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Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 Vol. 15:1 January 2015

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Kala Ghoda Poems:

Anguish Brought by Hypocrisy of Progress
Dr. Mrs. Anisa G. Mujawar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
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Courtesy: http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/amit/books/kolatkar-2011-collected-poems-
in.html
Abstract

Arun Kolatkar’s Kala Ghoda depicts postmodern socio-political India. It represents

the life of the underprivileged and highlights its absolute disparity with the technological and
material progress of India. It portrays the lives of people living on the streets - sweepers,
lepers, prostitutes, beggars, drunkards, and others like them. It brings objects, animals,
rubbish, and ecology together. Kolatkar observes the marginalized poor, against the
overcrowded, advanced, capitalistic Mumbai, to pinpoint that their condition has not changed
in post-colonial India. Their condition was neither good in the pre-British times, nor did it
improve in the colonial period, and continues to go on in the same miserable drudgery even
today! The features of postmodernism like irony, humour, minimalism, techno culture,
writing of the long poem by dividing it into shorter pieces, consumerism, commodity
glorification, identity crisis and so on, are all reflected in Kala Ghoda. Kolatkar does not
indulge in the past traditions of India, but focuses on the wider, modern world and the people
living in capitalist urbanization.
Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 15:1 January 2015
Dr. Mrs. Anisa G. Mujawar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Kala Ghoda Poems: Anguish Brought by Hypocrisy of Progress 36
 This paper attempts to highlight the life of Mumbai portrayed in “Breakfast Time at
Kala Ghoda”. The scene of the underprivileged coming together for breakfast and enjoying
life quite optimistically stands entirely in contrast to the lives of their masters. This poem
emphasizes their pangs. It gives a call in a humorous and ironical tone to the entire humanity
to think of the hypocrisy of progress affecting the lives of the poor of India.

Keywords: Kala Ghoda, Mumbai, the marginalized poor, postmodernism, hypocrisy of

progress, commodity glorification

Arun Kolatkar’s Works

Arun Kolatkar (1932-2004)

Arun Kolatkar wrote both in Marathi and English. His poetry reveals his passionate
surveillance of the life around him. He used to observe the life of South Mumbai from his
Café table at Kala Ghoda and it resulted in his Kala Ghoda Poems. The title ‘Kala Ghoda’
comes from a highly crowded area in South Bombay. The famous Jahangir Art Gallery is
located at this place. This space includes colonial monuments like the Rajabhai tower and the
Prince of Wales museum. The literal meaning of Hindi phrase ‘Kala Ghoda’ is ‘black horse’.
It refers to a monument of King Edward VII in black granite. It is a statue donated by Sir
Alfred Sassoon in commemoration of the King’s visit to India and to Bombay in 1876. This
monument was damaged in 1965. This place now comprises the zoological gardens of the
Jijamata Udyan in Byculla, Bombay. But the area continues to be called by this absent statue
of colonial domination.

Kala Ghoda Poems

Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 15:1 January 2015

Dr. Mrs. Anisa G. Mujawar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Kala Ghoda Poems: Anguish Brought by Hypocrisy of Progress 37
 Kala Ghoda Poems depict postmodern socio-political India. The poems represent the
life of the underprivileged and highlight its absolute disparity with the technological and
material progress of India. These poems portray the lives of the people living on the streets -
sweepers, lepers, prostitutes, beggars, drunkards, etc. They put before the readers objects,
animals, rubbish, and ecology together. Kolatkar observes the marginalized people against
the overcrowded, advanced, capitalistic Mumbai to pinpoint that their condition has not
changed in postcolonial India. Though India got its freedom and struggled to become
modern, it has failed to bring happiness and solve the problem of hunger and poverty in the
postmodern period. ‘Kala Ghoda’ reminds the Indians of the British colonial rule. It is
substituted by the capitalist, neo-colonial India. Mumbai stands as a city occupied with the
wretched and colonized by the neocolonial power structures.

Post-modernist Features of Kala Ghoda Poems

The features of postmodernism like irony, humour, minimalism, techno culture,
writing the long poem by dividing it into shorter pieces, consumerism, commodity
glorification, identity crisis and such, are reflected in Kala Ghoda Poems. Kolatkar has put a
blank space before starting each poem. The gap prepares readers to read the truth about the
Indian scenario in this postmodern period. The gap makes the readers stop and contemplate
the development of India. The gap also stands as the symbol of the gap between the life of the
white-collared upper class and upper middle-class and the life of the blue-collared, the poor,
the down-trodden, and rootless people. The use of gaps is a postmodern style of writing. The
poet does not indulge in the past traditions of India but focuses on the wider, modern world
and the people living in capitalist urbanization.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 15:1 January 2015

Dr. Mrs. Anisa G. Mujawar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Kala Ghoda Poems: Anguish Brought by Hypocrisy of Progress 38
Focus of This Paper
This paper attempts to underline the life of Mumbai portrayed in “Breakfast Time at
Kala Ghoda”. The scene of the underprivileged coming together for breakfast and enjoying
life quite optimistically stands entirely in contrast to the lives of their masters. This poem
emphasizes their pangs. It gives the call in a humorous and ironical tone to the entire
humanity to think of the hypocrisy of progress, affecting the lives of the poor in India.

Breakfast Time at Kala Ghoda

“Breakfast Time at Kala Ghoda” contains 31 poems. The first poem begins with the
reference to the life at Tokyo and Seoul. The poet thinks of the time at these places. He puts
into words the prosperous life of these places, because he prepares readers to see the actual
life of the poor, underprivileged Indians. It begins with the reference to a clock ‘the big daddy
of all clocks’.

In the second poem he refers to America, Peru, Alaska, and Russia. He describes the
food taken by people as per their geographical and social culture. The time of the western
countries stands in contrast to the time in the eastern countries. Besides the time, the poet
contrasts the rich food of the west and the scanty food of the east taken by the poor.

The Lonesome Jew

The poet brings readers to the east and then specially to Mumbai by referring to a 90-
years-old Jew lady, Leja. He portrays the lonesome Jew in Mumbai. She is living all by
herself in the one-room apartment in Baniocha, near Warsaw. She remembers her father and
his bread factory. Probably she has lost all her dear ones and is living a lonely life in
Mumbai. Mumbai gibves shelter to such lives.

Nameless People
In the fourth poem the poet begins to give the picture of the nameless people living at
Kala Ghoda. He highlights postmodern India striving for food and survival without any
medical facilities. It gives the picture of a 15 year old, Nagamma, a Gola woman’s struggle to
feed her baby. She has brought her baby into the world, by:
-cutting the birthstring
with a flintknife,

Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 15:1 January 2015

Dr. Mrs. Anisa G. Mujawar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Kala Ghoda Poems: Anguish Brought by Hypocrisy of Progress 39
 cleaning up afterwards –
doing it all by herself
like any other Gola Woman. (7-12)

Nagamma’s delivery highlights the situation of poor mothers delivering their babies
without nurse, doctor, medicines, and sanitation. She comes out of her hut for breakfast and
crawls in the direction of two idlis which she intends to convert into milk for her child:
- a miracle
she alone
can perform. (37-39)

The poverty and helplessness of Nagamma at Kala Ghoda is compared in the fifth
poem to the four Dalits, the downtrodden in Andhra Pradesh. The poet focuses on the
discrimination based on caste system in India. The Dalits are forced by the high-caste Hindus
to eat human excreta because they had let their cattle graze in the jowar field of an upper-
caste landlord. The capitalistic system has maintained the difference between the privileged
and the underprivileged. Postmodern India cannot stand on social equality. It is very
remarkable to note how the element of colonialism can be found in postmodern and
postcolonial India. About colonial period Jasbir Jain says:

The colonial period not only created a sense of alienation from the native
cultural tradition, but also ingrained an attitude of subjection. There is a
division at several different levels: a division between the world of ideas and
one of reality and a division in the self. By placing the norm, the measuring
stick outside the native society, it has taken away its centre from it; a kind of
hatred for the self has been allowed to grow. (3)

Post-colonial Modern India

This view can truly be part of the neo-colonial postmodern India which has forced an
attitude of subjection at different levels upon the downtrodden and homeless. The reforms to
educate and civilize Indians have alienated these poor natives.

Prisoners’ Lives

Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 15:1 January 2015

Dr. Mrs. Anisa G. Mujawar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Kala Ghoda Poems: Anguish Brought by Hypocrisy of Progress 40
 The poet highlights in the sixth poem prisoners’ lives by describing the suspects in
Byculla jail. These suspects come from the economically and socially backward classes.
Postmodern India cannot improve the situation of the suspects. These suspects are the
products of a society that indulges in all kinds of addictions. They are not familiar with
education and elite culture. Hence, they are not interested in obligatory education given to
them in jail. They are:

Interested more in horseplay,

fisticuffs, insider trading
in cigarettes and charas pills. (13-15)
The suspects do not want education obligatory to them in the jail.

Rich Variety of Food in Hotels in Mumbai

In the seventh poem the poet turns to various hotels in Mumbai where food is served
in its rich variety. He very effectively brigs the postmodern Mumbai based on high
modification of food habits for those who can afford them. This time he prepares readers to
know the contrast between the lives of the people at Kala Ghoda with the lives of people who
can enjoy a variety of food.

The Homeless
In the eighth poem the poet describes the homeless and deserted Indians surviving in
postmodern Mumbai, a city with technological advancement and material prosperity. The
poet depicts a woman at Kala Ghoda carrying:

a jumbo aluminium box full of idlis

- lying
like an infant Krishna. (7-9)

The Lady of Idlis

In the ninth poem the poet calls the Lady of Idlis ‘Annapoorna’. When she brings
idlis, life of the people living on the street at Kala Ghoda gets some sense as it promotes
movement.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 15:1 January 2015

Dr. Mrs. Anisa G. Mujawar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Kala Ghoda Poems: Anguish Brought by Hypocrisy of Progress 41
Other Poems
In poem number ten and twelve he describes the blind man, his kitten and the yellow
dog at his feet, his grandma, little vamp all rush for the idlis and the breakfast time at Kala
Ghoda begins.

In the fifteenth poem, these persons are followed by the ogress, the rate poison boy,
the pinwheel boy, the ‘hipster queen of the crossroads’, ‘the Demosthenes of Kala Ghoda’,
‘the pregnant queen of tarts’, ‘the laughing Buddha’, ‘the knucklebones champ’ and so on. In
the sixteenth poem the poet refers to each and every soul:
within a mile of the little island
is soon gravitating towards it
to receive the sacrament of idli. (2-4)

They came ‘walking, running, dancing, limping, stumbling, rolling’. The homeless
and hungry woman eating idli is called ‘the laughing (and sometimes giggling) Buddha’ in
the seventeenth poem. She has wrapped her body in something like a bed sheet. The picture
of this woman confirms that India has succeeded in enhancing the technological progress, has
successfully tested the atomic power, but has failed to abolish the hunger of the poor. India
has failed to provide space to the persons like the shoeshine boy, toiling and earning a
pittance on the streets in the nineteenth poem. The progress of India cannot give food, shelter,
and clothing to the poor and the marginalized. The technological progress has generated a rift
between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’.

Focus on Haves and Have-nots

About the negative side of such progress, Nirmal Selvamony rightly says:
Considering the negative development of the colonies, we might say
that the unity of the families is imperiled, their histories and
memories are obliterated by forces such as urbanization, employment
abroad, expatriation and dislocation. Economic development is
negative when man is isolated from his communitarian bonding with
other men, nature and supernatural powers and seen as an individual
with infinite potential and wants. (62)

Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 15:1 January 2015

Dr. Mrs. Anisa G. Mujawar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Kala Ghoda Poems: Anguish Brought by Hypocrisy of Progress 42
 The rich hotels serve a variety of high quality food to those who are able to pay for it.
The rich Indians can also afford highly effective medical help. But the hungry paralytic in a
wheelchair in poem number twenty has to use his ‘wheelchair made by cannibalizing two
bicycles’. Like him is the ‘legless hunchback’ in poem number twenty one. Nobody on the
road is surprised to see him, the speed-king of Bombay:
pushing the road back, expertly,
with his bare hands,
and with a big grin on his face. (13-15)

All the homeless persons enjoy idlis in their bowls, katoras, mugs, plates or almond
leaves in poem number twenty two. Such homeless and beggars in India disturb writers like
V. S. Naipaul who says, “the beggars have become a nuisance and a disgrace. By becoming
too numerous they have lost their place in the Hindu system and have no claim on anyone”.
(58) Of course, Kolatkar does not speak about the homeless of any particular religion living
at Kala Ghoda. He seriously ponders over the pathetic conditions of the wounded indigenous.
They are not a nuisance for him, but they are helpless Indians who are denied the comforts of
social equality.

God’s Glory for All

In poem number twenty five, the poet shows a leper whose clean-shaven head is
glistening to god’s glory’. It puts forth the situation of the helpless lepers in postmodern
India. One hippy also comes to this area. After asking him about his whereabouts, the street
people of Kala Ghoda offer him idlis because he is hungry and they take him to be their
friend.

The poet sarcastically depicts the positive attitude and happiness of the downtrodden
in poem number twenty seven. The street-person is happy to find a shelter to rest on the road.
He is thankful for the blocks of concrete on the street. It gives him the pleasure of being in a
house.

In poem number twenty eight, the poet describes a naked child killing a rat with the
help of his bat. His mother brings him back, puts some clothes on him and takes him to the

Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 15:1 January 2015

Dr. Mrs. Anisa G. Mujawar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Kala Ghoda Poems: Anguish Brought by Hypocrisy of Progress 43
little traffic island to feed him. The poet brings all the mothers in the world to her level of
motherly love and says:
Like all good mothers, she knows
that good breakfasts
make good cricketers. (49-51)

The rich cricketers are cared for by their mothers who give them good breakfasts, but
the poor mother can give only meager food to her child and make him survive. The poet
contrasts the grand life of cricketers with the naked child on the street skillfully using his bat
to kill a rat.

Realistic, Passionate and Loving Description of the Poor and Unwanted

To accompany the hungry and the marginalized, the Kala Ghoda is visited by a
‘delegation of crows’ in poem number twenty nine. The area of one mile radius from the Kala
Ghoda becomes very active and resourceful with the arrival of Annapurna. When she packs
up and leaves the place in poem number thirty, a sort of after-image lingers behind her. She
goes away with a lighter basket on her head, an empty bucket in her hand, and a full purse at
her waist.

In poem number thirty one, the poet calls the situation around Annapurna a cafeteria
which disappears ‘like a castle in a children’s book’. After the breakfast, the traffic island at
Kala Ghoda becomes a flat old boring self.’

Conclusion
The poems in “The Breakfast Time at Kala Ghoda” depict the social outcastes living
the impoverished life in postmodern India. They are the strings of indictments on the
downtrodden. Human beings are at their centre. The poet is interested in humanizing the
victims of the capitalistic society which has created a vast gap between the privileged and the
underprivileged. He deals with the life of these people in postmodern Mumbai. The pre-
British past, as well as the colonial past of their lives are in no way different from its present.
The poet writes about this situation because he is a conscientious writer who cannot ignore it.
His poems insist on granting the legitimate human worth, value, and respectable position to
the oppressed and the neglected.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 15:1 January 2015

Dr. Mrs. Anisa G. Mujawar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Kala Ghoda Poems: Anguish Brought by Hypocrisy of Progress 44
 The people living on the streets of Kala Ghoda do not revolt or fight for their identity
or alienation. The poet very succinctly, but ironically emphasizes that these people are the
victims of social, economic, and cultural inequality. The poems are endowed with radical
humanism which becomes a perpetual foundation for universal values of human life. Such a
work becomes naturally a means of achieving identity for the homeless, oppressed, and
marginalized people. They portray India with innumerous, minute details. The poet’s
concerns call entire humanity to see the pangs of the underprivileged. These poems focus on
the dearth of food and also the dearth of sensitivity of the privileged towards the unfortunate.

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References

1. Jain, Jasbir. Problems of Postcolonial Literatures and Other Essays. Jaipur: Printwell,
1991. Print.
2. Kolatkar, Arun. Kala Ghoda Poems. Mumbai: Pras Prakashan, 2006. Print.
3. Naipaul, V.S. India: A Wounded Civilization. New Delhi: Vikas, 1977. Print.
4. Selvamony, Nirmal. “Post-Coloniality and the Discourse of Development”, Post-
Coloniality: Reading Literature, eds. C.T.Indra, Meenakshi Shivram, New Delhi, Vikas
Publishing House, 1999. Print.
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Dr. Mrs. Anisa G. Mujawar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Head
Department of English
Chhatrapati Shivaji College
Satara – 415001
Maharashtra
India
[email protected]

Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 15:1 January 2015

Dr. Mrs. Anisa G. Mujawar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Kala Ghoda Poems: Anguish Brought by Hypocrisy of Progress 45