MY GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE

MY GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE

- KAMALA SURAYYA

* The poet says that there is a house, her grandmother’s
home, far away from where she currently resides, where
she “received love".  

* Her grandmother’s home was a place she felt secure and
was loved by all. She recollects though she couldn’t read
books at that time, yet she had a feeling of snakes moving
among them,and this feeling made her blood go cold and
turn her face pale like the moon.

* She often thinks of going back to that Old House, just to
peek through the “blind eyes of the windows” which have
been dead-shut for years, or just to listen to the “frozen” air.

* The poets says that she would gladly (“in wild despair”)
pick up a handful of Darkness from the House and bring it
back to her home to “lie  behind my bedroom door” so that
the memories of the Old House, might fill happiness in her
present life.

* She wraps up the poem saying that it is hard for one to

believe that she once lived in such a house and was so loved

by all and lived her life with pride.

* That her world was once filled with happiness to her
present situation where she is completely lost of love and
pride. She says that in her desperation for love, she now has
to knock “at strangers' doors” and beg them for love, if not
in substantial amounts, then atleast in small change i.e. in
little measure atleast.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS :

1. ' The house withdrew into silence' means :

Ans : nobody lived there anymore.

2. ' My blood turned cold like a moon' means :

Ans : She didn't feel warm and loved, but desolate like the moon.

3. ' Listen to the frozen air' means :

Ans : Life in that house froze into stillnes when her grandmother

died.

4. ' Or in wild despair, pick an armful of darkness....like a brooding

dog' means :

Ans : The darkness in her grandmother's place had made her feel

secured, & she wants some of it to be with her, like a loyal

dog.

5. ' To peer through blind eyes of windows' means :

Ans : Darkness is all that one can see through the windows of a

closed house. So she wants to see with great difficulty

through those windows.