Refugee - Tenzin Tsundue

The poem ‘Refugee’ is allusory to the historical moment of China occupying
Tibet. The Tibetans became completely homeless and had to immigrate to
the neighboring country India. Due to the massive immigration, many
suffered problems like identity crisis and rootlessness.
The speaker in the poem voices the pain of his countrymen who struggled
for establishment. The narrator here is a school going boy. He painfully
recounts the fact that his mother told him that he was a refugee. In addition,
the road side tent in which they are living metaphorically symbolizes
aimless life of the refugees.
The trauma of the boy continues even in his school. His teacher teasingly
remarks at him that the letter ‘R’ has been engraved on his forehead. The
letter ‘R’ in this context refers to the painful state of being a refugee. The
struggle of the boy to break out of the crisis is emphasized when he says
he tried to scratch his forehead. But all his efforts go in vain with a result of
‘red brash’.
The problem of the boy’s crisis is heightened when he recounts the
languages he has known namely: his mother tongue to sing in joy, English
and Hindi for survival. Even the boy’s language suffers crisis as it is
sandwiched between two foreign languages Hindi and English.
The sole consolation for the boy in the midst of all the adverse
circumstances is that his name RAMZEN retains the Tibetan flavor.
Excepting the name, the boy’s identity seems to have been completely
engulfed by events over which he has no control.