SEA BREEZE, BOMBAY

- ADIL JUSSAWALLA
OVER VIEW
 Introduction - Ishan
 Summary / Storyline – Anoushka
 Events – Pranathi ,Sneha & Arikta
 Theme – Jahnavitha
 Language and linguistic devices – Agasthya
 ABOUT THE POET
 Adil Jehangir Jussawalla was born on 8 April
1940, Mumbai.
 He is an Indian poet, magazine editor and translator.
 Attended Cathedral and John Connon School in 1956,
Architectural Association School of
Architecture in London from 1957–58. Later, he studied
at University College, Oxford.
 Major works are Trying to Say Goodbye The Right Kind of
Dog, Maps for a Mortal Moon
 In 2014, he was presented with the Sahitya Akademi
Award for his book of poetry, Trying to Say Goodbye.
Partition’s people stitched
Shrouds from a flag, gentlemen scissored Sind.
An opened people, fraying across the cut
country reknotted themselves on this island.
Surrogate city of banks,
Brokering and bays, refugees’ harbour and port,
Gatherer of ends whose brick beginnings work
Loose like a skin, spotting the coast,
Restore us to fire. New refugees,
Wearing blood-red wool in the worst heat,
come from Tibet, scanning the sea from the north,
Dazed, holes in their cracked feet.
Restore us to fire. Still,
Communities tear and re-form; and still, a breeze,
Cooling our garrulous evenings, investigates nothing,
Ruffles no tempers, uncovers no root,
And settles no one adrift of the mainland’s histories.
 SUMMARY

 Partition poem which is also a Bombay poem

 Reference to the gruesome killings in the wake of the India partition in the name of
nationalism and religion.
 Bombay turned out to be a migrants’ city and a commercial capital, where communities
break and re-form.
 The expressions “surrogate city of banks”, “refugee’s harbor and port”, “spotting the coast”
are instances that portrays the aftermath of the colonial rampage.
 EVENTS
 Sea Breeze, Bombay is a poem of the tragically dislocated and displaced people. For no fault of
them, they suffered as for our political errors and misinterpretation.
Against the backdrop of the sea breeze refreshing it always, the city of Bombay pulsates in its own
way, giving calm and shelter to all, maybe the Partition people, as wrecked and distraught
humanity finds solace it here, stitching and patching the tales anew.

 0n the one hand the talk of flags and nascent nationalism overtook them, the zealots of independe
nce seeking freedom from while on the other hand the shrouds failed to cover up all. The flags
served as the shrouds for those in need. Sind was scissored, Punjab was partitioned, Bengal was,
resulting in the influx of the refugees, braving the odds, going on the ways, meeting their ends,
dying on the paths, the shelterless people, the refugees.
 Many of them went to Delhi, many to Calcutta, many found shelter and refuge in Bombay,
the island city of commercial hub and navigation, with a history of its own in attracting people
from all over the world through the corridor of history. The harbours , posts and ships will tell the
unsaid story themselves how is it busy with bristling activity.
 Again the same fate met the Tibetans coming as refugees to settle in Bombay and
Dharamshala. In a different clime and situation, found they placed unaware of the seasons
and the clothes needed for.
 Fire which is so sacrosanct purges it all. Let the communities re-knot their ties and strike the
roots forgetting their past as Bombay has always welcomed the distraught people, the
shipwrecked forlorn brothers.
 In Sea Breeze, Bombay, the poet also sees it himself, trying to locate and re-locate historically,
genealogically. The communities may cross swords, but it retains the same accommodative spirit
down the ages. The Sindhis, the Parsis, the Jews, the Christians, the Tibetans, the navigators,
shipmen, mariners, it is a city of all those who come to live in here. The coasts and harbours of it
have always alluded the foreigners* the beaches of it as the tourist spots. Instead of the scars and
wounds of the Partition, the people try to stitch their histories and relationships to rebuild it.
THEME

 The main theme of the poem is the partition between India and Pakistan.
 Many people turned into refugees due to this partition.
 The refugees lost their relatives, their shelter, etc. because of the arrogance
of certain selfish people.
 The refugees came to India by leaving all their belongings and settled in
Bombay.
 The calm and breezy sea of Bombay welcomed all the refugees and
provided shelter for them.
 The calmness of the sea teaches us not to run behind money and power
Conclusion
 People suffered, some died on the way, the others lost their home and
family
 The cool sea breeze blows
 Breeze gives hope to all
 New communities formed
 People wrote new stories