Q3 of 39 Page 88

Tick the right answer. What is the tone of the author when he says the following?

(i) The thud and the jingle of the traditional baker’s bamboo can still be heard in some places. (Nostalgic, hopeful, sad)


(ii) Maybe the father is not alive but the son still carries on the family profession. (Nostalgic, hopeful, sad)


(iii) I still recall the typical fragrance of those loaves. (Nostalgic, hopeful, naughty)


(iv) The tiger never brushed his teeth. Hot tea could wash and clean up everything so nicely, after all. (Naughty, angry, funny)


(v) Cakes and bolinhas are a must for Christmas as well as other festivals.


(Sad, hopeful, matter-of-fact)


(vi) The baker and his family never starved. They always looked happy and prosperous. (Matter-of-fact, hopeful, sad)

(i) nostalgic


Meaning: Feeling of nostalgia/remembrance


(ii) hopeful, nostalgic


(iii) nostalgic


(iv) funny


(v) matter-of-fact


(vi) matter-of-fact.


More from this chapter

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1

Which of these statements are correct?

(i) The pader was an important person in the village in old times.


(ii) Paders still exist in Goan villages.


(iii) The paders went away with the Portuguese.


(iv) The paders continue to wear a single-piece long frock.


(v) Bread and cakes were an integral part of Goan life in the old days.


(vi) Traditional bread-baking is still a very profitable business.


(vii) Paders and their families starve in the present times.

 2

Is bread an important part of goan life? How do you now this?

 1

In the extract, the author talks about traditional bread-baking during his childhood days. Complete the following table with the help of the clues on the left. Then write a paragraph about the author’s childhood days.



























Clues



Author’s childhood days



The way bread was baked




The way the pader sold bread




What the pader wore




When the pader was paid




How the pader looked



 2

Compare the piece from the text (on the left below) with the other piece on Goan bakers (on the right). What makes the two texts so different? Are the facts the same? Do both writers give you a picture of the baker?

Our elders are often heard remniscing nostalgically about those good old Portuguese days, the Portuguese and their famous loaves of bread. Those eaters of loaves might have vanished but the makers are still there. We still have amongst us the mixers, the moulders and those who bake the loaves. Those age-old, time-tested furnaces still exist. The fire in the furnaces had not yet been extinguished. The thud and the jingle of the traditional baker’s bamboo, heralding his arrival in the morning, can still be heard in some places.


May be the father is not alive, but the son still carries on the family profession.

After Goa’s liberation, people used to say nostalgically that the Portuguese bread vanished with the paders. But the paders have managed to survive because they have perfected the art of door-to-door delivery service. The paders pick up the knowledge of bread making from traditions in the family. The leavened, oven-baked bread is a gift of the Portuguese to India.


[adapted from Nanda Kumar Kamat’s ‘The Unsung Lives of Gaon Paders’]