Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan

Based on the poem by Moniza Alvi. We had to make a picture sequence during English for our Anthology of Poems. Music is "I Giorni" (Italian = The Days) by Ludovico Einaudi.

The poem:

"They sent me a salwar kameez peacock-blue, and another glistening like an orange split open,
embossed slippers, gold and black points curling.
Candy-striped glass bangles snapped, drew blood.
Like at school, fashions changed in Pakistan -
the salwar bottoms were broad and stiff, then narrow.
My aunts chose an apple-green sari, silver-bordered for my teens.

I tried each satin-silken top - was alien in the sitting-room.
I could never be as lovely as those clothes - I longed
for denim and corduroy. My costume clung to me and I was aflame,
I couldn't rise up out of its fire, half-English, unlike Aunt Jamila.

I wanted my parents' camel-skin lamp - switching it on in my bedroom,
to consider the cruelty and the transformation
from camel to shade, marvel at the colours like stained glass.

My mother cherished her jewellery - Indian gold, dangling, filigree. But it was stolen from our car.
The presents were radiant in my wardrobe.
My aunts requested cardigans from Marks and Spencers.

My salwar kameez
didn't impress the schoolfriend
who sat on my bed, asked to see
my weekend clothes.
But often I admired the mirror-work,
tried to glimpse myself in the miniature
glass circles, recall the story how the three of us sailed to England.
Prickly heat had me screaming on the way.
I ended up in a cot
in my English grandmother's dining-room,
found myself alone, playing with a tin boat.

I pictured my birthplace
from fifties' photographs. When I was older
there was conflict, a fractured land
throbbing through newsprint.
Sometimes I saw Lahore - my aunts in shaded rooms,
screened from male visitors,
sorting presents, wrapping them in tissue.

Or there were beggars, sweeper-girls
and I was there - of no fixed nationality,
staring through fretwork at the Shalimar Gardens."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• presents
• from
• my
• aunts
• in
• pakistan
• media
• project
• picture
• sequence
• anthology
• of
• poems

[XkittykatkidX]

i have to teach this poem to my english class D=

thought the vid was good though, and lovely background music. I may use it in my presentation.... if you don't mind =)

[CJohnston079]

Feel free, glad you liked it.

[tommypoos]

I am so glad I have no more of those poems to do!!

[CJohnston079]

Join the club. We're giving out T-Shirts.

[hazthecreator]

Hey, great video!! What's the piece of music played over this called??

[CJohnston079]

I Giorni by Ludovico Einaudi.

[eagleops999]

have to do some questions on dis poem

[EthanAndIsabella]

@JhullyAmilly lol, I hate English too. It's so boring.

[JhullyAmilly]

@EthanAndIsabella Lol, I'm dumb (joke:P) \o/ I hate english (y)

[EthanAndIsabella]

I have to write an essay on this poem.

[EthanAndIsabella]

@JhullyAmilly No, lol. It's the name of the garden.

[JhullyAmilly]

Who's Shalimar ? D: Is it one of her aunts ?

[Tomboy19942402]

UPDATE: 3000views X - WRONG

^^

UPDATE: 16000views ;) - CORRECT!! :)

[camofrog44]

where was the other half of the peom!!!???

[Mg95a]

i luv all these poems, but the two i have really understood is Not My Buisness, then Nothing's Changed