Goodbye Party For Miss Pushpa T.S. by Nissim Ezekiel - Analysis

Nissim Ezekiel is obviously satirizing not only Indian people's eccentricities and strange habits but also their unnecessary flaunting of the English language. Here we see a farewell addressing of a fellow who is poor in speaking English yet he blatantly breaks the linguistic rules and moulds the language to express what he wants to convey. The colloquial style suits the purpose. He makes so many mistakes and sometimes the interpretation alters in a humorous manner but we can clearly comprehend his good intentions and gratefulness.

The speaker delivers an adieu speech in honour of Miss Pushpa T.S who is leaving abroad in a couple of days. He praises her and expresses his gratitude for the favours she had done to him and others. He lauds her both internal goodness as well as external demeanour. Her policy of saying no to others is commended. He ends his speech by wishing her adieu and asks for other speakers to speak and in the end, Miss Pushpa herself will "do summing up" i.e. thank them.

One significant feature of the poem is the mockery of the tendencies of Indian people. Amidst the speech, the speaker unnecessarily narrates his stay at a distant acquaintance house i.e. his uncle's very old friend in Surat and how her wife cooked great. Fortunately, he returns to his adieu speech. Another feature of the poem is that the intended meaning due to no attention heeded to correct grammar make the interpretation comic. The speaker admires Miss Pushpa's constant smile but his words mistakenly mean criticism of her this feature. The speaker aims to remark that she is popular among both men and women but it insinuates something else which could offend one, but we know it was in pure intentions. Another couplet "today she is going to improve her prospect" shows the hilarious literal meaning it holds, but again we should note the speaker is good person marred by his choice to use a "high-class language".

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