K.N. Daruwalla is a landscapist. He vividly and picturesquely paints in colour words various aspects of landscape - mountainscape, riverscape, cloudscape etc. The Ghagra in Spate is a colourful pictorial presentation of river Ghagra, a river in northern India, in flood. It reminds us of A. K. Ramanujan's poem A River which describes a flood in the river, Vaiki which passes through the city of Madura in Tamil Nadu.
The river Ghagra is suddenly over flooded every year and changes its course. The poet minutely observes the changing spectacle of the river in full and when the flood is over. The entire description is highly picturesque and the poet skilfully uses colour words to paint the changing spectacles and colours of the river. The calm and placid watery surface of Ghagra presents a vivid Vignette of varied colours suited to changing time. In the afternoon the river seems to be a mud heap. On twilight it is “overstewed coffee”. At night the moon looks red like a maiden in Menses and Ghagra also affairs as “a red weal” across the spine of land.”
Walking along the river bank in the twilight, the darkness deepens and none has any idea that nasty flood would come so soon. How artistically Daruwalla describes the calm and balanced environs of the river.
“The landscape is so superbless equipoised—
rice shoots pricking through
a stretch of water and light
spiked shadows
inverted trees
kingfishers, gulls
twilight thins
the Road is a black stretch
running the stars between the stars.”
All of a sudden the river is over flooded in night. It is a devastating flood. It hardly takes twenty minutes for the water to rise to a dangerous level, causing panic among the people living nearly. They are helpless and aghast. There are no lamps to light the way for place of safety, and no boats or rafts to ferry them to higher places. Panic reigns supreme. It is a state of utter chaos:
“Twenty minutes of a nightmare spin
and fear turns phantasmal
as half a street goes
churning in the river belly
If only voices could light lamps!
If only limbs could turn to rafted bamboo!”
Thatched and muddy cottages crumble down and people have to take shelter on the roof tops of those houses which still stand firm. The rescue boats do a good job but the men are still in a state of shock and bewilderment:
“They don't rave or curse
for they know the river's slang, her argot.
No one sends prayers to a wasted sky
for prayers are parabolic:
They will come down with a plot any way.”
The officers are helping the flood - sufferers by “doing out salt and grain.” Peasants go fishing in rice field to the extent of ten miles.
When the flood recedes of river turns deceitful. It leaves behind a trail of devastation and suffering - sinking land, crumbling houses, dying fish and scorching heat.
Ghagra in Spate records with compassion and understanding the indescribable sufferings of the victims of flood. The poet is balanced, dispassionate and objective. He does not express his own emotions of sympathy for the flood - sufferers. His emotion is implicit in the imagery and diction used.
Daruwalla appears to be a great and gifted poetic craftsman and stylist in this poem. It is remarkable for the felicity and lucidity of expression. Colour - words contributing to pictorial effects have been deftly used as : “a grey smudge”, “a grey canvas”, “overstewed coffee”, “a red moon in menses”, “a red weal”, “a black stretch running between the stars”, “red rimmed and swollen.” There is a tinge of satire in the following lines which that to the rich the sufferings of the victims of flood are a source of recreation or enjoyment:
“and women in Chauffeur - driven cars
go looking for driftwood.”