Kathmandu (10.1)

Here is your diary entry when you visited Agra. Read the points and try to write a travelogue describing your visit to Agra and the Taj Mahal. You may add more details.

January 2003 — rise before dawn — take the Shatabdi Express at 6.15 a.m. from Delhi — meet a newly-married couple on train — talk about Himachal Pradesh — get off the train — enter the once-grand city, Agra — twisted alleys — traffic dense — rickshaws, cars, people — vendors selling religious artifacts, plastic toys, spices and sweets — go to the Taj Mahal — constructed entirely of white marble — magical quality — colour changes with varying of light and shadow — marble with gemstones inside — reflection of the Taj Mahal in the pond — school-children, tourists — tourist guides following people.

1. Discuss in class the shrines you have visited or know about. Speak about one of them.

2. Imagine you are giving an eyewitness account or a running commentary of one of the following:

(i) a game of football, cricket or hockey, or some sports event

(ii) a parade (e.g. Republic Day) or some other national event

Speak a few sentences narrating what you see and hear. Use the simple present and the present continuous tenses. For example:

• He passes the ball but Ben gets in the way...

• These brave soldiers guard our frontiers. They display their skills here...

1. Discuss in class the shrines you have visited or know about. Speak about one of them.

2. Imagine you are giving an eyewitness account or a running commentary of one of the following:

(i) a game of football, cricket or hockey, or some sports event

(ii) a parade (e.g. Republic Day) or some other national event

Speak a few sentences narrating what you see and hear. Use the simple present and the present continuous tenses. For example:

• He passes the ball but Ben gets in the way...

• These brave soldiers guard our frontiers. They display their skills here...

Diary entry for a travelogue

The text you read is a travelogue where the author, Vikram Seth, talks about his visit to two sacred places in Kathmandu.

Imagine that you were with Vikram Seth on his visit to Pashupatinath temple, and you were noting down all that you saw and did there, so that you could write a travelogue later.

Record in point form

• what you see when you reach the Pashupatinath temple

• what you see happening inside the temple

• what you do when inside the temple

• what you see outside the temple

• what your impressions are about the place.

Simple Present Tense

Study these sentences from the lesson.

”¢ A fight breaks out between two monkeys.

”¢ Film songs blare out from the radios.

”¢ I wash it down with Coca-Cola.

The italicised verbs are in the simple present tense. The writer is here describing what he saw and heard but he uses the present tense instead of the past tense. A narration or a story can be made more dramatic or immediate by using the present tense in this way.

Now look at the following sentences.

”¢ A small shrine half protrudes from the stone platform on the riverbank.

”¢ Small shops stand on the outer edge of the Stupa.

We use the simple present tense to speak about what is usually or generally true. The  sentences above describe facts. We also use the simple present tense in sentences depicting 'universal truths'.

For example:

”¢ The sun rises in the east.

”¢ The earth revolves round the sun.

We can also refer to habitual actions using the simple present tense.

”¢ He usually takes a train instead of a bus to work.

”¢ We often get fine drizzles in winter.

In these sentences words like everyday, often, seldom, never, every month, generally, usually, etc. may be used.

1. Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verb in brackets.

(i) The heart is a pump that ____________(send) the blood circulating through our body. The pumping action ____________(take place) when the left ventricle of the heart ____________(contract). This ____________(force) the blood out into the arteries, which ____________(expand) to receive the oncoming blood.

(ii) The African lungfish can

Punctuation

Use capital letter, full stops, question marks, commas and inverted commas wherever necessary in the following paragraph.

an arrogant lion was wandering though the jungle one day he asked the tiger who is stronger than you you O lion replied the tiger who is more fierce than a leopard asked the lion you sir replied the leopard he marched upto an elephant and asked the same question the elephant picked him up in his trunk swung him in the air and threw him down look said the lion there is no need to get mad just because you don't know the answer

1. Use the suffixes -ion or -tion to form nuns from the following verbs. Make the necessary changes in the spellings of the words.

Example: proclaim - proclamation

Answer the following questions in not more than 100 - 150 words each.

1. Compare and contrast the atmosphere in and around the Baudhnath shrine with the Pashupathinath temple.

2. How does the author describe Kathmandu's busiest streets?

3. “To hear any flute is to be drawn into the commonality of all mankind.” Why does the author say this? 

Answer each question in a short paragraph.

1. What difference does the author note between the flute seller and the other hawkers?

2. What is the belief at Pashupatinath about the end of Kaliyug?

3. The author has drawn powerful images and pictures. Pick out three examples each of 

(i) the atmosphere of 'febrile confusion' outside the temple of Pashupatinath (for example: some people trying to get the priest's attention are elbowed aside...)

(ii) the things he sees

(iii) the sounds he hears

Read the following sentences carefully to understand the meaning of the italicised phrases. Then match the phrasal verbs in Column A with their meanings in Column B.

1. A communal war broke out when the princess was abducted by the neighbouring prince.

2. The cockpit broke off from the plane during the plane crash.

3. The car broke down on the way and we were left stranded in the jungle.

4. The dacoit broke away from the police as they took him to court.

5. The brothers broke up after the death of the father.

6. The thief broke into our house when we were away.

Answer these questions in one or two words or in short phrases.

1. Name the two temples the author visited in Kathmandu.

2. The writer says, “All this I wash down with Coca Cola.” What does 'all this' refer to?

3.What does Vikram Seth compare to the quills of a porcupine? 

4. Name five kinds of flutes.

1. On the following map mark out the route, which the author thought of but did not take, to Delhi.

2. Find out the possible routes (by rail, road or air) from Kathmandu to New Delhi/Mumbai/Kolkata/Chennai.

• Do you like travelling? The writer, Vikram Seth, enjoys it very much. In his book, Heaven Lake, he describes a long journey from China to India, via Tibet and Nepal.

• Have you heard of places like Ajmer Sharif, Madurai, Sanchi, Varanasi, Sarnath, or Halebid? Can you name some other places like these?

• What do the surroundings of a holy place in your city look like? Think about it as you read Vikram Seth's description of Kathmandu.