Nani by Kamala Das

By King Meera -
Themes:
morals and age
inconvenient truths
fragile safety in forgotten truth

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"Was doing, to delight us, a comic
Dance... "
Innocence of childhood - gravity of the situation later understood

"Became an altar then, a sunny shrine"

Nani's memory sacrificed for some truths

"With that question ended Nani. Each truth
Ends thus with a query. ..."

Truth dies when its credibility is questioned.
Also, question remains unanswered - answered, instead, with a question
The fact that it is not answered means that the Grandmother has not made peace with it

consciousness of speaker differs vastly from that of those (adults, elders) around her

Deliberate movement from fact to emotion to philosophical questioning

"... It is this designed
Deafness that turns mortality into
Immortality, the definite into
The soft indefinite. ..."

Nani the woman of flesh and bone dies, but the idea of Nani remains.

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