Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan
They sent me a salwar kameez
peacock-blue,
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 a 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.
By Moniza Alvi
 Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan

By Moniza Alvi

Theme

This poem is about cultural identity and it explores the issue of being torn between
two cultures by the poet’s experience of receiving ethnic clothing from her relatives
in Pakistan. The traditional clothes are described carefully in order to express their
difference from British clothing. The glass bangle that “drew blood” is an image
used to show that the speaker feels uncomfortable trying on her presents from
Pakistan. She mentions feeling ‘alien’, ‘half-English’ and having ‘no fixed nationality’
which are direct statements about the poet’s conflict of identity.

The poet left Pakistan as a very young child and she does not really know what the
country is like. She is left imagining her identity through old photographs and the
traditional Asian clothes her aunts have sent her.

Structure and language

The poet uses both similes and metaphors in the poem to describe both the clothes
and the narrator’s feelings when she tries them on. The poem is also written in the
first person which helps give it a confessional, wistful tone. the poem also has a
narrative structure and tells a story of living in an alien culture. The poet has
chosen to write in free verse and without a rhyming scheme in order to give the
poem its natural feeling.

Message

The poet suggests that it is possible (like her) to be torn between cultures and to
experience problems of cultural identity as a result.

Quote

“I tried each satin-silken top-

was alien in the sitting room
I could never be as lovely as those clothes.”

Link

“Search for My Tongue”

Vocabulary

aflame = on fire (Here it is a metaphor for being embarrassed)

cherished = loved
embossed = has a raised pattern
filigree = delicate gold jewellery
fractured = broken (Here it refers to the war between India and Pakistan)
glimpse = see for a moment
glistening = shining
Lahore = city in Pakistan
longed = wanted very much
prickly heat = itchy skin caused by heat
salwar kameez = loose trousers, traditional clothing in Pakistan (salwar)
= loose fitting top also traditional in Pakistan (kameez)
Shalimar Gardens = attractive park/gardens in Lahore
sweeper girls = young women who clean the roads
radiant = bright
sari = traditional Indian dress
transformation = change from one thing to another