Question

Answer any three of the following in 30-40 words each:

(a) Why has the poet’s mother been compared to the ‘late winter’s moon’?

(b) The poet says, ‘And yet, for these Children, these windows, not this map, their world.’ Which world do these children belong to? Which world is inaccessible to them?

(c) What was the plea of the folk who had put up the roadside stand?

(d) What will happen to Aunt Jennifer’s tigers when she is dead?

Answer 1

(a) The poet compares her mother with the ‘late winter’s moon’ to indicate her approaching death. Winter, being the last season of the year, is synonymous with lifelessness and dormancy. Besides, a winter’s moon is pale-white, resembling her mother who looks ’wan’ and ‘pale’.

(b) The poverty-stricken and neglected kids belong to the world of slums.

The world that is inaccessible to them is the one represented by the pictures that hang on their classroom wall − the world of honour, education, civility, beauty and vastness.

(c) The poor farmers pleaded the passerby city dwellers to stop at their roadside stalls and buy something so that they too get a chance to earn their living and also to be able of afford some comfort in life.

(d) Even though death would not be able to free Aunt Jennifer from the shackles of her oppressive marriage, the tigers created by her will still prance with pride and fearlessness.