Father Returning Home

 Father Returning Home

1. Why does the father travel on the 'late evening train'?

Ans. "Father Returning Home" is a poem from "Travelling in a Cage" by Dilip Chitre portrait of  the dull, drab and exhausting daily routine of commuters.

    The poem begins with the speaker’s description of his father’s travelling home. The father is travelling in a late evening train after finishing his work for the day. ‘Late evening train’ may indicate how long the father works so that it regularly gets that late for him to return home.

2. What do the words ' silent commuters' signify?

Ans. The father is standing among the silent passengers in the yellow light inside the train compartment. This line is indicative of his sufferings during the journey. After working so hard, he is returning home standing on the foot-board, as he doesn’t get a seat there to relax. The ‘silent commuters’ are not friendly enough to converse with him or among themselves. The yellow light is not the best thing either to promote any cheerfulness. All these things further intensify his agony and make the journey monotonous.

3. Can you guess the profession of the father? How?

Ans.  Yes, Father might be working as a common worker because travelling in a train and having cold dinner moreover having not so co-operative relation with family and children, his isolation trace that he work hard to survive as common folk.

4. What do 'weak tea' and 'stale chapati' suggest?

Ans. The poet sees his father reach home again like the other days. Then he sees him drink 'weak tea' and eat a 'stale chapati'. The poet hints at how nobody cares for him even at home. But the man does not have any complain with his tea or food, as he is used to it. As we see, he rather concentrates on reading a book while having his tea. He has probably given up on expecting more care form his family members.

5. What is the relationship between the father and the nomads mentioned in the last line?

Ans. We are in the final stage of the poem where we see the father going to sleep listening to the radio and thinking of many things like his ancestors, his grandchildren and of the Aryans, the people entering the Indian subcontinent through the Khyber Pass in the ancient time.

The sound of the radio is even noisy (static), giving another reference to the old man’s miserable life. However, his dreaming of his ancestors and grandchildren gives the impression that he finds some solace in thinking about his past and future generation. It is an attempt to escape from his mundane routine-life devoid of human contact. Again, his thought of the Aryans may indicate that he is thinking of how the society has changed since the ancient times when they had come here. Now this modern world has no place for the elderly people, has no one to think about their loneliness or care for them.

6. How does the poet deal with the theme of man's estrangement from a man made world?

Ans.  The word estrangement means :- the fact of no longer being on friendly terms or part of a social group.

In the poem, 'Father returning home ' by Dilip Chitre, the poet tells us about the loneliness faced by the father. How he travels back home alone totally tired and sick of his hectic work. He is standing all alone engrossed in his thoughts amongst the crowd. After getting down from the train he hurries home and his family members doesn't even bother about him. He is all alone in his own world, drinking weak tea and eating stale chapati. His ill-mannered children refuse to share jokes and secrets with him. He now goes to sleep, listening to the static radio and thinking about his ancestors and grandchildren. This shows that the poet deals with man's estrangement from a man made world. How father is dealing with loneliness and no one is bothered about him.

7. What device does the poet use to describe the sordidness of the commuter?