Answer any four of the following questions in 30 – 40 words each :

(a) What a thunderclap these words were to me! (Franz). What were those words and what was their effect on Franz?

(b) Why did Douglas fail to come to the surface of the pool as he hoped to?

(c) What was Kamala Das’s childhood fear?

(d) How is the Earth a source of life when all seems dead on it? (Keeping Quiet)

(e) How does Mr. Lamb react when Derry enters his garden?

(f) Which problem did the Maharaja face when he had killed seventy tigers? How did he solve it?

(a) Franz saw a huge crowd in front of the bulletin board while passing by the town hall. He immediately recalled that the last time anything was put up on the bulletin board was at the time of war. He was disturbed because it was a sign of some bad news. When he reached his classroom, he was surprised to see that everyone was sitting in pin drop silence whereas usually there were sounds of the opening and closing of desks, rapping of the ruler and children repeating in loud voices. Even M. Hamel was dressed in his favourite outfit which he wore only on special days or events. All the children were seated in the front rows and the elders were sitting in the last row. At this time, M. Hamel announced that it was their last French lesson and that the order had come to teach only German from the next day. These words were a thunderclap to Franz.

(b) Douglas was driven by the motive to learn swimming following the misadventure at the California beach where he went with his father. He went to the YMCA pool to learn swimming where a bully came to him when he was sitting at the deep end of the pool. He made fun of his body and skinny legs and pushed him into the pool without knowing that he did not know how t swim. He sunk into the water but remained conscious and planned that he would push back from the floor of the water, come to the surface and paddle to the shallow end. He reached and bottom and made a big jump but not big enough to reach back the surface. He came up but only up to his nose took a breath and went back into the water. He still didn’t lose hope and tried again but even this time he couldn’t come out fully and when he went down into the water again his limbs were paralyzed and lungs filled with water as he was seized with panic and lost consciousness.

(c) The poet talks about the hard truth that everyone who is born in this world must go some day. The childhood fear that disturbs her is of losing her mother. The inevitable phenomenon is what she cannot accept as any other child wouldn’t be able to. While driving to the airport when she observes her mother dozing off with her mouth open she compares her face to a corpse as she feels an old familiar ache. The pain and fear of separation is dominant throughout the poem. Even after the airport’s security check the poet couldn’t hold back her feeling and all she did was bid farewell with a smile trying to assure herself that she will be able to meet her mother again. This poem expresses the mother-daughter relationship and the love and affection that the two share.

(d) Earth teaches us the lesson of life under stillness. It shows that stillness doesn’t imply inactivity or death. Objects that seem to be dead or inactive later prove to be alive. People assume inactive things to be dead but just like the Earth is also rotating despite its stillness it proves that there is life in stillness. Nature is the example of things that now seem to be dead but later becomes alive. Like the eggs laid by the bird are still until they get the required warmth and a little bird pops out of it. Another example can be of a seed which when sown in the soil seems to be still but during the spring season it grows out with beautiful leaves and flowers.

(e) Mr. Lamb owned an apple garden and left the gates open for trespassers. He loved nature and would spend all his time taking care of his garden and made jellies from the apple. One day Derry entered the garden by climbing the wall assuming that there was no one living there. Mr. Lamb had seen him enter and when Derry saw him he started justifying himself by saying that he did not intend to steal anything. Mr. Lamb assured him that he could stay there for as long as he wanted and also informed him that the gates to his garden were always left open. He was very generous and accommodating towards Derry. Mr. Lamb also asks Derry to be careful with the apples or else he could trip and asked for his help in collecting crab apples.

(f) The Maharaja of Pratibandapuram had only one endeavor that was to kill 100 tigers and prove that the prophecy of the astrologer’s was wrong. He killed 70 tigers in his territory despite all challenges that came his way. But after this tigers started disappearing from his territory and he could not hunt them anymore. So he decided to marry a princess from a Kingdom where he could hunt tigers. He successfully found such a Princess and got married to her. He would then use the excuse of meeting his father-in-law and would go for hunting at least 5 to 6 tigers in each visit. In this way he completed hunting 99 tigers.