Pain of Rememberance in D.H. Lawrence's Piano and Parashu Pradhan's Telegram on the Table

Sitting on the lap of a woman and listening to her song, the persona of the poem 'Piano' should have been forgetting his past and enjoying the present moment. The relation of the woman to the persona is not clearly stated in the poem which begins with,“Softly in the dusk, a woman is singing to me". Who might be this woman; his wife, his beloved or, a professional singer; merely an entertainer? “Let’s forget whoever the woman might be. “Taking me back down the vista of years" refers to the state of the persona's mind that though he is physically present there, mentally gets lost in the past. He becomes a child once again 'sitting under the piano' and 'pressing the small poised feet of a mother'. He remembers the old Sunday evenings at home with his mother who used to sing religious hymns in the cosyparlor and would play piano. This memory comes like a flood which casts his manhood and makes him cry like a child.

As an adult and being with a woman it doesn't seem appropriate to cry like a child. He should give his body and mind to the woman who is singing to him. She might be trying to please him with her music and make him happy. The persona struggles in between his past and the present. But ''in spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song betrays me back". This suggests that his past becomes winner to his present. " So, now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamor with the great black piano." She is replaced by the persona's memory of his mother. She might appear as a virtual mother to the persona.The comparison of the lady with his mother seems to be impractical.  Instead, the persona can remember his ex-girlfriend which could contextualize the situation.But the memory of his mother is upon him as he says, "Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past." The pain of childhood memory has washed up the pleasure of the present.

Similarly, ParashuPradhan's“The Telegram on the Table" portrays the pain of remembrance at the end of the story despite Krishna's conscious attempt to forget his past. As a tourist guide in Kathmandu, Krishna comes late to his rented room being tired. One day he receives a telegram about the death of his wife in the village. “His eyes went along its lines once again. He suddenly felt happy.” This suggests that Krishna has no heart at all even to express momentary sadness. The telegram offers him chances to pursue his dream of marring American girl and visiting there as a tourist. “A tragedy like this should have made him weep. But none of it touched him at all.” Why? “Having lived alone for so long in the city, had he become like a stone?” says the story teller.

Krishna had a dream. “He had always tried to speak English, dreamed in English, and considered English his all.” His dream was to go America. “Often he dreamed of New York skyscrapers…”. In some extend, he was happy with his job of guiding tourist telling them about Nepali culture, art etc. He would imagine the unfamiliar voices calling him from distant lands. “Come to us just once, we will be your guides”. Such fantasy makes him forget his family. He had not visited his home in distant hill for many years. Most of the people who come to city for job return to their home at Dashain. But Krishna doesn’t go home even at Dashain. He might be living out of his family touch. He could go home and bring his wife for treatment. But his dream and ‘flagging ambition’ made him completely dumb.

One day when he realizes that he can’t follow the tourist girl ‘a pair of blue eyes’, he makes plan to invite Miss Pandey, a local girl for dinner. He thinks of his room and poor amenities. The room he rented is bad. If he gets up late, there is no water. He becomes practical and his dreams ‘dwindled away’. Then the memory of his home oozes in his mind. He can’t sleep. He goes to the table and reads the telegram “your wife died yesterday, your wife died, your wife died….” Krishna who has been sleeping without any disturbance for a week becomes restless. This might be the flood of remembrance which he wants to embank but fails at last.“Suddenly, angry with himself, he tore it to shreds and burst into tears. He cried and cried, he knew not how long.”Thus, the memory of the past is so vibrant in him that he fails to control and weeps like a child. His stone heart begins to melt suddenly with the heat of love and memory of his wife and the family.

To conclude, both the poem and the story show the pain of remembrance and mental conflict of the characters of their attachment with the present and their failure attempt to forget the past.