“The Blessing”
The Blessing is a poem by Imtiaz Dharker, is about people in India who are finding it difficult to live in a slum outside Bombay.
In this poem, the poet describes the way people are living in India. It is very difficult for them to live because there is not enough water. The only way they can get water is if a municipal pipe bursts by chance and Dharker describes that when this happens the people knew this occurrence to be like a miracle. When a pipe does burst in the plot of the poem, Dharani community rush to the water with buckets, pots and some use their hands. To them, the water is like treasure which they call, a blessing.
The poem “The Blessing” begins by telling the audience the problems the people have dehydration, their skin is really dry because they hardly get any water. In this first line Dharker is comparing their skin to a pod that only cracks to release its seed in dry conditions:
“The skin cracks like a pod, there never is enough water”.
The poet’s use of a simile here highlights how dry the people are. She also compares their skin to a pod which means that there is no water. The second line clarifies this point of a lack of water, it explains that they are never able to get enough water.
Here in the story, a pipe bursts and the writer is telling us that when it does burst, everyone gets really excited, but when they see the water they imagine it like silver crashing to the ground.
“Sometimes the sudden rush of fortune. The municipal pipe bursts, silver crashes to the ground”.
Here the poet highlights that they hardly get any water, the only way they can get water is if a pipe bursts. She also compares the water to silver crashing to the ground which means that the people imagine the water like silver because it is so precious.
Later in the poem, the poet describes what happens when a pipe bursts and what people do when they see the water.
“Every man, women, child for streets around, butts...