Dothead

“Dothead” is a poem by the American poet Amit Majmudar. It was first published in the New Yorker magazine in 2011 and then reprinted in Majmudar’s collection of poetry by the same name in 2016. Based on the poet’s own experience, the poem describes a conversation between an American high school student of Indian heritage (the speaker in the poem) and his “white” schoolmates following a World History class dedicated to Indian culture. The conversation is presented from the speaker’s perspective as he tries to explain to his bewildered friends why his mother wears a bindi, a colored mark on her forehead. Unable to find the right words to clarify the religious and spiritual meaning of the bindi, the speaker puts a dollop of ketchup on his own forehead, silently signaling loyalty to his family and their ethnic heritage as a reaction to his peers’ uncomprehending snickering. The poem addresses cultural challenges facing Americans from diverse ethnic groups, especially as adolescents, because of the majority population’s lack of multicultural awareness and distrust of difference.

Poet Biography

Amit Majmudar, a son of Indian immigrants, was born in 1979 and grew up in Ohio, where he still lives with his wife and children. He has an MD from Northeast Ohio Medical University and practices medicine as a diagnostic nuclear radiologist. Majmudar has published four collections of poetry and three novels. His work has appeared in both prestigious literary journals (Kenyon Review, Antioch Review, Poetry) and prominent magazines and newspapers (The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic). His prize-winning poetry has been featured in several anthologies, and he became the first Poet Laureate of Ohio in 2015. In 2018, he published his verse translation of the Bhagavad-Gita, one of the holy scriptures of Hinduism dated to the second half of the first millennium BCE (Before Common Era), including his commentaries on key Hindu philosophical and religious concepts.

Majmudar’s work exhibits an enduring interest in and a broad knowledge of Hinduism while also drawing from the Muslim and Christian traditions. Many of his poems explore religious and cultural tensions in multicultural American society, often based on his personal experiences. While born in the United States, to a secularized Hindu family, he spent a part of his childhood in India before returning to the United States. That experience positioned him in between cultures: belonging to both but not fully to either one. He directly addresses that hybrid identity in the poem “To the Hyphenated Poets” (see Further Reading & Resources), which argues that, instead of being a burden, straddling diverse cultures can be a source of strength and creativity. In a radio interview, Majmudar called himself “a citizen of the library,” more comfortable when surrounded by books than by people. Passionate about books, Majmudar is also a sharp observer of social reality. His poetry collection What He Did in Solitary (2020) reflects on difficult social issues, ranging from Oxycontin addiction in the Unites States to inter-communal violence in India.

Poem Text

Majmudar, Amit. “Dothead.” 2011. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

“Dothead” describes an exchange between several high school students sitting in the cafeteria after a lesson about India in their World History class. One of them is of Indian heritage, so his friends ask him if his mother wears a colored dot on her forehead, a custom that the teacher apparently compared to a third eye. The poem begins with the boy’s effort to explain that this mark, which his mother does wear, is not some physical abnormality but a symbol of spiritual knowledge. It turns out that he cannot find the right words, flustered by his friends’ laughter. At first, he merely nods, but then, under the barrage of their disrespectful questions, he tears open a packet of ketchup and rubs some of it onto his own forehead creating a red mark. The poem ends with the speaker imagining that the mark metaphorically burns his friends (or their ignorance) with its ancient power.