The Bhopal Gas Tragedy of 1984 was the world’s worst industrial disaster.  It occurred at midnight on December 2, 1984.  The Union Carbide which was an American company had established a pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, with pathetic safety standards and working conditions in 1979.  The highly lethal and noxious poisonous gas methyl-isocyanite (MIC) leaked from the chemical plant on that tragic midnight.  Within a couple of days, nearly 8000 people died.  Nearly 50,000 Bhopal gas survivors were severely affected and suffer from all sorts of illnesses from severe respiratory disorders to blindness and have also died.  Most of the victims were very poor and vulnerable and lived in the slums surrounding the factory.  The world’s worst industrial tragedy makes us reflect on various issues including the Right to Life which is enshrined in the Indian constitution.  It also makes us dwell on the double standards and neo-imperialistic tendencies of some exploitative multinational companies which can go to any lengths to make profits.  It is also a sad reminder of the Indian government’s failure in many instances of ensuring that the constitution is upheld with laws protecting all Indians, especially the most vulnerable and powerless.

In the case of the ruthless and exploitative Union Carbide company, the company opened a plant in India in order to avail of cheap labor and make huge profits.  It did this by severely compromising on safety standards as well as other aspects like employing workers for longer hours with poor pay and working conditions.  By cutting down costs in such a deadly manner, the company set out to make huge profits and ended up being exposed for its callousness in 1984.  The same company had a plant in West Virginia with computerized safety systems and other high safety standards in place.  In spite of warnings by some municipal officials that the MIC plant was violating safety standards, the plant was set up with leaks being ignored by government officials.  The government regarded the investment that the company was making more important than the lives of poor Indians working in and around the factory.  With the right to information act in place and growing awareness regarding citizen’s rights, we as citizens of the country need to learn to hold the government accountable for its actions and ensure that the rights of all Indians are protected.

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The discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco Da Gama in 1498 paved the way for many mercantile companies from Europe-the English, Dutch, French, and Portuguese, to engage in a thriving and exploitative trading business.  The mercantile companies bought goods like silk, cotton and spices like pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves at very cheap rates in India and sold them at high prices in the European markets and made huge profits in this manner.  By the last 1500s, there were many such companies from Europe doing this kind of business in India.

In 1600, the British East India Company obtained a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth I that enabled it to become the sole trading company in England to do business in India.  The charter thus enabled the British East India Company to pursue its vested interests in India free from all other competition from England.  The charter was also notable for making the British East India company the first joint-stock corporation in the world.  A joint-stock corporation consists of investors who invest in a company and are granted shares accordingly.  The shareholders can thereby benefit from a percentage of the profits according to the initial shareholding investment made.  The shares of the British East India Company were held by a group of rich English merchants and aristocrats.

In 1612, the Mughal emperor allowed the British East India company to establish a trading post in Surat in Gujarat.  Another trading post was established in Madras later.  In 1651, a “factory-like” trading post was set up in West Bengal which was a warehouse which stored goods for export.  The traders were known as “factors” and began to settle near the factory.  The company began to get a strong foothold over West Bengal by conniving with Mughal officials to give up land for trading purposes.  Kolkata was one of the villages that grew into a city during the expansion of the company in West Bengal. You can see that a very ruthless version of the multinational companies that exist today existed as far back as the 1600s.  Even though the charter enabled the British East India Company to have a monopoly in trade in India over other similar English companies, other European powers were also pursuing their vested interests in India.  All the companies were known as East India Companies like Dutch East India Company and so on because the Indian subcontinent was considered a significant part of the East Indies.  Rivalry, competition and greed led to armed conflicts along the trade routes as well as fortifications to protect trading posts in India in the 1700s and 1800s. The East India Company also engaged in conflicts with the local rulers and local people and was increasingly foraying into politics to further its interests.  This was how it slowly maneuvered itself into India and in connivance with the British royalty became a colonial and imperial force and plundered the Indian subcontinent for years to come.

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To Autumn by John Keats, a brilliant romantic English poet celebrates the season of autumn and the vivid impressions it made on him with the help of elements of personification.  The poem is an ode which is a lyrical poem which sings praises of any theme that a poet is extremely fond of.  The season autumn or fall begins in the month of September and is up to November in England and other countries in the northern hemisphere.  John Keats describes what kind of sensory impressions the autumn season in all its glory made on him in the 19^th century.  Let us enjoy and appreciate this poem as we look back at the autumn season as the season of winter sets in.

A feeling of abundance and outpouring of nature’s bounty is beautifully captured in the first few verses of the poem.

Read the following lines and try to paint a picture in your mind of the early autumn season as expressed by John Keats.

“To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core”

Contrast this with other seasons and especially winter.  If you were to describe nature and trees in the season of winter, how would you express this in poetical verse?

The literary device of personification is used to describe the season of autumn in an interesting manner in the second stanza.  Autumn is given human avatars in the rural settings of the 19^th century and is found in a granary, in a poppy field, crossing a brook and in a cider press.

In the last verse, John Keats says that the season autumn has its own unique quality and is as enchanting as the season of spring with all its melody and freshness.   John Keats ends the poem with visual imagery which is prominent throughout the poem.  You can paint a picture in words in your mind as you read the poem, and at the same time, enjoy the words written in intense lyrical style.

Read and reflect on the last four lines of the poem which beautifully capture some wonderful creatures which are found in rural settings, namely, the lamb, the hedge-cricket, the redbreast and the swallow.

“And full-grown lambs, loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft

And gathering swallow twitter in the sky.”

What are some sights that come to your mind when you think of a season that you would like to celebrate?   Perhaps, the poem “To Autumn” by John Keats will inspire you to write a poem in celebration of your favorite season.

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On the Sea by John Keats is a thoughtful and exquisite sonnet-like poem which celebrates the sea and its restorative and soothing power.  Have you ever been to the seashore and observed the waves crashing against the shore or the gentle ebbs and flows of the sea?  Perhaps, it was a day when you felt very tired after the continuous assault on the senses due to so-called “modern development” from film songs to high rises.  A simple walk along the seashore or resting near the shore, watching the waves, can feel therapeutic when one is caught in the troves of a burgeoning and developing city.  “On the Sea” is a poem by the brilliant Romantic poet John Keats which like many romantic poetic themes tries to celebrate nature.  This was during the turbulent times when England was experiencing the worst of the industrial age.

On the Sea by John Keats | Summary and Analysis

Read the first four lines of the octave of the sonnet and reflect on it.  Imagine that you are sitting near the sea and watching the waves on a day when you feel very weary.

“It keeps eternal whisperings around

Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell

Gluts twice ten thousand caverns, till the spell

Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound”

Here, John Keats describes the sea’s intriguing sounds and sights as signifying eternity and timelessness.  The sea’s mesmerizing and magical sounds can even reach the most depressing-looking and God-forsaken shores.  Here, the poet compares the effect that the sea and its soothing and mesmerizing sounds and sights can have on a depressed, careworn or hassled individual living in a polluted city.  It also has a powerful, wild and untamed divine side to it which is signified by mighty waves as they travel towards countless shores.  Here, Hecate, an ancient Greco-Roman “goddess,” is used to signify the mighty, untamed and wild and free nature of the sea which can cause destruction on haphazard artificial constructs.  Notice how the first four lines rhyme, “around” with “sound” and “swell” with “spell,” which follows an abba rhyme scheme.  The next four lines of the octave of the sonnet also follow the same rhyme scheme.

Let us now reflect upon the next four lines of the poem, “On the Sea.”

“Often ‘tis in such gentle temper found,

That scarcely with the very smallest shell

Be moved for days from whence it sometime fell,

When the last winds of heaven were unbound”

In these lines, John Keats talks about the soothing effect that watching the waves on a serene and tranquil day can have on the senses.  Even the minutest shell remains undisturbed on such a day.   This signifies the gentle and tranquil lull brought about on the onlooker which seems like a heavenly release.

“Oh ye!  Who have your eye-balls vexed and tired,

Feast them upon the wideness of the sea,

Oh ye! Whose ears are dinned with uproar rude,

Of fed too much with cloying melody-Sit ye near some old cavern’s mouth and brood

Until yet start, as if the sea-nymphs choired!”

Here, the sestet which is the last six lines of a sonnet poem discusses a resolution for the materialistic and city-weary soul.  John Keats appeals to such individuals who have had enough of their senses being assaulted by the materialistic and mean and corrupt forces of the city to take refuge by resting near the sea.  They will feel that their whole being is uplifted as if they are listening to the divine and soulful renderings of a choir and leave feeling rejuvenated again.

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How do you feel when you sing or when you hear music fill the air?  Recall a song now and examine your feelings.  Poetry has the same kind of effect.  Many poets and musicians over the centuries have been inspired by nature.  When you look at nature or visit a place filled with magnificent scenery, do you sometimes feel a sense of wonder and appreciation in the same way that you appreciate music?  When you hear the unique sound of the grasshopper chirping, what comes to your mind?  During an extremely hot summer day or extremely cold winter day, do you think you can still sing and celebrate nature?  Reflect on this as we enjoy and appreciate the poem “On the Grasshopper and the Cricket.”

On the Grasshopper and the Cricket by John Keats

Read, enjoy and reflect on the first four lines of the poem silently.  You can also read the lines aloud and enjoy the way the words have been strung together, savor the images that come to your mind and enjoy the way the poem rhymes.

“The poetry of earth is never dead:

When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,

And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run

From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead”

What do you normally do on a very hot summer day?  How do you feel?  Do you feel like the “birds” and take refuge in some cool spot when it is very hot?  Do you feel like nature and everything else has come to a standstill on such a day?  Think of such a hot day.  Which is the voice according to John Keats, the poet, that symbolizes that the “poetry of earth is never dead” even in the most extreme conditions?  On these thoughts, let us enjoy the next four lines of the poem.

“That is the grasshopper’s-he takes the lead.

In summer luxury- he has never done

With his delights, for when tired out with fun

He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.”

Reflect on the lines.  What is the attitude of the grasshopper even in seemingly challenging conditions?  When you are faced with a challenging situation, do you feel disturbed and try to run for cover?  Do you take it easy and continue to enjoy yourself and try to keep your spirits high?  Do you try to relax and find some pleasant pastime even when people around you feel down?

Let us now enjoy and appreciate the last six lines of the poem.  Read the lines silently or aloud.

“The poetry of earth is ceasing never:

On a lone winter evening when the frost

Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills

The cricket’s songs, in warmth increasing ever,

And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,

The grasshopper among some grassy hills.”

Have you ever experienced extreme cold?  Under such trying conditions, how do you and the people around you feel?  Cold or warm?  The poet here says that even in the other extreme condition of a very cold winter evening, the cricket continues to sing in a  warm-hearted manner.  The cricket’s attitude in winter symbolizes that “the poetry of earth is ceasing never.”

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