Goodbye Party For Miss Pushpa T.S. - Poem by Nissim Ezekiel

Goodbye Party For Miss Pushpa T.S. - Poem by Nissim Ezekiel

1.Friends,
our dear sister
is departing for foreign
in two three days,
and
we are meeting today
to wish her bon voyage.

2.You are all knowing, friends,
What sweetness is in Miss Pushpa.
I don't mean only external sweetness
but internal sweetness.
Miss Pushpa is smiling and smiling
even for no reason but simply because
she is feeling.

3.Miss Pushpa is coming
from very high family.
Her father was renowned advocate
in Bulsar or Surat,
I am not remembering now which place.

4.Surat? Ah, yes,
once only I stayed in Surat
with family members
of my uncle's very old friend-

5.his wife was cooking nicely…
that was long time ago.

Coming back to Miss Pushpa
she is most popular lady
with men also and ladies also.

6.Whenever I asked her to do anything,
she was saying, 'Just now only
I will do it.' That is showing
good spirit. I am always
appreciating the good spirit.

7.Pushpa Miss is never saying no.
Whatever I or anybody is asking
she is always saying yes,
and today she is going
to improve her prospect
and we are wishing her bon voyage.
Now I ask other speakers to speak
and afterwards Miss Pushpa
will do summing up.

About The Poet Nissim Ezekiel

 Goodbye Party For Miss Pushpa T. S. was written by Nissim Ezekiel, one of India's foremost Indo-Anglian poets. He was born in 1924 and was educated in Mumbai and London. He produced several volumes of verse and plays and was an art critic. Ezekiel died in 2004 at the age of 79. Most of Ezekiel's poetry is for adults, as it is serious and quite difficult to understand.

 In this poem, however, Ezekiel uses simple Indian' English. Here he is making gentle fun of the people who cannot speak English properly by including in the poem common mistakes made by speakers whose mother tongue is not English. There are grammatical mistakes, strange arrangements of words and phrases and idioms which are direct translations of expressions in Indian languages - they all sound very odd in English.

The poem is in the form of a speech made by one of Miss Pushpa's friends. It should be taken in the spirit in which it was written. This is one of the poems of Ezekiel which illustrate a major characteristic of the later phase of his poetic career, namely his preoccupation with Indian themes, a preoccupation to which he seems to have been led by his acceptance of the reality of the Indian situation. Included in his Hymns in Darkness, this poem was one of the eight poems which appeared in the 1970s under the group Very Indian Poems in Indian English.

 Though this poem is often described as a parody of or satire on Indian English illustrating the idiolectical features of the brand of English used by Gujarati speakers, as a humorous reconstruction of a particular variety of Indian English, it is actually “a satiric self-revelation of the speaker”. As Bruce King has put it, “Language reveals the speaker’s mind and social context; clichés, triteness, unintended puns are among the devices used to imply hypocrisy, pretence, limited opportunities and confusion”. Note the Indianness inherent in the very title of the poem, the occurrence of the initials at the end of the name, a very Indian habit both in speech and writing. Even ‘goodbye party’ seems to be an Indian imitation of ‘birthday party’!

 Ø Common Mistakes in the Poem:

Mistakes: Correct words

1. Goodbye party: Farewell party

 2. Departing: Leaving

 3. two three days: Couple of days

4. You are all knowing: You know

5. smiling and smiling: smiling

 6. she is feeling: She feels

7. She is is coming from: She comes from

8. once only: Once

9. was cooking: Cooked

The poem Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa TS written by Nissim Ezekiel is a satire on the way Indians use the English Language. As English is the second language, there remains a lot of influence of Hindustani when people try to talk in English and somehow the cultural and traditional habits are also quite visible in their language.

Nissim Ezekiel in this poem narrates an incident when a lady namely Miss Pushpa is supposed to leave India and her colleagues have arranged a “Goodbye Party” for her. The narrator who is probably a man uses Babu English which is quite funny as he uses the Hindustani dialect and manners in it. The poem is quite long and I have divided it into two parts.

Nissim Ezekiel (24 December 1924 – 9 January 2004) was an Indian Jewish poet. He was a foundational figure in postcolonial India’s literary history, specifically for Indian writing in English. Ezekiel earned a master’s degree in English literature from Mumbai University and studied philosophy in London. He later became the head of Mithibai College’s Department of English and a visiting professor at the University of Leeds as well as the University of Chicago. His first anthology of poems, entitled A Time to Changewas published in England in 1952 by an established publisher of poetry, Fortune Press. He made Indian-English prose simple for common people to understand and poked fun at the local vernacular in hopes of improving the quality of life of his compatriots through his works. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for his Poetry collection, “Latter-Day Psalms”. Ezekiel is universally recognized and appreciated as being one of the most notable and accomplished Indian English language poets of the 20th century, applauded for his subtle, restrained and well crafted diction, dealing with common and mundane themes in a manner that manifests both cognitive profundity, as well as an unsentimental, realistic sensibility, that has been influential on the course of succeeding Indian English poetry. Ezekiel enriched and established Indian English language poetry through his modernist innovations and techniques, which enlarged Indian English literature, moving it beyond purely spiritual and orientalist themes, to include a wider range of concerns and interests, including mundane familial events, individual angst and skeptical societal introspection.

Summary:
Goodbye Party For Miss Pushpa T.S is a satirical poem by Nissim Ezekiel. It is in the form of dramatic monologue. Miss. Pushpa is depicted as a pleasing personality. At the beginning of the work, the speaker explains that Miss Pushpa is going to a different country and states that she is a sweet person. He explains that the woman comes from a prominent family and gets sidetracked with his own memories. In the middle of the poem the author talked about her father and his job seemed as irrelevant and consists of lot of diversions from ideas. The tone of the poem is humorous though sarcastic is devoid. The speaker called her as sister and showed that she was in respectable position in office. From this poem we conclude that she was beautiful both internally and externally. There is a lack of clarity in this poem because of irrelevant details but the poem speaks about the Indian English with lucidity. After digressing, the speaker states that Miss Pushpa is a popular person who is kind and always willing to help others. At the end of the poem, the speaker asks the others at the party to give their own speeches about the party’s honoree. The poem is considered as mild attack on Indian English Speakers. The poem might be simple one but it discusses a serious topic.The author reveals the mismatch between Indian thoughts and English culture. The poet uses Pidgin or Colloquial English as it fulfilles the need for a special language in a bilingual situation and the poet could also reflect the idiolect features of English used by the speakers of different regional languages. The poem begins with present continuous tense instead of using simple present tense and thus the mocking of Indian Speakers begins, which can be seen throughout the poem. The poem also hints at dramatic irony if the reader infers that the speaker’s audience at the farewell party doesn’t know that his English is grammatically incorrect. The poet makes fun of the way in which semi-educated Indians speak or write the English language. He ridicules the errors in grammar, syntax and idioms which many Indians commit while speaking English. The poem is highly amusing and the poet mimics the Indian way of speaking English with so many faults.  The poem is in free verse, typical of modern poetry. Poetry which is written without any rhyme and any traditional metrical pattern uses free verse. It has no regular recurring rhythm.
Nissim Ezekiel satirizes certain Indian customs, traditions and manners in the poem Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T.S. The poet laughs at speaker and his manners of speaking too. The speaker stands for every speaker in Indian context. He uses free and broken language to share the views and emotions. The use of language is faulty. The poet mocks at literal translation. For example “two three days”, is the literal translation of a vernacular expression. Here is another example of literal translation, “with men also and ladies also”, is an unacceptable collocation used in literal translation of a vernacular expression. Here is another way of unfolding parody is the way of not using indefinite articles. For example “very high family”,” renowned advocate”, here is the absence of the indefinite article “a”. The phrase should be like “a very high family”, “a renowned advocate”.  Miss Pushpa is laughed at and laughs at all the people. “Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T. S.” is a social satire on speech which is delivered on an occasion when all praise the good natured, helpful and sacrificial attitude, and leadership qualities etc. of the person. It is facilitated on his or her shift to another post, retirement, and so on. In every society such speeches are culture-laden. He describes the internal as well as the external beauty of Miss Pushpa in “Babu Angrezi”. Nissim Ezekiel has not given a definite identity of the speaker. We do not know whether it is male of female speaker. Nissim Ezekiel by hiding the identity of the speaker renders the mistakes to every Indian in general.
To conclude the poem is a parody of an Indian speech. It is a satirical of the manners of Indian educated people. The whole poem is comic in nature. The speaker’s words make us laugh. The parody includes irony, vague speech, and literal translation,the  use of present progressive tense and Babu English in the poem.

Paraphrase :
Lines 1-7
Friends,
our dear sister
is departing for foreign
in two three days,
and
we are meeting today
to wish her bon voyage.

In a party to bid goodbye to a subordinate the poet persona addresses the colleagues and other subordinates as friends. He tells them that their dear sister, Miss Pushpa is leaving for a foreign country and they all wish her happy journey.

Lines 8-14
You are all knowing, friends,
What sweetness is in Miss Pushpa.
I don’t mean only external sweetness
but internal sweetness.
Miss Pushpa is smiling and smiling
even for no reason but simply because
she is feeling.

In these lines the speaker reminds the friends of Miss Pushpa’s sweetness which is not external but internal also. He tells of Miss Pushpa’s god and amicable nature. She always puts on a smiling face. It is obvious that Nissim Ezekiel is ridiculing the habitual use of the continuous tense even where it is ungrammatical and inappropriate.

Lines 15-19
Miss Pushpa is coming
from very high family.
Her father was renowned advocate
in Bulsar or Surat,
I am not remembering now which place.

The speaker continues his address at the Goodbye Party and tells the audience that Miss Pushpa belongs to rich family. Her father was a famous advocate in Bulsar and Surat but he does not remember the correct place.

Lines 20-25
Surat? Ah, yes,
once only I stayed in Surat
with family members
of my uncle’s very old friend-
his wife was cooking nicely…
that was long time ago.

In these lines the fun is made of the wayward mind of the speaker who forgets the occasion and starts talking about his days in Surat with the family of his uncle’s old friend. The speaker is informed by someone in audience that the place was Surat and he remembers and talks about his experience in Surat. The speaker’s digression to Miss Pushpa’s father, and hanging on it, the speaker’s connection to Surat and then to his/her uncle’s very old friend and his wife there—are typical of the unprepared, spontaneous speech, characteristic of many Indians who lack propriety in such grave formal functions.

Lines 26-28
Coming back to Miss Pushpa
she is most popular lady
with men also and ladies also.

After diversion from topic of his speech, the speaker goes back to Miss Pushpa. He says that she is very popular with both men and women. It is obvious in the lines that Nissim Ezekiel is ridiculing the amusing, ungrammatical speech of Indians and their sentimental, exaggerated way of speaking.

Lines 29-34

Whenever I asked her to do anything,
she was saying, ‘Just now only
I will do it.’ That is showing
good spirit. I am always
appreciating the good spirit.
Pushpa Miss is never saying no.

Praising his subordinate, Miss Pushpa, the speaker goes ahead and praises her good nature. She would never say no to the work assigned to her. This shows that she has a good spirit and her readiness to do any work. She is a willing worker. The unnecessary use of ‘just’ and ‘only’ exhibits the speaker’s ignorance of the usage of English words, creating laughter and fun.

Lines 35-42
Whatever I or anybody is asking
she is always saying yes,
and today she is going
to improve her prospect
and we are wishing her bon voyage.
Now I ask other speakers to speak
and afterwards Miss Pushpa
will do summing up.

In the concluding lines, the speaker says that she was always ready to help whenever asked by him or any other colleague. Today the speaker and the other colleagues have gatherd to wish her happy journey as she is going abroad to improve her prospects. After this speech is over, the speaker asks other speakers to speak and says that Miss Pushpa will sum up, after the colleagues’ speech.