Punishment in Kindergarten - Kamala Das

Kamala Das is famous Indian woman poet.  She writes poem in support of feminism.  Her poems are marked with frankness and courage.  She, unlike other women poets, is more daring and expresses her thoughts openly against men, customs and other women too.  The poem Punishment in Kindergarten talks about Kamala Das’ childhood day wherein she went on a picnic, which did not allow her to enjoy and relish life.

Kamala Das was called as Madhavi Kutti at her young age.  When the poem opens, Kamala finds herself in a more commanding position and capable of taking her own decisions. Unlike in those old days of early childhood where she recalls the mental pain caused by her kindergarten teacher; a woman wearing a blue frock throwing negative words at her like the throwing pots and pans, to devastate that honey-coloured peace of mind that dwells in a peaceful child. The teacher used to torment Kamala by her words saying that she was a peculiar child; strange often in an unpleasant way; who is reluctant to join others for a play.

  

On the lawn, Madhavi Kutti’s classmates sit together sipping sugarcane juice-turning at each other's faces, chatting and laughing their way to glory. Indeed children are funny things. They laugh at the expense of other's tears of sorrow in mirth; formal laughter or happiness. She buried her face in the sun-warmed hedge; a row of bushes growing close together and she smelt the flowers and the pain in the same manner to fuse or melt (ore) in order to separate the metal contained.
           

After being punished, her words are muffled and the laughing faces of her friends are only a blur. The years have moved on speedily and have stopped briefly at rare incidents of sad events. At last, she discovers that she has discovered that she has found an adult peace. There is no need to remember that picnic day while in kindergarten when she laid hidden by a hedge, watching the steel-white sun standing lonely in the sky.