TEXT QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
In pairs, attempt the following Questions.
- Why does the poet say, “I would not intrude on him”? Why doesn’t he offer him money to buy another ball?
Ans: The poet doesn’t want to indulge in any kind of sermonizing. Nor does he want to impose his views on him. He even doesn’t want to console him by saying that his loss is rather very small. Nor does he want to suggest that many more balls can be easily bought with money replacing the lost ball.More over self realisation consolation and understanding is more effective when done by the person himself/herself.The poet knows it .So he does not interfere with him.
- “….staring down/all his young days into the harbour where /his ball went….’ Do you think the boy has had the ball for a long time? Is it linked to the memories of days when he played with it?
Ans: Yes, I think the boy had the ball for a long time.Actually, the loss of ball here stands for the loss of his childhood. Like the ball fell into water and lost forever, his childhood has been lost in the harbour of life. It seems that the boy is inconsolable as he kept the ball for a long time. The loss is linked to the memory of days when he played with it.
- What does “in the world of possessions” mean?
Ans: This physical world is the world of possession. Buying, owning, possessing and even grabbing material things have become the only aim of the people. People have a tendency to amass wealth and materials of comfort and luxury. It shows that the world is full of people who want to possess more and more of wealth, power,material things,etc.
- Do you think the boy has lost anything earlier? Pick out the words that suggest the answer.
Ans: Yes, before the loss of the ball, I think that the boy had lost something earlier too. Something that could not be compensated. It was the loss of his childhood that would never come back again. The line ‘…. Staring down all his young days into the harbour….’ shows us his sense of loss of his childhood.
- What does the poet say the boy is learning from the loss of the ball? Try to explain this own words.
Ans: Like every sensible mature person in this world, the boy is also learning to accept the nature of his loss. Nature is teaching him and he is learning from it that such balls will continue to be bought and lost again and again. He must not cry over it. But he must move ahead forgetting the loss of his ball or the loss of his childhood.
- Have you ever lost something you liked very much? Write a paragraph describing how you felt then, and saying whether and how you got over your loss.
Ans: Yes, I am also like the boy of the poem. Like him, I have lost so many things. And according to the law of life getting and losing things is a natural . I lost the clean happy atmosphere,the love and pampering of my grandparents in the village. I was born and lived there for many years before my parents shifted to Mumbai. Then I lost all my childhood friends. Those sprawling green fields, ponds and the different pets that I had which were once a part of my life once, had been lost forever. Never will I go to live there and see them again as no one lives there now.. And my loss is not very much different from the loss of the boy. Both of us have lost one thing in common the joys of our childhood. Everyone has to move ahead forgetting what losses he suffered in the past. This is what life is all about. And I am not different from the boy or every man of the world who has to learn to take everything as it comes..