Critical Appreciation of ‘Obituary’ of A.K. Ramanujan

Introduction

Obituary is a typical A.K. Ramanujan poem in which human relations and usual Indian features of them is explored beautifully. It is an autobiographical poem. It was first published in collection ‘Relations’ in 1971. It explains how poet looks for the obituary of his father published in a local daily.

Central Idea

Poem is centralised on the death of the father of the poet and how it changed the condition of their house. They were burdened with responsibilities. But the utmost motto of the poem is poet’s quest for those obituary lines which were published on death of his father.

Themes

1. Death – The main theme of the poem is death. Here poet’s father is dead and whole poem is structured around this incident. Poet got new motto of his life to find obituary lines published in local newspaper on death of his father. Hence death is the main theme.
2. Responsibilities – After the death of poet’s father responsibilities shifted towards sons. They had to pay debts of his father now, take responsibilities of unmarried daughters and grandson. They had to manage the house and got it repaired as it is bending on coconut tree.
3. Ridiculed Rituals – Poem ridiculed few rituals after death. First it is not necessary to have headstone for dead fellows as a person’s life can’t be explained by two dates. Second rituals on death anniversary are presented as burdens on son by the poet.

Figure of Speech

1. Alliteration – ‘Debts and daughters’, ‘Being the burning type/he burned properly’, ‘for fun’ etc. have alliteration as there is repetition of consonant sounds at the starting of words. Here /d/, /b/ and /f/ respectively are the consonant sounds.
2. Enjambment – There are lot of instances of enjambment in the poem. An example – “Being the burning type, / he burned properly / at the cremation”
3. Pun – In the lines – “Being the burning type, / he burned properly / at the cremation”. Here burning and burned have distinct meaning. Burning type is for angry people. And Second Burned is for physically burning in fire. Hence it’s a case of pun.

Picturisation of Indian society

Poem beautifully picturized Indian society. Poet shows how sons have to bear responsibilities after death of father. In India daughters are considered equivalent to debts which is mentioned in the poem. Annual ritual after death is to be performed every year. Indian society is a well knit web where human ties, customs and rituals are quite strong. They need to be followed by the public. Poet is somewhat skeptic about rituals after death and he thinks them as burden.

Structure and Rhyme

Poem has eight stanzas of seven line each. It is written in free verse.

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