Meena Alexander explores in “A House of a Thousand Doors” the effects of colonization and exploitation and what lies between the surface of lives. She waits for the right image and word to capture the same. The House in this poem is reminiscent of A.K. Ramanujan’s “Small-Scale Reflections on a Large House” that is at once emblematic of the Indian culture. This particular House has a thousand doors referring to its vibrancy and its openness to guests, foreign ideas and new aspects of culture. Moreover it abides by the concept of vasdaivakudumbakam, and keeps its door open for guests. However, perhaps, it was this positive aspect that proved to be a disaster for India, as the colonial powers spread the network of their web in India utilizing trade as a pretext. In the contemporary era also India is with a thousand doors as there is brain- drain and people immigrating to foreign arenas. The title ‘House of a Thousand Doors’ also signifies that India as a nation imparted significance to both individuality and a feeling of community.

The poem begins with an affirmation that this house has a thousand doors, and is therefore singular as illustrated by the demonstrative ‘this.’ The sills are cut in bronze. Bronze being an alloy is again representative of the amalgamation of different cultures. It is cut out three feet high to keep out snakes. The poetess perhaps satirizes the Western Construction of India as a land of snakes and snake charmers. The owners of the House or Indians were judicious enough to do, so and also kept away other repulsive beings like rats or toads. Weeds often grow in wet areas and points to the monsoon season in Kerala.

Twilight is the time between dawn and sunrise. It is during that time that the sun rises as though he is burning down the Kerala coast. Like typical Kerala houses the roof is tiled in red. Contrasted against it is the silver lightning rod. The crow is set out to down land’s end as it is bound towards nowhere. Probably it is positioned at the vanishing point, which is why the poetess says that the crow is positioned nowhere. The word ‘nowhere’ may also signify lack of hope in a dystopian setting.

In dreams, waves lift a silken fan in grandmother’s hand. The reference to grandmother suggests the lost old world charm that is now captured only in dreams. As the light bares her more and more, it reveals her as naked as truth itself as contrasted with a made up world with a superficial coating. She kneels at each one of the thousand doors in turn. The saying goes that if God closes one door, he will open another. Here, the grandmother is not worried about the doors. Rather she is grateful and blessed that each one exists and pays her due that these doors do exist in her life.

The speaker also hears in the darkness a flute played by a bride. The old grandmother is juxtaposed against the young bride, and music is set against ritual. Perhaps the ‘poor forked thing’ mentioned in the very next stanza refers to the bivalent aspect of womanhood, as both young and old, mother and daughter, synchronization and solemnity.

A poor forked thing,
I watch her kneel in all my lifetime
imploring the household gods
who will not let her in.

The woman kneels all her lifetime driven by a patriarchial set up, and keeps imploring with the male gods who will not let her in. The word ‘gods’ is not capitalized suggesting their commonplace nature. It also forms a compound noun here prefixing the word ‘household’ thereby domesticating them. When the poetess says “I watch her kneel in all my lifetime” she presents an objective picture of womanhood. The woman here also stands for India who stands kneeling before colonial powers, her back bent by oppression. Decades after colonization, the speaker sees her in the same position as she is again suppressed by neocolonialism. She has an ambivalent existence which is why India is called ‘A poor forked thing.’ The phenomenon is exemplified in adjectives like ‘secular’, where secular means ‘nothing to do with religion’ and at the same time ‘respect for all religions’.

© Rukhaya MK 2013

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