PPT 2013-14 ANANDALAKSHMI S. NAIR

BNV COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

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STD X

CACTUS

K. SATCHIDANANDAN

K. SATCHIDANANDAN

PROFILE OF THE AUTHOR

• Koyamparambath Satchidanandan was born in 1946 in Pulloot, a village inKodungallur in the Thrissur district of Kerala. After his early education in thevillage school, he studied biology at Christ College, Irinjalakuda and had his mastersin English from Maharaja's College, Ernakulam. He obtained his PhD in post-structuralism poetics from the University of Calicut. He joined as a Lecturer inEnglish at K.K.T.M. College, Pulloot in 1968, and moved to Christ College in 1970where he became a Professor of English. He voluntarily retired from this post in1992 to take up the editorship of Indian literature, the English journal of theIndian National Academy in Delhi. In 1996 he was nominated Secretary, the chiefexecutive, of the academy, a post from which he retired in 2006. Later he servedas a consultant to the Indian Government's Department of Higher Education and tothe National Translation Mission. He currently edits beyond borders, a journal ofsouth Asian literature and ideas. Satchidanandan is married, with two daughters.

SUMMARY• K. Sachidananthan creates a new world of poetry based on the sharp

reality of life, poem about a cactus full of thorns and unattractiveness

which is its real power. Cactus is a representative narrative poem

exploring the plight of the marginalized. There is a thirst for establishing

an identity in this world...Cactus and the poet are the same...The pain of

this search for self is the underlying theme of the poem. However there is

also an amalgamation of the contrasting images of desert and garden

which brings in parallelism to the arena. Every human being must have

passed through this state of mind (being lonely) one or the other time in

their lives, which makes this poem all the more important to study in high

school classes. I hope this brings in a therapeutic effect in our

students...Letting them realize that it is a universal phenomenon.

MEANINGS

“Do you believe in the existence of ghost?”

existence

existence

/ɪgˈzɪst(ə)ns/

state of being

“The thieves abandoned the car in a forest.”

abandoned

abandoned

/əˈband(ə)nd/

having been

deserted or left

"THE FENCE HAD BEEN TRAMPLED DOWN"

trample

“The fence had been trampled down.”

trample

/ˈtramp(ə)l/

tread on and

crush

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How does the cactus announce its existence?

The cactus announce it’s existence through bleeding touch of its thorns.

Whom do cactus hate?

Cactus hates lovers who betray.

What is cactus’ opinion about poets?

According to cactus, poets have abandoned the deserts and gone back

to beautiful gardens.

What did camels and merchants do to the cactus?

They trampled cactus flowers to dust.

“LOOK INTO THE FOLLOWING SLIDE AND SELECT YOUR FAVOURITE THORNY PLANT. YOU HAVE TO WRITE DOWN ITS FEATURES AS WELL AS EXPLAIN WHY

YOU LIKE IT.”

DISCOURSE

“MAKE A PICTURE HANDBOOK OF

DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF CACTUS”

ASSIGNMENT