The Shehnai of Bismillah Khan
An English teaching blog by Poornima Singh - Let’s learn English in a professional & interesting way
Friday 29 May 2020
Sound of Music Part 2
The Shehnai of Bismillah Khan
Wednesday 27 May 2020
Wind Class 9
Don’t throw down the books
crumbling houses, crumbling doors, crumbling rafters – Repetition
Video on Road not Taken
Video on the poem 'Wind'
https://youtu.be/NDiJL-Lu-dM
RTC 1
Wind, come softly.
Don’t break the shutters of the windows.
Don’t scatter the papers.
Don’t throw down the books on the shelf
a. How does a violent wind disturb and damage things?
b. What request does the poet make to the wind?
c. Which poetic device has been used in these lines?
d. What effect does this device create?
RTC II
There, look what you did — you threw them all down.
You tore the pages of the books.
You brought rain again.
You’re very clever at poking fun at weaklings
a. Whom does the poet address as ‘you’?
b. What does ‘them’ refer to?
c. How have the pages of the books been torn?
d. How does the wind bring rain?
e. How does the wind deal with the weaklings?
RTC III
Frail crumbling houses, crumbling doors, crumbling rafters, crumbling wood, crumbling bodies, crumbling lives, crumbling hearts —
the wind god winnows and crushes them all.
a. Why are the houses, doors, rafters, etc. crumbling?
b. Explain the expression, “crumbling lives, crumbling hearts”.
c. Why has the wind been called ‘god’?
d. What does the wind god do?
Answers:
RTC 1
Ans a. Strong winds uproot trees, breaks the windows and houses, dashes the rafters and throws away the things that come in its way.
Ans b. The poet requests the wind to blow softly and not to break the doors and throw his books and other things.
Ans c. Personification and apostrophe
Ans d. Use of personification presents wind as a living one with whom the poet can converse and who is presented as a god.
RTC 2
Ans a. Wind is addressed as ‘You’.
Ans b. ‘Them’ refers to poet’s books.
Ans c. The harsh winds have torn the pages of the books.
Ans d. Strong winds make the clouds float vigorously in the sky and make them pour down. After heavy and strong winds there comes rain.
Ans e. The wind breaks weak things, uproots weak trees and makes the weak hearts tremble and feel scared.
RTC 3
Ans a. The weak houses, doors, rafters are crumbling as they can’t resist strong winds.
Ans b . The crumbling lives are the people who suffer and break down due to the devastations caused by stormy wind and crumbling hearts refer to the people with frail heart and infirm minds who get crushed in the adversities.
Ans c. Wind has been called ‘god’ as wind tests human beings and gives us opportunities helps us become stronger.
Ans d. Wind god separates the weak people from the stronger ones by giving adversities.
Tuesday 19 May 2020
The Lost Child
Q3. The kind hearted stranger tried his best to calm
down the lost child but failed. Why did the child remain inconsolable?
Ans. The kind hearted stranger in the fair tried to
pacify the child by asking him if he would take a ride in roundabout but the
child requested the stranger to take him to his parents only. Moving ahead the
stranger offered the child to enjoy the dance of snake, take balloons, buy a
garland and eat burfi, his favourite sweet. But, the child remained
inconsolable and each time, crying bitterly, he said, ‘I want my father, I want
my mother.’ Nothing except his parents could console him.
Q4. How did the child react when there was no sign
of his parents?
Ans. When the child realised that he is lost, crying
loudly he ran in all the directions to search his parents. He got inside a
crowd of people near a shrine to look for his parents. His turban got untied
and clothes became spoiled. Sweating badly and weeping bitterly he called out
‘mother’ and ‘father’. When he was about to be crushed under the feet of crowd,
he was lifted up by a kind man. When he offered the child his favourite things
in the fair, he cried, ‘I want my mother, I want my father’.
Friday 15 May 2020
Sound of Music - Part One
Notes