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The Home Coming by Tagore is one of my favourite reading texts in this summer course. In the story, i can explore many interesting things from his experiences and learn as well; First, it reminds me the greatest or endless love from mother, it is no matter how bad our behaviour is. She is the one who always be by your side and get us through troubles. In addition, the home is the best place in the world to live like nowhere else is. It is more clear after Phatik having moved to Calcutta that hope to have a new and better life, however, he was abused by his savage aunt. Lastly, the theme of conflict, control, responsibility, love and isolation makes me feel happy and sad at the same time, and it is how makes me feel home and family is so important.

Later in the day Phatik’s mother burst into the room, like a whirlwind, and began to toss from side to side and moan and cry in a loud voice.

Bishamber tried to calm her agitation, but she flung herself on the bed, and cried: “Phatik, my darling, my darling.”

Phatik stopped his restless movements for a moment. His hands ceased beating up and down. He said: “Eh?”

The mother cried again: “Phatik, my darling, my darling.”

Phatik very slowly turned his head and without seeing anybody said: “Mother, the holidays have come.”

The theme of this story, as indicated in the title, is “The Homecoming”. After a long separation of a mother and a child, the first sentence shows how much they are missing each other or they care each other and eventually prove that the relationship between the mother and child is tied so strong which can never be apart. Phatik’s mother loves him, despite from her aspects he is annoying, disobedient, lazy and wild. Even though she lets his brother take his son to Calcutta, this is due to not loving him but trying to separate him from his younger brother avoiding any harms by Phatik. This can be known in ‘Phatik’s mother burst into the room, like a whirlwind, and began to toss form side to side and moan and cry in a loud voice’, when she knows that his son is heavily sick and miss her so much she immediately goes to Calcutta to visit him. When she burst into the room like a whirlwind, it implies the affection of her gives her a great amount of energy which gets into the room like a storm very fast and directly to Phatik. Then, I can feel the love of the mother because when she is with him she burst into tears and keeping calling him ‘Darling, my darling’. When Phatik says “Mother, the holidays have come”, it is the climax and the theme of this story because once he moves to Calcutta he has a very bad experience with his aunt and the new home is not like what he thought, so he tries make an excuse with his uncle to go back home by asking for a vacation. Saying the holidays have come means he will go back home and live with his mother as he would never think of leaving her again.

This image shows a boy is looking at a home as waiting to go home in a desperate way. He seems to sit and wonder about his home. The little boy is similar to Phatik in the way that the title of the story is ‘The Homecoming’. Let’s clarify and make a connection between the image and Phatik’s story. First, the first homecoming for him is when he injured his younger brother in a river and ran to their mother to complain about it. As he knows that his mother always sides with Makhan, he will receive an unfair punishment, so he does not want to go home and delays his returning. Second, his uncle offers his mother to take him to Calcutta, which will adopt him as a child: offering him an education and living with his cousins. Therefore, he has another chance to go home and he is very excited. After arriving in Calcutta, he realizes that this is another disappointment because his aunt dislikes him; even though many attempts are made to make her happy, she still insists that she does not want him. That is why he decides to leave his uncle’s home for his real home with his mother. He asks his uncle whether he can go home, his uncle says, “Wait till the holidays come”. However, he chooses to run away, anyway he is brought back by police officers, this is his third homecoming. Later on, he is ill from his escape; he is in a very critical condition. He waits for his mother, and eventually she comes and he says “Mother, the holidays have come”. I think this means he meets his mother he no longer waits her because he knows he will go home soon. This is how the image relates to the story of The Homecoming, the boy sitting by the window looks at the home, it resembles when Phatik waits to go home.

As far as I read this story, I think there is a contrast in ‘Appendix’. In the passage of “When my father was twenty-five years old, he married a pretty textile worker, and in their second year of marriage she gave him a son, my older brother, and two years later, she had another son, who was me”, the first difference is in the beginning of “Appendix” they seem to have a nice and warm family, which indicates a happy start of the story. In addition, it sounds they have two good sons. Whereas, in the beginning of ‘The Homecoming’, the story does not start very well; Phatik has only mother and his younger sons as a family, and he himself is a nuisance and as disobedient boy while Meghan is good as gold. So the mother has a prejudice against Phatik and loves Meghan more than him or does not show much her affection with him.

Later on, the story begins to change, it is when he brags that he can carry out an appendix operation by himself and both of their children deeply trust him. One day his father’s appendix is inflamed, their children instead of bringing the doctor home they take a surgical kit because they hope his father will prove that he can do operation on himself. Nevertheless, his appendix is perforated and he only blame their children and says “People think that you have given me two sons, but in fact all they are is appendixes. Ordinarily they are of no use whatsoever, and when things are at a critical point they are practically the death of you.”. This is a sad ending in this story, whereas in ‘The Homecoming’, in the end Phatik’s mother shows him affection in a long time, calling him her darling and throwing herself onto his bed as in the text “Phatik’s mother burst into the room, like a whirlwind, and began to toss from side to side and moan and cry in a loud voice”.

 

In this video, they portray quite exactly like the story by Tagore: It gives the audiences the same meaning or even characteristic of every people in the story. For example, Phatik is a ringleader among the boys in the village and always does bad things. One day, he teases his brother, then his brother ran away to mom and complain about his behaviour. Similarly, in the video his mother acts like the story as descripted, she is furious about this. Nevertheless, how they perform in this video is a little bit different from the original text. It is when his uncle comes but Phatik’s mother does not bow to the ground and touch his feet as portrayed in the text. Personally, they overlook this little thing which reflect the important cultural norm in that time. It is impossible not to portray that because it shows how an Indian people behave or what is the core value.

After Phatik moves to Calcutta, he faces another savage character, it is his aunt. The way she acts in this story is same: she does not welcome him to her home and Phatik knows it. So he tries so hard to please her when his aunt asks him to do anything he would be overjoyed that he would overdo; but it is a stupid thing for her. Having been in Calcutta for a while, he escapes the home but he get caught by police and he is ill or in critical condition. In the end, the performance expresses the same feeling of the mother: when she comes to see him, she burst into a room, toss him and keeping calling him ‘Darling, my Darling’. They can perform or reveal the mother’s expression like the original story how she shows her affection in a long time. Overall, this performance interprets the original story very well, just a few spots have to be carefully expressed.

 

 

There is a similarity in the story of ‘Medicine’ in terms of the affection of the parents. First of all, despite they are so poor, his father and mother of the little Chuan use all their money to buy a bread with fresh human bloodwhich they believe that can cure his son from tuberculosis. Protection is another way to show love inthe family. This can be known from the passage “His father and mother were standing one on each side of him, their eyes apparently pouring something into him and at the same time extracting something”. It is when the little Chuan’s parents concentrate on how their child will be after taking the drug. Despite, they ignore all the aspect of courage and great spirit of revolutionaries, this may be because what else is more important family units. From my aspect, a family is a crucial unit or foundation of a particular country; How a good country is established by bad families, only a strong nation must contain good families. Therefore, it is right to prioritize the family: they take care of their children and try to cure his illness. All of these show the love and kindness from parents.

However, there is a difference between these two stories. In ‘The Homecoming’, the mother does not show much love to Phatik, but in the end when she knows that Phatik is sick or in coma she visits and show the affection and concern to her son. For me, it proves that a relationship between mom and children can not really end, no matter of how bad their children are. Furthermore, in the end of both stories, the little Chuan dies from tuberculosis and Phatik seems to pass away from his illness. Both of their parents do their best to protect their children and love them until the last minute of their lives. Personally, the greatest love is love from our parents, they are one who give us your heart and soul, embrace us to heal when we have a pain and come to us when we are in troubles. They are the endless and eternal love for us.

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