Question

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

What do you call, O ye pedlars?
Chessmen and ivory dice.
What do you make, O ye goldsmiths?
Wristlet and anklet and ring, ….
                     (In the Bazaars of Hyderabad: Sarojini Naidu)

(i) What all were being sold by the merchants? 

(ii) What is being ground by the maidens? Which items are the vendors weighing? 

(iii) Describe the bells that the goldsmiths are crafting for blue pigeons? What do the goldsmiths make for the dancers and the king? 

(iv) Which instruments are the musicians playing? What are the magicians doing? 

(v) Mention the happy as well the sad occasions for which the flower girls are weaving flowers. Write one reason why the poem has appealed to you.

Answer 1

(i) Merchants were selling turbans of deep red and silver colour, tunics made of heavy purple cloth, beautiful mirrors made of panels of amber and daggers with stone handles. These are the various items on sale.

(ii) Maidens are grinding sandalwood henna and spices. The vendors are weighing saffron, lentil, and rice.

(iii) The goldsmiths are making bells which are very delicate to be tied to the feet of the blue pigeons. The bells are as delicate as a dragonfly’s wing.
The goldsmiths make girdles for the dancers and scabbards for the kings.
(iv) The musicians are playing on such instruments as the ‘sitar’, ‘sarangi’ and ‘drum’. Magicians utter spellbinding words, which will be remembered for many years to come.

(v) The happy occasions are the crowns for the forehead of a bridegroom, circles of flowers to garland his bed.
The sad occasion is the sheets with white flowers which are used at the funeral ceremony of the dead.
The true spirit of Indian life is portrayed. India of the rich is land and with a culture of its own and also life is beautiful and colourful.