quotes

• “Like Rama I have felt the wilderness

  but I have not been blessed

  with a companion as sweet as she,”

  • The speaker compares themselves to a Hindu deity, Rama
  • The speaker relates to Rama, saying they have both experienced being cast out or the feeling of exile (the “wilderness”)
  • However, the speaker suggests they, unlike Rama, are alone
• “Sita; loyal, pure and true of heart.

  Like her, I have been chastened

  through trial by fire. Sita and I,”

  • The speaker’s life is explained through Hindu stories
  • The speaker feels she shares similar life experiences with Sita, a Hindu deity
  • The speaker refers to a “trial by fire”, referring to a Hindu myth whereby the sinful are punished and humbled (“chastened”) through a challenging experience, while the innocent are saved by the gods
• “spiritual sari-sisters entwined

  in an infinite silk that would swathe

  Draupadi’s blush. My name”

  • These lines describe the close relationship the speaker feels they have with Sita
  • Their intimate relationship (they are “entwined”) makes them “spiritual” sisters 
  • The speaker says this relationship will last forever (“infinite”)
  • “Draupadi’s blush” refers to a Hindu myth:
  • Draupadi is a goddess, worshipped for her courage but humiliated in her life
  • Her name is connected to ideas of forgiveness 
• “a journey between rough and smooth,

  an interlacing of banyan leaves with sugar”

  • Here, the speaker begins to reflect on their name:
  • They explain that, as a result of their name, their journey (perhaps this connotes to their life) has been “rough and smooth”, good and bad
  • The speaker refers to “banyan leaves”: 
  • The banyan tree is said to be the resting place for the Hindu god Krishna
• “cane. Woven tapestries of journeys;

  travelling from South

  to North, where the Punjabi in my mouth”

  • These lines develop the idea that the speaker has been on many “journeys” in their life
  • Perhaps the travels relate to migration from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere, or from India to Manchester
• “became dislodged as milk teeth fell

  and hit infertile English soil.”

  • The speaker comments on their language, Punjabi, and how, as they travelled, they began to lose their mother tongue
  • The speaker uses the metaphor of “milk teeth” (baby teeth) to symbolise both their first language and their innocence 
  • By describing “infertile” “soil”, the speaker implies it is difficult for things, such as one’s identity through language, to survive or grow in England 
• “My mouth toiled to accommodate 

  the rough musicality of Mancunian vowels

  and my name became a stumble

  that filled English mouths”

  • The speaker describes the difficulty of learning a new language:
  • The word “toiled” connotes to hard labour
  • The reference to “Mancunian vowels” alludes to struggles with pronunciation 
  • The speaker says their name was difficult for English people to pronounce as they stumbled as they spoke it 
• “with a discordant rhyme, an exotic

  rhythm dulled, my voice a mystery”

  • Here the speaker expresses their thoughts on the way their language and identity has been “dulled” 
  • The speaker implies a sense of imbalance as they describe how their name becomes a “discordant rhyme” when English people speak it
  • They say that the “exotic rhythm” of her Punjabi name is lost when it is spoken in a Mancunian accent
  • This makes their “voice”, their language, a “mystery”, hidden and unknown 
• “in the Anglo echo chamber -

  void of history and memory.”

  • The poem ends with a critical conclusion
  • The speaker describes an English “echo chamber”, an environment where individuals are surrounded by only one set of beliefs or opinions largely agreeable to the majority
  • The reference to “history” and “memory” (which the speaker says is an empty hole or “void”) implies the English have no memory of history