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?
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(i)
- Japan
- Nuclear bomb or atomic bomb or bomb
- The roof and the walls of the house collapsed/ there was timber and debris all around
(ii) The doctor was badly wounded / blood gushed out from the artery in his neck / A splinter jutted from his thigh / His thigh was mangled / legs stiff with dried blood / His right side bled / There was a wound on his cheek / Pieces of glass had pierced his body
(iii)
- Yecko-San
- A house standing before them tilted / swayed / toppled / crashed.
(iv) He met a soldier standing silently / He saw shadowy forms of people / They were looking like ghosts or scarecrows / They were all silent / They were walking with their arms stretched out / He saw a woman and a child who were both naked
(v)
- The people kept their hands away from their bodies they were afraid to chafe flesh against flesh/ the friction caused them pain.
- Silence was common to all/ there were no cries of anguish/ even a single word could not be heard
- It is an anti-war poem/ conveys the horror of war/ science can destroy the whole world/ war is futile.