Lesson 3:

The Paradise
Carpet
 TASK: Mark your work from last week.
Remember to add to your answers.
“Bonded and enslaved…”
“he longed to leap up and
charge into the daylight and
play, play, play.”
Ishwar

“He must chant forever…”

Create a mind-map about Ishwar – what do we find out about him? How does the writer make us feel sympathy for his
character? Listen to the audio for my explanation of Ishwar’s character so far.
 TASK 2: How is the wealthy man presented? Mark your work from last week.
A wealthy man had come along the rough track to the village in his white Mercedes. When he reached the brick house of Anoup, the
carpet manufacturer, he got out like a raja, surrounded by shy jostling children and deferential elders, all of whom noted the gold rings
embedded in his chubby fingers, and the chunky foreign watch just glinting beneath the cuffs of his smart suit.
‘I want a carpet for my daughter’s dowry,’ he declared. ‘She is to be married next December.’ (Everyone did an instant calculation. That was
only seven months away.) ‘And this is the pattern I want you to weave.’ 
Anoup took the piece of paper the rich man held out to him. He stared at it long and silently, then gloomily and apologetically shook his
head.
‘Impossible,’ he said. ‘I need at least twelve months to do an average carpet – but this... this... and in SEVEN months, you say... No.
Impossible.’
The rich man pulled out a fat briefcase from the car. He opened it up. There was a gasp from the onlookers. No one had ever seen so much
money. Great wads of it, all stapled and bound straight from the bank.
‘This is what you get now – and the rest when its finished. I’m sure you can do it. Just work a little harder – and a little longer each day,
eh?’ He tweaked the ear of the nearest little boy.
‘I... er...’ Anoup hesitated.
1. Highlight any quotations that show the wealthy man to be
‘Take it, take it...’ voices around him urged. arrogant and / or patronising towards the others.
2. What do you think the writer is suggesting about the
differences between the rich and poor here?
Answer: The writer is suggesting that the rich have no understanding of the lives of the poor.
The wealthy man seems to think it is easy to make a carpet as he says they just need to “work
a little harder” to make the deadline. He doesn’t care that it is backbreaking work and that the
children will suffer – all he cares about is a carpet for his daughter’s dowry.
TASK: Read up until the end of the story
and then answer the questions on the next
slide!
 The Ending of ‘The Paradise Carpet’
1. Describe in your own words what happens at the end of the story.
2. Why do you think Ishwar weaved his image into the carpet? What
could this symbolize?
3. What do you think Ishwar has died of? Use your research into
carpet-making labour to help you answer this.
4. Why do you think the writer ends the story like this? What is the
effect?