These books contained wonderful stories about

huge monsters, gypsies, queens and princesses,

whales and treasure islands. In some of these
stories the smugglers and sea-robbers used to
operate in boats with covered oars. There were
stories about elephants and the cannibals. The
cannibals used to eat a very sweet smelling dish
named after Penelope, the faithful wife of Odysseus
in Homer’s epic poem ‘The Odyssey’. The children
who read about it wondered what the dish could be.

Lines 62-69
Small children were fond of the stories of the famous
English writer Beatrix Potter. The stories were about
Mr. Tod and his dirty dog, the squirrel Nutkin, the
small pig named Bland or about Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle.
These stories were fascinating. They were about the
camel’s getting the hump on his back or about the
monkey losing the rear part of his hairy body. There
was a story about Mr. Toad, Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole.
Obviously these are the stories which fascinated all
children before the invention of television.
Lines 70-79
Long ago, children used to read a lot of books.
Therefore, the poet’s plea to parents is to throw
away the television set and in its place on the wall
install a bookshelf, and fill it with books. Children
would protest, would be angry, could make dirty and
angry faces, could cry loudly and might even bite,
kick and hit the elders with sticks. Parents should
ignore their reactions for their ultimate benefit.
Lines 80-85
The poet persuades parents to remove the television
set without any fear. He assures them that their
children having nothing to do would begin to feel the
need to read something in about a week. Once they
begin to read, they would take to reading
voraciously.
Lines 86-93
The poet is in an assuring mood. He tells the
parents that once the television set is removed and
the children start reading books, the children would
be so much enamoured of books that they would
begin to wonder why they used to watch the stupid
‘machine’. They would find the television set
‘nauseating, foul and repulsive’. Later, they would
love their parents for replacing the television set with
books.