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Soft Storm by Abhi Subedi
Table of Contents
SHORT SUMMARY
Soft Storm by Abhi Subedi
'Soft Storm' is a poem by Abhi Subedi, a poet, playwright and critic, that explores the absurdities of tumultuous times. The poem, based on the speaker's observation of the nighttime in Kathmandu Valley, features nine irregular stanzas with a rhythmic melody. The speaker expresses sadness and aggression towards the negative aspects of his surroundings, highlighting the bitter reality of his country and its people. The term "soft" refers to the speaker's sadness and aggression, showcasing the harsh realities of his time.
The speaker expresses dissatisfaction with violence and mysterious calmness in a lawless city, fearing the disorder in his surroundings. He believes his softness is due to birth and feels good about the beautiful sky, but feels bad to find anarchism on his lawless land.
The speaker describes the natural disorder in a land with flowers blooming over stone, but the nighttime moon's rays reflect social negativity in society. The speaker grows soft and becomes mentally disturbed by environmental disorders and pollution. The moon's song expresses the story of old lampposts and odorous gutters, making the speaker feel ashamed to explore the actual state of the seamless land.
The speaker experiences the miserable conditions of homeless and hungry children in Thamel, while Kathmandu's rich people seem indifferent to them. The speaker becomes soft when he returns from a confusing state, unsure if it's a celebration or hunger, and finds a mad step ceremony in the unwed garden of history, surrounded by protruded rocks.
The speaker becomes soft and expresses his feelings on white sheets, expressing his dissatisfaction with the negativity prevalent in Nepalese society. He finds the negative aspects of society as being alone and finds no proper place to express his feelings, reflecting the dissatisfaction of Nepalese people.
The speaker becomes soft when he sees a forlorn child with a violent history searching for his missing mother. The scene highlights the harsh reality of a barbaric land where mothers and sisters indulge in illegal activities, often becoming victims of poverty or crime.
The speaker becomes soft again, seeing an illegal act in his surroundings, including a man being mercilessly beaten by unknown criminals in front of his family. This scene reflects a lawless land with no security and fearless crime.
The speaker describes a wounded man on a barbaric land under the moon, where people are indifferent and selfish. The land is a place of history and dreams, but people are living in hiding, playing hide and seek in open museums. The speaker highlights the lack of a concept of humanity and the fake masks people wear to live their lives.
The speaker expresses his dissatisfaction with leaders who ignore promises for the welfare of the people, claiming they are deceiving and unfulfilled. He warns of the consequences of their actions, mentioning storms and their divine play, Leela, which symbolises the deception against the common Nepali people in this land of silent stone.
The speaker discusses a storm of anger that has transformed from disparity into hopeful aspects of his land. He describes seeing crocuses over stones, walking alone in rain, and the sun rising and forming a rainbow. Despite the problems, there is hope for good aspects. His anger grows against silent pages, stones, deserted shirts, and ruined gods' dwellings, which make him angry. The speaker's inner storm continues to grow, highlighting the importance of transformation and hope.
The speaker discusses the violence and disorder in his place, blaming it on a mad time that has negatively impacted everything. He respects the moonlight that falls on the land but believes that the land is filled with positive aspects such as flowers growing over stones, the moon singing its history, birds singing bizarre journeys, and the earth singing about fear and calmness.
The speaker expresses his desire to melt like a rainbow in difficult times, observing and criticising the flaws of the people in a barbaric land, expressing his soft storm in the sky, and dancing in an uneasy lake.
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POEMS IMPORTANT QUESTIONS' SOLUTION PACK
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Soft Storm by Abhi Subedi
BEFORE READING
Answer the following questions.
a. Have you ever grown sad/happy observing things around you?
Answer:
Yes, I have grown happy as well as sad observing things around me. It depends on the conditions, which direct my emotions in different ways.
b. Point out three things you are not happy about within your surroundings.
Answer:
Following are the three things I'm not happy about in my surroundings:
1. Seeing people waste their time on useless gossip about politics
2. Seeing protests by people and vandalism in the city.
3. Finding miserable conditions for poor people in different places.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
Answer the following questions.
a. When does the speaker grow soft? Enlist the occasions when he grows soft.
Answer:
The speaker grows soft on various occasions. Following are some of the occasions when he grows soft:
1. After he hears the tumult and crashes on the mysterious stillness.
2. When the sky grows like the flowers over the stones and grows five inches taller.
3. When moon skids down on the walls speaking the language of posters, politics, rituals and reasons.
4. When the moon sings of lampposts and gutters in the seamless city.
5. When he sees homeless children crying with hunger.
6. When he sees ceremony dances with mad steps on the unwedded gardens of history.
7. When he tries to express his dissatisfaction in words on the white sheets.
8. When he observes a helpless child running and crying to find his mother in a violent history,
9. When he sees a man being beaten mercilessly without any reason in hard times.
10. When he sees a blood-stained shirt in this lawless land of history and dreams,
11. When words of people are ignored.
b. What do you understand by ‘this seamless city’?
Answer:
By "this seamless city", we understand the city where there is no interruption. This is a kind of a city, where everything is moving or exchanged, in the trade without any entrances. This seamless city might also signify the city of Kathmandu where plenty of disorders is prevalent. Here we can find illegal activities, pollution, pains of poor people, so-called rituals and reasons, useless posters and political gossip etc.
c. Describe the poor children portrayed in the poem.
Answer:
The speaker has mentioned the poor children in the second and third stanzas of the poem. Here, poor children have been portrayed in their miserable conditions in the fascinating city of Kathmandu. These children are homeless and parentless. They have been portrayed crying with hunger and poverty under the bat-bearing trees of Kesharmahal in Thamel. These children seem deprived of the fundamental rights mentioned in the constitution. The trees have been presented with blood-sucking mammals and bats just above the heads of poor and hungry kids. The city of ceremonies, mad steps of dance, and romance is quite indifferent towards these poor children. Here, a small, poor boy has been presented running around crying to find his mother in the corridors of violent history.
d. What do you understand by ‘the unwedded gardens of history’?
Answer:
The poet often expresses deep sympathy for the chaotic and nostalgic society existing in the various suburbs of Kathmandu city and symbolically depicts the unwedded gardens of history. Continually the Kathmandu valley has been wrapped around its cultural authority without embellishing it as a wedding or a bride. Flowers grown on the fertile lands of these gardens have been plucked and destroyed. Their fight is not centred, but they are broken and scattered so the unmarried women suffer. The crazy steps are dancing in monstrous and demonic rhythms. The unmarried garden refers to the chaotic country valley without any authority of its own.
Answer in Short:
By 'unwedded gardens of history' we understand the unaffected past events of the society, which literally means the state of anarchy created by social and political hegemony in Nepalese society.
e. Why was the forlorn child wailing?
Answer:
The forlorn (poor) child was wailing (crying) because his mother was lost and he was wandering around to find his mother, who was suffering in the corridors of violent history. The poet indirectly talks about the storm over the women and girls who may be around the Thamel or Unmarried Gardens of History.
Answer in short:
A forlorn child was crying because he found his mother and other relatives and loved ones missing in contemporary society.
f. What do you understand by ‘soft storm’?
Answer:
The storm moves violently or furiously, but the poet produces a soft storm that calms down, and the magma that is suppressed to erect is volcanic lava. Such a soft storm is an internally consolidated feeling of revolution and oppression due to the chaotic and behaviorless society. The poet dislikes situations, so the ocean of the poet's heart is rising with a stormy temperature, but it has not exploded.
Alternative Answer:
By 'soft storm' we understand the inner turbulent feelings of the speaker in an environment of chaotic society and chaos. Storm simply means bad weather but to associate soft with it means turbulent times which the poet sees in contemporary society.
g. Why does the speaker call our time ‘mad time’?
Answer:
The speaker calls our time'mad time' because here at this time he feels so bad to see so many inhuman activities around. For those people who do not have power, the situation has been brutal. They may be buried under divine debris or various natural calamities. The speaker finds that the man has been brutally beaten for no reason, hence creating a chaotic, merciless, and grim culture everywhere during this time. This time is so disastrous because the speaker experiences unusual changes in his surroundings. He finds flowers over the stones, moon sings of so-called aspects of the valley, mad steps of people, cries of hunger and pain, lawlessness, barbarism, rhododendron in winter, violence, etc.
Alternative Answer:
The speaker calls our time 'mad time' in the sense that this time is not under the control of the constitution or the law of the nation. He sees corruption everywhere in society, favouritism, political and social injustice among people, animal laws in practice, and degradation of nature.
h. What does the speaker want to do in “hard times”?
Answer:
In "hard time", the speaker wants to end his soft storm in one's little sky and on his feet. He wants it to melt like a rainbow and he wants to turn his aggressive thought into a creative beautiful natural dance. He wants to turn it into an atmosphere of love and flow in the waves of someone on his lake so that someone becomes generous.
Alternative Answer:
The speaker wants to melt like a rainbow in "hard times" because he is soft-hearted by nature.
REFERENCE TO THE CONTEXT
a. The poet uses the word ‘soft’ with the words like ‘storm’ and ‘gale’, which generally refer to disorder and violence. What effect does the poet achieve through the use of such anomalous expressions?
Answer:
By anomalous expressions, we mean those sentences that are well-formed syntactically but are meaningless from the point of view of meanings. The most famous examples in poetry are'soft storms' and 'tenderness rose like a gale, which are normal or expected but contradictory. Through this, the poet achieves psychological, social, political, and environmental influences. He combines two contrasting ideas to express his inner experiences, which he feels in a contemporary oppressed society.
b. What is the speaker's attitude towards the time mentioned in the poem?
Answer:
Here in this poem, we find the observation and analysis of the speaker during the night. He seems to be travelling under the moon and experiencing lots of unexpected and unusual things in his valley. Here, we find his negative attitude towards the time. He finds mad time in a seamless city where most of the things are moving and happening in a very lawless manner. He finds societies, people, things, etc. going in the wrong direction. His attitude towards the time makes him feel so bad. He experiences hard times everywhere in his city due to disorder and lawlessness.
c. What is the speaker like? Is he a rebel? Why? Why not?
Answer:
The speaker looks like a rebel. He seems quite dissatisfied to find his city out of control. He experiences unusual things happening in his surroundings. As he experiences the things around him, he starts analysing the situations and becoming a rebel. He seems completely dissatisfied, and he expresses his anger through his words. We can find his rebellious nature in the lines of the poem. He seems to go against all these unusual things happening in his surroundings. Here, his rebellious nature is not presented in radical form; rather, it is presented in a soft and suppressed form.
d. Explain the stanza below in your own words:
I became soft
when I saw
a blood-stained shirt
speaking in the earth’s ears
with bruised human lips
in the far corner
under the moon
of history and dreams
playing hide and seek
in open museums
of human times.
Answer:
Explanation: These lines have been taken from Abhi Subedi's poem "Soft Storm." Here, in the fourth stanza of the poem, the speaker is expressing his feelings, which he has experienced in his city during the nighttime.
Here we find the use of different imageries by the speaker which makes him feel so bad about his place and people in complete disorder. The speaker expresses his uneasy feelings when he sees a person in a miserable condition during the night. The speaker experiences softness when he sees a person in pain with a blood-stained shirt. The person is lying on the ground under the moon. The man with his bruised lips tries to call out for help but the land of history and dreams under the moon and its people seem quite indifferent towards the victim. The play of hide and seek is seen among people where there is no place for humanity. The open museum of human time refers to the lawless time where people are quite indifferent and self-centred.
REFERENCE BEYOND THE TEXT
a. Write an essay, highlighting your dissatisfaction towards social, cultural, economic and political issues prevailing in Nepal at present.
Answer:
My Dissatisfaction towards various Issues Prevailing in Nepal at Present
My name is Suraj Bhatt. I'm a teacher by my profession. I'm a citizen of Nepal. Nepal is a small but beautiful country. I feel proud to be a citizen of this beautiful country. Various issues are prevailing in Nepal at present which make me feel so bad. Different people with different mentalities have their own likes and dislikes. In the present time, I'm really very disappointed to find social, cultural, economic and political issues moving on the wrong track and against the people. Everywhere there is corruption and greed among people. There is no concept regarding humanity and welfare. We find disorders and lawlessness in the present time. People are quite indifferent towards each other. Selfishness has blinded people in the very worst way. I feel quite bad to see these varieties of issues in my surroundings. Following are the issues that I oppose all the time.
Social issue:
A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of common problems in present-day society and ones that many people strive to solve. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's control. I'm quite against communalism, casteism, regionalism, poverty, gender discrimination, etc. These problems are destroying our country each day.
Cultural issue:
A cultural issue is a problem that occurs when culture conflicts with systems, goals, or other cultures. Most of the cases in Nepal are connected to cultural issues. People of different cultural groups are seen struggling for their cultural identities. They seem much more concerned about their cultural identities than with the concept of nationalism. Due to this issue, Nepal is facing an unexpected crisis most of the time.
Economic issue:
In Nepal, the economic issue is one of the major problems. The government of Nepal is facing this issue most of the time. This issue has always been part of Nepal's economic degradation. Political instability, widespread corruption, landlocked locations, difficult topography, poor infrastructure, a poorly trained and educated workforce, and a weak policy and regulatory environment have been some of the key hindrances to economic growth. I oppose all these leaders of Nepal for the bad economic status of Nepal, where the poor have miserable lives.
Political issue:
This is one of the worst problems in Nepal, due to which the government of Nepal has been facing lots of problems for many years. It is the major cause behind all the crises in Nepal. Here in this country, those who don't know about politics are leading ignorant people. Everywhere, there is gossip related to politics and parties. Politics and its fields have become the source of income for all. People are living with so-called political faith. Money plays a very vital role in this dirty game of politics. The election system, votes for candidates, etc. depend on monetary power. Due to this political issue, the whole country is facing more problems each day.
b. Suppose you are a rebel, wants to change the society by eliminating malpractices and anomalies prevailing in society. Draft a speech outlining your vision for change.
Answer:
Good morning everyone.
Respected chief guests, ladies and gentlemen and my dear friends. I am Suraj Bhatt. I would like to welcome you all to this programme. I would like to thank all the members of our society who are present here with a unity to fight against all the malpractices and anomalies prevalent in our society. The development of society is directly connected with the development of the entire nation. When societies get developed, the nation itself moves ahead on the way of progress. In the present time, talking about most societies of Nepal, there are varieties of malpractices and anomalies prevalent in our societies. These bad aspects of society have made our societies so weak and backward. These malpractices and anomalies are the major factors that hinder the development of our society as well as our country. Our country Nepal is facing many social problems at present. There are varieties of problems, such as the caste system, child labour, child marriage, alcoholism, illiteracy, gender inequality, superstition, religious conflict, and so on. Most Nepalese societies oppose all these bad aspects, but these aspects have moved ahead at a great and unbelievable pace. It's time to raise our voices against all these malpractices and anomalies. We should be united to root out all these bad aspects of our societies. In the context of our society, we have seen all these bad aspects in front of our eyes. We have seen the young generation of our society addicted to alcoholism. If we can't control this bad aspect in time, we will have to face the dark future of our society. Still, there is biassed behaviour among people in the matter of caste class. People are still discriminated against in the name of lower castes. In the 21st century, people are still struggling for their identities. We have seen the problems of child labour and child marriage in our society. Our constitution has mentioned the rights of children in various acts. Small kids are the future of the nation. It is our social responsibility to care for our society's children, whether they are moving to school or obligated to labour. We should be united to protest child marriage. Kids are not for labour as well as marriage. They should be encouraged to study. We should always try our best to eliminate these malpractices from our society. We should always be ready to inform illiterate people. Education should be given preference all the time. The problems like gender inequality, superstition and religious conflict are quite fatal problems that bring upheavals in our society. Society never gets progressed if these evils exist in society. We have to be serious about these problems and act against all these to have an ideal society. At last, I would like to request all my society's members once again to act against all these malpractices and anomalies prevalent in our society. Thank you very much.
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