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Question
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
The morning stretched calm, beautiful, and warm.
Sprawling half-clad, I gazed out at the form
Of shimmering leaves and shadows. Suddenly
A strong flash, then another, startled me.
I saw the old stone lantern brightly lit.
(A Doctor’s Journal Entry for August 6, 1945: Vikram Seth)
(i) In which country did the incident described in the poem occur? What had caused the flashes? What happened to his home soon after?
(ii) Describe the injuries suffered by the Doctor.
(iii) What was his wife’s name? What happened to a house standing before them?
(iv) How does he describe the people he met on the way?
(v) Why were the people walking with their hands away from their bodies? What was common to all of them? What message does the poem convey?
Solution
(i) The incident occurred in Hiroshima in Japan on August 6, 1945.
The flashes, that is, bright light were caused by the detonation of the nuclear bomb that was thrown on the city. The roof and the wall of his house crumble leaving behind timber and debris raising dust.
(ii) The clothes of the doctor disappeared. A splinter extended outwards from his dam¬aged thigh. He found his right side bleeding and his cheek was tom. He took out a piece of glass from his body without any pain.
(iii) The name of doctor’s wife was Yecko San.
A house standing before them tilted, swayed, toppled and crashed. The fire sprang up in the dust and spread widely by the wind.
(iv) On the way, he met a soldier standing silently who gave him a towel. Further, he saw shadow like appearances of people, some looked like ghosts, the others like the scarecrows. He was stunned to see people walking in a naked parade.
(v) The people were walking with their hands away from their bodies because the friction on their bums caused so much pain that they feared rubbing flesh against flesh. Silence was a common feature to all the suffering men and women.
The poem is an attack on all who are still engaged in piling up nuclear and other deadly weapons of war. The wars must be stopped and nuclear weapons should be totally destroyed.
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