Table of Contents
Poetry Key Information
- Central Message: Home is not a fixed place on a map. It travels inside the person who leaves, changing shape yet remaining intact, so that the one who always goes away never fully abandons what she carries within.
- Speaker: A woman of the Indian diaspora reflecting on repeated departures and the portable nature of home
- Poetic Form: Free verse, multi-section lyric
- Themes: Exile and Belonging, Portable Home, Identity, Memory, Displacement
- Emotions: Quiet resolve, Nostalgia, Acceptance, Underlying sadness
- Tone: Reflective, confessional, gently defiant
- Mood: Contemplative, bittersweet
- Time Period: Late 20th Century
- Literary Movement: Contemporary / Diaspora Poetry
- Published: 1989 (in the collection The One Who Goes Away)
- Published Category: Contemporary Poetry / Postcolonial and Diaspora Poetry
- Meter: Free verse
- Rhyme Scheme: None (occasional internal or near rhyme)
Full Poem: The One Who Goes Away
But I am the one
Sujata Bhatt
who always goes away.
The first time was the most –
was the most
silent.
I did not speak,
Did not answer
Those who stood waving
With the soft noise
of saris flapping in the wind.
To help the journey
coconuts were flung
from Juhu beach
into the Arabian Sea –
But I saw beggars jump in
after those coconuts – a good catch
for dinner. And in the end
who gets the true luck
from those sacrificed coconuts?
I am the one
who always goes away.
Sometimes I’m asked if
I were searching for a place
That I can keep my soul
From wandering
A place where I can stay
Without wanting to leave.
Who knows.
Maybe the joy lies
In always being able to leave –
But I never left home.
I carried it away
with me – here in my darkness
in myself. If I go back, retrace my
steps
I will not find
That first home anywhere outside
In that mother-land place.
We weren’t allowed
to take much
but I managed to hide
my home behind my heart.
Look at the deserted beach
now it’s dusk – no sun
to turn the waves gold,
no moon to catch
the waves in silver mesh –
Look
at the in-between darkness
when the sea is unmasked
she’s no beauty queen.
now the wind stops
beating around the bush –
While the earth calls
and the hearth calls
Come back, come back –
I am the one
who always goes away.
Because I must –
With my home intact
But always changing
So the windows don’t match
The doors anymore – the colours
Clash in the garden –
And the ocean lives in the bedroom.
I am the one
Who always goes
Away with my home
Which can only stay inside
in my blood – my home which
does not fit
with any geography.
Meanings in the Poem: The One Who Goes Away
Meaning of the Title
The title identifies the speaker as “the one who goes away.” It is both a simple self-description and a quiet claim of identity. Leaving is not presented as failure or loss alone. It becomes the defining action that shapes who she is. The repeated phrase throughout the poem turns departure into a kind of permanent condition.
Key Words and Phrases
- The soft noise of saris flapping in the wind – A delicate, sensory image of the people left behind, full of cultural particularity and unspoken emotion.
- Coconuts were flung from Juhu beach into the Arabian Sea – A traditional ritual of farewell and blessing for a safe journey, grounded in a specific Mumbai location.
- Who gets the true luck from those sacrificed coconuts? – A questioning of ritual and fortune, noticing that beggars retrieve the coconuts for food while the traveller carries the symbolic weight.
- I never left home. I carried it away with me – The central paradox of the poem: physical departure does not mean abandonment of home.
- Hide my home behind my heart – Home becomes something secret, protected, and internal rather than a physical structure.
- The in-between darkness when the sea is unmasked – The liminal time of dusk when beauty and illusion fall away, revealing a more ordinary, unadorned reality.
- My home which does not fit with any geography – Home has become portable and internal. It no longer matches any single place on a map.
Allusions and References
The poem is rooted in concrete Indian details: Juhu beach, the Arabian Sea, saris, and the ritual of throwing coconuts. These place the first departure firmly in a specific cultural and geographic moment. The later images of a changing internal house (windows that no longer match doors, ocean in the bedroom) draw on the language of domestic space to show how memory and identity reshape what “home” means after years of movement.
Symbolism in The One Who Goes Away
The act of going away itself becomes the primary symbol. It stands for the repeated experience of migration, exile, and self-reinvention. The speaker claims this role without apology, turning departure into identity.
The coconuts flung into the sea symbolise traditional blessings and the desire for a safe journey. Yet the beggars who jump in after them complicate the ritual. Practical survival meets symbolic hope, raising the question of who truly benefits from the sacrifice.
Home is the most important and most transformed symbol. At first it seems external (the mother-land, the place left behind). Gradually it moves inside the speaker: hidden behind the heart, carried in darkness, living in the blood. By the end, home has become a changing internal landscape whose windows, doors, colours, and even oceans no longer obey ordinary geography.
The deserted beach at dusk and the unmasked sea symbolise a stripped, honest view of reality. Without the gold of sunlight or the silver of moonlight, the sea loses its romantic beauty. This “in-between darkness” mirrors the speaker’s own in-between condition: neither fully of one place nor another.
The final image of a home that does not fit with any geography completes the transformation. Home has become something portable, fluid, and intimate, carried in the body rather than located on a map.
Summary of The One Who Goes Away
The speaker declares that she is the one who always goes away. The first departure was the most silent. She did not speak or answer those who waved, their saris making a soft noise in the wind. Coconuts were thrown from Juhu beach into the Arabian Sea as a ritual of farewell, yet she noticed beggars diving after them for dinner and wondered who received the true luck.
People sometimes ask whether she is searching for a place that will keep her soul from wandering, a place where she can stay without wanting to leave. She is unsure. Perhaps the joy lies in the ability to leave. Yet she insists she never left home. She carried it with her, hidden behind her heart, inside her own darkness. If she returned and retraced her steps, she would not find that first home anywhere outside in the mother-land.
At dusk on a deserted beach, without sun or moon to beautify the waves, the sea stands unmasked. The earth and the hearth call her to come back. Still she goes away, because she must. She takes her home with her, intact yet always changing: windows that no longer match doors, clashing colours in the garden, an ocean living in the bedroom. In the end her home can only stay inside, in her blood. It does not fit with any geography.
Stanza by Stanza Analysis of The One Who Goes Away
-
The Opening Claim
The poem begins with a firm self-definition: “But I am the one who always goes away.” The “but” suggests this statement answers an unspoken question or expectation. Departure is not accidental. It is the speaker’s defining pattern. -
The First Departure
The first leaving was the most silent. The speaker did not speak or answer the people waving on the shore. The soft noise of saris flapping in the wind is the only sound recorded, a delicate and culturally specific image of those left behind. Silence becomes both protection and distance. -
The Coconut Ritual and Its Irony
Coconuts are flung from Juhu beach into the Arabian Sea to bless the journey. The speaker, however, sees beggars diving after them for a meal. The ritual of hope and the reality of hunger sit side by side. The question “who gets the true luck” undercuts any simple reading of traditional blessing. -
The Repeated Refrain
“I am the one who always goes away” returns like a refrain, reinforcing identity through departure. -
The Question of a Settled Place
Others ask whether she is searching for a place that will stop her soul from wandering. She answers with uncertainty (“Who knows”) and then a possible alternative: maybe the joy lies in always being able to leave. Freedom of movement is considered as a value in itself. -
Home Carried Inside
The crucial turn: she never left home. She carried it away with her, in her darkness, in herself. Returning would not restore the original home because that first home no longer exists as an external place. The mother-land cannot contain it anymore. -
Hiding Home Behind the Heart
Although little was allowed to be taken, she managed to hide her home behind her heart. Home becomes a secret, protected possession rather than a building or a country. -
The Unmasked Sea at Dusk
The deserted beach at dusk, without sun or moon, shows the sea without romantic covering. In the in-between darkness the sea is “no beauty queen.” The earth and the hearth call her back, yet the call is heard and not obeyed. -
The Necessity of Leaving
She goes away because she must, taking her home with her. That home remains intact yet constantly changes: windows no longer match doors, colours clash, the ocean lives in the bedroom. The internal landscape is fluid and sometimes disordered. -
The Final Definition of Home
The closing lines bring the argument to its clearest statement. She always goes away with her home, which can only stay inside, in her blood. This home does not fit with any geography. Belonging has become internal, portable, and independent of maps.
Themes of The One Who Goes Away
Exile, Departure, and the Identity of the One Who Leaves
The poem turns the experience of repeated leaving into a central identity. The speaker does not present herself as a victim of displacement alone. She claims the role: she is the one who always goes away. Departure becomes both necessity and chosen pattern. The silence of the first leaving, the refusal to answer the waving figures, and the final acceptance that she must go all contribute to a portrait of someone who has made movement part of who she is.
The Portable and Changing Nature of Home
Home is the poem’s deepest concern. At first it seems external, tied to the mother-land and the people on the shore. Gradually the speaker reveals that she never truly left it. She carried it inside, hid it behind her heart, and keeps it in her blood. Yet this internal home is not static. Windows no longer match doors, colours clash, an ocean lives in the bedroom. Memory and identity continually reshape what home means. The final claim that this home does not fit with any geography completes the transformation from place to portable, living presence.
Memory, Ritual, and Cultural Particularity
Specific details (saris, Juhu beach, the Arabian Sea, the coconut ritual) root the poem in a particular Indian departure. These images keep the first leaving concrete and sensory. At the same time the poem questions the rituals: the beggars who claim the coconuts for dinner complicate any simple idea of blessing or luck. Memory preserves the cultural texture of the past while also recognising its ironies and limitations.
The In-Between Condition and the Call to Return
The deserted beach at dusk, the unmasked sea, and the voices of earth and hearth calling “Come back, come back” create a liminal space. The speaker stands in the in-between: neither fully at home in the place left behind nor entirely free of its claim. The poem does not resolve this tension with a simple return. Instead it accepts the condition of carrying an internal, changing home while continuing to move.
Literary Devices in The One Who Goes Away
- Refrain: The repeated line “I am the one who always goes away” structures the poem and reinforces the speaker’s self-definition.
- Imagery: Sensory details of saris flapping, coconuts in the sea, the unmasked sea at dusk, and the shifting internal house create a vivid emotional landscape.
- Paradox: “I never left home. I carried it away with me” stands at the centre of the poem’s thought.
- Symbolism: Coconuts, the sea, the internal house, and blood all carry meanings beyond their literal sense.
- Personification: The earth and the hearth call; the sea is unmasked and judged as “no beauty queen.”
- Free Verse and Enjambment: The open form allows thought to move in natural, sometimes abrupt shifts, mirroring the experience of departure and internal change.
- Rhetorical Question: “Who gets the true luck from those sacrificed coconuts?” and “Who knows” open space for uncertainty rather than fixed answers.
Possible Exam Questions
- How does Sujata Bhatt present the idea of home in “The One Who Goes Away”?
- Explain the significance of the coconut ritual and the beggars in the poem.
- What does the speaker mean when she says “I never left home”?
- Discuss the role of the repeated line “I am the one who always goes away.”
- How does the poem use the image of the deserted beach at dusk?
- Analyse the final description of a home that “does not fit with any geography.”
- In what ways is “The One Who Goes Away” a poem about diaspora and identity?
- Examine the tension between the call to return and the necessity of leaving.
- How does Bhatt use concrete cultural details to ground the experience of departure?
- Write a critical appreciation of “The One Who Goes Away,” focusing on its central paradox and use of imagery.
What is the central message of “The One Who Goes Away” by Sujata Bhatt?
The central message of “The One Who Goes Away” is that home is not a fixed external place. The speaker carries it inside herself, intact yet always changing, so that the one who continually leaves never fully abandons what she holds in her blood and memory.
What is the summary of “The One Who Goes Away” by Sujata Bhatt?
In “The One Who Goes Away,” the speaker reflects on repeated departures, beginning with a silent first leaving from India marked by waving saris and a coconut ritual at Juhu beach. She realises she never truly left home because she carried it within her. Even as the earth and hearth call her back, she continues to go away with an internal, changing home that no longer fits any single geography.
What are the main themes in “The One Who Goes Away” by Sujata Bhatt?
The main themes in “The One Who Goes Away” are exile and the identity of the one who leaves, the portable and changing nature of home, memory and cultural ritual, and the in-between condition of diaspora life.
What poetic devices are used in “The One Who Goes Away” by Sujata Bhatt?
“The One Who Goes Away” uses refrain, vivid sensory imagery, paradox, symbolism, personification, free verse with enjambment, and rhetorical questions to explore departure and the internal nature of home.
What does “I never left home” mean in “The One Who Goes Away” by Sujata Bhatt?
In “The One Who Goes Away,” the line means that although the speaker physically departed, she carried the essence of home inside herself. Home became internal, hidden behind the heart and living in the blood, rather than remaining a place that could be left behind on a map.
Why does the speaker keep going away in “The One Who Goes Away” by Sujata Bhatt?
In “The One Who Goes Away,” the speaker goes away because she must. Leaving has become part of her identity. She takes her changing internal home with her, accepting movement as both necessity and a possible source of joy.
What is the significance of the coconut ritual in “The One Who Goes Away” by Sujata Bhatt?
In “The One Who Goes Away,” the coconuts flung from Juhu beach represent a traditional blessing for the journey. The speaker complicates the ritual by noticing beggars who retrieve the coconuts for food, raising the question of who receives the true luck and showing the gap between symbolic hope and practical survival.
How does “The One Who Goes Away” by Sujata Bhatt explore the idea of diaspora?
“The One Who Goes Away” explores diaspora by showing a speaker who repeatedly leaves yet carries an internal, evolving home that no longer matches any single geography. The poem captures both the pain of departure and the creative possibility of making belonging portable and personal.