Working with the poem :

  1. Your partner and you may now be able to answer these questions:
    (i) Who is the speaker in the poem? Who are the people the speaker meets? What are they doing?

Ans : The speaker in the poem is a school going child. Every day he happens to meet the hawker selling bangles, the gardener digging away in the garden and the watchman walking the street all night.

         (ii) What wishes does the child in the poem make? Why does the child want to be a hawker, a gardener or a watchman?

Pick out the lines in each stanza, which tell us this.

Ans :  The little child is innocent. He watches the people who are working around him. He is sick of checks on his movement. He wants to enjoy the same freedom as the hawker, gardener or the watchman. The lines which state this are:-

  1. I wish I were a hawker, spending my day in the road.
  2. I wish I were a gardener, digging away at the garden.
  3. I wish I were a watchman walking the street all night.

    (
    iii) From the way the child envies the hawker, gardener and the watchman, we can guess that there are many things the child has to do, or must not do.

          Make a list of the do’s and don’ts that the child doesn’t like. The first line is done for you.

 

The child must                                            The child must not

Come home at a fixed time                      get his clothes dirty in the dust.

Obey his elders                                           be late for school.

Do his homework regularly                      eat junk food.

Be truthful and honest                              be rude or ill-mannered.

Go to bed early                                            get his clothes wet in the rain.

Brush his teeth daily                                get angry with others.

     (iv)   Do it yourself :

  1. Find out the different kinds of work done by the people in your neighbourhood.
    Make different cards for different kinds of work. You can make the card colourful with pictures of the persons doing the work.

         Students to do this on their own.