The poem ‘Father Returning Home’, by Dilip Chitre – a bilingual poet – is about a lonely old man’s coming home from a long day at work. The poet describes his silent and lonely journey home in the crowded Mumbai local train. It is a metaphor for the father’s isolated life even though he is among people.
The poet speaks of the ‘unseeing’ eyes on the scenery flashing past the train. The same thing the man sees daily when commuting has nothing new, just like his uninteresting life. The setting is dusk in monsoon. The man’s dress and appearance are also metaphorical.
His soggy clothes and mud-stained raincoat symbolize his shabby appearance and also his sad life.
The man carries a bag full of books. He is well-read maybe. Thus, when the man gets off the train the poet compares it to a word falling from a sentence. He goes unnoticed as an unimportant word dropped from a long sentence – a simile. The ‘long sentence’ – imagery – makes us imagine the long train and the passenger is one word that is getting down.
The platform he crosses is grey, colour imagery for gloominess or dirty surroundings. The poet uses informal language and an easy style. The poet describes him ‘hurries’ along the platform and again ‘hurries’ on to his home. This repeated word shows his eagerness to reach his shelter and get dry. The words create an imagery of a shabby, pitiable but scholarly man.
The second part of the poem is about the man in his home. The meal he eats shows the poor quality as well as the careless way it is served. He reads a book while he eats. That is a clear imagery for his loneliness at home also. The family offers no company after his long day and tiring commute.
In the toilet he is pondering on how he has been shut out of the world although he is in the crowd. He is a stranger among his family in his own home. His children don’t speak to him and won’t share any part of their life. They are not interested in his life also. He goes to sleep thinking of the past and future, listening to harsh sounds on the radio.
The message is how the elderly are used by their own children but neglected when they need care. The poem is about a man who may be misunderstood. He is lonely even in the middle of crowds. It teaches how we should not behave to persons who are in the autumn of their life.
I feel sorry for such people who have worked hard in their life but the younger relatives discard them once their use is over.