 An obituary is usually a tribute to the person who has passed away, featuring the high

points of his life. Such is not the case in this poem.

 The ironical poem talks about the death of the speaker’s father. Rather than lamenting
the death, the son points out all of the things his father left undone. Written in first
person, the son is the narrator of the poem.
 The opening lines enumerate the list of things the father left behind as legacy: dust,
debts and daughters. In a conversational tone, he talks about the Grandson named after
the father, who had the incorrigible habit of urinating in bed. This highlights that the
poet’s father left behind nothing but only memories in the form of debris.
 The poet utters that his father being “the burning type” burnt properly at the cremation.
The phrase may connote the features of the father, his physicality being dried and
parched. It may also refer to his wry temperament.
 He is deemed so incapable, that even his birth is a Caesarean one for which, he did not
have to put in much effort. His death also came easily to him in the form of heart failure
at the fruit market.
 According to the poet, his father did not even deserve a few lines which were
grammatically correct, which adds to the irregular pattern of the poem. The lines vary in
length and the poem is devoid of any form or meter.
 All he gained in his life worth mentioning, is that he managed to get two lines of
obituary inserted in some newspaper in Madras. Even it was sold to a hawker, who in
turn sold it to a grocer from whom the poet occasionally bought provisions.
 The central irony in the poem stems not only from its overall ironic tone but also from
the fact that there are two obituaries in the poem: The one published in the newspaper
as a routine matter of personal history and the other, the aesthetic recreation.