CLASS 7 CHAPTER- The Felling of the Banyan Tree

    1)      What were the Tenants told?

Ans: The tenants were told to leave the house . The tenants who lived in the houses surrounding the poet’s house were ordered to leave.

    2)      What did the grandmother say?

Ans: The grandmother told that trees are sacred and felling them is crime.

    3)      Describe the Banyan tree.

Ans: The Banyan tree described by the poet in the poem  was three times tall as their house. Its trunk was Fifty feet in circumference. Its aeriel roots were thirty feet. It took seven days to cut down the branches. The age of the tree was two hundred. Fifty men with axes had chopped the tree.   

     4)      Who lost their homes because of the felling of the banyan trees?

Ans: The insects and birds lost their homes   because of the felling of the Banyan tree.

     5)      Did the children love the father for what he did?

Ans: No , I am sure the children did not love their father for what he had done. The father’s order had created a massacre . It’s a crime according to the grandmother. 

    6) What was demolished one by one?

Ans: The trees were demolished one by one.   

7   7) Why was the Banyan tree a problem?

Ans: The Banyan tree was a problem because it was huge ,  two hundred years in age, fifty feet in circumference and its roots lay thirty feet long.

    8) Why did the father ordered to cut the trees ?

Ans:The father orderd to cut the trees because they wanted to evacuate the area and leave for Baroda.

Class 12 Extra questions on Lesson - The Lost Spring by Anees Jung

1. What does the title ‘Lost Spring’ convey(means)?

Answer:
Spring is associated with childhood. Like spring, a child blooms in childhood. However, abject poverty and thoughtless traditions result in the loss of child-like innocence and much needed education. Millions of children like Saheb and Mukesh lose the spring in their lives because they are compelled to do hazardous work to provide a living for their family and themselves. Thus, the title brings out the dejected life of the child labourers and their deprivation of the blessings of childhood.

2. The bangle makers of Firozabad make beautiful bangles and make everyone happy but they themselves live and die in squalor(dirty place). Explain.

Answer:
In Firozabad, almost every family is involved in the business of bangle making. Firozabad is the centre of India’s glass-blowing industry. The families  have spent generations working around furnaces, welding glass, making bangles for all the women in the land. But these bangle makers are very poor. They can’t earn enough to afford even two two times of meals.

Even the children are forced to live in dingy cells without air and light. About 20,000 children work in the glass-blowing industry. They are forced to work for very long hours and also in very inhuman conditions. They often lose the brightness of their eyes. The bangle makers live a very miserable life. Though they make everyone happy by making beautiful bangles, they themselves live and die in very deplorable condition.

3. “Garbage to them is gold” How do the rag pickers of Seemapuri survive?
Answer:
About 10,000 Bangladeshi immigrants live in the Seemapuri area of Delhi. Seemapuri is located at the periphery of Delhi. It is a wilderness. The rag pickers live in the structures of mud, with roofs of tin and tarpaulin, devoid of sewage, drainage or running water. They have been living here without any identity. They have their names in the voter lists and they have got their ration cards.

It enables to buy them grain. Survival in Seemapuri is ragpicking. They do not know no other profession but rag picking. They left their beautiful land of green fields because there were frequent storms and as a result their houses and fields would swept away due to them. As a result they had to starve. They pitched their tents wherever they find food. They could earn their food only by ragpicking.

4. Give a brief account of the life and activities of the people like Saheb-e-Alam settled in Seemapuri.
Answer:
Seemapuri is located on the periphery of Delhi. It is a slum area. About 10,000 people live there. They all are ragpickers and have come from Bangladesh in 1971. They are living in structures of mud, with roofs of tin and tarpaulin, devoid of sewage, drainage or running water. They have lived there for many years without permits but with ration cards that get their names placed on voter lists and enable them to buy grain. Food is more important for survival than an identity.

Wherever they find food they pitch their tents that become their transit homes. They are involved in ragpicking. It has acquired the proportions of a fine art. Garbage to them is gold. It is their daily bread, a roof over their heads, even if it is a leaking roof. For children, garbage is a thing wrapped in wonder. They often scrounge it to find some coins. On the whole we can say that the people living there are living a very hard life.

5. What do you know about the city of Firozabad?
Answer:
Firozabad is the centre of,bangle making industry in India. All over in India the bangles are supplied from this city. But there is a dark side of this city also. Firozabad is a very dirty city. Every other family in Firozabad is engaged in making bangles. They have been engaged in this profession for many generations. Even then these people always remain poor. The children are also involved in making bangles. They are forced to work for long hours in very hot temperatures. They have to work in dingy cells without air and light. They often lose the brightness of their eyes.

The bangle makers are caught in the vicious circle of sahukars, the middlemen, the policemen, the keepers of law, the bureaucrats and the politicians. They are beaten and put to jails if they try to organise themselves. Also the bangle makers are very poor. The young men are forced to adopt their elders’ profession. Years of mind-numbing toil have killed all initiative and the ability to dream.In this extract the writer has depicted that picture of Firozabad which perhaps is not known to many other parts of India.

 

 

 

Class 12 Flamingo Chapter- LOST SPRING by Anees Jung

 

        Chapter- LOST SPRING by Anees Jung                       

Q.1.Who is Saheb? What is he looking for in the garbage dumps and where has he come from?

Ans: Saheb is a rag-picker of Seemapuri. The writer encounters him every morning scrounging (searching)for gold in the garbage dumps in her neighbourhood. He hails(belongs) from Dhaka and he was migrated from Bangladesh in 1971. His house and fields were destroyed by storm.

 

Q2 What explanations does the author offer for the children not wearing foot wear?

When the author asked the children why they were always barefoot , one said it was because his mother had not pulled his shoes from the shelf while the other explanation was that it was a tradition in their community to walk barefoot. The author did not quite believe it and realized that it was their perpetual state of poverty which was responsible for their moving around in that manner.

 

(Q3.) Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry?

 (Ans) The glass bangle industry of Firozabad employs children and they work in very unhealthy and hazardous conditions. They are made to work in the glass furnaces with high temperatures, in dingy cells without air and light. Almost twenty thousand children work in the hot furnaces, often losing the brightness of their eyes. Many workers become blind while polishing the glass bangles. Many children lose their eyesight before they become adults.

(Q4.) Explain ‘For children, garbage has a meaning different from what it means to their parents’. (Ans) The small rag pickers scrounge heaps of garbage for some coin, note or valuable things. Sometimes they do find a rupee or even a ten rupee note. Then they hope to find more. They search excitedly. For children, garbage is wrapped in wonder. For the grown-ups it is a means of survival. Hence garbage has two different meanings.

5)Mention any two hazards of working in the glass bangle industry?

Ans-Working of children in the glass bangle industry is against the rules of health and hygiene. They have to work before the furnace amidst high temperature. They have the chances of skin burn and loosing the brightness of the eyes. Sitting in close proximity to furnace and staying in dingy and dark cells trouble all.

(Q6.) How is Mukesh’s attitude to his situation different from that of his family?

(Ans) Mukesh insists on being his own master. He has seen the poverty, the dangers and the subhuman living conditions of the glass bangle industry. He wants to be a motor mechanic. His hope, resourcefulness and determination to break free are admirable ‘his dream looms like a mirage’, amidst the dust of streets. His thinking with a positive attitude is so different from his family which is struggling to survive the burden of the lineage. He wants to rebuild his destiny and do not want to become a glass bangle maker.

Q7. ‘Garbage to them is gold.’ Why does the author say so about the rag-pickers?

Ans: More than 10,000 rag-pickers of Seemapuri live in squatters. For them is garbage is gold and it is wrapped in wonder. For a child, it is their bread. Sometimes a child can find a silver coin or more in a heap of garbage. For the elders it is a means of survival.

Q8. Through the years rag picking has acquired the ‘proportion of a fine art’ in Seemapuri. Justify the statement.

Ans.. The means of survival of migrants of Bangladesh in Seemapuri israg picking. Garbage to them is gold. Like a fine art that has no end in appealing the sense of beauty the rag picker’s scrounging the garbage is a never ending process which provides them their daily bread day after day.

Q9. How did garbage hold different meanings for adults and children?

Ans.  Rag picking for adults was only a means of survival but for children a lot of excitement was associated with the same for they often found unexpected things as a ten rupee note in the same. There was always a hope of coming across unexpected surprises and so garbage was wrapped in wonder for them.

Q10. Why did not the bangle makers organize themselves into a co-operative?

Ans. They had no leader who could show them the way. They would be beaten up by the police and dragged to jail for doing something illegal in the form of organization.

Q11. How is Mukesh different from Saheb?

Ans. Saheb sacrificed his freedom when he took job at the tea stall but Mukesh insisted on being his own master. Though Saheb wanted to study but he was not ready to make effort to get educated, rather he accepted his fate. On the other hand Mukesh was determined to become motor mechanic and was ready to make every possible effort to accomplish his dreams.

Class 7 Lesson- The Chipko Architect

 

                                            Lesson- The Chipko Architect

      1)      what are the five F’S given by trees?

Ans: The five F’s given by trees are Food ,Fodder,  Fertilizer  ,Fuel and Fibre.

       2)     Who was Sunderlal  Bahuguna?

Ans: Sunderlal Bahuguna ws an Indian born on 9^th  januray,1927 in  a small village named MARORA ,on the banks of the BHAGIRATHI river in Tehri GARHWAL .He started the Chipko movement in India.

       3)      What  does “Chipko” mean in hindi?

Ans: Chipko in hindi means to cling to or to hug.

       4)      When did Sunderlal start the Chipko movement?

Ans: Sunderlal strated the Chipko movement in 1972.

        5)      When and where was Sunderlal bahuguna born?

Ans: Sunderlala Bhuguna was born on 9^th January ,in a small hill village named Marora on the banks of the river Bahgirathi.

        6)      Who inspired Sunderlal to take pledge to serve the people?

Ans: Dev Suman, a young Gandhian inspired Sunderlal to take pledge and to serve the people.

         7)      What inspired Sunderlal to open a school for scavengers?

Ans: The meeting with Mira Behn and Thakkar Bapa inspired Sunderlal to open a school for scavengers.

         8)      What did the villagers do to protect the trees?

Ans: The villagers tried to protect the tress by clasping their arms round the tree trunk . Whenever the villagers were dragged from the trees another villager ran forward to protect the trees.

9)  Which area was the home of the Chipko movement?

Ans: Uttar Pradesh was the home of the Chipko movement.

     10)   How did Sunderlal Bahuguna spread the message?

Ans: Sunderlala Bahuguna spread the message by walking from Kashmir  on 30^th May,1981 till Kohima 2^nd February ,1983. They overcame all obstacles.

      11)   What message did Sundelal Bahuguna give?

OR

Why did Sunderlala Bahuguna want to preserve trees?

               Ans: Sunderlala Bahuguna believed that trees are living beings. They give us oxygen. They control the    climate. They stop floods and landslides .Trees give shelter to birds . Trees give us Food, Fodder, Fertilizer, Fuel and Fibre.

Class 7 Topic-Poem Somebody’s Mother

                                  Topic-Poem  Somebody’s Mother

 Answer the following questions
1)      How did the  mother look?
                     OR
How was the mother?
               Ans: The mother was old , ragged and grey. Her body bent with chill of winter. Her feet were aged and slow
2)      How was the street?
Ans: The street was wet with recent snow.
3)      Why was the street wet?
Ans: The street was wet due to recent snow.
4)      Why did the old lady stood at the crossing?
Ans: The old lady stood at the crossing because she was physically weak to cross the road on her own.
5)      Why didn’t the school children help the old lady?
Ans: The school children didn’t notice the old lady. The children were happy to come out from school. They came out happily shouting with laughter “like a flock of sheep”.
6)      Why the old lady was afraid to stir?
Ans: The old lady was afraid to stir because she was meek, timid and the road was slippery.
7)      Who came forward to help the old lady?
Ans: A young troop member came forward to help him.
8)      How did the young ,man help the old lady?
Ans:  The old lady placed her hand on the arm of the young man. He guided the trembling feet and they moved forward.
9)      Why was the young man happy?
Ans: The young man felt happy because he was satisfied by helping the old lady.
10)   What did the young boy tell his friends?
Ans: He told his friends that She might be  somebody’s mother and they should know.