My grandmother's house

"My Grandmother's House" by Kamla Das is a confessional poem that talks about her deep relationship with her grandmother through this poem. She misses her grandmother and she feels her heart turning cold as soon as she receives the sad news regarding the death of a grandmother.

 Before going back to the poem a short experience will be more relatable. My Amachi and Appachan live in the countryside almost on a hilltop. Every time I go to her place she always welcomes me with open arms with all her excitement of meeting after one year. As a person living in a city far far away from Kerala, I travel there once a year and she calls on the phone every day to check up on how we are doing but it's just a few seconds of conversation. When we meet she gets so excited and cooks all the delicious meals that include sambar, rasam, Moore curry, aviyal and fish ( a compulsory dish for her). She feeds me till my stomach bursts but I can not bring myself to refuse as she has this beautiful smile that captivates the entire room. Everyone has a beautiful memory of their grandmother and they cherish them.

Kamala in her poem writes about her relationship with her grandmother and how she misses her very much. She thinks back to her childhood days and how she was very happy to be in a home filled with warmth, now when she enters the house all she feels is the chillness of the room that lacks affection and love.

 As a person living in the City sometimes life becomes overly hectic. We often crave to go back to the peacefulness of the countryside. The poet cherishes her childhood days when she was happy. She misses the warmth that once blanketed her grandmother's place and she says that it now no longer is a home but a mere building that is too cold to stay.

The poet uses simile to connect her "cold heart" to that of a moon. The poem connects the themes of love, childhood, nostalgia and death. The poem is written in a simple and lucid form creating a visual picture.