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J O N AT H A N P E E L S G S 2 0 1 2
OVERVIEW
Written in a single, continuous stanza of free verse.
Single stanza suggests a single memory that stretches on and which the poet does not
wish to end. The memory builds in layers to form a continuous pattern in her
mind. In this, the added detail of each section builds like the detail of the henna
decoration being applied.
Free verse gives the poet the freedom to use words for their power and placement
without having to acknowledge the need for rhyme or regular rhythm.
The poem describes a memory and explores the poet’s links with her original culture
– that of her heritage: India/Pakistan.

J O N AT H A N P E E L S G S 2 0 1 2
THE POEM
In the evening bazaar
Studded with neon
An unknown girl
Is hennaing my hand
She squeezes a wet brown line
Form a nozzle
She is icing my hand,
Which she steadies with her
On her satin peach knee.
In the evening bazaar
For a few rupees
An unknown girl is hennaing my hand
As a little air catches
My shadow stitched kameez
A peacock spreads its lines
Across my palm.
Colours leave the street
Float up in balloons.
Dummies in shop-fronts
Tilt and stare
With their western perms.
Banners for Miss India 1993
For curtain cloth
And sofa cloth
Canopy me.
I have new brown veins.
In the evening bazaar
Very deftly
An unknown girl
is hennaing my hand
I am clinging
To these firm peacock lines
Like people who cling
to sides of a train. J O N AT H A N P E E L S G S 2 0 1 2
Now the furious streets
Are hushed.
The poem opens with a
straightforward
description of the Hennaing is the focus of the
setting – a bazaar. memory. At this stage “a wet brown
“studded with neon” line” is far from beautiful and the
manages to suggest “nozzle” is very matter of fact – a
both decoration and the
colour of the modern
In the evening bazaar prosaic response to an act which
does not have any great significance
world. This theme will
be returned to.
Studded with neon – yet.

An unknown girl
Is hennaing my hand
She squeezes a wet brown line
From a nozzle
She is icing my hand,
Alvi sees the art as
icing – relating it
Which she steadies with her
to Western
obsessions with
On her satin-peach knee.
surface beauty.

This compound adjective is the first suggestion of beauty and sensuality in this poem.
It hints at a growing awareness of the beauty of the local clothing… this will link in the
poets mind to the next section.

J O N AT H A N P E E L S G S 2 0 1 2
 The repetitive form
of the poem’s
setting is
established. Each
time it recurs, a new
layer is added. At
In the evening bazaar Nature, in the for of the breeze, draws
this stage it For a few rupees attention to the speaker’s own Indian
dress. She is part of the culure at a
establishes the
relationship is one An unknown girl is hennaing my hand surface level.
of a business
transaction
As a little air catches
My shadow stitched kameez
A peacock spreads its lines The design is personified – a symbol of beauty is
Across my palm. growing. It is no longer a functional activity.

Colours leave the street

As the design
grows, so the Float up in balloons.
transient and
Westernised Dummies in shop-fronts
decorations seem to
leave the poet.
Tilt and stare
Balloons float away With their western perms.
and “dummies”
(surely a deliberate Banners for Miss India 1993
double meaning
here) are seen. The For curtain cloth
banners are a
mixture of Western
And sofa cloth
and Eastern Canopy me. This metaphor suggests that the hennaing is closely linked with her
cultures, they are
said to “canopy “ I have new brown veins. life – providing a new layer of “brown veins” which sustain her as she
continues to live in both cultures.
her, as though
protecting her.

J O N AT H A N P E E L S G S 2 0 1 2
The third repetition
introduces an
awareness of skill in In the evening bazaar As her awareness of the new culture
the work of the develops, so Alvi is “clinging” to the
henna artist. Very deftly art as a symbol of her new (true)
identity. The lines have become
An unknown girl “firm” as her certainty increased.

No longer thinking in
purely Western terms,
the simile here is
rooted in modern
Indian culture.
is hennaing my hand
I am clinging
To these firm peacock lines
Like people who cling
to sides of a train.
Now the furious streets
Are hushed.
I’ll scrape off
The dry brown lines
Before I sleep,
Reveal soft as a snail trail
The amber bird beneath.
She looks ahead to removing the outer layer (dry
brown lines) to reveal the fragile magic of the “amber
bird”. This suggests an awareness of peeling away her
westernised outer layer to reveal the core of truth
beneath. Amber is a precious material which suggests
that the lower layer – her Indian/Pakistani heritage –
is also valuable. Amber is also a preservative and
often forms around ancient insects, preserving them
until they are found by archeologists – her culture is
similarly preserved here.

The single line sentence is clear and It will fade in a week.

strong. The poet knows the reality of
the situation.

J O N AT H A N P E E L S G S 2 0 1 2
 “when” is definite, the poet knows that such
occurrences will happen in the future.

The metaphor is gentle,

not aggressive and
suggests begging in the
“outstetched” hands.
Placed at the end of a line,
emphasis is placed on this
When India appears and reappears
action which is increased
by “longing” which
I’ll lean across a country
follows with no break due
to the enjambment of the With my hands outstretched
lines.
A clear desire to recapture Longing for the unknown girl
the “lost” culture is
evident here. In the neon bazaar.

The bazaar is no longer “studded with neon” which suggests some form of
applied decoration –”studded” is harsh and not beautiful. Now the whole
is given a sense of belonging -the “neon bazaar” wears its colour
naturally, as though it is meant to be thus. Somehow, the two cultures
have united in the sae way that the bazaar has changed its own form.

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TO SUM UP
A poem in which culture is explored and the poet expresses her longing to experience
her heritage.
A poem which compares:
East and West
Superficiality and “what lies beneath”
A sense of loss and a sense of recognition

There is a sense of acceptance by the end of the poem, how is this generated?

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