1. E - CONTENT PREPARED BY: DONA ROSITA JOHN B.ED ENGLISH 2015- 2017
ST. THOMAS COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION,PALA

2. THE TATTERED BLANKET
KAMALA SURAIYA

3. KAMALA SURAIYA

4. Kamala Surayya (formerly known as Kamala Das)
Born :31 March 1934
Died :31 May 2009 (aged 75) Pune, Maharashtra, India
Pen name : Madhavikkutty
Occupation :Poet, novelist, short story writer
Nationality : Indian
Genre : Poetry, novel, short story memoirs

5. Spouse : K. Madhava Das Notable awards Children : Madhav Das Nalapat
Ezhuthachchan Puraskaram Vayalar Award  Sahitya Akademi Award Asan World Prize  Asian Poetry Prize  Kent Award
Spouse : K. Madhava Das
Children : Madhav Das Nalapat
Chinnen Das
Jayasurya Das

6. They make sense of the reading passage using a number of strategies
Objectives
Children make an effort to read individually and track their own reading process.
They make sense of the reading passage using a number of strategies
Checking their predictions on the reading passage

7. • Using the glossary given to them, etc.
Locating information that they were able to pool from the interaction that has taken place
• Guessing the meaning of words from the context and also using familiar words as stepping stones.
• Using the glossary given to them, etc.

8. 1. They make sense of the reading passage through collaboration.
Sharing ideas with others
2. They reflect on the passage they have read.
3. They analyze the information given and link it with their personal experience.
4. They generate their own texts from the given text

9. THE TATTERED BLANKET

10. Madhavikutty’s ‘The Tattered Blanket’ exposes the bitter truths of life in a stunningly simple manner. After five years Gopi comes to Kerala to see his mother.
Gopi is a big officer in Delhi living with his wife Vasantha and four children. He has come to Thiruvananthapuram as a part of his official assignment
‘Just dropped in his way back’ to meet his mother. His mother is very old.

11. She lives with his eldest sister Kamalam who is a widow
She lives with his eldest sister Kamalam who is a widow. When he arrived unexpectedly at his home in the countryside, his mother was lying in an armchair on the veranda. Mother fails to recognise her son Gopi.
She believes that Gopi is still a school boy. She doesn’t recognise anybody. Sometimes her memory is quite sharp, sometimes she forgets the present, but remembers the past.

12. When her memory is very sharp she asks about Gopi’s letters from Delhi
When her memory is very sharp she asks about Gopi’s letters from Delhi. Kamalam tells her a lie that everything is fine with Gopi, his wife and kids.
But Gopi doesn’t write any letters to his mother. Mother doesn’t recognise her son. She asks her son Gopi ‘Who is your Amma? What is her name? Where does she live? Is it far from here?’ But mother has the picture of her son in her mind.

13. She says, My son ‘is in Delhi... a Government Officer. He has Kesariyogam.... He draws a salary of two thousand five hundred rupees’. Mother tells Gopi if he meets her sons ask him to send her a blanket. A red one.
She has a blanket, the one Gopi bought for her when he was studying in Madras. It is all tattered now, just a ball of knotted yarn.

14. Gopi has come home to ask his sister to sell his share of land and get some money for him. Kamalam knows that Gopi has come only for money, not to see his mother. It took more than five years for him to find time to come home.
Kamalam says, ‘Amma is eighty three now. I don’t think she will pull on much longer. It took you so long to visit her after the last time.’ But Gopi has his excuses for not visiting Amma.

15. He says ‘But Amma can’t remember who I am
He says ‘But Amma can’t remember who I am.’ The story ends with Kamalam’s question to Gopi, ‘But do you remember your Amma?’ Amma doesn’t recognise her son because she has lost her power of memory. In fact forgetfulness is a blessing for her. Her son doesn’t have any love for his mother. This is one of the brilliant short stories penned by Madhavikutty in Malayalam. Her focus has always been on the tormented female self craving for love. She is concerned with the condition of women and the way in which they are betrayed by society. In ‘The Tattered Blanket’ mother craves for her son’s love. Her son is evergreen in her memory.

16. But she has been overpowered by forgetfulness.
She needs a red blanket because the old one is tattered. Here blanket represents the warmth of her son’s love.
She actually needs her son’s love. The tattered blanket symbolises the tattered soul of the mother.
Madhavikutty’s stories are a re-affirmation of women, woman reclaimed of body and spirit.

17. In ‘The Tattered Blanket’ Madhavikutty portrays the poignant voice of wounded womanhood against the value systems of a male-dominated society.

18. Objectives of interaction based on the picture.
The learners: • Come out with their perception ( i.e what they think about the pictures) of the picture.
Talk about their understanding of the theme that is inbuilt in the picture as well as in various components of the unit.
• Make intelligent predictions on the passage, they are going to read a) Theme based picture interaction

19. ACTIVITIES
• Show the pictures of families in page 2 of the reader and interact with the learners by asking a few questions most of which are to be analytical.
Some questions are suggested below: 1. What do you observe in the pictures? 2. What kind of families do you observe? 3. What is a small family? 4. What is a large/ big family? 5. Which kind of families do we find in the present society? Small/big families? Why? 6. Which family do you like to live in? Give reasons. •

20. QUESTIONS
1. Who are conversing in the passage? What is it about? 2. Why did mother ask, Who did Gopi marry? 3. Did Kamala receive a letter from Gopi on that day? 4. Who was terribly upset if she didn’t get/receive a letter from Gopi? 5. Why did the old woman pose questions? Who is your amma? 6. Do you find any events/ descriptions in the passage?
Developing sub text: 1. What did Gopi’s briefcase contain? 2. Did he bring anything for his mother? What did she want? 3. Why was the old woman asking for a blanket? 4. What are the events do you identify in the passage? 5. What are the descriptions do you identify in the passage