6.

The Ghat of the only World

-Amitav Ghosh
MAIN POINTS:
• SHAHID is an expatriate who hails from Kashmir. He has been described as a
‘gregarious’ (very social) person who is very fond of throwing parties at his home in
Brooklyn where he moved to in 1975.
• He is diagnosed with cancer. But even in his last days he likes to be surrounded by
friends and family members. He still enjoys get-togethers. He has a keen taste for food
and can tell by the aroma about the stage of each meal being cooked. Amitav's memoir
inspires each one of us to live life one day at a time. He comes across as a fun-loving
personality who loves his homeland deeply.
• Shahid is very patriotic and secular. He doesn't believe in boundaries created by religion.
He has imbibed these qualities from his parents. As a child, he had built a small temple
in a corner of his house. His parents too supported him
• Amitav Ghosh came in touch with him during his graduation years at Delhi University
due to their common love for poetry.
• Both of them cross paths again when Amitav too migrates to America. They become
close friends owing to shared love for Kashmiri food-Roganjosh, old Bollywood movies
and poetry.
• Shahid suffers from a sudden blackout in February 2000. Soon it is discovered that he
is suffering from a malignant brain tumor. Shahid is aware about the fact that he has
only numbered days left in the world. But that doesn't change his spirit.
• In a very casual manner he asks Amitav to write a story on him. Amitav is taken for a
surprise at this unusual request. Unable to refuse he starts keeping a record of each
and every call and meeting with Shahid. Shahid's health declines continually as the
tumor grows inside his brain but he becomes livelier with every passing day.
• Finally he surrenders before the disease after struggling for several months.

REFERENCE TO CONTEXT : EXTRACT 1

1. Although Shahid and I had talked a great deal over the last many weeks, I had never
before head him touch on the subject of death. I did not know how to respond. His
voice was completely at odds with the content of what he had just said, light to the point
of jocularity.

XI – English 264

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 (i) Who is the speaker?
(a) Amitav Ghosh (b) Suketu Mehta
(c) Hena (d) Iqbal
(ii) What has taken the narrator by surprise?
(a) Sudden news about Shahid’s declining health
(b) The playfulness with which declares that he won’t live long
(c) The serious tone in which shahid declares that he won’t live long
(d) All of the above
(iii) Tick the synonym of “Humourousness”.
(a) Odds (b) Great deal
(c) Respond (d) Jocularity
2. Shahid’s gregariousness had no limit: there was never an evening when there wasnt a
party in his living room. ‘I love it that so many people are here,’ he told me once. ‘I
love it that people come and there’s always food. I love this spirit of festivity; it means
that I don’t have time to be depressed.
(i) What do you learn about Shahid’s nature from these lines?
(A) Shahid is very social and likes to be surrounded by people
(B) Shahid is fond of food and good company
(C) Shahid likes to be left alone to brood over his illness
(D) both (a) and (b)
(ii) Tick the statement which is true about the narrator.
(A) Narrator has very keen observation skills and he notes even the minutest
things spoken by Shahid.
(B) Narrator is a friend of shahid and yet he writes all facts about him from a
detached perspective to keep his account objective.
(C) Narrator understands all the emotions that Shahid has left unexpressed or
unspoken
(D) All of the above
(iii) Which word from the paragraph means the opposite of “Aloof or reserved in
nature” -
(A) Spirit (B) Festivity
(C) Gregarious (D) Depressed

265 XI – English

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 Q1. According to the author, what was the most impressive work of Shahid?
A. Barcelona Airport
B. His writings of Kashmir
C. The Country without a Post-Office
D. None of the above
Q2. When did Shahid and the author become friends in a real sense?
A. When they studied in the Delhi University
B. When Shahid moved to Brooklyn
C. When the author moved to Manhattan
D. When a common friend introduced them to each other
Q3. Shahid and the author had shared love for ___________ .
A. Rogan josh
B. Kishore Kumar
C. Roshnara Begum
D. All of the above
Q4. The author has described Shahid as a ___________ person.
A. unsociable
B. pessimistic
C. sociable
D. None of the above
Q5. As a teacher, Shahid was _________ by his students.
A. disliked
B. adored
C. envied
D. worshipped

XI – English 266

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 SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS (2 MARKS EACH)
Q1. Who was Shahid?
Ans. Shahid was from Sringar, Kashmir. He studied in Delhi. He was an academician, a
creative writer and a very popular and learned teacher of English literature. He settled
in America. He was a gregarious being. There was never an evening when there
wasn’t a party in his living room. He suffered from brain tumour.
Q2. What promise did the writer make with Shahid? How did he fulfil it?
Ans. Writer promised Shahid to fulfil his wish to write something about him after his death.
To fulfill his wish the writer, Amitav, used to keep a record of all the conversations and
meetings he had with Shahid. This record helped him to fulfil his promise.

USE THE GIVEN NOTES TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. When did Shahid talk about his approaching death for the first time? What had
happened to him?
2. How did Shahid want to be remembered after his death?
3. What promise did the writer make with Shahid? How did he fulfill it?
4. What was common between Shahid and the author?
5. Why did Shahid have a special passion for Kashmiri food in Pandit style?
6. Give two instances from the text to show that Shahid was gregarious by nature?
7. How did Shahid’s upbringing help him in developing a secular outlook?
8. How did author feel after Shahid’s death?
9. What different aspects of Shahid’s character do you gather from the Lesson “he
Ghat of the only World”?
10. What is mean by ‘diaspora’? What do you learn about Indian diaspora from the
lesson ‘The ghat of the only world”?
11. Justify the title of the Lesson ‘The Ghat of the only World’?

267 XI – English

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