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1. Arun Balkrishna Kolatkar (1932-2004)
was a poet from Maharastra, India. His first book of English poetry, “Jejuri”,
is a collection of 31 poems pertaining to a visit of his to a religious place
with the same name, Jejuri in Maharastra; the book won commonwealth writer’s
prize in 1977.
2. His work “An Old Woman” – a poem gives
an account of a commonplace experience of a tourist who visits a pilgrim centre
on the hills. He is accosted by an old woman, a self- appointed tourist guide
who insists on showing the place.
3. The poem begins with a commonplace
experience, but ends in a revelation. He observes that everything is in a state
of decay and the old woman is the representative of the degradation of
humanity.
4. The poem brings out the callousness
of a society which is increasingly materialistic and inhuman.
5. The stark reality of things hit him
hard, which was trigged by the encounter with the old woman.
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