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प्रश्न
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Baldeo, the watchman, was awake. He stretched himself, slowly unwinding the heavy shawl that covered him like a shroud. It was close on midnight and the chill air made him shiver. The station, a small shack backed by heavy jungle, was a station in name only; for trains only stopped there, if at all, for a few seconds before entering the deep cutting that led to the tunnel. Most trains only slowed down before taking the sharp curve before the cutting.
(i) What were Baldeo’s duties as a watchman? What question did his son ask him before he left for his nightly errand?
(ii) Describe the axe that Baldeo carried with him. Who had made the axe?
(iii) Which sound made Baldeo realize that the tiger was close by?
Why was he worried that the tiger may be going in the opposite direction? Why didn’t the tiger fear the man?
(iv) Give an account of the encounter between Baldeo and the tiger.
(v) How did the tiger die? Point out a similarity in the characters of Baldeo and his son Tembu. Give an example for each to justify your answer.
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उत्तर
(i) Baldeo’s duties were to see if the tunnel is obstruction-free before the arrival of the mail train. He also has to see if the signal lamp is burning at night. His son asked, “Shall I come too, father?”
(ii) The ax was small and looked fragile. The ax-head was made of pure steel. It was made over a charcoal fire by his father.
(iii) The frightened cry of a barking deer followed by a crashing sound in the undergrowth made Baldeo realize that the tiger was close by.
He was worried because in the hut his son Tembu was sleeping unprotected.
The tiger didn’t fear the man as it was used to the ways of man as it has been preying on them for years.
(iv) The tiger pounced upon him with its right paw, Baldeo leaped and avoided the paw and brought his axe down on the animal’s shoulder. Unluckily the axe got stuck in the bone and so he was left without a weapon. The tiger roaring with pain sprang upon Baldeo, brought him down and tore his broken body and was killed.
(v) The tiger was wounded in the fight, as the train entered the cutting the tiger was trapped like the man. The flight was impossible though he ran as fast as his wounded leg could allow. At the next station, the driver was surprised to find a major portion of the tiger’s body. The tiger was cut off by the train.
Baldeo and his son Tembu both were brave and responsible. Immediately after his father’s death, Tembu takes over the responsibilities of his family. Baldeo was responsible and sincere towards his duties as a khalasi as well as a parent.
APPEARS IN
संबंधित प्रश्न
The Shehnai of Bismillah Khan Thinking about the text :
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(Bismillah Khan, A barber, Ali Bux) transformed the pungi into a shehnai.
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Listen to the poem.
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth,
And spotted the perils beneath.
All the toffees I chewed,
And the sweet sticky food,
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth.
I wish I'd been that much more willin'
When I had more tooth there than fillin'
To pass up gobstoppers.
From respect to me choppers,
And to buy something else with me shillin'.
When I think of the lollies I licked,
And the liquorice all sorts I picked,
Sherbet dabs, big and little,
All that hard peanut brittle,
My conscience gets horribly pricked.
My mother, she told me no end.
'If you got a tooth, you got a friend.'
I was young then, and careless,
My toothbrush was hairless,
I never had much time to spend.
Oh, I showed them the toothpaste all right,
I flashed it about late at night,
But up-and-down brushin'
And pokin' and fussin'
Didn't seem worth time-I could bite!
If I'd known, I was paving the way
To cavities, caps and decay,
The murder of fillin's
Injections and drillin's,
I'd have thrown all me sherbet away.
So I lay in the old dentist's chair,
And I gaze up his nose in despair,
And his drill it do whine,
In these molars of mine.
"Two amalgum," he'll say, "for in there."
How I laughed at my mother's false teeth,
As they foamed in the waters beneath.
But now comes the reckonin'
It's me they are beckonin'
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth.
About the Poet
Pam Ayres (1947- ) is a contemporary writer, a great entertainer who writes and performs
comic verse. She started writing poems and verses as a hobby and has appeared in every
major TV show in the U.K. She has published six books of poems, and cut seven record
albums including a collection of 50 best known poems.
"My father lived at Blenheim then,
Yon little stream hard by;
They burnt his dwelling to the ground,
And he was forced to fly;
So with his wife and child he fled,
Nor had he where to rest his head.
"With fire and sword the country round
Was wasted far and wide,
And many a childing mother then,
And new-born baby died;
But things like that, you know, must be
At every famous victory;
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
What does Kasper’s attitude signify?
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good , what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr.Tod,the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin,Pigling Bland,
And Mrs.Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr.Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
Read the lines given above and answer the question given below.
To which author does Dahl pay a tribute?
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in springhtly dance.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
What is being compared to the stars and why ?
During the 1760 and 1770s, it became common to pitch the ball through the air. What changes it brought in to the game of cricket?
Do you think the man would ever come back to pick up the watch?
If you were a baby crocodile, would you tell Makara that he was wrong? What would you say to convince him?
Answer the question.
What does he imagine about
The people with whom they live?
