- The document provides biographical information about Kamala Das, an Indian poet known as the "Mother of Modern English Indian Poetry." It then shares the full text of her poem "An Introduction" which explores themes of feminism, identity, and her struggle for freedom and status as an individual. The poem uses intimate language to describe her experiences as a woman in India and her need for love and acceptance.

1. An
Introduction
- Kamala Das

2. Kamala Das , Madhavikutty , Kamala Suraiya
( 1934 – 2009 )
• Modern English Literature
" Poetry does not sell in this country ( India) "
• "The Mother of Modern English Indian Poetry"
• Marguerite Duras & Sylvia Path
• Poet, Novelist, Short story writer
Notable Work
• 1965: Summer in Calcutta
• 1976: Alphabet of Lust
• 1976: My Story
• 1977: A Doll for the Child Prostitute
Awards
• 1963: PEN Asian Poetry Prize
• 1968: Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story – Thanuppu
• 1984: Shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature
• 1985: Kendra Sahitya Academy Award– Collected Poems
• Feminist voices in the postcolonial era

3. AN
INTRODUCTION
“I am Indian, very brown, born in
Malabar, I speak three languages write in
Two, dream in one.”
“….Do not write in English, they said,
English is not your mother tongue.
Why not leave me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins,
Every one of you? Why not let me speak in
Any language I like?”
“It is human speech, the speech of the mind that is
Here and do there, a mind that sees and hears and
Is aware. Not the deaf, blind speech
Of trees in storm or monsoon clouds or of rain or the
Incoherent mutterings of the blazing
Funeral pyre.”

4. “….I was child, and later they
Told me I grew, for I became tall my limbs
Swelled and one or two places sprouted hair. When
I asked for love, not knowing what else to ask
For, he drew a youth of sixteen into the bedroom
And closed the door. He did not beat me
But my sad woman body felt so beaten.
The weight of my breasts and womb crushed me. I shrank
Pitifully.”
“Dress in saries, be girl.
Be wife, they said. Be embroiderer, be cook,
Be a quarreller with servants. Fit in, oh
Belong, cried the categorizers. Don’t sit
On walls or peep in through our lace draped window”
AN
INTRODUCTION

5. “Be Amy, or be Kamala, Or better
Still, be Madhavikutty, It is time to
Choose a name, a role, Don’t play pretending game;
Don’t play at schizophrenia or be a
Nympho, Don’t cry embarrassingly loud when jilted in love.”
“I met a man, loved him.
Call Him not by any name, he is every man
Who want woman, just as I am every
Woman who seeks love. In him…. The hungry haste of rivers,
In me. The oceans’ tireless Waiting….”
“…It is I who drink lonely
AN
INTRODUCTION

6. AN
INTRODUCTION
Drinks at twelve, midnight, in hotels of strange towns,
It is I who laugh, It is I who make love
And then, feel shame, it is I who lie dying
With a rattle in my throat.”
“….I am sinner.
I am saint. I am the beloved and the
Betrayed. I have no joys which are not yours, no
Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I.”
“I have no joys which are not yours, no
Aches which are not yours, I too call myself I”

7. • Men as the Rulers of Country
• Women are Individuals Too
• Poet’s Struggle for Freedom
• Her Miserable Married Life
• Her Struggle for the Status of ‘I’
“Kamala Das’s poems of love and sex are characterized by emotional intensity and are among
the best of her poems. With a frankness and openness unusual in the Indian context she
expresses her need for love. The vocabulary used is blunt and imagery sensuous and fleshy.
The description of man woman relationship include anatomical detail and body functions are
expressed undisguised by metaphor or round aboutation.”
-Harish Raizada
THEMES
OF POEM

8. REFERNCES
• Das, Kamala. “An Introduction.”
poemhunter.com, poemhunter , 28 Mar. 2012,
www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-introduction-2.
• “Kamala Das – the Mother of Modern Indian English Poetry.”
Feminisminindia, 2017,
feminisminindia.com/2017/03/31/kamala-das-essay.
• Das, Bijay Kumar. “Some Indian English Poets of the
Seventies.” <i>Indian Literature</i>, vol. 25, no. 3, 1982, pp.
101–109. <i>JSTOR</i>, www.jstor.org/stable/24158524.
Accessed 4 Sept. 2021.
• Raphael, R. “Kamala Das: The Pity of It.” <i>Indian
Literature</i>, vol. 22, no. 3, 1979, pp. 127–137.
<i>JSTOR</i>, www.jstor.org/stable/23329993. Accessed 4
Sept. 2021.