Summary and Analysis of Kamala Das's "A Hot Noon in Malabar

A Hot Noon in Malabar – Kamala Das

About the Poet:

            Kamala Das, born on 31^st March 1934 and died on 31^st May 2009.   She was known by one time pen name, Madhavikutty.  She was an Indian poet in English.  She was popular in Kerala based on her short stories.  She was a poet, novelist, short story writer.   Her notable works were Entekatha (autobiography), My Story, The Descendants.  Her awards: Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, Vayalar Award, Sahitya Academy Award, Asan World Prize, Asian Poetry Prize and Kent Award.

Background of the Poem:

            A Hot Noon in Malabar was a recollection of poet’s childhood.  The poet born and brought up in her paternal grandmother’s home in Malabar, Kerala.  She got married at her early age, settled in Calcutta.  Of course, she missed her grandmother’s house not only that but also Malabar and its people.  The poet described an ordinary day in Malabar, which experienced by the poet herself. 

Summary and Analysis of the Poem:

            The poem had single stanza with twenty three lines.  It described the passersby like beggars, fortune tellers, bangle sellers, Kurava girls and strangers with whom she spent her early summer days.  Kamala Das longed for her early days in Malabar and compared it with her present days in Calcutta.

            That was a hot noon in Malabar, beggars calling out the people for food.  They came along with fortune teller, who had caged parrots and cards.  Brown Kurava girls, were singing a song about their god while reading people’s palms.  These strangers were telling the people’s future using birds, fortune cards and wand.  Then came the bangle sellers, they spread the bangles at the porch’s cool black floor, it was in red, blue and green colour covered with dust.  The poetess heard the strange noise and noticed the cracked heels of bangle sellers.  The dusty bangles and the cracked heels show the struggled life, they round the village everyday to get bangles sold. 

                        “For all of them, whose feet, devouring rough

                          Miles, grow crack on the heels, so that when they

                          Clambered up our porch, the noise was grating”

It was another noon for strangers who walk long way through Malabar.  They looked into the house through the window to find the people.  They could not see anything as they were from bright sunlight.  When they found no one, they directly moved to the brick legged well to quench their thirst.  They had dark eyes, silent who rarely spoke with rigid rough voices.  These strangers would not move with people easily.  They waited for the chances and then mingle with other, which was strange.  

            “Their eyes, dark, silent ones who rarely speak

              At all, so that when they speak, their voices

              Run wild, like jungle-voices.”

A noon for wild men, wild thoughts, wild love.  Yes, it was a noon in Calcutta where the poet lived with her husband.  She enjoyed no people, not thoughts, nor love.  She longed for the hot noon in Malabar, though it was hot and dusty.  For the poetess living away from the Malabar was a torture, she longed for the hot noon in Malabar.  So, she always remembered the hot noon of Malabar.