The Sunshine Cat is a poem written by an English Indian woman author, Kamala Das. The poem was originally published in 1965 in poet’s collection, “Summer in Calcutta”.
The Sunshine Cat Summary By Kamala Das
Summary of The Sunshine Cat By Kamala Das
In poem, poet talks about the lust of men that women are just object of lust for all the men in the world. She also talks about her husband and her extra marital affair.
The story of poem begins with poet who says, they did this to her, the men who knew her or the man she loved but her husband loved her not enough. Her husband was selfish and coward who neither loved her nor he consider her as his life partner. He was just a ruthless watcher.
The poet says when I doesn’t get what I needed from my husband, then I goes towards my lover but my lover didn’t loved me either as he also had lust in his mind. I submitted myself to him but he had lust in his mind. He hold me tightly with his chest where his new hair were growing.
All they only said is, I do not love, I can’t love you. I cannot love you as it is not in my nature to love but I only can be kind to you. I will be available for you whenever you need me but I can’t love you.
The poet says, I used to cry in bed and I cried, cried and cried. I cried. I used to cry that much that even bed would get wet. I could not able to sleep. I had so many tears that I can build walls with it. I can build walls with my tears, walls to shut me in.
The poet says, when my husband get to know about my affair, he locked me in room. He locked me in a room of books. In that room, there used to come a line of sunshine which lying near a door like a yellow cat. Soon winter season came, and he noticed that the cat of sunshine was only a thin line.
One day at evening, my husband came to take me out, I was cold, half dead and no use to any men. Here poet mean to say, when her husband learn about her affair, he lock her in a room where used to come a thin line of sunlight which looks to her like a yellow color sunshine cat. One day in winter evening, her husband come to take her out and find her cold and no us to all men.
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A HOT NOON IN MALABAR BY KAMALA DAS