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About the Author

A K Ramanujanis one of the prolific writers and hold a prominent place in the cosmos of the Indo-Anglian poetry. He was born on 13th March, 1929 in the city of Mysore to Attipat Asuri Krishnaswami, who was astrologer and professor of mathematics at the Mysore University and his mother was a housemaker. He has earned huge name and fame through his publication of his works of two volumes of poetry — “The Striders” (1966) and “Relations” (1971). After being recognized for his contribution in the field of literature, he was established as one of the most talented poets among the emerging ones. His achievements were not only limited to English, he was also highly recognized for his contribution in Kannada and Tamil which were later translated into English. Ramanujan grew up during the later part of the British rule and developed the language of English which would soon become the main tool for him as a scholar and translator. Ramanujan's work reveals that culture and tradition of India that is a conflict between the colonial English identity of the country as well as its historic and post-colonial ethnic identities. He was also awarded with the MacArthur Fellowship and also India's Padma Shri for distinguished service for his nation.

Writing Style

Ramanujan is essentially a poet of memory who shows an intense preoccupation with the past which makes his poetry not only a poetry of the self but also of family and cultural history. We find the later Ramanujan a very different poet especially with his Buddhist acceptance of change as the only continuity and with his confession of violent emotions, sexual desire in particular. He is mainly known for his advance guard approach. As a thinker and poet, repitition and variation were persistent features of his writing style. He embraced strong ideas pationately and held on them, until he could replace them with better and greater idea. His explications of Indian literature and culture were always in motion.

Plotline

The story revolves around a widow who has been made miserable because of the terrible behavior by her two sons and their wives. Her pain and dejection is multiplied when she is not able to share her woes to anyone around which also made her feel fatter further making her feel worse and painful. One day while loitering in the woods, she finds an abandoned house and feels the need to narrate her miseries to those walls. With every suffering she narrated, a wall fell and she felt lighter. At the end all the four walls falls down, and she feels better, and gets back home.

Analysing ‘Tell it to the walls’

The story Tell it to the Walls depicts the inevitability of stories in life and their power of healing. In the context of the story the wall stands as a metaphor. Folktales are told not only to make children eat more or put them to sleep, but often told to keep adults awake. And the wall between fiction and reality collapses. Thus, the story presents metaphors in search of a context, waiting to be retold and be made relevant. The feminist folktales project positive, self-affirming images of women who think and act – they interconnect women’s understanding of nature and culture. According to ecofeminist spirituality, the goddess of nature empower women with shakthi. A feminist interpretation of the text would indicate that the old woman had a sense of relief once she broke down the four walls of the house, that symbolize the traditional space for the woman in a patriarchal society. The conscious listener of these folktales has a major responsibility of unravelling the implications of the woman’s discourse who finds a cure through story telling. The therapeutic effect of storytelling has often been undermined by psychologists. The importance of expressions as opposed to silence is highlighted by this story. Tell it to the Walls becomes the parable that communicates the concern for the aged. It is necessary to identify the voices that comprehend the views of the narrator, the narrated and the translator. The ecofeminist linguist quest offers a tool that explore her stories to of silencein folk discourse in India.