FLUTE MUSIC PARAPHRASE Lines 1-11 The protagonist lives in a ground floor room of a two-storeyed house situated in an alley

y which got its name from Kinu, the milkman. The house, a shame for the road, has shabby and crumbling walls with a variety of stains on it and it gives a picture of a lower middle class locality. There is a picture of Lord Ganesha, the bringer of success, fixed on the door. The narrator shares this room with a lizard who pay any rent. Lines12-26 There is a difference between the narrator and the lizard the lizard never goes hungry as it feeds on insects. The narrator works as a junior clerk in a trading office earning Rs.25 a month. He does tuitions to supplement his income. He eats at the Dattas house for coaching the son. Late evening he goes to Sealdah station to read or do any work in order to save money on light. The puffing and whistling of the engines, the hurrying footsteps of the passengers and the shouting of the coolies can be heard. He remains at the station till 10.30 p.m. and then returns to his dark, silent and lonely room. This visit to the station is partially an effort to reduce boredom. Lines 27-38 His loneliness reminds him of an attempt made earlier to get rid of it by entering into a marriage. He remembers that his aunt's brother-in-law's daughter from a village on the Dhalesvari river was to marry him and all arrangements had been made. It was an auspicious moment but he had run away. He had saved her from bad luck by running away. As he had run away, she could not visit his room but she has been in his mind since he saw her. Thus the girl had been saved from him and he from her. Though she did not come to stay with him, she regularly visits his mind. He carries her an image of her in his mind dressed in a Dacca sari with a vermilion mark on her forehead. Lines 39-50 Heavy rain brings him back to reality. Rain delays him to reach his office on time. Then he is forced to travel by tram which increases his financial burden. As he reaches late for office, they deduct his pay accordingly. He has to walk through mango skins, jackfruit pulp, fish gills, dead kittens and other dirt that pile up and decay on the road outside his house and along the road to his office. The lack of civic sense of the people living around is obvious. To add to his misery, his umbrella, like his reduced pay, has too many holes to drench him by the time he reaches his office. His office dress is completely soaked and water keeps dripping from him like that of the itinerant (travelling from place to place) Vaishnava saint. Lines 51-56 Monsoon dampens his room and his lifestyle. It spreads gloominess, making the junior clerk feel trapped in his room. Heavy monsoon keeps people to their rooms like animal caught in a trap. Keeping oneself to the room is like living in a half-dead world. Lines 57-78 The focus now shifts from the junior clerk to Kantababu, a refined and well-bred man with cultivated tastes who takes utmost care of his long hair that he keeps carefully parted. He is a musician. The music he produces from his cornet dispels the darkness and the foul smell of the alley. He plays music sometimes in the middle of the night, early in the morning or in the afternoon. The Sindhu-Baroya raga that he plays in the evening rings in the air and is heart-rending. The sky is filled with the eternal pain of separation. The poet feels that the music turns the alley into an illusion, as false as the ravings of a drunkard. Music brings everyone on the same plane. The magic of music eliminates the difference between Haripada, the clerk and the emperor Akbar. His umbrella with all its perforations appears to him to be a royal parasol. The emperor under his gold gilted parasol and the poor man under his torn umbrella merge into one where music casts its spell. Lines 79-84 Music takes common man and king into one heaven. This is the reality of life. For Tagore, music is a divine blessing; it brings everyone at par. This realization opens the narrator's eyes and he can now joyfully go into wedlock with the girl who lives where the Dhalesvari river flows. The music Kantababu plays on the pangs of separation is particularly relevant to the condition he has been in. It PC/TSRS-DLF/ENG-XII/06 Page 1 of 7

reminds Haripada of the girl standing in the courtyard, dressed in Dacca sari with vermilion on her forehead and waiting for him, the bride who lives on the banks of the tamal tree-shaded Dhalesvari river.. NOTES alley - a narrow lane slap on the road right on top of the road decaying walls - walls becoming discoloured and crumbling due to excess salt in mortar or bricks Ganesa, Bringer of Success Elephant-headed god, son of Shiva and Parvati, bringer of luck, including good luck in business or shop-keeping. From the end of a bale of cloth - the reference is to the crude, often gilt paper markers, bearing the symbol of a mill, stuck on the end of a bale of cloth. Sealdah station - the main railway terminus in north Calcutta Chuffing, shrieking, scurrying, shouting: all onomatopoeic words i.e. words that imitate the sound of what they stand for. Dhalesvari - river in Assam, east of Sylhet district of present day Bangladesh The moment was indeed auspicious for her - the 'auspicious moment' for a Hindu wedding has to be fixed astrologically: the speaker says ironically that the auspiciousness was proved by the fact that he ran away. Dacca sari - a handwoven sari such as would be worn at a wedding-all these evoke Haripada's East Bengali origins Vermilion: coloured powder that women on their wedding days and those already married wear on their foreheads and in the parting of their hair tram: public vehicular traffic running through the city on rails-only Calcutta still has trams. They have been removed from all other Indian cities. depleted - reduced sopping - drenched Vaisnava - a devotee of God Vishnu and his ten incarnations of which Rama and Krishna ( the flute-player) are the most popular. It was the main religion of medieval Bengal, and inspired numerous songs and manuals on the love of Radha and Krishna. Monsoon darkness: the rains in Calcutta are heavy and continuous during the monsoon season; the humidity is, therefore, very high and the sky is dark. Added to this, he has no electricity in his room. cultivated tastes - refined and socially right and acceptable behaviour cornet - Tagore meant 'clarinet' rather than cornet. It would not be easy to play Indian ragas on a cornet. Sindhu-Baroya - musical raga, favoured by Tagore and the Vishnupuri group of musicians, a version of the light raga Barva. raga - the most important term and element in Indian music. A raga is a group of notes on which a musical composition or improvisation may be based, and carries a distinguishing name. Traditionally each raga is associated with a particular mood, time of day, season, etc.; and conservative musicians will only reluctantly perform a raga at the wrong time. ravings - wild uttering Akbar - the third Moghul emperor who ruled from 1556-1605, the greatest one of all. Royal parasol large gilt umbrella held over the head of a royal personage tamal trees - medium-sized hardy trees with dark-green leaves, and blackish bark and timber. Because of its dark colour, the tree is often compared to Krishna. CRITICAL APPRECIATION Tagore wrote, "The classical literature of the ancient time was only peopled by saints and kings and heroes. It threw no light upon men who lived and suffered in obscurity. But as the illumination of man's personality throws its light upon a wider space, penetrating into hidden corners, the world of art also crosses its frontiers PC/TSRS-DLF/ENG-XII/06 Page 2 of 7

and extends its boundaries into unexplored regions." 'Flute Music' is a prime example of Tagore's tireless effort throughout his life to extend his artistic range. The humdrum background and the ordinariness of the speaker of the poem are matched by the informal diction and the abandonment of rhyme. There is great concentration in the short lines and laconic (using only a few words) phrasing: My umbrella is like my depleted pay Full of holes. My sopping office clothes ooze Like a pious Vaisnava. Monsoon darkness Sticks in my damp room Like an animal caught in a trap, Lifeless and numb. The poem starts on a mundane life of the neglected neighbourhood of the lower middle class and ends on the philosophic note that 'nothing distinguishes Haripada, the clerk from the Emperor Akbar'. The meagre income of the junior clerk and his effort to cut corners by eating at the Dattas home and spending his evening at Sealdah station are representative of problems and troubles that beset the common man. The depiction of urban life displaying decaying walls about to crumble down and alley full of dirt is typical of Indian urban life. The achievement of the poem is to show that deep human feeling and spiritual or artistic perception can co-exist with urban squalor. Tagore himself had an urban childhood, privileged maybe, but cramped and confined in other ways. Tagore takes us through a range of feelings and surprises. From the urban squalor he suddenly takes us into a romantic world with an innocence and a simplicity that is not found anywhere else. The junior clerk brings colour into his life with romantic dreams. He remembers the river Dhalesvari where a girl in a Dacca sari, vermilion on her forehead' waited to marry, him but he decided to run away making the bride lucky. The umbrella 'full of holes' because of which the poet reaches office drenched is a symbol of urban poverty of millions of lower middle class Indians. It dampens not only the poet's imagination, but ours also, making us feel lifeless and numb at the penury of many fellow beings. And Haripada's discovery of perfect beauty in Kantababu's amateurish playing is akin to Tagore's own youthful 'vision' and his discovery that, far from being confined to the Himalayas, 'He who is the Giver can vouchsafe a vision of the eternal universe in the dingiest of lanes, and in a moment of time.' The music that Kantababu creates from his cornet at different times of the day shows the communion that the musicians can achieve with God through music. For Tagore, music is the medium to reach God. The maturity of the poem lies in its ironies and its closeness to the ridiculous. A village on the Dhalesvari river, that's where my aunt's people live. Her brother-in-law's daughter She was due to marry my unfortunate self, everything was fixed. The moment was indeed auspicious for her, no doubt of that For I ran away. The girl was saved from me, And I from her. (27-35) But it never becomes ridiculous: even Kantababu, a failed Romantic perfectly sketched in five lines, is redeemed by the impression his music makes on Haripada the clerk. The poem is as much on the power of music as on the squalid living conditions in Calcutta. It provides the only golden patch in the otherwise grey life of Haripada. PC/TSRS-DLF/ENG-XII/06 Page 3 of 7

SOME POETICAL TECHNIQUES USED BY THE POET 1. A peculiarity of Tagore's lyrics in English is that they are prose poems. He found a weight and restraint in the language of poetry that Tagore called metre. He compares his prose poem to "The steps of a young woman, controlled by the natural desire for balance." There is an easy every day manner about them. The whole poem has language-short sentences and short phrases piled one on top of the other building up powerful images. a. "Decaying walls, crumbling to dust in places Or stained with damp." b. "Another creature apart from me lives in my room For the same rent: A lizard. c. "There's one difference between him and me: He doesn't go hungry." d. The tension and struggle of the clerk is offset by the noises of the Sealdah Railway Station. "Engines chuffing Whistles shrieking, Passengers scurrying, Coolies shouting." I stay till half past ten, Then back to my dark, silent, lonely room." e. "For the moment was indeed auspicious for her no doubt of that For I ran away" f. "Pouring rain, My tram costs go up." g. "My umbrella is like my depleted pay Full of holes." h. "Like an animal caught in a trap, Lifeless and numb." i. "Long hair carefully parted, Large eyes, Cultivated tastes.} (Describe Kantababu) j. "And I feel that nothing distinguishes Haripada the clerk. From the Emperor Akbar." k. "The music in true Where in the everlasting twilight hour of my wedding, The Dhalesvari river flows," 2. Tagore believed in 'vers libre' or free verse. Rhythmic prose is more generously hospitable to ideas of all complexions and characters. Tagore employs a fluent, measured and well-modulated diction which heightens the subtle underflow of emotions deepening the irony of life. a. "Stuck on the door, A picture of Ganesa, Bringer of Success." The door is of a room with decaying walls that are crumbling to dust. b. "There's one difference between him (the lizard) and me: PC/TSRS-DLF/ENG-XII/06 Page 4 of 7

he doesn't go hungry." c. "At dusk I go to Sealdah Station To save that cost of light." d. "Day and night I feel strapped bodily On to a half-dead world." e. "Torn umbrella and royal parasol merge, Rise on the sad music of a flute Towards one heaven." 3. Similes a. "My umbrella is like my depleted pay -" b. "My sopping office clothes ooze Like a pious Vaishnava." c. "Like an animal caught in a trap," 4. Assonance "My sopping office clothes ooze" 5. Onomatopoeia "Engines chuffing, whistles shrieking, Passengers scurrying, Coolies shouting. 6. Pathos a. The lizard "doesn't go hungry." b. Spends the evening at Sealdah Station "To save-the cost of light. c. "The girl was saved from me (unfortunate self) For I ran way." d. "My umbrella is like my depleted pay Full of holes." e ."He feels" like an animal caught in a trap. f. "And I feel that nothing distinguishe Haripada the clerk From the Emperior Akbar." g. "She did not come to this room But she is in and out of my mind all the time." 7. Wry Humour a. "Another creature apart from me lives in my room For the same rent: A lizard. b. "There's one difference between him and me: He doesn't go hungry." c. "The girl was saved from me, And I from her." d. "My umbrella is like my depleted pay Full of holes."

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8. Simple direct expression fills the poem highlighting the spiritual message contained in the flute music. The flute in Indian mythology is always connected to the image of Lord Krishna. a. "Rise on the sad music of a flute Towards one heaven." b. "The music is true" For it gives hope of a dream fulfilled and an eternal reunion. CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE Rabindra Nath Tagore is pre-eminently a Bengali writer and has not been listed as an Indian writer writing in English. But his own translations and mostly free renderings are not exact translations which he likes to call 'transcreations'. He draws largely upon the rich associations of Indian philosophy and culture and captures its theme and spirit, giving it a humanistic essence. This makes the theme and its appeal universal. 'Flute Music' relives the life one of the aspiring, struggling, multitudes of young men in Calcutta (Kolkata). But it could be the story of anyone, any where. The normal, everyday humdrum of life is well-matched with the ordinariness of the protagonist's life. The poem elaborates one point - the power of music or art in any form. "The music is true," and music will be true in any century for all generations. Tagore's 'Flute Music' elaborates this belief in the limitless frontiers of art. The poet describes the squalor and depleted life in which Haripada, the clerk lives. He has to often go hungry and co-exist with a lizard in his crumbling room. But in the same narrow, squalid alley lives a refined man of cultivated tastes who plays the flute. The music affects the surroundings; the foul breeze carries the tones and changes the concept of life "At once the alley is a lie, False and vile as the ravings of a drunkard," - and the poor clerk feels that "nothing distinguishes" him from "The Emperor Akbar." "Torn umbrella and royal parasol merge." Both the symbols of the rich and the poor mingle and journey towards heaven, soaring on the wings of the flute's music. Tagore proves that deep human feelings and spiritual and artistic perception cannot be tied or limited by barriers. Music penetrates the soul. Personal sorrows, loneliness and grief are forgotten and the mind gets peaceful, weaving dreams on the waves of music. The poem offers Hope in the form of the Flute's call. It offers solace to the suffering as the clerk symbolically equates himself with Emperor Akbar. The music is truly real, for the clerk does not run away from life now and imagines that the girl he was to marry is waiting for him in a Dacca Sari with the vermilion mark on her forehead, by the banks of the Dhalesvari river. The Music expands the theme into a comprehensive vision of life. The spiritual message of the Flute Music does not enjoin us to run away from the fever and fret of life and hide in a hermitage. It insists on our full participation in the struggle of life. The humanistic essence combined with spirituality brings the splendour of the Heaven on Earth to Man, and Tagore's genius invests the theme with universal significance. CORE POINTS 1. Haripada,. the poor clerk lives in Kinu, the milkman's alley. Kantababu, a sophisticated man of refined tastes also lives at the corner of the same lane. PC/TSRS-DLF/ENG-XII/06 Page 6 of 7

2.

Haripadas lives in a ground floor room of a double storeyed house, with decaying walls, stained with damp. A picture of lord Ganesa is stuck to the door to bring him good luck, and success. 3. Apart from the clerk, a lizard also lives in the same room for the same rent, the difference between the two being that the lizard never goes hungry. 4. Haripada works as a junior clerk in a trading office and earns rupees 25 a month. 5. He coaches the Dattas son and earns one meal there, then goes to the Sealdah Railway Station to spend the evenings and save the cost of keeping a light on in his room. 6. During the monsoon season, the tram costs go up. His salary often gets cut for being late to office. His umbrella is full of holes so his office clothes drip like a Vaisanava who has had a dip in the river before worship. 7. During this season the mango-skins, jack-fruit pulp, fish-gills, dead kittens, and other rubbish rot in the clerk's alley. The damp darkness sticks to his room and the poor man feels numb and lifeless, like a trapped animal. 8. Kantababu plays the flute at various times of the day and night and the foul breeze carries the sounds to the clerk's room. 9. One evening he began to play the Sindhu Baroya raga and Haripada suffered deeply. His aunt had arranged his marriage with her niece, who lived near the Dhalesvari river. But he had run away saving the girl from an unfortunate life of poverty. Though the girl never came to Haripada's room, she remained in his mind all the time. Her image in a Dacca Sari with vermilion on her forehead, haunted him as he heard this particular raga. He felt the pain of eternal separation. 10. The music inspired him spiritually. The alley gets negated. He equates himself with Emperor Akbar and his torn umbrella and the royal canopy merge in a united flight to heaven. The music of the flute takes him to the banks of the Dhalesvari river, shaded by tamal trees, where he hopes the girl will be waiting for him in the courtyard, wearing a Dacca Sari, with vermilion on her forehead.

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