Present From My Aunt And Search For My Tongue Comparison

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i) Compare the poets description of conflict in ‘Presents from my aunts in Pakistan’ with one other poem.

‘Presents from my aunt in Pakistan’ was a poem written by Moniza Alvi. Alvi was born of mixed nationality, with her father coming from Pakistan and her mother coming from England. Moniza’s poem expresses her confusion in her search identity. In contrast Sanjita Bhatt’s poem, ‘from search for my tongue’ is also about coming to terms with a different culture. In ‘search...’ it is about the poet’s original language that is central to her identity; whereas in ‘presents...’ it is how she dresses and her family customs that are central to her identity.

The first stanza in ‘presents...’ describes the clothes sent to Alvi by her aunts in Pakistan. Two ‘salwar kameez’ outfits. The beautiful vivid colours are described with the simile, ‘glistening like an orange split open’. Alvi continues with description, this time describing her ‘embossed’ and ‘gold and black’ oriental slippers she also received. Sanijta’s poem starts off with a strong but conversational tone, ‘you ask me and I ask you’, opening a close relationship with the reader. The questioning at the opening of the poem shows that the persona fears she has lost the ability to speak for her culture.

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After continuous description if the clothes sent to Alvi in her poem, the second stanza relates how Alvi tried on these clothes but felt ‘alien’ in her sitting room. Here the audience is given the impression that there was definitely culture confliction. In ‘search...’ Sanjita expresses how difficult it is to be bilingual with certain phrases. ‘if you live in a place you had to speak a foreign tongue’. Here there is a suggestion that some people were restricted from speaking their original language.

Sanjita carries on the theme of cultural identity and the problems it brings. ‘Lost the first ...

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