Inson Yuragi

Баъзида инсон юраги ўзи ҳоҳламаган ҳиссиётлар билан чўлғанади. Шунда ҳақиқий юпатувчи Раббинг ҳузурига ошиқасан. Бу шеърим ўша учрашувлардан бирида ёзилган.

Тинчлик топар ҳузурингда
Уксик қалбим йиғлайди,
Нажотингни эслай эслай
Юрак бағрим қувнайди
Йиғлаш менга бир баҳона
Талваса эмас дардим
Қувонч тўла бир нишона
Армонли эмас арзим
Лек юракка ўқитилмас
Бўйруқ бериб бўлмайди
Тақдирни ҳам тўқитилмас
Сиёҳи ҳеч ўлмайди.
Дунё тўла разолатин
Юрак қопи кўтарар
Оғирлигин ўлчами йўқ
Фойда бундан не бўлар
Сиқилишу юрак тортиш,
Алам билан эслашлик
Дардлашмасдан ичга ютиш
Аччиқ ғамни юклашлик
Инсон нега бунчаликкан,
Ғами етиб ортмайди
Бошқаларга ғам юклашни
Қойиллатиб эплайди
Дардинг нима, аламинг не
Ким тушунар билмайсан
Қоронғуда ўрмалайсан
Қоронғуни сезмайсан
Бир кўз боқар, термилади
Ҳеч нигоҳинг қўймайди
Осмон тўла юлдузлардан
Қарай қарай тўймайди
У боқмайди гуноҳига
Жазолаш эмас аҳди
севги эрур ҳаракати
осмонда Унинг тахти.

“Family values”

“A Father” is a short story about an Indian immigrant family who has to face cultural, moral and relationship problems because of the cross-cultural issues. The story has many different themes to approach. One of the many can be addressed on the multicultural platform, as the family comes from different backgrounds trying to fit into American society. The family has to face multicultural bonds within their family and even in their relationships. The story is full of contrasts between cultures and the characters of the story have to deal with the problems that arise because of these. The story is told by a third person omniscient narrator.
The characters in the story are very well depicted and their actions and ambitions are astonishingly realized. Mr. Bhowmick is a middle-aged, religious and superstitious father. He is very fearful of being Americanized and comes across with the problem of keeping his Indian beliefs and values while being in a foreign land. That must be the reason he finds himself every morning praying to his goddess “Kali-Mata.” He probably thinks that if he prays to his goddess, he will keep his Indian identity. It seems that he devotes more time to his goddess than his own family: "He wasn't praying, she nagged; he was shutting her out of his life."His loneliness and formal relationship with his wife can be noted by the way the author calls them, without giving any warmth to their names – Mr. and Mrs. Bhowmick. “He did not love his wife” and his daughter Babli “was not the child he would have chosen…” and "he regretted … that she was not the child of his dreams." But Mrs. Bhowmick is very ambitious to be Americanized and rejects all the ties she has with her past and even tries to change her husband as well. Her time in the US has “changed (her) from pliant girl to ambitious woman. She wanted America, nothing less.” She is also an “agnostic, a believer in ambition, not grace” and blames her husband for his past ties. Their daughter is brightest of all the Bengalis in their area. She is an engineer, besides that she has learned singing Indian songs and knows Indian dancing well. The experience Mr. Bhowmick had with Indian women from his past, forms the idea of how his daughter should be in his mind and, this keeps them separated from each other. According to her father, she was “not womanly or tender the way that unmarried girls had been in the wistful days of his adolescence.” That tension between them probably serves Babli to think about ‘the absence of fatherhood in her child’s life.’
The family has unique cultural distinctions. They come from a solid Indian background and still live by some of the values the Indian culture offers them. There is no doubt about Mr. Bhowmick’s faithfulness to his roots, but Mrs. Bhowmick tries to act “American” in every situation she finds. She buys things with “her own MasterCard”, makes American breakfast every morning and cooks enough food for a week and keeps them in the refrigerator. She “buy(s) pop psychology paperbacks” to make their “relationships” work. Their culture is very mixed as immigrants who try to mold their lives to a new atmosphere and make a very unique culture. Mr. Bhowmick knows that “(t)here (is) no question of going back where he’d come from.” The only thing to do for him is to pray and fight for his Indian values with his family. He feels he is in between two worlds. He feels he is failing both, and the climax of the failings is when he finds out about “the secret of his daughter.” Their daughter’s act is not only disgrace for the family; it is the revolt against their whole idea of a family. Of course, every member of the family has explanations and reasons for the case.
The symbolism and word-playing have been used very effectively. The title gives the reader a clear understanding of what the story holds in itself. We have the whole idea of fatherhood at the beginning of the story. Mr. Bhowmick thinks he is doing what he is supposed to be as a father in a foreign land: taking care of the family, educating and protecting. The other members of the family understand this ‘title’ differently. Later it is revealed that “the father of (her) baby is a bottle and syringe.” The image of “Kali Mata” also helps the reader understand the essence of Mr. Bhowmick’s spiritual life. Kali Mata is ‘the lord of death.’ His daughter’s pregnancy is the symbol of life. The contrast between life and death is also associated with how the problem of his daughter would be considered in two different cultures. In a western culture, it may not be socially right, but it is considered acceptable, whereas, in Indian culture, it is breaking the sacred rules of the society that one deserves condemnation and death.
“A Father” depicts true experiences and cultural differences that any immigrant family has to face in an alien land. The validity of the issues and problems shown through the story is very lively and perhaps the author may have had similar experiences as the destiny of her characters. The alienation and problems are the fate of Mr. Bhowmick. Unfulfilled dreams and constant living with the past for an immigrant father continues with the issues of the family in a different way. The differences of cultures, characters and situations bring people to understand the reality and essence of life and that is what the author tries to share. Her message of life is well depicted through the lives of her characters.

Hills Like White Elephants

Symbolism in Hemingway’s “Hills like White Elephants”

“Hills like White Elephants” is a great masterpiece of Hemingway full of symbolism, starting from the title and continuing all the way through the story. The story is very deceptive in its simplicity, but it is somewhat like a painting. As the dialogue continues, readers grasp the tone and message of the story periodically. It is about a couple who are at a train station somewhere in Spain waiting to catch the train. An unnamed, selfish American and a young woman named Jig are the main characters who are totally opposite in so many things. The story is very simple and mainly consisted of their words and actions during their time waiting for the train. Jig looks at the white hills across the valley and comments about them. Then they drink together, talk briefly about drinks. The American insists on the girl go through the process that he calls “an awfully simple operation ... not really an operation at all... It's just to let the air in." She then gets up, walks to the end of the station, looks at the hills again, gets a little more angry, gets back to her seat, demands that he “stop talking,” drinks, and tells him that she feels “fine.” Hemingway manipulates the symbols beautifully and leaves the reader with their own interpretation and imagination. The symbols are mainly described in the setting of the story: two different landscapes, railway station, hills, drinks and the bar with a bead curtain. Of course there are many more symbols in the story, but I will try to narrow down with the above-mentioned symbols.

The title of the story carries a really important message. The White Elephant is an Asian symbol that mainly means something that is more trouble than it is worth. Reading the story, one can conclude that the author refers that symbol to the unborn child as a white elephant, but in my opinion, Hemingway has chosen the symbol to show the shift of woman’s attitude towards her unborn baby. When Jig mentions about the hills the second time, she says: “They don’t really look like white elephants, I just meant the coloring of their skin through the trees”. The white color is universally symbolized as “innocence” “purity”. By that she tries to express her situation with her innocent unborn baby with white hills, yet still those hills are something big that can be reached with a highly price and effort symbolically. Thus Hemingway artistically tries to show the girl’s true feelings through their dialogue and use of the white elephants. When she first mentions white elephants, one can note his inability to put himself in her shoes is revealed through his response to her comment – “I have never seen one” – and her sarcastic response “No, you wouldn’t have”. She is obviously referring her experience with her pregnancy and his denial of the baby. The man would never had had the experience with white elephants, in other words, she expresses her opinion meaning that he would have never been pregnant and his partner would never have urged him to go through the process of abortion.

Hemingway starts the story describing the first side of the white and long hills where the landscape is barren with “no shade and no trees” whereas later the female character looks at the other side of the hills where the field is full of “grain and trees…the river…(t)he shadow of a cloud”. The railway station and the tracks serve as a separating line between the two sides and it can be noted that the tension between the sides is very obvious in the nature of their current life of the couple together that is barren and unfruitful. The other side, of course, represents their potential future and relationship. It also appears to symbolize the glimmering hope that she pursues in their undecided relationship that it may change into a solid relationship of permanent closeness and intimacy. The railway station also represents the idea of a place where one can change directions, meaning symbolically a point in time when the couple can change the direction of their own lives.

Their life is a nomadic manner, moving from one hotel to another. Hemingway uses the drinks and the bags with all kinds of hotel labels to show their easy recreational life. They represent the couple's usual irresponsible, carefree lifestyle. Their lifestyle as nomads without any attachment, troubles the woman because "that's all [they] do…look at things and try new drinks". The reader gets the idea about the woman that she has grown tired of living an idle life that repeats all the time, her desire is getting married and starting a family instead of playing around with her unstable American partner. She wants to lead a life like a mature housekeeper or at least become a settled woman. These motives and her desire to change her environment show that Jig desires a change; however her selfish American partner likes the way he is living with her and probably wants to keep that all the time.

Hemingway is truly an artist. His way of writing not only involves the live and destiny of the characters, but it also actively draws the involvement of the readers’ imagination and judgment. We still do not know the destiny of the woman. But as a compassionate reader, I would really want Jig not to go through the process. For sure, she will not be “alright and be happy” with her partner who is truly “a white elephant” to her. But I am sure; she will be a happy mother, if she lets her baby come to the world.

Бир парча япроқ

Қуриб қолди бир парча япроқ
Ҳатто шамол менсимай қўйди,
Йиғлаб дерди босиб қалтироқ:
Нега дунё юзин угирди?

Ғунча эдик қаддимиз тетик
Нолиш эмас, ҳикоя тингланг!
Доно тутмас қулоғин бекик,
Завол эмас, ҳикматни танланг

Авайландим ҳали ўсмасдан,
Нафис гўзал малак тимсоли,
Ўтмасдилар менга боқмасдан
Меҳр туйдим ғунча мисоли

Улашардим бор ифоримни
Гўзаллигим тараннум этдим,
Мақтардилар ҳолу боримни,
Севги ила поғона тутдим.

Не замонки севилмоқ учун
Қурбон қилиб ҳадя этдилар
Чирой бермак аҳдида инчун
Энг кўримли жойда тутдилар

Даврон ўтди келди паришон
Сарғаймоқлик замони етди
Бор чиройга йўқ энди ишонч
Хушбўй ҳиднинг асари битди

Не аҳволки ҳолимга боққил
Алданмагин дўнё дастидан
Бир ибратки ўрган эй оқил
Дунё эрур ҳикмат аслидан

Кекаймагин ҳамон ҳолингга
Дунё эрур ўткинчи асли
Шукур айла бир бор борингга
Ҳар йилни-да бордир куз фасли.