Rice by Chemmanam Chacko and translated by Prof. K. Ayyappa Paniker (Detailed summary) (Plus Two)

Rice

Chemmanam Chacko

Translated by Prof. K. Ayyappa Paniker

Detailed summary

          “Rice” is a poem which is written in Malayalam by Chemmanam Chacko and is translated into English by Prof. K. Ayyappa Paniker. In the first half of the poem, the poet tells about his expectation of events that may happen when he goes to his house after four years. In the beginning, the poet tells that after four years doing research in North India, he is coming back to the native place which is in Kerala. He got research when he proved that through the husk, one could make toys. Now he is in a train. He is eager to eat “a meal of athikira rice” because he is fed up with eating chapaties.

          Now the poet gives the images of his father, “little brother” and mother and their response when he reaches his home. In his imagination, his father will be wearing a “handloom dhoti” which is blemished with “yellow mud”. He will be very happy that water is coming from Varanganal canal. The poet assumes that his father will see him from far and his father will loudly ask, “And when did you start from there?” from the field which is behind the house. According to the poet, there are oxen and farmers who are ploughing the land because it the “planting season”.

          Seeing the poet, his little brother will happily run towards him with “tender saplings” of paddy which have to be planted in the paddy field.  His little brother will loudly say, “Mother, brother's arrived!”

          The poet then imagines that in order to reach his house which is beside the paddy field, he has to walk through the paddy field. In his imagination, he is walking very carefully along the “dyke” so that he will not damage “the baskets full of seed”. While he is on the way to his home, his mother will be separating rice soup from rice. Imagining all these, he wants to reach his home as far as possible.

          In the second section, the poet sees the changes that have happened when he reaches his native place. Finally, the bus stops. The poet happily gets out from the bus. But to his shock, so many changes have happened. When he left his place, there were only “palm-thatched houses”. Now instead of “palm-thatched houses”, there are only trees. Also, there are “rubber plants” everywhere which are twice than his height. These “rubber plants” replace “modan and vellaran”, varieties of paddy. Now he has confusion whether he has taken a wrong path.

          Now the poet has reached near to the house. Four years back, there was a paddy field adjacent to his house. So he expects that he can hear the shouts of workers who are engaged in ploughing. Unfortunately, he cannot hear such shouts. He gets a shock. To his dismay, he sees “arecanut palms” in that field. Also, there are “dealwood trees” on either side of the canal.

          Finally, the poet enters his house. He watches his father is on the “southern wing” of his house. His father is observing a worker who is fixing up the rubber-sheet making the machine. His father informs that he has shifted to commercial plantation because there is no profit in paddy cultivation. Only a few people are cultivating paddy in their fields. Beyond that, Government is providing rice to people in the name of the ration.  

          At that time, the poet’s little brother arrives. Seeing his brother, the poet yearns to “have a full meal of athikira rice”. But he is shocked when he understands that his little brother has just bought ration for the family. While the poet observes these changes, he hears the sound of the aeroplane which he describes as the “ship of the sky”. He guesses that the Chief Minister of Kerala might have gone to the “Centre” for requesting to give more rice to Keralites. He now guesses that the Chief Minister is passing above the cash crops which have destroyed the paddy cultivation in Kerala.

          As the poem ends, the poet sarcastically asks a question whether the Centre will give him husk to make toys too.