Q1 of 14 Page 100

Have you ever stopped at a roadside stand? What have you observed there?

Yes, I did stop at a roadside stand sometimes. There I observed some people selling fresh vegetables and fruits by keeping them in bamboo weaved baskets. That store doesn’t seem like a store, it’s just a big cloth, whose four corners are tied to four supports, which lie over their head and protect them from sun. Those people say a price and wouldn’t mind in travelling down an extra mile if we buy a dozen instead of two.


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1

The city folk who drove through the countryside hardly paid any heed to the roadside stand or to the people who ran it. If at all they did, it was to complain. Which lines bring this out? What was their complaint about?

 2

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

 3

The government and other social service agencies appear to help the poor rural people but actually, do them no good. Pick out the words and phrases that the poet uses to show their double standards ?

 4

What is the ‘childish longing’ that the poet refers? Why is it in ‘vain’?