Hello everyone,
This blog is responding to a task assigned by Prakruti ma’am. Which is based on our group discussion on Rachna Joshi’s poem ‘Leaving India’.
I'm the leader of group no 4, members are Smruti, Sanket, these three are absent during discussion Mita Manasi and Dhruvika. Rachna Joshi’s poem ‘Leaving India’ assigned to our group. In this discussion we covered topics related to the poem like, Background of the poem,thematic and critical aspects and also discussed Question Bank.
This is original poem which we discussed,
we have to follow this 3 steps,
Step 1: Based on the poem assigned to your group, discuss the thematic and critical aspects, and prepare one long and one short answer from the question bank.
1.Summary of the poem:
This poem begins with a self questioning tone reflecting on their past decision to leave India. For that she has nostalgic feelings, she admits to being young & naive- idealistic dreams, studying Poetry (Suggesting art & emotions), Travel (freedom& exploration) and True Love.
She highlighted the contradiction between North America & India.America’s surface perfection with India's overwhelming sensory intensity,
“The Crowds are smaller, more manageable”
it suggests peace and privacy but also perhaps isolation especially when compared to India's busting life.
Her writings are famous for is usage of paradox for instance, in this poem she writes line like,
“India is stark, ancient and ugly,
Magnificent, uplifting or degrading.”
It means land full of history, suffering and grandeur also confronted with truth, contradiction & extremes. While North America is described as mythless land like,
“In North America, there were
No ruins, No myths, no ghosts.
This really seems brave new
Naked world.”
Here, ‘Naked World’ implies a loss of cultural clothing world, stripped of rituals, spirituality & emotional depth.
India is described as a place where meaning is rooted in the past. Everything has mythic, ritual and familial weight. Even if we reject tradition, it remains present in our subconscious ready to embrace us like a “Doting Grandparent’. ‘Five thousand years of continuous civilisation’ emphasized historical depth and legacy that shaped identity.
Long and short question & answer:
Q:1 Discuss Diasporic Identity and raise the question of belongingness.
Introduction
Cultural Displacement & Alienation
Contrast between Homeland and Foreignness
Question of belongingness
Conclusion
Introduction
Before we moved to Diasporic identity first we discussed the meaning of Diaspora?. Diaspora refers to psychological, cultural and emotional experiences of individuals who live away from their homeland often struggling between assimilation and nostalgia.
Rachna Joshi leaves India for North America with youthful dreams of poetry, travel and true love. She finds herself between two contrasting worlds. This tension becomes central to the diasporic condition, the feeling of being in between.
2.Cultural Displacement and Alienation
The speaker finds North America sanitized, ordered sterile, lacking emotional & spiritual depth. ‘The crowds are smaller, more manageable’. It suggests peace and privacy but also prepares for isolation especially when compared to India's busting life.
The speaker mentions Beauty seems artificial, ‘Everything smelt of plastic and perfume’ that suggests aesthetic but shallow surroundings that lack cultural depth.
3.Contrast between Homeland and Foreignness
In this poem India is described as stark, ancient and ugly, magnificent, uplifting or degrading. This is the image of deep and difficult even though India can feel too much at a time, still a strong feeling of connection.
“All meaning comes from sacramental link”
4.Question of Belongingness
This poem raises the question, Where do I truly belong? She may physically leave India but emotionally and spiritually tied to India through inherited history myths and family traditions.
Closing metaphors like ‘Doting Grandparent’ gives the idea of home is not just location but a deep, intergenerational inheritance.
5. Conclusion
Diaspora dilemma, desire for freedom and self-discovery in a new world but she also feels a strong pull from her culture and past. Journey shows that belongingness is not just about where you live but about the feelings and memories that shape who you are.
Q2- Write a short note on ‘Usage of Paradox’ in rachna joshi’s poem.
Usage of Paradox is a literary device where contradiction ideas are placed together to reveal a deeper truth.
For instance, India is described as “stark, ancient and ugly, magnificent, uplifting or degrading” using opposite words to express the complex nature of India. Where land is full of beauty and chaos, pride and pain all at the same time.
Otherside, paradox seen in a way North America is perfect but empty, “clean, sanitized, almost sterile”, it sounds good but word sterile means lifeless or lacking depth so, North America is looking beautiful but it feels emotionally shallow.
The poet's confused feeling caught between two very different worlds both attracting and troubling her. Poet shows identity, culture and belonging are not simple but full of contradictions.
The idea of ‘Brave new naked world’ is hopeful, advanced future but ‘nacked’. North America feels modern and organized but also soulless and disconnected from history.
Step 2: Prepare a report of the group discussion addressing the following questions:
Which poem and questions were discussed by the group? Was there any unique approach or technique used by your group to discuss the topic?
‘Leaving India’ by Rachna Joshi discussed by our group and we divided topics one by one,
I dealt with the Diasporic Identity of Rachna Joshi and how it is represented in the poem, themes of the poem and Usage of Paradox.
Sanket dealt with critical aspects of the poem.
Smruti dealt with her love for India.
The other three members are absent from the discussion. (Mita, Manasi and Dhruvika)
At the end we discussed through the Question Bank for the.
Who led the discussion or contributed most to the discussion? Did everyone contribute equally?
I led the discussion and all members contributed equally. With all aspects of the poem also we discussed other poems which are in syllabus.
Which points were easy and which ones were difficult for everyone in your group to understand?
By the way, this poem is also easier than other poems. That's why all the points are easy for our group. After the discussion of this poem we discussed ‘An Introduction’ by Kamala Das because i can’t understand some points of that poem. And also discussed fascism and communism from ‘Eklavyam’ by Meena Kandasamy. These two points are difficult for me.
Step 3: Briefly present your learning outcomes from this activity.
This idea of Group Discussion is very useful for me and my class also because of this discussion all the poems are revised once again and some students have confusion or difficulty regarding poems that are solved through this discussion. Also we discussed the question bank. That's why at the end of the unit we prepared all the answers of questions from this unit for the exam.
References:
“Cleanth Brooks: The Language of Paradox (The Well Wrought Urn).” blog.dilipbarad.com, December 2013, https://blog.dilipbarad.com/search/label/rachana%20joshi?m=0 . Accessed 18 July 2025.
Thank You!!
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