This week in Daak: 1. An Entanglement with the Past: Kamala Das' Poem, Farewell to Bombay 2. Revel in Play 3. Daak Recommends 1. An Entanglement with the Past: Kamala Das' Poem, Farewell to Bombay There’s a Bengali word, পিছটান (pichutan), which means an entanglement with something from your past which keeps pulling you back even as you try to move forward. We’ve all experienced this kind of painful love, whether for a person or a place. In her poem, “Farewell to Bombay”, Kamala Das gives voice to this bond with a place she’d once called home. As is evident in her lines, her memories of Bombay are not just tied up with the sights, sounds and experiences of the city, but also with an imagined fantasy which she perhaps never got to live. So, her poem is mourning the loss of not just a physical place, but also of someone she once wanted to be.
Beautiful poem - I read it in Juhu this morning and I could feel her words. Thank you so much for this.