Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali 

Rabīndranāth Ṭhākur, (born May 7,

1861, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—died August 7, 1941, Calcutta), Bengali poet,
short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who introduced
new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature,
thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly
influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is
generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th-century India. In
1913 he became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The son of the religious reformer Debendranath Tagore, he early began to write

verses, and, after incomplete studies in England in the late 1870s, he returned to
India. There he published several books of poetry in the 1880s and
completed Manasi (1890), a collection that marks the maturing of his genius. It
contains some of his best-known poems, including many in verse forms new
to Bengali, as well as some social and political satire that was critical of his fellow
Bengalis.
 Vocation (poem)

1 . What did the child say about the hawker in the street?

Answer: The child said about the hawker in that street. The hawker was not in a hurry. There was no fixed time for
him to return to his home or no specific road he must go on.

2. What was the activity of the watchman?

Answer: The activity of the watchman was that he used to walk on the dark and lonely lane with his lantern in his
hand. He was following his shadow at one side according to the child. He never went to bed in his life.

3. What is the life style led by the hawker, the watchman and the gardener?

Answer: The hawker the watchman and the gardener are doing their vocational duties. They are leading their life
the way they want to. There are no restrictions on them. They are leading a free lip.

4. Who is the speaker in the poem? Who are the people the speaker meets? What are they doing?

Answer: A small child, who does not know what life is and what are exact vocations one should follow, is the
speaker of this poem. First he met hawker, then a gardener and lastly the watchman. The hawker was selling
bangles, the gardener was digging the ground and watchman was standing guarding the whole night.

5. What sort of life does the child wish for?

Answer: The child wishes for a carefree life with no restrictions like that of a hawker, a gardener or a watchman
who don’t have to bother about returning home on time, or getting scolded for soiling clothes, or going to bed.

6. Explain the following lines in your own words: (a) Nobody takes him to task, if he gets baked in the sun
or gets wet. (b) Chasing the shadows with my lantern.

Answer: (a) The poet means to say that nobody scolds the gardener for soiling his clothes, or sitting in the sun,
digging the soil or getting wet in the rain. (b) When the watchman walks swinging his lantern, the shadows fall by
his side and appear to walk with him. The watchman seems to be following the shadow.

7. Why did the child think that the life of others is interesting?

Answer: The child thought other’s life more interesting because he was under strict control of his family. He was
not allowed to move anywhere at his will and return home according to his own will. He was fed up with his life
due to the restrictions imposed on him. He did not like these restrictions It was his thinking that the hawker,
gardener and watchman were very happy as they could do things at their own wish. They could go anywhere at
any time without any restrictions. This is the reason why the child wanted to exchange his life with that of the
hawker, the gardener and the watchman to become free from the restrictions.
(i) The speaker is a little child who goes to school. On his way to the school, he met a hawker, who cried “Bangles, crystal bangles!”
When he returned from school, he watched a gardener, who was digging the ground. When it got dark and his mother sent him to bed,
through his window he saw the watchman walking up and down.

(ii) The child in the poem wants to be a hawker, a gardener, and a watchman. When he looks at the hawker, he wishes he could also
spend his day on the road crying “Bangles, crystal bangles!” He feels that there is nothing to hurry the hawker on. There is no road he
must take, no place he must go to, and no fixed time when he must come home. These are the things that he cannot do himself and
therefore, he wants to be a hawker so that he could do all these things. Next, he wishes he was a gardener because a gardener does
what he likes with his spade. He soils his clothes with dust. Nobody scolds him if he gets baked in the sun or gets wet. Therefore, if the
little child was a gardener, nobody would stop him from digging. Finally, he sees the watchman and wants to be like the watchman so
that he could walk through dark and lonely streets all night with his lantern and chase shadows. When he is put to bed and is not
allowed to roam outside, he sees the watchman swinging his lantern with his shadow at his side and he feels that the watchman never
even once has to go to bed in his entire life. Therefore, he wants to be a hawker, a gardener, and a watchman so that he could do all
the things they did as he could not do them being a child.

iii

The child must The child must not

Come home at a fixed

Get his clothes dirty in the dust
time

Go to bed when it got dark Get baked in the sun or get wet

Walk on dark and lonely streets at

Go to school everyday
nig

How that you have read and understood the lesson, can you answer these

questions? You can put a ( ) on the right answer.

Question 1:
1. Why did all the children hate Hari?
(i) Because he would not talk to anyone.
(ii) Because he always pinched them.
(iii) Because he loved stealing their food.

2. “Nobody took Hari’s hand. Nobody went near him. Nobody played with him.” This shows that Hari
had
(i) many friends.
(ii) few friends.
(iii) no friends.

3. Which of the following actions would make a friendly person? Write them down.
• Respecting other people.
• Eating a small child’s tiffin.
• Calling people rude names.
• Pushing a smaller boy and making him cry.
• Being helpful to everyone.
• Helping your classmates in school.
• Mocking at friends and hurting their feelings.
• Protecting a weaker person.

Answer :
1. (ii) Because he always pinched them.

2. (ii) no friends

3. The following actions would make a friendly person: -

• Respecting other people. 

• Being helpful to everyone. 

• Helping your classmates in school.

• Protecting a weaker person. 

Vocabulary
Question 1: Find out words which are opposites or are closest to being the opposites of the words
given below. Then write down the opposites in the grid.
Down Across
1. smile 3. quiet
2. happy 5. punish
4. strong

Answer :

1. SCOWL
2. MISERABLE
3. NOISY
4. WEAK
5. REWARD
Question 2: Hari was pinched till he was black and blue. ‘Black and blue’ means (i) Hari fell down in
pain. (ii) there were bruises on his body. (iii) Hari painted himself in colours. (iv) Hari had a black and
blue shirt.
Answer : (ii) there were bruises on his body.

Question 3: ‘I shan’t pinch anyone anymore’. Shan’t means.

(i) shall
(ii) should
(iii) shall not
(iv) will not
Answer :
(iii) shall not

Question 4: Give the full forms of:- won’t _______

weren’t ________
wouldn’t _________
couldn’t _________
Answer :
won’t will not
weren’t were not
wouldn’t would not
couldn’t could not

Question 5: A girl was sitting quietly beside him. Hari leapt to his feet, crying loudly.
The words quietly and loudly tell us how an action is being done.
Find five more words ending in -ly which denote how something is done.
(i) _______ ly
(ii) ________ ly
(iii) _______ ly
(iv) _______ ly
(v) _______ ly
Answer :
(i) smoothly
(ii) happily
(iii) logically
(iv) certainly
(v) finally

Question 5: (page 142)Add -ly to the following words

 clear merry weary double
dreary bright bad fond
Answer :
clearly merrily wearily doubly
drearily brightly badly fondly

Question 5: : (page 142) Now can you make sentences with these words?
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________
Answer :
1) Nothing was clearly visible due to the fog.
2) Stop thinking about tomorrow and spend today merrily.
3) He replied to my question wearily on returning from office.
4) You should be doubly careful while working with sharp tools.
5) Steven walked drearily being disappointed by his failure.
6) The stars are shining brightly in the sky.
7) Still, I don’t think of him badly, but he has to improve his ways.
8) She remembered her aunt fondly for she will not her while she studies abroad.

Fun with Words

Question 1: Let’s practice with and P and F.
pleased pricked pinched punished
fat fruit fell forgotten
palm pair proud parade
farm fare frown fish
(Note: Students should read the given words and focus on the P and F sound)

Question 2: Complete the blanks with rhyming words of the following and practice aloud.
bruise c__________ creatures fe__________
carriage m _________ teachers pr__________
prawn d__________ vowed c___________
Answer :
bruise cruise creatures features
carriage marriage teachers preachers
prawn dawn vowed crowed
 Let’s practise some writing
Question 1: How did the seaside creatures, the crab, the lobster etc. teach Hari a lesson? Write in a
few lines.
___________________________
___________________________
___________________________
Answer :
The seaside creatures, the crab, the lobster etc. taught Hari a lesson in a unique way. They pinched
his hands with their claws and made him realise how it hurts. Their pinches hurt Hari so much that it
reminded him how the other children felt when Hari pinched them.

Question 2: Read these sentences carefully.

I ate an apple.
A boy is standing under the tree.
The sun rises in the east.
A and an do not point out any definite or particular person or thing whereas, the is used when we
speak of some particular person or thing.
A, an and the are called articles.
Remember an is used before words beginning with a vowel a, e, i, o, u.

Now fill in the blanks with appropriate articles.

(i) Hari was ______ unpopular boy.
(ii) The boys and girls went to _______ seaside for a picnic.

(iii) He saw ______ big crab coming towards him.

(iv) I found______ empty bottle, floating in the water.
(v) _____ sea creatures ate his food.
Answer :
(i) Hari was an unpopular boy.
(ii) The boys and girls went to the seaside for a picnic.
(iii) He saw a big crab coming towards him.
(iv) I found an empty bottle, floating in the water.
(v) The sea creatures ate his food.

Question 3: A crab has a hard shell whereas a frog does not have one. There are many animals that
protect themselves from their enemies with their outer cover/shells/quills.
In the box given below are the names of some animals. Encircle the ones that can protect themselves
with their hard cover.
crocodile snail lizard snake
turtle tortoise gorilla frog
hedgehog porcupine
Now paste/draw the picture of any one animal. Write five lines about it. ______________
______________
______________
______________
______________

Answer :

Snails are also called slugs. It can be found in various places like ditches desserts or a forest. It lives
inside a shell. It moves very slowly. The body of the snail inside the shell is very soft, so the shell is
used for protection. There are different types of snails.
(Note: Students can add an image and write their own answer for the above question)

Question 4: Can you tell the difference between a turtle and a tortoise? Write a few lines.

Answer :
1) Tortoise have a longer life span that lasts 150 years whereas turtles live somewhere around 40
years only.
2) Turtle’s shell is comparatively lighter than that of the tortoise.
3) Turtles are omnivorous but a tortoise is known to be herbivorous in nature.
4) Turtles can live both on land and water, whereas tortoises live entirely above water.
5) Unlike the tortoise, turtles have a flat back, but the former has a rounder back.

Question 5: Describe what is happening in the picture. Use is/are and ____ ing to make your
sentences. Clues are given in the box.

swing sit climb

lick slid kick

For example, Krishna is swinging.

(i) Mary ________ up the slide.
(ii) Hari ________ and boxing her.
(iii) Little Bitoo ________ a lollipop.
(iv) Rita ________ down the slide.
Answer :
(i) Mary is climbing up the slide.
(ii) Hari is kicking and boxing her.
(iii) Little Bitoo is licking a lollipop.
(iv) Rita is sliding down the slide

Question 5: Imagine what the children will do in the playground tomorrow. You can take some hints
from the words given in the box. e.g. John will play kabaddi tomorrow.
play football jump
 race badminton run
(i) Hari will play football tomorrow.
(ii) Rita will run after the rabbit.
(iii) Little Bitoo will race with his friends.
(iv) Mary will play badminton with Hari.
(v) Mary will try to jump off the swing tomorrow.
(Note: Students should attempt the above question on their own.)

Let’s be creative and talk

Question 1: Work in groups of four. See the picture of a shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean.
Suppose you went deep-sea diving. What would you find? Think of all the words that come to your
mind, then build a paragraph. Share your story with other groups.

Answer :
If I had the opportunity, I would go deep-sea diving accompanied by a guide. I would be amazed to
experience the diverse form of life deep down the sea. There were so many creatures like octopus,
sea horse, starfish that I have only seen in books or videos. I would feel afraid yet at the same time
excited to touch some of them. Then I would come across a jewellery box filled with precious stones
of many colours. I would be so tempted to see the box, but then I wouldn’t touch as it is not my own. I
would swim towards the shipwreck and check the interior of the ship if the guide would allow me to.
But after a while, I would come up as instructed by my guide. It would be an unforgettable experience
for me.
(Note: Students should attempt the above question on their own.)