Jewish Wedding In Bombay - Nissim Ezekial

 

 Jewish Wedding In Bombay

[alert-success] Jewish Wedding in Bombay - Nissim Ezekial

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Nissim Ezekiel’s Jewish Wedding In Bombay is a first person narrative poem from the collection Sixty Poems, deals with the customs and traditions in Jewish Wedding in Bombay. Through this poem the poet displays his dissatisfaction towards the unmindful tradition which is not appropriate for a progressive society. As marriage has some certain traditional customs and practices, Ezekiel uses it as a tool to account his views about customs. 

 Her mother shed a tear or two but wasn’t really

 Crying. It was the thing to do, so she did it

 Enjoying every moment.

 Ezekiel starts his poem in a light manner, in a kind of a humorous way, as he depicts the first custom, which is the custom of shedding tears, not a real one according to the speaker. Then in the next stanza, the speaker describes the another custom, that is hiding of bridegroom’s shoes. And all these times the speaker remains oblivious of all this tradition. He also mentions that he has tried hard not to look silly in the views of others.

 Unto this the poet just accounts the light customs, which are in a lighter sort and not have any negative impact on others. Here the poet seems too mingle the lighter sorts of tradition  which does not affect any person and the unmindful tradition which causes certain negative impacts on many people. This kind of technique makes the readers to enjoy the poem and  at the same time can get the idea of the thing which is not suitable to the progressive nation.

 There was no dowry because they knew I was 'modern'

 and claimed to be modern.

 The dowry System is an unmindful custom of tradition in the Indian society,  which is not acceptable by the speaker so he claims himself as a modern person. To being a modern man, according to the poet, is to be a person who does not abide by this kind of tradition. Now also the speaker is oblivious of this custom. And the speaker also does not have any brass band  but has a chanty procession on his marriage day.

 After all these customs the speaker and his wife have married well according to the Mosaic Law, which is a Biblical Allusion, and the breaking of the glass, a custom in the marriage, which signifies the marriage. All these customs and traditions make the speaker to get tired, so he says,

 Who knows how much belief

 We had?

 These lines have two context, his tiredness because of this multiple customs, and his dissatisfaction towards customary belief of Indian society.  According to him people are following this belief in the name sake only, not in original context. For this he says, some people eat pork which is not acceptable by the Jewish custom, and  Sunday has been the day for every worldly things, like swearing, betting, and drinking. People forget the actual meaning of  customs and just follow whatever they desire and can follow.

 These orthodox chaps certainly know how to draw the line

 In their own crude way.

 By the name of customs people are constructing a thing which is cruel to others, for their self benefit. So the speaker and his family do not trust the cruel tradition and be happy  of being a progressive family. And this lines also indicate that the customs and belief can make one to suffer a lot.  

 After all this both the speaker and his wife are married and have took the wedding portrait in the Lobo studio and spent their night in the kitchen of wife’s family house. And many more years have passed, both the speaker and his wife forget about all this customs. This indicates the reader to show indifference towards cruel practices in the society and in the course of time the society will forget about this as the speaker does. Ultimately the speaker ends his narration with a humorous notion.