MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD

(The cutting of my Long hair)

The writer describes that her first day in the land of apples was extremely cold. The ground
was fully covered with snow whereas the trees were not covered with snow. A bell rang
indicating breakfast time. It was a loud sounds that breakthrough the part of bell tower and
reached into their sensitive ears. The disturbing sound of the tip-toe of the shoes was making
the writer restless. There was a continuous noise everywhere as if the sounds were clashing
with each other. There were people who were talking in an unknown language. She got so
disturbed that she felt as if her freedom was lost.
A woman with yellow face and white hair went up to see the girls. Zitkala was placed in the line
of the girls who were heading towards the dining hall. She describes that they were the Indian
girls who were wearing hard shoes and tight dresses. The small girls were wearing sleeved
aprons and their hairs were cut short. Zitkala was walking without making any noise of her
shoes. She felt so ashamed when her blanket (scarf, shawl) was removed from her shoulders. All
the other Indian girls seemed to be very indecent to her as all of them were wearing tight
clothes which were not a good thing as per the writer. As they were going to the dining room,
the boys came from the opposite door. The writer notices the three boys who according to her
were brave; she says so because they were also the new entrants into the school and were not
wearing the dress like others. She looked at them while they were standing behind her. They
were also not comfortable like her. A small bell rang and all the students dragged their chairs.
The writer also pulled her chair and she at once gets seated. But she found herself being
noticed by all others as none of them had seated. The next bell ranged and all the others seated
themselves. The writer also did it once again just to mend her mistake. Suddenly she heard a
manly voice from one corner of the room. She tries to see the man but found everyone looking
down towards their plates. While she was looking at them she saw that the yellow faced woman
was constantly looking at her. She dropped her eyes but was feeling uncomfortable about being
watched like this. The man stopped speaking and with the ringing of the bell for the third time
all of them picked up their forks and knives. The writer got so afraid by the time that she started
crying as she didn’t want to get into such risky task anymore.
The writer says that the way of eating was not the only thing which she thought to be the
hardest one. But there was one more terrible thing that her friend Judewin told her. As she
could understand a few words of English so she had heard the pale faced woman saying that
their hair should be cut down. The writer didn’t want to do it because she had heard her mother
saying that only untrained warriors that are arrested by the enemy cut their hair. In their
community only those who either were at funeral or were cowards cut short their hair. As
Zitkala was neither a weakling nor a mourner so she didn’t want to cut her hair.
Both Judewin and Zitkala discussed about their destiny as they knew that their hair will be cut
short. Judewin was of a view that they should agree to what the authorities wanted to as they
were strong then these two girls but the author was not ready for it and so she decided to go
against the school authorities.
She went up stairs very quietly without being noticed in order to safeguard her hair. She was
trying to walk very quietly because her moccasins were changed with shoes that make sound
while walking. She crossed the hall and went into a room without knowing where she was
going. She entered into a room which had three beds and green curtains making it a bit dark.
She then crawled under a bed and hides herself from those who want to cut her hair.
The writer shivered with the voice of footsteps whenever she tried to look out of her hiding
place. She could hear many voices calling out for her name including her friend Judewin. She
didn’t reply to them. Soon she heard the sound of steps and voices growing stronger and
stronger. Women and girls entered into the room where she was hiding. They were searching
for her everywhere; even the curtains were also removed. Soon she was found under the bed
and was pulled out of it. She tried hard to safeguard herself, even scraped the other person but
she was taken away and tied up to a chair.
The author cried a lot as she doesn’t want anyone to cut her hair. Suddenly she felt a pair of
scissors behind her neck and soon her hair was cut down. She lost all her confidence and felt
that she had always been humiliated since she was taken away from her mother. She recalled
all her bad moments that embarrassed her as people had gazed on her, she was thrown into the
air like a puppet. But this time her hair was cut down and she felt like a coward. She was
crying. She wailed for her mother as she used to console her in her sad moments but today no
one came to console her. No one tried to know her point of view. She felt like an animal that is
part of a herd and is being herded by someone. This means now she was being controlled by
someone.
We too are human Beings
The writer says that when she was a student in the third class she had never heard anyone
speaking openly about untouchability. But she by then had already seen and felt it. For her it
was very embarrassing to experience the concept of untouchability.
The writer says that one day she was coming back home from her school. She was carrying an
old bag with her. The distance between her school and home was only ten minutes. But she
would take thirty minutes to reach her home. It was so because she used to waste her time in the
street watching all the fun and games happening there. She used to see new or sometimes
strange things happening there, and then there were the shops and the bazaar that she loved to
see.
The writer describes of those things she watched in the street or the bazaar. There was a
performing monkey, a snake charmer who could make snakes move by playing music. He would
kept the snake in a box and display it from time to time. There was a cyclist also who had been
riding his bike from past three days. He pedaled hard to continue his riding as he was into some
kind of contest. Somebody had pinned the rupee notes on his shirt so as to encourage him and
keep him going on his cycle. Then there was spinning wheel and the Maariyaata temple, there
was a huge bell hanging inside the temple. The pongal offering that is a particular dish cooked
during pongal was cooked outside this temple. There were dried fish also that were sold by the
statue of Gandhi. Next she describes that there were stalls of sweet and fried snacks and other
shops next to each other. There were street lights that turn violet from blue and then the
narikkuravan, a tribe in south India. He had a lemur an animal that looks like a monkey in a
cage. He was a seller of needles, clay beads and some instrument used for cleaning ear. These
sights of various things were so entertaining for her that it prevents her from going further.
The writer says that sometimes, the people from various political parties would come in their
street and put up a stage to deliver lectures for all of us. Sometimes street plays, puppet show
and no magic no wonder acts were also staged in the street. So basically there was a regular
display of such entertaining acts in the street.
She further says that even if no such act was staged in the street then also there were the coffee
clubs in the bazaar. She liked the way waiters cooled the coffee by pouring it from one jug to
another. There were some other people who used to sit in front of their shops and chop onions.
They always turned their eyes on the other side so as to save them from getting teary. Other
interesting thing for the writer was an almond tree that was still growing and whose fruit was
blown away by the wind. All these sights were so very interesting for the writer that she
couldn’t help her from stopping there and watching them. She feels like her legs been tied up so
that she could not reach her home.
There were sellers of various things in the bazaar. They used to sell items as per the season so
there were mango, cucumber, sugarcane, sweet potato, palm-shoots, gram, palm- syrup, guavas
and jack-fruit for sale. Even the writer saw many other sellers selling sweet and spicy snacks,
payasam, halva, boiled tamarind seeds and iced lollies. So the writer was quite a good observer
and she used to notice every bit of thing happening in the market street.
The writer says that looking at all those skits and beautiful things all day she then entered her
own street. On the opposite side of the street there was a newly made threshing floor, a
flattened outdoor surface made to separate grain from straw. The landlord was sitting on a
stone shelf and was watching people work in his field. She then describes the laborers who are
working in the field. They belonged to the writer’s community. She says that they are very
hardworking and they were driving the cattle in pairs in the field. They were doing so to
separate the grain from the straw. Further, she says that the mouth of the animals was covered
so as to stop them from eating grains. All this was such a fun to watch for her.
Then she saw an elder person, who was her neighbor coming from bazaar. He was carrying a
packet of some snack with him. The manner in which the old man was walking made her burst
in laugh. He was handling it at some distance from his body. She says that she came to know
that the packet contained vadai or green banana bhaji. She guessed it because of the oily spots
on the packet. The man was carrying it by the threads. This made the writer think that this way
of handling a packet could lead to fall of its contents.
The old man went up to the landlord. He bends down to show respect to the landlord and
holding his hand out he offered the carry bag to the landlord. The landlord took the parcel and
started eating vadais out of it.
After watching all this she went back to her home. She narrated the whole incident of the old
man to her elder brother. She was laughing out by recalling the way that big man was handling
the packet. But her brother Annan didn’t found it funny. He told her that the man wasn’t being
funny, He did it because we belong to a lower caste. People from upper caste do not touch us as
this would make them impure. Even the food should be handled by the strings if it is for the
upper caste, that is why the old man was carrying it like this.
When she heard all this from her brother, the writer became very sad. She wanted to know how
the people of upper caste could have such a belief about their community. She knew that vadais
are first packed in banana leaves and then in a parcel so how could they get polluted with their
touch. She felt so angry at this that she decided to go and touch those vadais herself. She then
questioned herself again as to why we have to go and bring things for these upper caste people.
She also felt bad for that elder person who was one of the important people of her tribe. She
said he even had to go to bring things for them. He had to hand all that with great respect to
such a person who just sits there and pops the things into his mouth. This very thought filled her
with anger.
The poet says that what if the upper caste people have some money with them. Does that mean
that they will not treat others nicely? She says that we are also human beings and should be
treated like a human. She also thinks that people from her community should not do such small
tasks of bringing food for them. We should work in their fields, take our wages and then leave
out. We should never do any extra work for them.
Writer’s elder brother had come home for the holidays. He was a student in a University. He
was on the way to his home from a neighboring village, where he had gone to borrow books
from the library. He was walking along an irrigation pond when he was stopped by one of the
men of the landlord. He was asked his name. Annan told his name. He then queried about his
street so that he could know his caste.
Annan told the whole incident to the writer. He also told her that as they were born into a low
caste they will never get any respect from the upper caste. They are deprived of all this. But if
they study hard and make progress in their life they can throw away this disrespect. He
suggested his sister to study hard and stay ahead over others as this would earn her respect and
company from others. The words of the elder brother touched her so deeply that she started
working hard almost like a mad person. As Annan had asked she stood first in her class and
because of this she made so many friends.
Q) Bama’s experience is that of a victim of the caste system. What kind of discrimination does
Zitkala Sa’s experience depict? What are their responses to their respective situations?
ANS) Zitkala-Sa was a Native American. The European settlers have great prejudice against the
Native Americans. They consider them inferior beings. They have no respect for their
traditions. That was why Zitkala’s long was shingled. On the other hand, Bama belongs to a
downtrodden community. The people of high caste consider them inferior beings. They think
that the very touch of theirs would pollute them. Both Zitkala and Bama reacted to their
respective situation in their own way. Zitkala hid herself in a room to prevent her hair from
being shingled. But she was found out and her hair were shingled. When Bama came to know
the humiliation of an elder of their street’ she was filled with anger. She studied very hard so
that the others realise her worth and come to her as friends.