lost imagination and aspiration for flying high in the literary sky. She is no longer an imaginative person able to unrevel a new world with the help of her poetic imigination. She was completly in the grip of her husband. This captivity has been infered through the opening line of the poem:

You planned to tame a swallow, to hold her(Das 1973:1)

The swallow symbolises freedom and a carefree life and taming of swallow suggests the loss of freedom or captivity. The poetess is now a captive in the hands of her husband. The obsession of suppression

and despair has further been strengthened in the following lines of the poem

No more singing, no more dance, my mind is an old

Playhouse with all its lights put out. (I bid)

We find the plight of the poetess who bewails that her egocentric and male chauvinist husband has virtually reduced her full blooded and aspiring self to a mere entertaining toy. Her turning into dwarf is also symbolical. She cannot stand before the ego of her husband who always imposes his undue commands on her and she has to obey without any question. Memory of her sweet past has undergone a complete transformation which has well been symbolised through the falling leaves and burning of dry dead leaves. The nature imagery- the summer of your love, the ruder breeze, burning leaves reinforces her suffering and suffocation is aptly symbolised through the word ‘Smoke’ The urban imagery-artificial lights, air-conditioner & cut flowers in the vase point out the unnatural state of her sapless life.

The sea-image recurs most frequently and acquires symbolic siginificance. The sea for her is a place of retreat both from the ravages of the boastful male and the scorching sun. The desire to merge with the great blue sea is also symbolic of her desire for union with the right man through whom she can achieve emotional fulfilment. In “The Invitation”, the poetess ultimately decides to merge with the sea. The sea here symbolises a place of retreat from barren lustful relationship as well as the cosmic home, the eternity, the basic principle of life and regeneration. The poem begins with the powerful image of a male

fist ‘clenching and unclenching’ in her head which conveys the intensity of the headaches she gets as a result of meaningless sexual encounters. The opening lines express poet’s distaste for the kind of life she has been leading as well as her frustration consequent upon her failure to find that emotional fulfilment for which her soul hungered.

Another recurrent image in Kamala’s poetry is that of the window. It recurs in a number of poems. It is a place to view & review the past as well as the present. Often it is used as a link between the past and the present. The poetess in her poem ‘My Grandmother’s House’ says :

How often I think of going

There, to peer through blind eyes of window or

just listen to the frozen air, or in wild despair, pick an

armful of

Darkness to bring it here to lie

Behind my bedroom’s door like a brooding

Dog ...............

‘The window image’, underlines here, with sufficient emphasis, the languishing desire of the poetess for a sentient peep into her past and resurrect her dreams and desires. With the dereliction of the old house the windows have become blind. Only the heat of reunion wth the house will melt the ice & its windows will again be restored to old life.

Kamala Das makes frequent use of the Radha-Krishna and Mirabai legends to provide a mythic frame-work to extra-marital sex in her poetry. Krishna is the mythical lover, and Radha and Mirabai are the eternal seekers for their object of love, Krishna. These mythical personages are re-currently used as symbols to sanctify the quest of Kamala’s women persona for emotional fulfilment outside marriage.

They also bear testimony to her ‘Indianness” which is also borne out by her use of typically Indian flora and fauna, scenes & sights, for her purposes.

In conclusion, we may affirm that Kamala Das’s wide ranging application of images & symbols in her poetry is impeccable. Her images are functional rather than decorative. They are quite striking and arresting and are used with dexterity and aptness. She is not always in the knack of image-making and creating symbols and she resorts to this device when it becomes necessary.

REFERENCES

Dwivedi, A. N., 2000. Kamla Das and Her Poetry, New Delhi: Atlantic, p.65

Pound, Ezra. 1915. “Affirmations”, The New Age, p.349

Lewis, C. Day,1955, The Poetic Image, Univ. Press, Cambridge, p.04

Das, Kamala.1965. “The Freaks”, Summer in Calcutta, New Delhi: Everest Press.

Das, Kamala.1967 “The Looking Glass”, The Descendants, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, p.25

Das, Kamala.1965 “The Dance of the Eunuchs”, Summer in Calcutta, New Delhi: Everest Press, p.09

Das, Kamala.1965. “In Love” Summer in Calcutta. New Delhi: Everest Press, p.14

Das, Kamala. 1973. “The Old Playhouse”, The Old Playhouse and other poems Madras:Orient Long Man Ltd., p.01

Das Kamala. 1956. “My Grandmother’s House.” Summer in Calcutta, New Delhi: Everest press, p.15.

(Source: Journal of Literature, Culture and Media Studies (JLCMS); Vol.-II 4 July-Dec. [Winter] 2010)

Emergence of Feminist Perspective in Recent Indian-English Women Poets

2012-01-12T18:25:00.002+03:00

Emergence of Feminist Perspective in Recent Indian-English Women Poets

By Dr Ram Sharma

Indian women poets writing in English from Toru Dutt to Kamla Das and from Sarojini Naidu to Suniti Namjoshi reveal the mind-boggling variety of theme as well as style that poetry is capable of offering. In the last fifty years absorbing a variety of influences, dealing with a range of themes and generating diverse Striates of poetic expression. Each one of them has tried to speak in a distinctly personal voice, yet they form a part of chorus, a collective voice asserting the autonomy of women. It needs to be remembered that poetry written by women need not be viewed only as feminist poetry. In fact the belief that one is a woman is almost as absurd and obscurantist as the belief that is a man. However, literature by women tends to get marginalized because of the disparate tendencies of reception to their writings. In writing and particularly in writing poetry women are allotted personal but not public space, a private but not a political or rhetorical voice. Women poets have often raised their voice against social and cultural conventions that constrained their freedom and perpetrated a sort of institutional subjection of women. Women writers assert that the creation of a community of women is necessary antidote to the excess of individualism. They believe that women need to explore their collective consciousness and shared experience in order to transcend the fragmentation and isolation of their lives.

With regards to the new trends and techniques in women’s poetry there is a remarkable movement connecting the domestic with the public spheres of work. Increased metropolitan activities, sophisticated life styles, globalization, urbanized influences of pop, disco and cafe culture, Anglo-Americanization and the public and convent education of the present generation of women poets have made their poetic language, chiseled, sharp, pithy and effortless. The deconstructive strategies of narrative and conceptual frames, along with the simultaneous assimilation of pan-Indian elements have made their poetry a formidable area of study and research. Other than the skillful use of standard poetic devices, the semiotic, symbolical and metaphorical properties of language help to emphasize the feminist strategies of interrogation. The fissures and fragments of post-modern life are questioned and reflected in the highly experimental diction. The problems of sociological vis-à-vis literary politics, of gender inequities of margilization and sub-humanisatione of women, of their social and artistic exclusion and of the dominant need for inclusion and democratization, all contribute towards the distinctive character of this poetry. For the first time, mapping out new terrains the poetry of such Indian women poets bring forth the suppressed desires, lust, sexuality and gestational experiences. This new poetry is new forms of new thematic concerns of contemporary issues has changed the course of human civilization as the country entered the new millennium.

As such, it does not remain isolated from the global trends and can be corroborated by the fact that it has incorporated itself the manifestations of the feminist movements that swept through Europe, America, Canada, and Australia since 1960s. At the same time in India appeared the poetry of Kamla Das , Eunice de Souza , Mamta Kalia, Tara Patel , Imtiaz Kalia, Gauri Deshpande , Suniti Namjoshi,Gauri Pant, Lakshmi Kannan, Vimla Rao,Meena Alexander, Margaret Chatterjee, Charmayne D’Souza , Mamta Kalia, Sujata Bhatt etc. Tejdeep Menka Shivdasni and a few other women poets who not only totally upset the phallogocentric discourse of Indian English poetry by introducing in it a new array of thematic contents in new voices,

but relate their experiences in their art from a broad spectrum of styles.

Kamla Das is one of pioneering post-independence Indian English poets who have contributed immensely to the growth and development of modern Indian English poetry. Her poetry could be divided into three categories-positive poems negative poems and poems about her grand mother and ancestral house, leaving aside of few poems of some minor observations. The love poems where she expresses her happiness and the poems where she expresses her resentment against unfulfilled love may be termed as positive and negative poems respectively.

“The Freaks” is a negative poem in which love turns to lust. The woman in the poem complains bitterly against the attitude of her man because there is no love between them and what keeps them together for a moment is the lust of the blood. The physical appearance of the man is repelling to the woman because his cheek is ‘Sustained’, mouth ‘a bark cavern’ and teeth ‘uneven’. There is no love between them and as he puts his right hand on her knee, “they only wander, tripping/Idly over puddles of Desire”. ‘Desire’ here is personified. It stands for

lust-mere carnal desire devoid of warmth of love and affection. Thus, the Woman asks angrily:

Can’t this man with

Nimble finger tips unleash

Nothing more alive than the

Skin’s lazy hungers?

What she wants is tenderness, heart correspondence and love beyond desire, which the man fails to fulfill as he is indifferent to her as a person. She knows that no outsider will rescue her as love is a matter between a man and a woman and exclusively a personal and private affair, thus she asks:

Who can

Help us who have lived so long

And have failed in love?

The answer to this question is an implicit ‘no’. The heart of the woman becomes empty and ironically it is filled up with ‘Coiling Snakes of silence………..’. A snake that ‘Coils in silence’ will bite at the first opportunity and that is what she does when spits venom on the loveless life between a man and a woman. The imagery used here is appropriate to the context. The snake is an archetypal symbol of sex. When love becomes mere lust, the woman expresses her disgust. Because what she needs is tenderness both lovable and lasting resulting in their consummation of love. In desperation she concludes:

I am a freak. It’s only To save my face, I flaunt, at

Times, a grand, flamboyant lust.

Kamala Das’ Reminiscences of childhood at Nalapat House, her family home, are tinged with nostalgia as in “My Grand-mother’s House” and “A Hot Noon in Malabar”. Her Grand-mother and the ancestral house dominate quite a few memorable poems. The house is a symbol of rootedness and sense of belonging to a place, In “My Grand Mother’s House”, the poet recalls the house, where she once received love and the old woman (i.e. the Grand-mother) who loved her dearly. She is nostalgic about it and the memory of the Grand-mother makes her pensive. The poem begins with a note of nostalgia:

There is a house now for away where once

I received love….. the woman died.

Following the death of the Grand-mother a great change comes over the house. In the words of the poet,

The house withdrew into silence, Snakes moved

Among books I was then too young

To read, and my blood turned cold like the moon.

Through subtle imagery and figures of speech the poet brings out the changes in the house in the form of unused books and books that have been damaged due to lack of attention, which turned the blood of the poetic persona ‘cold like the moon’. In almost a wordsworthian venin she recalls the past to write poetry as ‘the emotion recollected in tranquility”. Thus she writes:

How often I think of going

There, to peer through blind eyes of windows

Or just listen to the frozen air,

Or in wild despair; pick an armful of

Darkness to bring it here to lie behind my

Bedroom door like a brooding

Dog…… You cannot believe, darling,

can you, that I lived in such a house and

Was proud and loved.

Kamala Das deeply loved and admired her grandmother. In a different situation, Kamala Das laments over the death of her Grandmother and decline of her ancestral place. In ‘Composition’ Das writes:

The only secrets I always

Withhold

Are that I am so alone

And that I miss my Grndmother.

“A Hot Noon in Malaber” is another poem about her ancestral place. Here she recalls the activities of the people in a hot after noon. With all its peculiarities like ‘beggars with whining voice’, men coming ‘from hills with parrots in a cage and fortune-cars’, ‘brown Kurava girls’, ‘bangles-sellers’, ‘strangers’, and ‘wildmen’ coming to Malabar, the place fascinates her without end. Staying away from Malabar is a kind of torture for her. The hot afternoon seems to bubble with activities like buying and selling of bangles, ‘fortune-telling’ by fortune tellers and giving arms to beggars. But the afternoon is not without its perils for ‘stranger’ and ‘wildmen’ visit the place. The poet puts it in its proper perspective in the following lines:

Is this a noon for strangers with mistrust in

Their eyes, dark, silent ones who rarely speak

At all, so that when they speak, their voices

Run wild, like jungle-voice. Yes, this is

A noon for wild men, wild thoughts, wild love.

Betrayal in love and physical exploitation underline the agony of the woman expressed in “The Sunshine Cat”. The poet describes the plight of a woman who has become a victim to the lust of many men. The poem, as usual with Kamala Das, begins abruptly with a conversational tone

and colloquial speech rhythm. The opening lines almost read like newspaper item imparting sensational news:

They did this to her, the men who knew her,

the men/she loved, who loved her not enough, being

selfish/and a coward, the husband who neither loved

nor/used her, but was a ruthless watcher, and

the band/of cynics she turned to, clinging to

their chests where/new hair sprouted like great

winged moths, burrowing her/face into their

smells and their young lusts to forget.

To forget, oh, to forget

The woman it complaining as it were, against male chauvinism but the remedy is out of her reach. They were king only to be cruel when they “let her slide from pegs of sanity into/a bed made soft with tears.”

Her husband was the worst of the lot who confined her “to a room of books till she was cold and/half-dead woman, now of no use at all to men.” This is one of the negative poems of Kamala Das in which the bitterness is loudly pronounced.

“The Invitation” is not easy to read, for here, a complex thought pattern has been infused into the loose structure and thereby demands a close study of the text. The beloved invites the sea to take her away or wipe out her bitter memory of being jilted in love. She, as it were, invokes the sea:

Oh Sea, let me shrink or grow, slosh up,

Slide down, go your way.

I will go mine.

The complaint against the lover is bitter and images chosen area appropriate to the context:

He came to me between

Long conferences, a fish coming up

For air, and was warm in my arms

And inarticulate ..........

The lover is likened to fish coming up for fresh air and diving deep when the need is over. The image of sex and note of betrayal go together. Since ‘the man is gone for good’, it would be foolish to wait for him. But the memory lingers on and the pangs of separation abides. Thus she recalls:

On the bed with him, the boundaries of

Paradise had shrunk to a mere

Six by two and afterwards, when we walked

Out together, they

Widened to hold the unknowing city the sea.

The sea seems to console her and offers a way out by saying ‘End in me, cries the sea’. The woman (i.e. the protagonist) of the poem to have entered into a dialogue with the sea by unveiling her heart and seeking consolation in order to get rid of this mental tension and

physical separation. Thus, she recalls:

All through that Summer’s afternoons we lay

On bees, our limbs inert, cells expanding

Into throbbing suns. The heat had

Blotted our thoughts…..

Please end this whiplash of Memories, cries The woman being young, the waiting is still there for the lover to come. “I am still young/and need that man for construction and/Destruction”, says the woman. With the rise and fall of tides in the sea, the passion of the woman rises and falls and the longing for the man becomes irresistible. Thus the poem ends with an invitation to

the lover, justifying its title:

The tides beat against the walls, they

Beat in childish……

Darling, forgive me, how long can one resist Kamla Das`s poetry reveals that the gap between the larger feminist consciousness of women whose issues were being voiced has reduced considerably. The colonial exotic has now redefined not only her sexuality but also created suitable alternatives.

Gauri Despande is a name that the critic and reader of Indian English poetry cannot bypass without leaving a conspicuous lacuna in his repertorie.The canon of her poetry so far includes three collections, namely , Between Births( 1968), Lost Love(1970) and Beyond the Slaughterhouse( 1972)The first collection Between Births opens seriously with the reflection on death for whom poet is waiting. The relationship is immediately defined in metaphor of a tardy lover, further strengthened in the concluding lines of the poem where a characteristically Indian allusion to the saptapadi ( seven steps), the ritual that confirms a Hindu marriage, is used,

And walk the seven steps,

With him that`ll make him,

My ally

Unlike an established poet like Kamla Das whose flights are usually circular, Gauri Deshpande`s encounter with life is multipronged, subtle, restrained and mature, with a cultivated idiom, making her a more impressive and readable poet.

Margaret Chatterjee, a human poet, has five collections to her credit. They are; The Spring and The Spectacle[1967] ,Towards the Sun[1970], The Sandalwood Tree[1972], The Sound Of Wings[1978] and The Rimless World[1987]

Margaret`s intensity of feelings evolves its own rhythm, which is beautiful. Poems based on her personal experience are her most moving poems.She has a complete grasp over various human, philosophic and political situations.In the poem entitled`` 15 th August`` the new Indian woman seeks to empower herself in the context of both patriarchy and imperialism. The female protagonist speaks ``--- the pagent of the past,

Pushed us and left us,

Standing on the edge of opportunity,

With dreams in our heart

Menka Shivadasni’s poetry hold together a private world of chaotic emotions through its logical development and its strikingly imaginative icons. Her Nirvana at Ten Rupees (1990) is a careful

selection spanning twelve year’s work. Shivdasni, a well-travelled journalist who worked for a year in Honkong, was one of the founding members of the Bombay Poetry Circle in 1986. In her poetry, she had anticipated many of the new characteristics of Bombay poetry as it would develop during the 1990s. Her poems can be broadly categorized under three types of skeptical attitudes which reveal the writer’s preoccupation with pessimism. The first category deals with the relationship between man and God, the second, with the human predicament and the third with the women’s condition. In all three cases the life has hit her so hard that the situation is desperate and pathetic and death seems to be the only escape from the generally disturbing experiences of life. Her horrors and temptations of living alone I a small flat, the anxieties of a single life which get complicated by being a woman, the sordid world of sex, drugs, broken relationship and the aftermath are portrayed in strake reality.

She traces her own transition from a believer to an atheist in the very first poem of the collection, ‘The Atheist’s Confession. ‘The poem starts with nostalgia of rosy faith in the “earth god” when she “ate Prasad only after a bath” is contrasted with a later stage when “gods no longer smiled when I prayed” because she had framed her cold logic that “They couldn’t/They were of stone./”and eventually comes the final word that “God didn’t exist.” The writer’s uncertainly regarding the existence of God is further evidenced in the poems ‘Are You Three’ and ‘Somewhere on the Streets.’ The tedious nature, the sheer monotony of the modern mechanized existence is described in ‘Destination’ where the daily commuter’s journey in the second class railway compartment is between Church gate and insanity. Another poem ‘Schoolgirl No More’

displays the modern women’s predicament that having spent a lifetime in acquiring bookish knowledge at school, “nothing measures up to what it should. “Geography taught her the vastness of space, history not to live in the past and English Literature “That I belong nowhere.

Physics, Einstein and his theory of relativity taught her to hate everything including herself. So mere acquisition of knowledge is fruitless without its moderation through contact with wisdom, seems to be the leit motif of many of Shivdasni’s poems.

In the poem Safe-I Think, ‘the human being is compared with a palm, tree, the coconuts of which are likened to the tears of human beings. The coconuts are “wrenched” for profit. Despite thinking that it is safe for the next one hundred and fifty years the trees are surviving under the permanent fear of destruction. The modern man’s threatened condition is reflected in the concluding lines that offer a comment on the ever-growing materialistic attitude of people who are simply not concerned with the life and feelings of others:

……Twenty four

ridges on a coconut tree are not

150 years, unless some bureaucrat

worried about his job, orders

me cut because I’m standing

in the middle where a building ought to be.

The little of the volume Nirvana at ten rupees comes from the poem

Loser, Lose, Addict’

When you are happy, only cliché’s

come to mind – the sky is blue,

grass is green, butterflies are free

then comething happens, and solitary

as a murderer, you twist the knife

and stalk the streets, your brain

being crushed to powder like the contents

of vial of smack. Nirvana at tern rupees

is cheap, but the sky has a silver tinge

you could rather perceive as grey,

the butterflies are pinned, heads down,

their backs to the wall, like you.

Highly metaphoric, at times almost surreal, her poems show a woman alienated from the expected conventions of social life, strongly aware of sexuality and mental unrest where her inner and outer life it at odds. In the above mentioned poem though Shivdasni apparently mocks at the heart of the volume lurks a similar wage for a paradise or a nirvana, something better than the anxieties, dishonesties, repression, false needs hypocrisy and basic ugliness of ordinary life.

The woman is still a ‘football’ who is kicked around, used and abused and when the man “scores his goals,” he leaves her into the drain where it belongs once the game is over. She gets disturbed and angry at the maltreatment meted out to her but is there anything that she can do to alleviate her miserable plight? Another woman poet who is aware of the discrimination of the genders in the society is Tejdeep.

The alienation and marginalization as the inevitable rate of woman in patriarchy is portrayed by her in her volume of poems entitled Five Feet Six and a Half Inches (1977), abbreviated F.F. in the following extracts:

It is always made solstice if they could the sun would be spelled son (F ive.F eet Six.9) and again a woman is depicted as a one holding a bruised soul in six yards of nylon (Five F.eet Six9)

Gender typing is one of the frightening consequences of conformity to patriarchal norms. The poet significantly observes in a poem ‘Visionary’.

Visionaries at dawn do strange things with a handful of flour or chalk (Five.Feet Six.28) because it is her attempt to hoodwink evil form strangers that with chalk and powder she must attempt to hoodwink evil from under a stranger’s spell. (Five.FeetSix.29).

The powerful subversion in “must attempt” makes is clear that the vitality hinted at the title is noticeable through its absence. In her case it is perhaps writing of poetry that provides the much needed healing and acts therapeutic :

This has theraputised my aches of ferocious despair symbolized my attempt to search for the broken filament in a hundred watt bulb. (Five .Feet Six.17)

In another powerful metaphor she reminiscences and muses over the core of timeless wisdom and existential dilemma. Striving toward the process of self-actualization and recognition of the essential ingherent self her poetic outburst speaks volumes:

Time seals memories in trunks of trees agitates pages in a diary........... time erodes friendship burnishes new friends............ time just does not leave it squats on eyelids endlessly. (Five.Feet Six.p.35).

Thought subjective and limited in scope, the works of Tejdeep compel the reader to take note of the underlying significant intent of her verse where she is trying to raise her lonely voice not only for herself but for many upcoming Tejdeeps to charter a new territory for themselves.

As an Indian English woman poet Mamta Kalia has left her mark in the field of Indian English Poetry.She got two collections of poems published from Writers Workshop, Calcutta. They are Tribute to Papa and Other Poems[1970] and Poems1978[1979]Mamta Kalia defines the phenomenon of the educated urban working women. In a poem entitled`` Compulsions`` the poet expresses her desire to defy social norms

`` I want to pick my nose

In a public place

I want to sit in my office chair

With my feet up.

Sujata Bhatt born in India and educated in the United States, now living in Germany has been shaped by cross-cutural experiences as reflected in her three collections: Brunizem (1988) which won the Commonwealth Poetry prize (Asian Section), Monkey Shadows (1991) won a poetry Book Society Recommendation and her third anthology the The Stinkin Roe (1997) is the recent book with a selection from the first three books introduced by one new poem, the title poem. Rajana Ash in The Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century Poetry describes Sujata’s poetry as “the anguish of immigrants when they start lose their first language,” and she comments approvingly on the poet’s attempt use Gujarati line interspersed with English ones” onomatopoeia effect, and because for her certain subjects cannot be described in English.”

In fact, her bi-lingual poem explore the conflict of the self fragmented between different cultures. One can argue that incomprehensibility thus created is poet’s deliberate design to draw the reader into her own sense of otherness in order to experience a predicament which allows only a peripheral existence. At the beginning of ‘Search For My Tongue,’ an eight page poem, the Gujarati sentences are translated quite literally into English. As the poem progresses the Gujarati

lines remain flat, prosaic and closed, while the English sentences that flow become longer and richer, spinning off associations and graphically building on them so that they work quite independently of the Gujarati original.

Bhatt seems to be obsessed with the question of language, which she looks at from different points of view at different times. Aware of the limitations of language, she confesses:

The bets story, of course

is the one you can’t write

you won’t write

it’s something that you can only live

in your heart

not on paper.

Bhatt’s recent work evinces her growing interest in the character sketch and its more evolved form, the dramatic monologue. Her exceptionally wide range of reference enables her to present

characters as diverse as a young Indian girl during the partition and an old Spanish woman working in her field. The monologues are more numerous; a swimmer in New England, the snake-catcher; the artist in Dublin; Jane addressing Tarzen; and even Hannibal’s personal elephant Surus talking to its master. What is generally missing however, is the under current of irony which constitutes the chief strength of Browning’s dramatic monologues. By the large her poems do not seem to develop from social or personal relations; they are poems of the self

experience and self definition. The title poem of Point No Point begings:

Why name a place Point No Point?

Does it mean we are nowhere.

When we reach it?

Does it mean that we lose our sense

of meaning, or sense of direction

when we stop at Point No Point?

In many other places, almost the same urge of exploring the implications of dislocations and tensions of living in an alien land get evident as in the poem ‘The One Who Goes Away’ from the book The Stinking Rose where she is searching for a place in order to keep her soul from wondering.

Sometimes I’m asked if

I were searching for a place

that can keep my soul

from wondering

a place where I can stay

without wanting to leave.

This poem concludes tritely with :

I am the one

who always goes

away with my home

which can only stay inside

in my blood – my home

which does not fit with any geography.

Moving between countries and cultures, Bhatt is concerned with the construction of the self and its relationship with memory, history and identity. While honoring the importance of her heritage, she also seems to be striving to discover who she is; she fosters both the values of her birthplace and her Western self-confidence, bunt at the same time she revels her sense of alienation in the environment of the country of her domicile. The poems, therefore, in general are marked by the twin metaphors of loss and recovery.

While the loss is real in terms of spatial and temporal distance from the motherland, the recovery can only be imaginary – or at best aesthetic. It is indeed remarkable that Sujata Bhatt has not only the right idiom at her command but also a native mode to express a new consciousness. Meena Alexander`s `A House Of a Thousand Doors` for instance is an Indian woman living in United States. She often hears voices of the village women she left behind. During her birthing pains in New York these women come in dream to deliver her. In a moment of this primeval pain, all barriers collapse and women come together in mutual sympathy, understanding and concern. Suniti Namjoshi directly addresses the need to legitimize lesbianism and argues that a woman`s love for a woman is both natural and quite ancient.She complains that books , stories and society all collude in propagating the myths of compulsory heterosexuality and in all these versions men love women and women love men, and men ride off and have all sorts of adventures while women stay at home. In a number of poems included in her collections Jackass and the Lady and Blue Donkey Fables Namjoshi celebrates lesbian eroticism.

These and many more recent women poets bring out the conflict of gender through the Indian female psyche in its interaction and correlation with the male psyche. Written in a personal and

confessional style, their poetry acts as a social document because they themselves are victims and agents of social change. In the twilight zone in which the creative mind dwells, there is a natural feminine ability to turn inwards, to accept intuition and tenderness as values long with the gentle sensitivity to one’s natural environment and to the latent communications among human beings which mobilize the feelings and imageries and bring forth the new feminine voices creating new terrains. Female bonding in literature has thus taken a variety of forms, the agenda being common, women need to come together and call into question all the diverse strategies of

patriarchy.

WORKS CITED

1. Eunica de Souza, Nine Indian women Poets, Mumbai: Oxford Univ. Press, 1977.

2. Bruce King, Modern Indian Poetry in English, New Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 2001.

3. Ian Hamilton, The Oxford Companion to Twetieth Centuty Poetry in English, OUP, Oxford, 1994.

4. Menka Shivdasni, Nirvana at Ten Rupees, Bombay : Praxis, 1990.

5. Tejdeep, Five Feet Six and a Half Inches Rupa, 1997.

6. Sujata Bhatt, Brunizem, Delhi: Penguin, 1993.

7. Sujata Bhatt, Point No Point: Selected Poems, Manchester: Carcanet, 1997.

8. Rahman, Anisur: Expressive form in the poetry of Kamala Das, New Delhi: Abhinav Publication, 1981.

9. A.N. Dwivedi: Kamla Das and Her Poetry New Delhi, Doaba House, 1983.

10. Rama Nair( Ed); Trends and Techniques in Contemporary Indian English Poetry, Prestige Books, New Delhi, 2001

(Source: The Enchanting Verses International Journal of Poetry, Issue-X, July 2010)