Maharashtra Board Class 11 English Solution Chapter 2.6 – The Planners
Balbharati Maharashtra Board Class 11 English Solution Chapter 2.6: The Planners. Marathi or English Medium Students of Class 11 get here The Planners full Exercise Solution.
Std |
Maharashtra Class 11 |
Subject |
English Solution |
Chapter |
The Planners |
ICEBREAKERS
Q.) (1) You have heard the proverb ‘Plan your work, work your plan’. It means-
(a) Planning of the work is important.
(b) Without planning work cannot be accomplished.
(c) Make planning and work according to that plan.
(d) Planning and work are two sides of same coin.
Ans. Make planning and work according to that plan.
(2) Choose the proper alternatives from the statements given below which would explain why town planning is essential-
(a) To develop the city according to the guidelines.
(b) To get the ‘Best City Award’.
(c) To attract the tourists.
(d) To use and develop the land available in the city for the interest of the citizens.
Ans.To develop the city according to the guidelines.
Q. Given below are various professions in column A and in column B, the nature of work in respective professions. Match the columns.
Ans.
(i) Anaesthetist | (f) A person whose job is to give drugs which make the person not to feel pain especially in preparation for a medical operation. |
(ii) Pharmacist | (e) A person who has been trained to prepare medicines and sell them to public. |
(iii) Orthodontist | (a) Specialist in the treatment of problems concerning the position of teeth and jaws. |
(iv) Dermatologist | (d) The medical study of the skin and its diseases. |
(v) Architect | (b) A person who designs buildings and supervises the process of constructing them. |
(vi) Chartered Accountant | (g) A person who is engaged in the profession of accounting and examining the statements and records of accounts. |
(vii) Editor | (c) A person who is in charge of a newspaper or of a part of a newspaper. |
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTONS
Q.) The space has been gridded by ………….
Ans. Permutation of possibilities.
Q.) Many times the word ‘they’ is used in the poem. Explain the use of ‘they’ in this context.
Ans. ‘They’ is used for the numerous planners who plan and work in spheres of our lives, like architects, engineers who help in building such big cities and towns, medical workers etc.
BRAINSTORMING
A1) Read the poem and complete the web about the activities the planners do.
Ans. THE PLANNERS-
1) They plan and build.
2) They arrange things in a set order.
3) They erase the flaws.
4) They knock off useless blocks.
5) They help plugging the gaps.
A2.) Go through the poem and state whether the following statements are true or false.
(a) Planners plan to construct buildings wherever they find place. TRUE
(b) Planners take public consent for the alterations they make in the old structures of the city. FALSE
(c) Planners are concerned about the environment of the area. FALSE
(d) Planners make their plans mathematically perfect, at the same time they calculate their profit. TRUE
(e) Planners deliberately find drawbacks in the old city planning. FALSE
(f) The newly planned city looks modern and amazingly beautiful. TRUE
(g) Planners paint beautiful pictures of the upcoming changes in the city which charm the citizens. TRUE
(h) Planners make tactful changes so that citizens do not recognize the familiar landmarks. TRUE
A3.) Read the expression: ‘the blueprint of our past’s tomorrow’. Consider in a group why the poet has not mentioned ‘the present’. It is because of the planners who have possessed our ‘present’ in order to change ‘our past’ into the ‘future’ they desire. Go through the poem and write the lines which support this thought.
Ans. a) They erase the flaws, the blemishes of the past.
b) They have it all so it will not hurt. So history is new again.
c) The drilling goes right through the fossils of last century.
d) Not a single drop to stain the blueprint of our past’s tomorrow.
A4.) The term ‘anaesthesia’ in the poem means – ‘The planner gives beautiful pictures of the new modern city’. Now find out what amnesia and hypnosis are in the given context.
Ans. The meaning of the terms as give in the text-
AMNESIA– The new modern plans for the cities are so compelling that people are naturally forced to forget about the old plan of the citites.
HYPNOSIS– The planners present the plans of the modern cities in such a way that people are tend to forget the old cities.
A5.) Pick out the statements which aptly depict the theme of the poem.
(a) In the poem the speaker memorises the past.
(b) In ‘The Planners’ the poet describes the unstoppable force of modernisation.
(c) The poet talks about the replacement of natural environment by the concrete jungle.
(d) The poet proposes to stop modernisation.
(e) The poet laments helplessly.
Ans. The statements which aptly depict the theme of the poem are-
(a) In the poem the speaker memorises the past.
(b) In ‘The Planners’ the poet describes the unstoppable force of modernisation.
(c) The poet talks about the replacement of natural environment by the concrete jungle.
(d) The poet laments helplessly.
A6.) The tone of the poet is sarcastic. When he writes ‘All spaces are gridded filled with permutations of possibilities’ he intends to indicate the efforts made by the planner to exploit every available piece of land without any consideration of harming nature or violating attachments of people to places. Make pairs/groups and find out some more sarcastic lines having the same effect.
Ans. Some more sarcastic lines from the poem having the same effect-
a)” ………linked by bridges all hang in the grace of mathematics.”
b) “The drilling goes right through the fossils of last century.”
A7.) (i) Write an appreciation of the poem.
(ii) Write a summary of the poem.
(Both appreciation and the summary can be written with the help of the points given in previous poems.)
Ans.The poem, ‘The Planner’, by poet Boey Kim Cheng is a critical sarcasm towards modernization at the cost of sacrificing the old city’s originality and the old cultural traditions and heritage. He laments on the loss of humane element in his surroundings. He becomes nostalgic about his bonding with the old city. We all can hear the echoes of his words in our own hearts when we come across such modernization around us.
The poet isa Singapore – born Australian poet. He is of Chinese descent. He is widely regarded as one of the most promising Singapore poets to emerge in the 1990s. Boey has published four collections of poetry. For his artistic achievements, he received the ‘National Arts Council Young Artist Award’ in 1996. Boey’s works are highly regarded by both the academic and writing communities in Singapore.
In this poem Boey expresses his dejection on how the planners have changed the old cities into their absolute new version, which according to the poet is not at all relatable. The poet feels that most of the Singapore,his own country, is being turned into a modern technological city and has lost its past effects in the process of modernization. He becomes nostalgic about his bonding with the old city.
The theme of the poem is sustaining of history and the cultural heritage of any old city and conservation of nature, against the onslaught of urbanization. Yes, we do understand that every city, country and everything related needs some changes with the passing time, but we should keep in mind that just to bring about modernization, we shouldn’t uproot the originality of a city or country. . And this is what the poet is trying to convey through the poem.
The poem has a number of poetic devices like Alliteration, Antithesis, Inversion, Irony, Onomatopoeia, Oxymoron, Paradox, Personification, Repetition, and Tautology. The poem has a positive meaning and theme, but the tone of the poem shown poet’s deep cry as he loses his touch with the old version his city, and also has a sense of sarcasm in it. “The drilling goes right through the fossils of last century” such lines show the poet’s sarcastic tone throughout the poem.
The poet’s use of imagery and extended metaphor clearly conveys his emotions. “……linked by bridges all hang in the grace of mathematics”, this line is a beautiful example of imagery, the readers are forced to imagine the sad image of the city crumbling down and turning into something absolutely new. “…..the blemishes of the past, knock off useless blocks with dental dexterity”,an example of extended metaphor, where the poet shows how the planners treat the ancient structures of the city and compares it to the dentist’s treatment of a rotten tooth. The last stanza shows the poet’s melancholic yet sarcastic tone and his deep cry, where he pleads the plannersnot to change the old city completely as the new city does not resembles his imagination and creativity.
The poet wants to convey the message that we should not lose the past in the age of modernization, because without its originality of the past, a country would be nothing but a cluster of lifeless structures.
I personally felt that the poem is a wonderful work focusing on the severe consequences of rapid urbanization, which is uprooting the cultural history and heritage of a country. With the modernization and urbanization of a country we are losing our originality.
ii) For the summary of the poem refer to the critical appreciation of the poem.
A8.) Read the first and second stanza of the poem. We understand that the poet wants to suggest the powerful dominance of the planners who shape the town according to their selfish desires. Make a list of such expressions. You may begin with –
Ans. (a) All the spaces are gridded, filled with permutations of possibilities.
(b) They build and will not stop.
(c) They erase the flaws, the blemishes of the past….
(d) The piling will not stop.
A9.) Read the expression ‘permutation of possibility’. The consonant sound ‘P’ at beginning of the successive words creates a sonorous effect. This is an example of Alliteration. Find out more examples of Alliteration from the poem.
Ans. (a) “….useless blocks with dental dexterity.”.
(b) “All gaps are plugged with gleaming gold.”
(c) “But my heart would not bleed poetry.”
ii.) Explain the extended metaphor related with dentistry in the poem. Give suggestions to protect our national heritage monuments.
Ans.“…..the blemishes of the past, knock off useless blocks with dental dexterity”,an example of extended metaphor, where the poet shows how the planners treat the ancient structures of the city and compares it to the dentist’s treatment of a rotten tooth.
Suggestions to protect our national heritage monuments-
1) There should be strict and punishable rules against people with poor civic sense, visitors who try to scratch or spit on the monuments or heritage buildings etc.
2) Awareness campaign to educate the local citizens.
3) Strict Government action & plan to save monuments, setting up of Archaeological departments.
4) Saving from pollution, keeping factories and such polluters away from monumental buildings.
5) Controlling mobs and vandalism.
A10.) Complete the following table.
Ans.
S. No | Figure of Speech | Lines of the poem | Explanation |
1 | Personification | “……and the skies surrender.” | The sky is imagined to act like a human being. |
2 | Alliteration/ Imagery | With gleaming gold. | a) The consonant ‘g’ is repeated.
b) Reading the line an image of something shining bright comes to our mind.
|
3 | Oxymoron | So history is new again. | The old and beautiful things of the city has been wiped out to make it look new and modern. |
4 | Climax/ Personification | The country wears perfect rows of shining teeth. Anesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis. | a) As the poem is reaching towards its end poet’s sense of anger, sadness is clearly visible.
b) The country is treated as a human being with its teeth repaired. |
5 | Paradox | Our past’s tomorrow | The line is expressing two opposite ideas, how the past is changed to bring a better and modern tomorrow. |
A11.) Compose four lines expressing the grief of having lost nature due to modernization.
Ans.
Ohh..!! What a new place this is,
Why I fail to recognize, what this is..
When I was gone, I left behind the green trees, the small huts
The stream flowing and the boundless blue sky,
I can’t see them, but why.
My townlet is lost somewhere,
Couldn’t see the traces of those landscapes anywhere.
Here stands now, a humongous and new conurbation,
Ohh..!! it is lost, the old and ‘very close to my heart’ nation.
A12.) Imagine that a person who has returned to his native place after long time is talking to his old friend about the changes that have taken place in the village. Write a dialogue between two friends who have become nostalgic about their old village.
Ans. ANIKET: Hello Shekhar, How have you been? Seeing you after such a long time.
SHEKHAR- I am doing fine, how are you? How it is working in such a big metropolitan city?
ANIKET- It no doubt is great living there but still you always miss your roots and the places where you were able to be close to nature.
SHEKHAR- I agree to you. So what brings you here to your old village?
ANIKET- Living in a metropolitan city and continuously seeing those sky scrapers, moving vehicles, I badly felt the need to visit my old paternal home and get some rest and relaxation. But unfortunately everything here has changed quite a lot as well.
SHEKHAR- Yes, you are right, the village is no more like you have seen 4 years back.
ANIKET-There used to be a big garden and park adjoining our old school, with such big trees and shrubs there.
SHEKHAR- All’s gone dear. In the recent years many new constructions have taken place and is still going on because of which most of the trees in the village are cut down. Many builders are even planning to put down the nearing forest. It is very disheartening seeing our village losing its charm and originality.
ANIKET- It indeed is disheartening. I remember how we used to play around in the park and we used to climb the trees there. I can see nothing there now. Even the big old temple at the entrance of our village is taken down.
SHEKHAR- Yes, some high profiled builders have planned to build a big mall and a society complex there, taking the adjoining areas as well.
ANIKET- It is really very disheartening seeing our village crumble down like this. It will slowly lose all its natural beauty and everything old and beautiful, like all other villages and small towns, just for the sake of urbanization. I deeply feel for these things.
SHEKHAR- Yes, same here Aniket, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Unless and until we move forward with time and technology we’ll be lagged behind.
ANIKET- I agree with you, we surely should move forward but not at the sake of our mother nature and our beautiful old small villages and towns. I hope people soon realizes the importance of these things, before its too late.
By the way it was really nice meeting you after so many years. Now I have to leave for some work. Will try to come back soon before my beautiful village evanesces and crumbles down.
SHEKHAR- Bye Aniket, hope to meet you soon and I hope what you fear for, doesn’t happen sooner.