Maharashtra Board Class 11 Solution English Chapter 2.6 The Planners

Textbook Questions and Answers

Question (i)
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.
Answer:
(c) Make planning and work according to that plan.

Question (ii)
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.
Answer:
(a) To develop the city according to the guidelines.
(d) To use and develop the land available in the city for the interest of the citizens.

Question (iii)
Given below are various professions in column ‘A’ and in column ‘B’ the nature of work in respective professions. Match the columns.

Column ‘A’	Column ‘B’
1. Anaesthetist	(a) Specialist in the treatment of problems concerning the position of teeth and jaws.
2. Pharmacist	(b) A person who designs buildings and supervises the process of constructing them.
3. Orthodentist	(c) A person who is in charge of a newspaper or of a part of a newspaper.
4. Dermitologist	(d) The medical study of the skin and its diseases.
5. Architect	(e) A person who has been trained to prepare medicines and sell them to public.
6. Chartered Accountant	(f) A person whose job is to give drugs which make the person not to feel pain especially in preparation for a medical operation.
7. Editor	(g) A person who is engaged in the profession of accounting and examining the statements and records of accounts.

Answer:

Column ‘A’	Column ‘B’
1. 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.
2. Pharmacist	(e) A person who has been trained to prepare medicines and sell them to public.
3. Orthodentist	(a) Specialist in the treatment of problems concerning the position of teeth and jaws.
4. Dermitologist	(d) The medical study of the skin and its diseases.
5. Architect	(b) A person who designs buildings and supervises the process of constructing them.
6. Chartered Accountant	(g) A person who is engaged in the profession of accounting and examining the statements and records of accounts.
7. Editor	(c) A person who is in charge of a newspaper or of a part of a newspaper.

(A1)

Question 1.
Complete the web about the activities the planners do.

Answer:

(A2)

State whether the following statements are true or false.

Question (a)
Planners plan to construct buildings wherever they find place.
Answer:
True

Question (b)
Planners take public consent for the alterations they make in the old structures of the city.
Answer:
False. The planners do not take consent of the public but hypnotise them to agree by the show of wealth and prosperity.

Question (c)
Planners are concerned about the environment of the area.
Answer:
False. The planners are not at all concerned about the environmental degradation problem as beauty of the nature is replaced by mathematical precision of constructing buildings.

Question (d)
Planners make their plans mathematically perfect, at the same time they calculate their profit.
Answer:
True

Question (e)
Planners deliberately find drawbacks in the old city planning.
Answer:
True

Question (f)
The newly planned city looks modern and amazingly beautiful.
Answer:
True

Question (g)
Planners paint beautiful pictures of the upcoming changes in the city which charm the citizens.
Answer:
True

Question (h)
Planners make tactful changes so that citizens do not recognise the familiar landmarks.
Answer:
True

(A3)

Question 1.
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.
Answer:

1. They erase the flaws, the blemishes of the past.
2. Knock off useless blocks with dental dexterity.
3. All gaps are plugged with gleaming gold.
4. The country wears perfect rows of shining teeth.
5. So history is new again.
6. The blueprint of our past’s tomorrow.

(A4)

Question 1.
The term ‘Anaesthesia’ in the poem means – ‘The planner gives beautiful pictures of the new modern city’. Now find out what is Amnesia and Hypnosis in the given context.
Answer:
1. Amnesia: partial or total loss of memory . The planners make people forget even their glorious past by showcasing the glamour of new constructions.
2. Hypnosis: A trance like state of mind when a person’s thoughts can be influenced by someone else. The planners may be controlling the society by hypnosis so that they easily agree to the planner’s ideas of change.

(A5)

Question 1.
Pick up the statement which aptly depict the theme of the poem.
Answer:

• In the poem the speaker memorises the past.
• In ‘The Planners’, the poet describes the unstoppable force of modernisation.
• The poet talks about the replacement of natural environment by the concrete jungle.

(A6)

Question 1.
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.
Answer:
1. All hang in the grace of mathematics.
– The planners’ precision is sarcastically referred to as “the grace of mathematics”.
2. “They erase the flaws / the blemishes of the past, knock off/useless blocks with dental dexterity/All gaps are plugged/with gleaming gold/The country wears perfect rows/of shining teeth.
– The entire second stanza is full of sarcasm where the planner is compared to a dentist who acts with precision to extract a damaged teeth as the planners are destroying ancient structures because of their faulty constructions. According to them, three old constructions are useless and should be replaced by shining buildings as a rotten teeth is extracted and the gap is filled with a shining tooth.
3. Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis.
– The poet is convinced that the common people have lost their ability to protest as they are suffering from forgetfulness, have the anaesthetic effect of numbness and hypnotised by the glamour. The sarcasm is very apparent.

(A7)

Question (i)
Write the appreciation of the poem.
Answer:
The poet, Boey Kim Chang, a Singapore – born Australian poet, is pained to see the developments all around him, which in the name of modernization, is encroaching into nature and destroying the heritage with a lot of precision.

The planners have not been given any specific identity. They are mentioned in the poem as “They” but their work is very minutely scrutinized to present them as powerful people who can easily fulfill their purpose because they have the financial strength to manipulate all voices against them. But, according to the poet, they do their job with a lot of planning and their work is also logically designed. They are not bothered to save the nature as their only concern is the maximum utilization of space.

The accuracy of the planners has been sarcastically compared to a dentist who can identify the rotten tooth easily, extracts it and fills up the gap with the shining tooth. The person concerned is happy to get a new set of teeth and comfortably forgets the past. The same process is applied by the planners to rewrite history by destroying the past, and replacing it with the glamorous new construction.

The people are so mesmerized by the new-found charm that they are in a state of trance to have the amnesia of forgetting what has been replaced. The replaced beauty is tactfully presented by the planners to have an anaesthetic effect on them. Like the archaeologists, the planners also drill but their purpose is not to search glory or history, but destroy the soul of the past.

The poet refuses to resort to any creativity such a situation since he does not consciously want to stain the present by messing up with the blue print of the so – called advancement. He may be suggesting that the change is in the hands of the people and they need to act the way they want to see the future.

The poem has no particular rhyme-scheme as the poet’s thoughts flow freely to express his emotions on the depletion of nature and burying of the past. The short lines in the beginning, “They Plan”. “They build”, without directly referring who “They” are, the poet sets the planners apart from the readers. But the poem is full of sarcasm against the planners to express the poet’s displeasure. He has used a number of figures of speech to create an awareness among the readers.

The poem brings out a strong nostalgic emotion of the poet and his thoughts are moving around to search for the existence of natural beauty or glorious past. That is why, the lines of the poem are irregularly arranged – some lines run into the next, not like the precision of the planners. These irregularities have got an appeal to the readers because sometimes imperfections also appear perfect.

Question (ii)
Write the summary of the poem.
Answer:
Refer the synopsis.

(A8)

Question 1.
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 –
Answer:

1. All the spaces are gridded, filled with permutations of possibilities.
2. They have the means.
3. They have it all so it will not hurt.
4. Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis.
5. They build and will not stop.
6. The piling will not stop.

(A9)

Question 1.
Explain the extended metaphor related with dentistry in the poem. Give suggestions to protect our national heritage monuments.
Answer:
The planners are indirectly compared to the dentists. The past is having flaws like rotten teeth and it has to be removed with precision as a dentist does with perfection. The planners get rid of the ancient structure and fill up the gap with glamorous building. The dentist also removes the damaged tooth and replaces it with a shining one so that the person is happy with a row of shining teeth. The planners satisfy the people with modern constructions so that they do not complain of heritage structures.

Extension of ‘dentistry’ metaphor is the medical term used ‘Anesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis’. Anaesthesia is ‘ a medical procedure that nums to give relief from pain as it leads to loss of consciousness like it happens in operation, sleeper hypnosis giving a trance like state. The planners have these effects on the people and it is indirectly mentioned by the poet.

My suggestions to protect our national heritage movements are:

1. Regularly take part in the cleanliness drive organised by government or private institutions.
2. Be a part of the NSS unit of the college and create an awareness among the people not to scribble anything on the monuments and not to litter the monument premises.
3. Celebrities can campaign through TV or Cinema to safeguard our national monuments.
4. The Puja Pandals can be modelled on national monuments so that people can see their beauty, the hard work for their construction and be motivated not to spoil it.
5. Pollution spoils our national monuments as it has happened with the Tajmahal. So, industrial growth has to be completely stopped in the vicinity of the monument and care should be taken that they are at safe distance.

(A10)

Question 1.
Complete the following table.
Answer:

Figures of Speech	Line of the Poem	Explanation
1. Personification	(a) the sky surrenders	1. The sky is imagined to act like human beings.
2. Alliteration	(b) with gleaming gold	2. the sound of ‘g’ is repeated for sonorous effect.
3. Oxymoron	(c) Past’s tomorrow(d) The history is new again	3. two words of opposite meaning for the same thing/person are placed side by side to enhance the effect.
4. (1) Metaphor	(e) The country wears perfect rows of shining teeth	4. Indirect comparison of shining buildings of the country with rows of shining teeth.
(2) Extended Metaphor	(f) Anesthesia, Amnesia, Hypnosis	5. the numbness, the forgetfulness, the trance of the people is indirectly compared to the doctor or dentist’s process of treatment.
5. Paradox	(g) The history is new again	6. apparently absurd sentence but may be really true.
6. Personification	(h) The country wears perfect rows of shining teeth	7. the country is personified.
	(i) the sea draws back/and the skies surrender	8. Sea and Sky are personified.
7. Hyperbole	(j) The country means perfect rows of shining teeth	9. an exaggerated statement.
8. Irony	(k) But my heart would not bleed poetry	10. Apparent determination not to mourn is ironic the natural meaning of the expression is the opposite of what is intended to express.
9. Litotes	(l) Not a single drop to stain the blueprint of our past’s tomorrow	11. Apparently a negative sentence beginning with ‘Not’ is used as a strong positive feeling of the poet’s non­interference in the ongoing process.

(A11)

Question 1.
Compose four lines expressing the grief of having lost nature due to modernisation.
Answer:
Where is the blue sky, where is the green garden?
Skyscrapers have eaten them all.
Everything is modern, comfort scattered everywhere,
But alas! are we happier in the absence of nature?

(A12)

Question 1.
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.
Answer:
Santosh: Hi Suman! I haven’t seen you for quite sometime.
Suman: Yes, Santosh, I was not there in Mumbai. I had been to our village to spend time with my grandparents.
Santosh: Oh! how nice! You have spent your vacation by giving company to your grandparents.
Suman: Yes, I really had good times with them. Not only that I remembered all those days when you and I used to live in the village. I visited the places we used to spend time together-the football ground, the bank of the river, the fields where we used to climb trees. What a pleasant time we had!
Santosh: Really ! I miss all those days. Here, we hardly get vacant places. All are filled with high rise buildings. How sad!
Suman: But Santosh, if you go to our village now, you’ll be surprised to see the changes that have taken place. There are lots of developments. You will not see anybody collecting water from the wells. Lots of tube wells have been installed and there is provision for water through pipes in some areas, thanks to the development scheme of the Panchayat. The village is shining with electric lights you’ll hardly see any house with oil lamps.

The best thing I found was the cleanliness drive taken by the authorities. Not only do most of the houses have their own toilets, but the public toilets are also very clean. I am really very impressed. But in spite of all these, I missed our old village where we, friends, had spent our innocent childhood.
Santosh: Yes, I have read about are these developments and I am happy for my village which is my root. I am so attached to our native place that even the glamour of the city life cannot impress me so much.
Suman: I feel, we have spent the best part of our lives there. As a well wishes of my village, I welcome all the changes. But at any cost, I do not want anything to replace the naturalness. Thankfully, our village still has the freshness of air. I could breathe comfortably which I experience rarely in a city. Why don’t we plan to visit our native place together?
Santosh: That’s a brilliant idea. I am feeling so nostalgic after hearing everything from you that I’m tempted to go in our next vacation.
Suman: We’ll sit together and plan it nicely. I’ve to leave now. Bye !
Santosh: Bye !

(A13)

Question (i)
Write in short about at least five cities in India that are considered to be the most developed cities.

Question (ii)
Your examinations are only two months ahead. Plan your schedule of studies and write in your notebook.

Question (iii)
Read ‘The City Planners’ by Margaret Atwood.

Important Questions and Answers

Question 1.
The space has been gridded by –
Answer:
The space has been gridded by all possible plans so that it is tightly packed to its full potentiality.

Question 2.
Many times the word ‘they’ is used in the poem. Explain the use of‘they’ in this context.
Answer:
“They” are the planners who have not been given any specific identity in the poem but there are all informations to prove that they are powerful people who cannot be stopped. They plan urbanization policy very meticulously and can easily convince people to accept the changes. This may be poet’s way of distancing himself to show how he is protesting the fact that the people are blindly supporting.

Comprehension:

Global Understanding:

State whether the following statements are true or false. Correct the false statement.

Question (i)
The dentist removes all the teeth to set a new row of teeth.
Answer:
False. The dentist only removes the rotting, useless teeth.

Question (ii)
Mathematics spoil the connection between the buildings and roads.
Answer:
False. Mathematics help in the alignment of buildings and roads, with precision.

Question (iii)
Planners take care of the nature before constructing.
Answer:
False. Planners have no concern for the nature and treat it mercilessly while constructing.

Question (iv)
With the help of ‘Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis,’ the planners can easily convince the people.
Answer:
True

Interference / Interpretative / Analysis

Question 1.
Why did the poet mention about the job of the dentist?
Answer:
The poet sarcastically compares the job of the dentist with the town-planners. The precision with which the dentist extracts the rotten teeth and replaces them with the shining ones to make his patient happy, the planners are also removing all ancient constructions with rows of new structures so that people do not complain. In this process, the planners are tactfully erasing the tradition to promote modernization.

Personal Response:

Question 1.
Mention two evils of modernisation that bother you.
Answer:
1. Indiscriminate cutting of trees bother me a lot since it creates ecological imbalance, inadequate rainfall, global warming etc.
2. Increase of the number of vehicles is a matter of deep concern for me. The roads are becoming unbelievably bad, pollutions creating smog, health hazards worry me a lot.

Poetic Device:

Question 1.
Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line.
“The country wears perfect rows / of shining teeth”.
Answer:
Personification: The country is given the human quality of having teeth.

Creativity:

Question 1.
Fill in the blanks with lines of your own along with the lines from the poem.
1. They have the means
2. So history is new again.
Answer:
1. They have the means.
They can easily showcase prosperity.
2. So history is new again
Charmed by glamour, nobody missed the past.

Appreciation:

Question 1.
Write an appreciation of the extract with the help of the following points (100-150 words).

• About the extract
• Theme and significance
• Poetic style, language, poetic devices
• Inspirational message
• Your opinion and critical evaluation of the extract

Answer:
The poet Boey Kim Chang, a Singapore – born Australian poet is pained to see the destruction of nature in the name of modernization. He points finger at the city-planners by referring them as “they” and in the process distances himself from them. He hints that these are powerful people who bring the changes with mathematical precision and the public is hypnotised to accept the charges without any protest. The public is happy with the glamour of modernization like a dental patient feels happy to get a new set of teeth replacing the rotten ones by an expert dentist.

The extract is written in free verse to give vent to the flow of the thought of the poet smoothly. The extract is sarcastically presented with the help of a number of figures of speech like personification, alliteration, metaphor. The poet laments the destruction of the ancient and the nature. The lines are irregular but these imperfections appear perfect to me because of the emotional appeal of the poet.

Poetic Devices:

Question 1.
Read the expression ‘permutation of possibility’. The consonant sound ‘P’ at beginning of the successive words creates sonorous effect. This is an example of Alliteration. Find out more examples of Alliteration from the poem.
Answer:
Examples of Alliteration
1. “Permutations of possibilities”
– the sound of ‘p’ at the beginning of the successive words creates sonorous effect.
2.“the skies surrender”
– sound of ‘s’ is repeated
3. – “dental dexterity
– sound of ‘d’ is repeated
4. – “gleaming gold”
– sound of ‘g’ is repeated
5. -“Anaesthesia, amnesia….”
– sound of ‘a’ is repeated.