Unit III

Reading Comprehension

I Short Stories

1. An Astrologer’s Day

Short Answer Type Question

Qu. 1 Who was the astrologer? Why did he leave his house?
Ans. The astrologer was the son of a farmer. He left his house because he thought that he had murdered a
man. So he left his home without telling anybody.
Qu. 2 What advice did the astrologer give the stranger?
Ans. The astrologer told the stranger that his enemy had died long before and advised him not to leave his
home in search of him.
Qu. 3 Why did the astrologer advised the stranger never to travel southward?
Ans. The astrologer advised the stranger never to travel southward because he lived in this direction
himself and he was his enemy.
Qu. 4 How did the astrologer please and astonish his customers?
Ans. The astrologer pleased and astonished his customers by his statements which were the result of his
study, practice and shrewd guesswork.
Qu. 5 How much money did the astrologer charge per question?
Ans. The astrologer charged only three pies per question.
Qu. 6 What was the name of the stranger?
Ans. The name of the stranger was Guru Nayak.
Qu. 7 What did the woman propose to buy the next day?
Ans. The woman proposed to buy some jaggery and coconut the next day.
Qu. 8 How much night had passed when the astrologer reached home?
Ans. When the astrologer reached home, half of the night had passed.
Qu. 9 How many annas did the astrologer give to his wife?
Ans. The astrologer gave twelve and a half annas to his wife.
Qu. 10 What was the load on the astrologer?
Ans. The astrologer had a load of wrong notion that he had killed a man.
Que11. Who is the writer of An Astrologer’s Day
Ans: R.K. Narayan
Long Answer TypeQuestion

Q1. Write, in brief a character-sketch of the astrologer?

Ans. The astrologer belonged to a village. His forefathers were farmers. He too would have become a
farmer if he had continued living in the village. He was then a silly youth. One day he drank,
gambled and quarrelled badly. He stabbed a man and left him for dead. He ran away to the town.
There he became an astrologer. However, he had no knowledge of astrology. He did his job
through guesswork only, yet he was very successful. He wore such a dress that he at once
attached the eyes of other. His forehead was marked with sacred ash and vermilion. He wore a
saffron-coloured turban round his head. The astrologer was very clever and tactful also. He always
said thing that pleased his customer. First, he would let a customer speak for at least ten minutes.
It gave him enough stuff for the answers. He would look at the palm of his customer and say,’’ you
are not getting the fullest result of your efforts,’’ or ‘There is a woman in your family, who is not
well-disposed toward you’ or ‘it is not your fault, but that of your stars.’’ Such answer at once
endeared the astrologer to his customers.

Que2. Write an Summary/plot of An Astrologer’s Day.

Ans. The story is about a man who makes a living as an astrologer, sitting under a tree in a busy street
every day and offering to tell the fortune of any passer-by who is willing to pay for him to do so.
However, the ‘astrologer’ in reality knows little of the stars, and instead tends to rely on shrewd
guesses, cold reading, and letting his clients talk for long enough for him to gain enough
background to their lives in order to create the illusion that he somehow knows things about them
which they have not told him.

He also tends to tell them things which he senses they want to hear, knowing that people are more
likely to be willing to hand over money to someone who tells them positive things rather than
someone who delivers bad news.

One night, as he is preparing to head home having finished his evening’s work, the astrologer spots
a man and invites him to sit with him and have his fortune read. However, the stranger calls into
doubt the astrologer’s abilities, and challenges him. He will give him an anna (one-sixteenth of a
rupee) but if the astrologer’s answer is unsatisfactory, the astrologer must pay him the anna back,
with interest.

They negotiate, and the stranger agrees to pay the astrologer eight annas if he gives him satisfactory
answers, but the astrologer must give the stranger more than that if he fails to prove his talents.

After an unpromising start, which fails to impress the stranger, the astrologer correctly identifies
that the man was stabbed and then thrown into a well, where he was left for dead. He also tells the
man his name, Guru Nayak. When Nayak asks the astrologer when he will meet the man who tried
to kill him so he can exact his revenge, the astrologer replies that the man died four months ago in a
far-off town.

The astrologer then tells Nayak to return home to his village and never leave again. If he does this,
he will live to be a hundred. Nayak is only too happy to agree to this, revealing that he only left his
village to try to locate the man who almost killed him. Now he knows the man is dead (the
astrologer tells him he was crushed under a lorry), he is satisfied.

When the astrologer arrives home to his wife, there is a twist. It turns out that he was the man who
attacked Guru Nayak and left him for dead. This is how he knew the man’s identity. He was able to
throw Nayak off the scent and save himself from the man’s vengeance, using his authority as an
astrologer to advise the man to return home.
Que3. Write an analysis of An Astrologer’s Day.

Ans3. Narayan’s story is a short tale with a twist, and its plot is neat in the way it brings together its
several strands. We learn at the end of ‘An Astrologer’s Day’ that the title character only left home
and became an astrologer in the first place because he feared he had killed Guru Nayak after they
drunkenly quarrelled. That one moment of anger determined the subsequent path of his life, and
forced him to move to a new town and to alter his identity, so nobody from his village would
chance to recognise him.

But he is able to recognise Guru Nayak when this figure from his youth turns up one night. Faced
with a tricky customer who is sceptical of his abilities (quite rightly, it turns out, since the
astrologer is essentially a blagger), he is backed into a corner and only saved from humiliation
when he recognises his client as the very figure from his past who had set his life on its subsequent
course.

This chance encounter is significant because, oddly enough, it ends up doing exactly what an
encounter with an astrologer is meant to do: it gives the client clarity regarding his future, and he
is now happy to return to his village, safe in the knowledge that his wrongdoer is dead. Of course,
this ‘knowledge’ is actually lies, but Narayan appears to be suggesting that the astrologer’s
actions, performed out of cowardice and a desire to save his own skin, also avert the wrongful
execution of vengeance. It is better for Guru Nayak to believe his would-be murderer dead and let
go of the past, after all these years.

Similarly, the astrologer’s recognition of Nayak enables him to assume the role of a genuine
astrologer, if only for one night, and speak with the air of an oracle or seer. Nayak is utterly
convinced that the man is genuine clairvoyant, after he revealed he knew so much about his life.
The astrologer is thus given a chance to be relieved of the burden of guilt he has carried around
with him for all these years.

In ‘An Astrologer’s Day’, Narayan makes effective use of light and dark symbolism. But
light can be misleading as well as illuminating. At the beginning of the story, Narayan’s third-
person narrator tells us that the ‘gleam’ in the astrologer’s eyes is often interpreted by clients as a
sign of his ‘prophetic light’, but is in reality his keen eyes searching for more customers. We are
told that the lack of ‘municipal lighting’ in the area is part of its charm: the light comes from the
nearby shops, and not all of these have their own lights, so the street is plunged in a curious
mixture of light and shadow.

This is symbolic of the story itself, where truth and lies, like those lights and shadows, are
conflated and confused. It is significant that it is when the stranger (later identified as Guru Nayak)
lights his cheroot pipe that the astrologer recognises him as the old associate from his past: the
light here illuminates his old adversary but Nayak himself remains in the dark concerning the true
identity of his interlocutor.
 2. ‘The Gift of the Magi’

Short Answer Type Question

Que1. What is Jim's full name?

Ans: Jim's full name is James Dillingham Young.
Que2. How much money had Della managed to save for Jim's present?
Ans: Della had managed to save one dollar and eighty-seven cents for Jim's present.
Que3. Who did she go to, to get money for Jim's present?
Ans: Della went to Madame Safronie to get money for Jim's present.
Que4. What was Jim's gift for Della?
Ans: Jim's gift for Della was a set of beautiful tortoiseshell combs, side and back that she
always longed for.
Que5. What was Della's treasured possession?
Ans: Della's treasured possession was her long and beautiful hair, rippling and shining like a
cascade of brown waters.
Que6. Who were the Magi?
Ans: The Magi were the three Wisemen - Gasper, Melchoir, and Balthazar who traveled from
the East to Jerusalem to see the infant Jesus born in a stable. They were guided by a
star and they carried precious gifts for Jesus.
Que7. Why was Della worried?
Ans: Initially Della was worried about arranging the required money to buy a nice gift for James
at Christmas since she had only one dollar and eighty-seven cents. Hence, she sold her
beautiful hair and brought a gift for James. Now her new look troubled her as she looked
more like a truant schoolboy. Della was really worried thinking that Jim might be critical
about her appearance.
Que8. What did Jim do to get a gift for Della?
Ans: Jim sold his precious golden watch, a family heirloom, in order to get a gift for Della.
Que9. What did Della do after reaching home?
Ans: On reaching home Della got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work
repairing the damaged hair. After forty minutes of hard work, she looked wonderfully like
a truant schoolboy with tiny, close-lying curls on her head. At 7 o'clock, she made coffee
and got the frying pan ready to cook the chops.
Que10. What was Jim's reaction when he returned home?
Ans: Jim was foxed for a moment to find Della without her long beautiful hair. His eyes were
fixed upon Della but the expression of his eyes was unintelligible to her, rather it terrified
her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments
that Della had been prepared for James simply stared at her fixedly with a peculiar
expression on his face.
Que11. Who is the writer of The Gift of Magi.
Ans. O’Henry
Que12. What is the real name of O’Henry
Ans. William Sydney Porter

Long Answer type Questions

Que Write summary of The Gift of Magi.

Ans: The Gift of the Magi is a well-known short story by American short story writer O.
Henry, the pen name of William Sydney Porter. The story first appeared in The New York
Sunday World on December 10, 1905 and was later published in O. Henry's collection The
Four Million on April 10, 1906.
The story tells of a young married couple, James, known as Jim, and Della Dillingham. The
couple has very little money and lives in a modest apartment. Between them, they have
only two possessions that they consider their treasures: Jim's gold pocket watch that
belonged to his father and his grandfather, and Della's lustrous, long hair that falls almost
to her knees.
It's Christmas Eve, and Della finds herself running out of time to buy Jim a Christmas
present. After paying all of the bills, all Della has left is $1.87 to put toward Jim's Christmas
present. Desperate to find him the perfect gift, out she goes into the cold December day,
looking in shop windows for something she can afford.
She wants to buy Jim a chain for his pocket watch, but they're all out of her price range.
Rushing home, Della pulls down her beautiful hair and stands in front of the mirror,
admiring it and thinking. After a sudden inspiration, she rushes out again and has her hair
cut to sell. Della receives $20.00 for selling her hair, just enough to buy the platinum chain
she saw in a shop window for $21.00.
When Jim comes home from work, he stares at Della, trying to figure out what's different
about her. She admits that she sold her hair to buy his present. Before she can give it to
him, however, Jim casually pulls a package out of his overcoat pocket and hands it to her.
Inside, Della finds a pair of costly decorative hair combs that she'd long admired, but are
now completely useless since she's cut off her hair. Hiding her tears, she jumps up and
holds out her gift for Jim: the watch chain. Jim shrugs, flops down onto the old sofa, puts
his hands behind his head and tells Della flatly that he sold his watch to buy her combs.
The story ends with a comparison of Jim and Della's gifts to the gifts that the Magi, or three
wise men, gave to Baby Jesus in the manger in the biblical story of Christmas. The narrator
concludes that Jim and Della are far wiser than the Magi because their gifts are gifts of love,
and those who give out of love and self-sacrifice are truly wise because they know the value
of self-giving love.
 3. ‘Uncle Podger Hangs a Picture’
Short Answer Type Question

Q1. Name the children of Uncle Podger.

Answer. Maria, Tom, and Will are Uncle Podger’s children

Q2. What did Uncle Podger ask the children to bring for him?
Answer. Uncle Podger asks the children to fetch nails, a hammer, a ruler, a step ladder, a kitchen
chair, a spirit level, and a picture cord. He requires the object in order to hang the picture on the
wall.

Q3. How did Uncle Podger cut himself?

Answer. When Uncle Podger lifted the picture to hang it, it slid out of his grasp and fell out of
the frame. He cut himself while attempting to salvage the glass.

Q4. Why did Uncle Podger want his coat?

Answer. When Uncle Podger cut himself with the glass, he asked people to look for his coat
because he needed a handkerchief that was in its pocket.

Q5. Where did he find his coat?

Answer. Uncle Podger found his coat under his seat

Q6. What did Uncle Podger ask the maid to bring and what did he forget to tell her?
Answer: Uncle Podger enlisted the help of the entire family. He sent a girl out for sixpence nails,
followed by one of the boys to instruct her what size to acquire. He instructed Will to get his
hammer and Tom to bring the rule.

Q7. What was the ‘job’ he undertook to do?

Answer. The ‘job’ that Uncle Podger undertook was the hanging of a framed picture up on the
wall.

b) How did he cause ‘commotion’ at home?

Answer. He (Uncle Podger) would create a ‘commotion’ by assigning each member of the family
small errands to help him with his job, and he would make a shambles of it.

Q8. List any five things/objects that Uncle Podger used for hanging the picture on the
wall.
Answer. The five things that Uncle Podger used for hanging the picture on the wall are nails,
hammer, rule, step ladder and a kitchen chair.

Q9. Why did Uncle Podger ask people to search for his coat?
Answer. Uncle Podger asked that everyone look for his coat because he had cut his hand on a
piece of shattered glass and needed to knot it with his handkerchief, which was in the coat’s
pocket.

Q10. Where was the coat found?

Answer. The coat was found under the seat. Actually, Uncle Podger was sitting on it.
Q11. What does the incident tell you about Uncle Podger?
Answer. This incident tells us that Uncle Podger does not have a good memory.

Q12. ‘Oh, you leave that to me. Don’t you, any of you, worry yourselves about that. I’ll do
all that ‘.
Does Uncle Podger do all the work? What really happens in the story?
Answer. Uncle Podger does not do all of the work. He directs that everyone in his family –
including the boy, girl, and charwoman – undertake the work, such as getting the nails, finding
the hammer, and so on. As a result, he enlists the help of all family members in the work of
hanging the picture on the wall.

Q13. Uncle Podger makes several attempts to hang a picture. Here are a few statements
about it. Say whether they are True or False.
Answer.
a) In the first attempt, Uncle Podger broke the glass and cut himself. True
b) When he attempted to hang the picture the second time, he lost sight of the mark he had
made on the wall. False
c) He finally managed to put the picture in the third attempt. False

Q14. How did the family feel after the picture was finally put up? Happy and relieved?
Tired and miserable? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer. The family felt tired and miserable after the picture was finally put up. It took a long
time and Uncle Podger actually made the task very exhausting for everyone.

Q15. What did Uncle Podger ask Martha?

Answer. Uncle Podger told his wife not to worry about him hanging the painting. He would
gradually work his way down and begin the entire house.

Q16. How did he cause ‘commotion’ at home? Answer. He (Uncle Podger) would cause a
‘commotion’ by assigning every member of the house little errands to help him with his job and
he would make a mess of it.

Q17. What was the commotion all about in Uncle Podger’s house?
Answer. When Uncle Podger began the job, he made a commotion. He removed his coat and
began working on the painting. First, he dispatched the maid to bring sixpence worth of nails.
Then he dispatched one of the boys to find her and tell her the size of the nail.

Q18. Did Uncle Podger believe he was taking help?

Answer. No Uncle Podger never approved that he was taking the help. As shown in the story he
needed at least 6 people to just hammer a nail. He got tired after doing nothing.

Q19. What was the effect of Uncle Podger’s venture on his family?
Answer. He makes all the other family members get involved in petty jobs of bringing things and
holding hammers. For any mistake done by him, he would bluntly blame the other people in the
house.
Q20. Who was Mr goggles?
Answer. Mr Goggles is uncle Podger’s family member.

Q21. What happened when Uncle Podger slid on the piano?

Answer. After uncle Podger would fall on the piano it created a musical sound and he would
argue with aunt Podger that she makes a fuss over everything while picking himself up.

Q22. How are Maria the girl and Tom related to Uncle Podger?
Answer. Mr Goggles was probably a neighbour; Maria was Uncle Podger’s wife. Tom and Jim’s
relationship with Uncle Podger hasn’t been highlighted in the chapter, probably they were his
sons.

Q23. What happened every time uncle Podger undertook to do a job?

Answer. He created a great commotion in the house.

Q24. Why could uncle Podger not find his handkerchief?

Answer. He could not find his handkerchief because it was in his coat pocket and he was sitting
on the coat.

Q25. Describe how the whole family would help the injured Uncle Podger in hanging the
picture a second time.
Answer. They would assist in the recovery of the missing hammer. They would try to help him in
locating the missing mark where the nail had to be inserted. They would also attempt to assist
him in measuring the distance between the nail and the corner.

Q26. What was Aunt Maria’s reaction to Uncle Podger’s hanging the picture?
Answer: Aunt Maria replied to Uncle Podger’s nail and hammer adventure by declaring that the
next time a nail needed to be hammered by Uncle Podger, she would go to her mother’s house
for a week until the nail was pounded into the wall.

Q27. What did all the members of the family have to do to help Uncle Podger hang the
picture?
Answer. They bring him a rule, a stepladder, a spirit level supplied by Mr Goggles, Maria holds
the light for him and brings him a picture cord, and Tom hands him a picture. Two people hold a
chair, a third helps him up on it, a fourth hands him a nail, and a fifth hands him a hammer.

Q28. What would Uncle Podger say at the end?

Answer. When any work had to be done, he used to say that the work is very easy and he can do
it with ease. He also said that the members can depend on him and leave that work on him and
he can do it alone.

Q29. What made Uncle Podger speechless Why?

Answer. Uncle Podger had convinced himself that anytime he misplaced something, it was the
fault of everyone else in the home except himself. He was always blaming them for his problems
and was never grateful to anyone for their assistance.

Q30. Who is the writer of Uncle Podger Hangs a Picture

Ans. Jerome K Jerome

Long Answer Type Question

Que 1. Write summary of Uncle Podger Hangs a Picture

Ans: Uncle Podger Hangs a Picture is the narrator’s amusing account of how his family dealt
with mundane tasks. The story revolves around Uncle Podger’s method for hanging a picture on
the wall. During this process, the entire house is agitated. He was filled with self-assurance
because he believed he was the greatest candidate for the job. Uncle Podger chose to hang a
picture that had arrived from the framers. He removed his coat and directed the girl to bring
nails, followed by one of the boys who dashed over to tell her the size of the nails. He yelled that
he needed a hammer and that he would have Tom bring him a ruler. Simultaneously, he
mentioned the stepladder, kitchen chair, spirit level, picture cord, and picture to everyone else in
the house.
When Uncle Podgers lifted the picture, he dropped it, shattering the glass and injuring himself.
In his pain, he looked for his handkerchief, which he had stored in the pocket of his coat, which
he had removed. He could not remember where he would kept the coat. He soon discovered he
was sitting on his it. He chastised others for being ineffective while spending half an hour
binding his finger with a handkerchief.
Along with the other items, a new glass frame for the photo arrived. Everyone in the home,
including the girl and the cleaning lady, formed a semi-circle as Uncle Podger climbed the
ladder. Each member of the family assisted him in climbing the ladder and providing the nail and
hammer. Unfortunately, Uncle Podger dropped the nail, and everyone started looking for it. The
hammer went missing as soon as the nail was discovered. He chastised all seven members.
Finally, when they located the hammer, Uncle Podger would forget where he had marked it. For
their suggestions, he labelled the others as “fools.” He took the ruler and remeasured it, almost
madly trying to compute it.
While measuring, he tripped and fell, landing on a piano. His rage was intense, and he used
harsh language. However, he attempted to nail the wall again and broke his thumb with the
hammer. The hammer landed on someone is toes, causing them to scream in agony. Aunt
Maria, Uncle Podger’s wife, adds that the next time her husband planned to hammer a nail, she
would spend a week with her mother until he finished the job. This is done to make fun of Uncle
Podger’s sloppiness.
Uncle Podger observes that women are concerned about everything, and he enjoys hanging the
painting. The indefatigable guy hammered the nail, causing damage to the wall. However, it was
now beyond midnight and the painting was crookedly hanging. The rest of the wall appeared to
be ruined. Except for Uncle Podger, the rest of the family was tired and unhappy. He appeared
to be really content and pleased with his work.
He concludes by asking why anyone would hire a professional to do something as simple as
hang a picture. He is oblivious to the anguish he has caused all of the family members. Thus,
the writer Jerome K. Jerome depicts people who are willing to do a work but put it on the backs
of others.
 II Poetry
1. Night of the Scorpion
-Nissim Ezekiel
Short Answer Type Questions
Q1. How was the mother bitten by the scorpion?
Answer - The scorpion came into the Hut because It was raining heavily for 10 hours. It hit
under a sock of rice. In the dark it bit the mother of the poet.
Q2. How did the villagers come to the end of the woman ?
Answer - The villagers come into the hut they were looking out to scorpion they
believed that if the scorpion moved the poision wood spreat further in woman
body body.
Q3. How did the peasants view the stinging in a positive manner ?
Answer - The peasant Sad by bearing the pain of that scorpion sting her suffering in her past
life and in future would be reduced. They sad that evil the good of life would to be
balanced.
Q4. What type of man bought the father how did he treat his wife?
Answer - The father was scepetics rationalists. But in the Moment of carries, we willing to try
every remedy that the Religious suggested to help reduce his wife agony.
Q5. How did the mother respond to the recovery ?
Answer - The mother was grateful of God that the scorpion stung her not her children . She can
bear her own pain but a mother cannot bear the suffering of a child.

Long Answer Type Questions

Que1. Write CRITICAL APPRECIATION OF THE NIGHT OF THE SCORPION:
Ans. “Night of The Scorpion” is a poem based on Indian Scenario of superstition and Poet’s
feeling. The poem (Night of The Scorpion) captures a scene in a rural Indian village. The
poet is a young child witnessing a horrific event in his life. In the past when poets mother
was stung by the scorpion and was suffering from unbearable pain. At the cries of poet’s
mother neighbouring peasant flocked to the poet’s house like swarm of bees with lanterns
and candles.
“With candles and lanterns
Throwing giant scorpion shadow
On the mud-baked walls.”
The poet describes the scorpion as a devil. The villagers were searching for the scorpion
outside the house of the poet in the steady rain. But in vain the superstitious peasant belief
that the previous activities of scene is to be burnt away by the pain and the suffering. The
villagers did some superstitious activity and prayed God to paralyse the scorpion. They
firmly believed that by doing so the effect of poison could be diminished.
“May the sin of your previous birth
be burned away tonight, they said”
The villagers infer that the mother’s desire and ambition are the sin of her earlier life.
According to them, due to earlier deeds she is presently paying her.
“May the poison purify your flesh
of desire, and your spirit of ambition”
After 20 hour the poet’s mother got relied from her pain. She thanked God that the
Scorpion did not stung her children.
 2. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
- Robert Frost
Short Answer Type Questions
Que1. Where did the speaker reach while he was travelling?
Ans. The speaker reached woods beside a frozen lake.
Que.2 Why wouldn’t the owner of the woods see the speaker?
Ans. It was evening time and it was snowing. The owner of the woods lived in a village while the
speaker was in the woods.
Que3. Which season was the poet travelling in?
Ans. It was winter season.
Que4. How did the horse communicate with the speaker?
Ans. The horse communicated with his master by giving a shake to his harness bells.
Que5. Where did the poet make his horse stop?
Ans. The poet made his horse stop between the woods near a frozen lake.
Que6. What was the only other sound audible to the speaker?
Ans. The only other sound audible to the speaker is the sweep of the wind and the sound of the
falling snow.
Que7. Why would the horse find it strange that the speaker stop there?
Ans. The horse thought that it was getting dark and it was snowing.

Long Answer type Questions

Que1. Write critical appreciation of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Ans. The poem is meditative in tone and texture. It gives a fine description of the landscape.
The author is journeying by the woods and he is suddenly struck with beauty, mystery and
peace of the forest in the winter evening when the snow is falling silently and filling the
deep woods filling with flakes of snow. It is almost perfect silent.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The frozen lake and the gentle wind, deep dark forest, warmth during the snow- fall. It is
the darkest evening of the year.
The poet’s onward march is suddenly arrested by this lovely right. He stop to look at the
beauty of the ‘woods fill up with snow. It must have stopped for quite sometime to make
his horse restive and shake his harness bells to remind him that perhaps he has stopped
there by mistake, since there was no farmhouse near where he might wish to rest. To the
animal with practical sense it seemed foolish to stop in the snow fall. This reminds the poet
that he cannot rest there and then how so much he might wish to do so. We cannot enjoy
beauty and mystery howsoever keenly we might like to do so, because there are other
things more important than enjoyment of beauty, enchantment of darkness, mystery and
death, Rest and sleep must wait because he miles to go before he could find time for rest
and sleep.
 3. Where the Mind is Without Fear
- Rabindranath Tagore
Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1: Read the lines and answer the questions:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken into fragments
By narrow domestic walls;

QueA. What do the expression ‘mind is without free’ and ‘head is held high’ mean?
Answer: The poet says that no countrymen of his should live in fear on his mind at all times.
Instead, they should hold their head up fearlessly and have confidence in themselves.
Que B. When knowledge is not free, what will be the impact?
Answer: When knowledge is not free people who are poor will not get the right education and
will become a thief or a labourer and will decrease human capital and economy of India.
QueC. What breaks the world into fragments?
Answer: The world is broken into fragments by the narrow domestic walls like caste system,
social classes, religion, color, creed and so on.

Question 2: Read the lines and answer the questions:

Where words come from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arm towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reasons has not lost its way
Into the dreary sand of dead habit;

Que a. What does the line’ Where words come out from the depth of truth mean?
Answer: The poet wants his countrymen to be truthful and sincere. They should not tell liesor
be hypocrites. They should speak what they feel and should be guided by clear thinking
in any matter.
Que b. Why has the poet used the word ‘tireless’ to describe ‘striving’?
Answer: The poet has used the phrase tireless striving to urge his countrymen to break free from sloth
and struggle hard constantly to achieve perfection in whatever they choose to do to make their
country a free nation.

Que c. What comparison did the poet give between the poet and dead habit?

Answer: The poet has compared reason to a clear stream and dead habit to a dry desert.
Question 3: Read the lines and answer the questions:

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever widening thought and action;
Into the heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.

Que (a). Whom does the poet address as ‘thee’ and ‘my father’?
Answer: The poet is addressing to God as thee or my Father.

Que(b) According to the poet, what must be done for achieving ‘ever -widening thought
and action?
Answer: Ever-widening thought and action means we should not be narrow or shallow in our
mentality. We should have a broad heart. And a broad mind. They should enrich their thinking
day by day.
Que(c) Describe the poet’s version of ‘heaven of freedom’?
Answer: By ‘heaven of freedom’ the poet means India’s social, cultural and psychological independence
and unity.

Question 4: According to the poet, how should knowledge be?

Answer: According to the poet, knowledge should be free which means every person has knowledge
about worldly matters. He says that if people living in the country possess knowledge then only it
can develop. Knowledge keeps people united not dividing them on the basis of caste and creed.

Question 5: Bring out the significance of the title of the poem.

Answer: ‘Where the mind is without fear’ the title of Tagore’s poem is merely the first line of the
poem. It refers to a place where people would be fearless, heaven of freedom that the poets
dream of. Tagore prays to God to lift his country to such a place where people would not only
be fearless but also knowledgeable, hardworking and truthful etc. And probably fearlessness
was the first condition that came to Tagore’s mind while writing about his heaven of freedom.
So, the title is apt and relevant as it very well expresses what the poet wishes for.
Question 6: According to the poet, what is ‘dead habit’?
Answer: According to him, dead habit means a country which has not lost the right path in the
dreary desert of old traditional rituals and customs that are harmful for the country and the
society.
Question 7: What kind of ‘domestic wall’ is the poet speaking about?
Answer: The poet is talking about the barriers of class, caste, creed, colour, religion and other elements
that divide people from one another. In most cases, those are baseless superstitious beliefs and
good for nothing.
Long Answer type Questions
Que. Que1. Write critical appreciation of Where the Mind is Without Fear
Ans. it is a lyrical poem taken from Gitanjali written by Rabindra Nath Tagore. It is a kind of
poem which is patriotic in nature. It is actually a prayer to God to move the country from
slavery to ideal freedom. It is interesting to find that the entire poem is actually a single
complex sentence. It was written during British rule. The original composition of this poem
was in Bengali entitled “prarthana” which appeared in Naibedya in 1901. In 1911 Tagore
himself has translated this poem in English. This translation appeared as poem number 35
in Gitanjali. Rabindra Nath Tagore got nobel prize for Gitanjali in 1913. He was also given
Knighthood in 1915 but he returned this knighthood as a protest against the Amritsar
massacre of 1919. The first line of this poem is
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
In the first line the poet makes it clear that his countrymen should be free from any fear.
Every person has his own rights and they must maintain their dignity by holding their head
high. In the second line the poet says that-
“Where knowledge is free;
By this line the poet mean that education is not a property of upper class only. Everybody
has a right to attain knowledge in a free country. Every child should learn freely from
nature and the surrounding. They must not be forced to learn by memorizing some
lessons. It is Tagore’s own concept of naturalism in education. Looking forward into the
third and fourth lines-
“where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls;
Here Tagore talks about the unity of not only his countrymen but for all the nations present
in the world. Thus he talks about cosmopolitanism. That is to say the world falls under one
roof. People must not be fragmented or divided on the basis of color, caste, creed, religion
or gender. In line number five Tagore further says-
“where words come out from the depth of truth”
In the fifth line Tagore urges that his countrymen should be truthful. They should not
indulge themselves into superficial talks. They must be the men of their words. In line
number six he says that-
“Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Here the poet urges his countrymen to work hard to get their aim achieved so that they
can move towards perfection. He urges them not to be tired from working unless they
achieve their goal. Thus he invokes people to leave laziness or be lethargic. In line number
seven and eight Tagore says that-
“Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into
the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
here the poet considers a rational mind or logical thinking as like a clear stream. He has
compared dead habits or superstitious beliefs to a dreary desert. Reasoning or logic must
have a priority against superstition. In line number nine and ten Tagore says that-
“Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening
thought and action-
Through these lines the poet urges the countrymen to be broadminded and progressive.
He also says that men should not be narrow minded and they must give priority to
reasoning and logic. In the last line the poet says that-
 “Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.
Here finally the poet is trying to awake or invoke the almighty that is already present in our
hearts. Thus God has been used as a metaphor here.
This is to be noted that the whole poem is a single complex sentence and I have separated
them as line numbers only to explore them and properly analyse them. it must not be
misunderstood.