Spoiling the name

2. Spoiling the name –Kamala Das

Introduction

A Brief introduction of Kamala Das and a brief note of Summary:

Kamala Da was born on 31 march 1934 in Kerala in a reputed Menon’s family. Her love of poetry began at an early age through the influence of her great uncle, Nalapet Narayan Menon, a prominent writer in Malayalam.

 

At the age of 15, she got married to a bank officer Madhava Das, who encouraged her passions in writing and she started writing in both English and Malayalam. However, she chose English was the language for all six volumes of her poetry collections. Later, at the age of 65, she embraced Islam and converted into Islam on December 11, 1999 and assumed the name as Kamala Surayya.

 

At the age of 75, on 31 may 2009, she died at a hospital in Pune. Her body was flown to her home state Kerala. He mortal remains were rested with state honours at Jama Masjid, Thiruvananthapuram.

 

Kamala Das’s poem “The Spoiling the Name” throws light on subjugation of female self in a dominant patriarchy. The persona has no name rather than the names given by someone for convenience.

 

Theme

According to the poet, the name was given to her by someone else for his own convenience and she has it with her since last 30 years. Now that it is her identity, she is often advised not to spoil her name. Spoiling here refers to the acts that are against the norms of society.

 

Poetry

I have a name, had it for thirty
Years, chosen by someone else
For convenience, but when you say
Don't spoil your name, I feel I
Must laugh, for I know I have a life
To be lived, and each nameless
Corpuscle in me, has its life to
Be lived . . . why should this name, so
Sweet-sounding, enter at all the room
Where I go to meet a man
Who gives me nothing but himself, who
Calls me in his private hours
By no name, or the city's dusty
Streets where on afternoons
I walk, looking for old books, antiques,
And new thrills that might come my
Way? Why should I remember or bear
That sweet-sounding name, pinned to
Me, a medal, undeservingly
Gained, at moments when, all of
Me is ablaze with life? You ask of
Me a silly thing. Carry
This gift of a name like a corpse and
Totter beneath its weight
And perhaps even fall... I who love
This gift of life more than all!

 

Spoiling the Name by Kamala Das Summary

 

“Spoiling the name” is one among the several poems written by Kamala Das that derives its conflict by pitting society and its norms against individual’s assertions. The connotation of the title is culture-specific, and refers to the importance given to the individual’s societal role in Indian context. If an individual does not adhere to the prescribed modes of behaviour laid down by a mostly Patriarchal and orthodox Indian society, then he/she is seen to be tarnishing the image of the family and his \her society; in other words she /he “spoils the name” of the family, and also of the society at large. The poem draws attention to this malice by challenging the authoritarian societal diktat through the individuals need to live life on his/her own terms. Thus Kamala Das writes “….. when you say/ Don’t spoil/ your name. I feel I/ Must laugh , for I know I have a life / To be lived…..”

 

Spoiling the Name Kamala Das Poetry

In this article, we’ll discuss the summary and analysis of Spoiling the Name by Kamala Das. The poem is all about the role of the name of an individual especially woman in society (patriarchal).

The name which is given by someone else becomes the defining factor for that individual. The poet explains how this name is a burden for her and how society restricts her movements because of it.

 

Spoiling the Name Poem Summary

Stanza 1

The poem begins with the phrase, I have a name. According to the poet, the name was given to her by someone else for his own convenience and she has it with her since last 30 years.

Now that it is her identity, she is often advised not to spoil her name. Spoiling here refers to the acts that are against the norms of society. She is thus asked to abide by the rules of the society or else her name i.e. her identity will be affected.

The poet says, “I feel, I must laugh” because she has a life of her own which she desires to live and does not want to live with the identity given by the society like the cells of her body which are nameless yet living their lives. She doesn’t understand why she has been given this name.

 

Stanza 2

I stanza 2, calling her name as sweet-sounding (quite ironical because it is a kind of burden for her) the poet asks two rhetorical questions to know why she needs her name. First, because of her name or female identity, she has been married to a man who gives him nothing but keeps her calling for sex.

Gives me nothing refers to the love and affection that she always desired but could not get from the very man whom she has to spend her entire life with. Her unsuccessful married life is well depicted in her other poem An Introduction.

Second, her name starts being called out whenever she goes in the city’s dusty streets in the afternoons just to read old books or to look for valuable things or experience new thrills. These lines show how a woman’s freedom is restricted in India.

 

She can neither get the education nor can roam around or experience joy. According to the poet, all these things are just because of her name or female identity bestowed on her.

 

Stanza 3

In the final stanza, the poet wonders why she needs to remember or bear that sweet-sounding name. According to her, it is a medal which she has undeservingly gained when her life is in misery and this name is of no use to her but a burden.

 

The society, according to her is asking her silly thing, i.e. carry this gift of a name like a corpse and totter beneath its weight and perhaps even fall. The line means that she has been forced to retain this identity which is, in fact, a burden like a corpse for her and will have to keep it till she dies.

In the end, she says I who love this gift of life more than all! The ending is thus quite ironical. The poet is not celebrating her identity (as the line literally means). Instead, she hates this gift (refers to burden) more than anything in the world.