SHUAIB ASGHAR
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
GOVT. RAZVIA ISLAMIA COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
GOVT. RAZVIA ISLAMIA COLLEGE
HAROONABAD, PAKISTAN
The poem Wedding
in the Flood
is certainly about wedding ceremony which is always associated with joy and
mirth. But the segment of the wedding which the poem deals with is the
departure of the bride. This segment is more about the bereft and parting than
any mirthful activities. The poem is a chain of expressions of unknown risks
and fears. The mother of the bride expresses her fears about the nature and the
attitude of the bridegroom. How will she be able to be a part of that stranger
house with stranger people and environment? The parting day for her is becoming
tediously troublesome.
When parents in a
society like Pakistan choose a match for their daughter, they do it with a lot
of fears and prayers. They feel worried because the women are not given their
due rights in our society and they have very little authority in the daily
affairs of life. So they have to be subordinate to their men. The thoughts and
worries of the bride are very natural. She is worried about the articles of her
dowry which might spoil in the rain. She also thinks about her husband’s nature
and disposition. She is actually in total scaring atmosphere. Same are the
worries of the bridegroom for her new life partner.
If
only her face matches her hands
And
she gives me no mother-in-law problems….
Throughout the day
the rain continues to fall and because of the rainy season the river is
flooding which the marriage party is to cross. During the cross, the boat of
the wedding party is caught up in the frowning waves of the river and throws
its passengers and luggage on the angry waves. The wedding party including the
father of the bridegroom, the bridegroom and the bride downs in the river. The
party who set out on a joyful journey in the morning, their journey quite
ironically ended in tragic loss of lives and longings.
In Taufiq Rafat’s
poems, we find simple people suffering death and destruction. However they do
not contribute to the cause of their destruction. They are merely puppet in the
hands of fate. In this poem we cannot hold any body responsible and nor can
find anybody trying to avert the sudden mortality. We note that fate, in the
shape of rain and then the river, is very unkind to the poor villagers. In the
day time, the rain keeps on taxing them and in the evening they are faced with
howling river.
The event could not have gone more smoothly, and from my perspective, less stressfully. I was able to relax, let my hair down, and totally enjoy the party, and felt totally pampered and cared for by their manager. The food at Chicago wedding venues was excellent, and the floral were gorgeous and reasonably priced.
ReplyDelete