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

Those who prepare green wars, wars with gas, wars with fire,

victory with no survivors, would put on clean clothes

and walk about with their brothers in the shade, doing nothing.

(a) Who are ‘those’ in line 1?

(b) What are ‘green wars’?

(c) Explain : ‘victory with no survivors’.

(d) What is the significance of: ‘put on clean clothes’?

OR

And yet, for these

Children, these windows, not this map, their world.

Where all their future’s painted with a fog,

A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky

Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.

(a) Who are these children?

(b) What future do these children have in store for themselves?

(c) What does ‘lead sky’ symbolize?

(d) What facilities are these children deprived of?

(a) ‘Those’ refers to the people who destroy the natural greenery of the earth by practices such as deforestation, mining, fishing and pollution as well as the soldiers who fight in wars with gas and fire and end up killing their fellow brothers, with the result that neither side is victorious when it comes to life and happiness.

(b) Through ‘green wars’ the poet is referring to the constant hardships man is imposing on nature, which is signified as green, by acts of pollution, deforestation, mining and exploitation of other natural resources. These actions have led to a situation similar to a war where is only loss of life and no positive outcome for either side, which in this case are nature and man.

(c) The poet has tried to convey the harsh reality of wars, be they between men and men or men and nature. A war leads only to loss of life and destruction, and never entails victory for any of the sides in real spirit. No matter who wins or loses, the actual consequence is misery and death. Even the winning side is left with no survivors for the men have died fighting or succumb to their injuries after winning the battle. In the case of man’s hardships on nature, even if man considers himself successful after having destroyed nature for his selfish purposes, he ends up on the losing side after more and more men have to give up their life because of the consequences of nature’s despair.

(d) Through the phrase ‘put on new clothes’ the poet has tried to denote a metaphor. He wishes to convey the idea of starting a new life by the use of the expression of putting on new clothes. He means to say that the very people who are causing either through wars or through nature’s damage can leave these actions behind and adopt a new approach to life that can bring about peace and fraternity for all.

OR

(a) These children are poor slum-dwellers, who attend classes in a school situated within the slum itself. They do not have access to proper facilities nor happy dreams, and they are forced to live their life in the dark shadows and dingy lanes of the slums.

(b) It seems like the future of the children dwelling in the slum is dim and hopeless. They do not have much options to lead a happy life within these slums or in the kind of content and comfort that they desire. The future that lies ahead of them is dark and full of dismay.

(c) The lead sky symbolises the darkness and dullness that enshrouds the lives of children dwelling in the slums, where they are gripped with several vices such as malnutrition, abuse and crime. Their future is dark and is comparable to the dull and dark appearance of lead.

(d) These children are deprived of any of the basic necessities that children their age receive or are entitled to receive elsewhere. They are denied proper education under trained teachers. They are denied a healthy and hygienic living environment as they are forced to spend their life in the dark and dingy lanes of the slums. They are deprived of clean drinking water and adequate healthy food. They are also deprived the right or opportunity to see big dreams and fulfil them.