What is the importance of Sarala and Tarala in the poem ‘The Professor’?

QuestionsWhat is the importance of Sarala and Tarala in the poem ‘The Professor’?
Punam kedia asked 7 years ago

Comment on the importance of mentioning Sarala and Tarala in Nissim Ezekiel’s poem The Professor.

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1 Answers
Staff answered 7 years ago

The professor, while talking about his family members, mentions his daughters only in the two lines:

Sarala and Tarala are married,
Their husbands are very nice boys.

But these are quite important in the context of the poem, in depicting the stereotypical thought process of the urban society. Primarily it gives us three indications.

  1. The rhyming names of two girls are quite common in the society. Even the professor couldn’t come out of the pattern.
  2. Though the professor takes pride in his son’s commercial success, that is not something that he expects in case of his daughters. Rather he sounds happy and relieved that his daughters are already married. That is quite an achievement for him. The society feels that girls are born and destined to get married. That is their biggest achievement in life.
  3. Whenever one talks about one’s married daughters to someone else, one never forgets to mention that they are happily married with ‘nice boys’, even if they are not.

These two lines play a great role in conveying the poet’s message about the urban thinking pattern through the clever use of humour and irony.

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