The Bus poem by Arun kolatkar

Introduction of Arun kolatkar

Arun Kolatkar was an Indian poet, He was born in 1st November 1932 in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India. He grew up in a traditional patriarchal Hindu extended family. He was educated at Rajaram High School in Kolhapur, where lessons were taught in Marathi. In J.J. School of Art in Bombay, also attending art schools in Kolhapur and Pune, graduating in 1957.  Jejuri was his first book of English poetry. Which is a collection of 31 poems. He passed at 25th September 2005 in Pune.

About poem Jejuri :

Jejuri is a series of poems written by Indian poet Arun Kolatkar.It consist of 31 poem collections. Jejuri poem describes about Kolatkar's visit to Jejuri, a city in Pune, which the poet visited in 1964. It was first published in Opinion Literary Quarterly in 1974, and issued in book-form in 1976. Jejuri won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1977.The poem is made up of a series of often short fragments which describe the experiences of a visitor to the religious man who makes pilgrim of Jejuri to visit temple of Lord Khandoba. It is one of the better known poems in modern Indian literature.

The Bus poem lines 

The tarpaulin flaps are buttoned down

on the windows of the state transport bus.

all the way up to jejuri.

a cold wind keeps whipping

and slapping a corner of tarpaulin at your elbow.

you look down to the roaring road.

you search for the signs of daybreak in what little light spills out of bus.

your own divided face in the pair of glasses

on an oldmans nose

is all the countryside you get to see.

you seem to move continually forward.

toward a destination

just beyond the castemark beyond his eyebrows.

outside, the sun has risen quitely

it aims through an eyelet in the tarpaulin.

and shoots at the oldmans glasses.

a sawed off sunbeam comes to rest gently against the drivers right temple.

the bus seems to change direction.

at the end of bumpy ride with your own face on the either side

when you get off the bus.

you dont step inside the old mans head.

by Arun Kolatkar

The bus 🚍 poem summary :

The poem opens with description of the bus. The bus topside is covered with 'tarpaulin' [ tarpai ]. The tarpaulin flaps near the windows and elbows of passengers who seated at window seat.

The bus ways up to jejuri.Fresh Cold wind whipping while moving. The bus makes the road to roar while travelling. The sunrises seems to be daybreaking, Slowly the sunlight starts to shoot up over the old man's glass and reflected on all over the bus.The bus moves by changing the direction . The bus seem to move continually forward toward a destination

 beyond the castemark which is drawn in Old man's eyebrows.Slowly the day has dawned and the lights are coming through the eyelets in the tarpaulin and reach the old man’s glasses. A sunbeam rests on the temple of the driver’s head and then the bus changes direction. The bus has come to its destination and its bumpy ride has come to an end. As he gets off he sees his face on the bus and then states that "he did not step into the old man’s head" , which means he only talks about the appearance of the old man, he is not ready to step in the old man's inner thoughts or stories about him.