Ecology by AK Ramanujan

Ecology by AK Ramanujan

The full name of A. K. Ramanujan was Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan. He was born on 16 March 1929 in Mysore. He died on 13 July 1993, in Chicago, the US. He was an Indian poet. He was a scholar as well. He wrote in both English 

and Kannada .He also taught in the University of Chicago. His poetry shows the traditional Hindu upbringing. He also talks about his experiences in a Western culture. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1999 for his collection of

poems, The Selected Poems. He is famous for his notable works like The Striders and the Second Coming.This poem Ecology is from Ramanujan‘s third volume of poems, ‘Second Sight’. It was published in 1986.

Ecology - A K Ramanujan

The day after the first rain,
Monsoon.
for years, I would home
in a rage,
for I could see from a mile away
From a mile away, on the way home
our three Red Champak Trees
OUR three red champak trees
had done it again,
had burst into flower and given 

Mother
her first blinding migraine
of the season

with their street-long heavy-hung
yellow pollen fog of a fragrance
no wind could sift,
the breeze cannot blow away this fog

no door could shut out
from our black-pillared house whose walls had ears and eyes, scales, smells, bone-creaks, nightly visiting voices, and were porous

but Mother, flashing her temper
like her mother's twisted silver,
grandchildren's knickers
would not let us cut down

a flowering tree

almost as old as her, seeded,
she said, by a passing bird's
providential droppings

to give her gods and her daughters
and daughters' daughters basketsful
of annual flower

and for one line of cousins

adower of migraines in season.

Explanation to the Poem:

The speaker in the poem is worried about his mother. He loves his mother. Every year, after the first rain, he comes home in a rage. He sees the red champak trees from a mile away. He sees these trees blossomed with flowers. He can smell the heavy  fragrance of these flowers for a mile away. The  fragrance of the flowers of these trees gives a severe headache to his mother and so the poet is angry with the red champak trees. 

 The trees have become a problem for the poet. The scent of its flowers is very heavy.  Even the doors of the poet‘s house cannot stop the strong smell from entering the house. The walls of the house could stop almost everything-the sounds, sights, the human voices, the harsh sounds produced when new shoes are worn. But they cannot stop the fog of pollen (power like dust) dust from the Champak trees.

The pollen grains remain in the air, and thus do not allow the wind to get pure. The poet personifies the house. He says that, like other people in the house, the house itself suffers from the pollen of the Red Champak tree. The pollen comes through the holes which are like the pores of the human body.

The son therefore decides to cut down the tree. He cares for his mother. But the old mother cares for the tree. She stopped the poet from cutting the tree. She sees the positive side of the tree in her garden. She says that the tree is as old as her. It had been there by thed roppings of a passing bird by chance, and it is a very good omen. The tree provides many basketfuls of flowers and those flowers could be offered to her gods. It would also give beautiful flowers to her daughters and daughter‘s daughters‘ every year. And so the tree should not be cut down although the tree would give a terrible migraine to one line of cousins as a legacy. This poem portrays Ramanujan‘s strong interest in the family.