Born in 1938, Chitre was part of the generation of poets influenced by the Modernist movement of the first two decades of the century. These Modernists took a harsh and critical look at the conditions of contemporary life. Most pointedly they despaired over the impact of the rise of the city. The city represented the loss of humanity’s bonds with the rural world and its connection to the rhythms and energy of nature. For all its bustling commerce and crowded streets, the city felt isolating, lonely, and oppressive.

At the melancholy core of “Father Returning Home” is Chitre’s critique of the modern wasteland world of the city. Set in sprawling Mumbai (formerly Bombay), then as now India’s second-largest metropolitan center with a population of more than 20 million, the poem captures the loneliness and alienation of the modern city.

Much like London in T. S. Eliot’s monumental Modernist epic The Waste Land (a poem Chitre much admired), Mumbai is an Unreal City that strangles the spirit and denies its zombie-residents even the expectation of joy or a reason for optimism. Chitre uses the commuter ride to define the city. Packed in with the “silent” (Line 2) late-evening commuters, the father cannot even bring himself to look out the windows of the train, his eyes “unseeing” (Line 3).