WATER
Comprehension I
1) The expression ‘generations-old strife’
suggests
a) the
bane of the caste system.
b) politics of revenge.
c) differences
among humans.
Ans: a) the bane of the caste system.
2) “It also knows the sub-caste difference between leather and spool.” ‘leather
and spool’ stands for
a) pure and impure.
b) higher and lower.
c) cobbler and weaver.
Ans: c) cobbler and weaver.
3) How is water a witness to the humiliation
caused to the Dalits?
Ans: When the varna
system was in practice, the 'panchamas' or the untouchables were not permitted
to contact or fill their pots with water. At whatever point a Wada young lady
went to gather water from a lake or a tank, the people of different varnas used
to pour water from a more elevated level distance, into the pot of the Wada
young lady. Normally, on such occasions, some water would in fluidly fall on
the body of the young lady. This would make a ton of embarrassment the young
lady.
3) What does the speaker remember when she
sees water?
Ans: At the point
when the speaker sees water she would recollect how people in her Wada would
thirst throughout the day for a glass of water. Besides, when she sees water
she is likewise helped to remember how they would energetically invite their
week by week shower days as though it was a wondrous festival and furthermore
recall how the whole town washed lavishly double a day.
4) ‘circus feat’ refers to
a) hardship to fetch water.
b) balancing the water pots on the head,
c) efforts to secure basic needs.
d) struggle surrounding water.
Ans: b) balancing the water pots on the head.
5) ‘Water’ is a
a) a liquid called water.
b) a catalyst for a movement
c) witness to strife.
d) life-giver and destroyer,
e) mean to practice untouchability.
f) profit-making
commodity.
Ans: c) witness to strife, d) life-giver and destroyer, e) mean to
practice untouchability and f) profit-making commodity.
6) Who had no right to draw a pot of water from
the well?
Ans: The Panchamas had no right to draw a pot of water from the well.
7) Who opposed the Kamma landlords?
Ans: Munnangi Suvartamma opposed
the Kamma landlords.
8) What, according to the speaker, is a
witness to centuries of social injustice?
Ans: Water is a witness to centuries of social injustice, according to
the speaker.
9) What was welcomed as a wondrous festival,
according to the speaker, in ‘Water’?
Ans: The weekly bath that the Dalits take was welcomed as a wondrous
festival, according to the speaker, in ‘Water’.
10) Why does the poet say that water is not a
simple thing?
Ans: The poet says that water is not a simple thing because while it can
give life, it can also devour lives.
11) Who are the playthings in the vicious
hands of water?
Ans: The poor are the playthings in the vicious hands of water.
12) What, according to the speaker, can water
ignite?
Ans: Water can ignite struggles and strife between village and Wada,
between one state and another.
13) Where does water sit innocently?
Ans: Water sits innocently in a Bisleri bottle.
14) What does the poet mean by ‘Water
contains the world’?
Ans: It means water has no boundaries.
15) Why does the poet call the water
‘omniscient’?
Ans: The poet calls water ‘omniscient’ because it knows everything.
16) Mention one of the things to which the
water is a witness, according to the speaker in ‘Water’.
Ans: According to the speaker water is a witness to centuries of social
injustice.
17) What stands as a witness to the
generations-old strife between the village and the Wada?
Ans: Water stands as a witness to the generations-old strife between the
village and the Wada.
18) What, according to the speaker, never
disappears, in ‘Water’?
Ans: According to the speaker in ‘Water’, never disappears.
19) Who is entitled to pour water into
Panchami’s pot, as mentioned in ‘Water’?
Ans: Only a ‘shudra’ is entitled to pour water into Panchami’s pot, as
mentioned in ‘Water’.
20) Whom did Karamchedu Suvartamma mentioned
in ‘Water’ oppose?
Ans: Karamchedu Suvartamma opposed the Kamma landlords as mentioned in
‘Water’.
21) According to the speaker in ‘Water’,
water is witness to
a) social injustice.
b) pollution of the pond.
c) ground’s incline.
Ans: a) social injustice.
22) What is the speaker in ‘Water’ reminded
of when she sees water?
Ans: The speaker in ‘Water’, when she sees water, is reminded of how her
Wada would thirst all day for a glass of water.
Comprehension II
* Why is water not simply H2O to the downtrodden? Give reasons with reference to 'Water'.
Ans: Water is not just H2O for downtrodden. It has led to a mighty movement of Mahad struggle at Chadar tank. Other don't care for water, they waste but a single drop of water embodies tears shed over several generations. In the many battles they fought, for a single drop of it, their blood flowed like streams but they have never managed to win or to get a small puddle of water. Water is not a simple thing for them. It can give life and it can devour lives. Water which could quench their parched throat became the killer tsunami wave that swallowed village after village. The poor people are the playthings in its hands. In the absence, water can cause drought and turn the village into dry deserts. It can ignite many strife and struggle between the village and the Wada and between one state and another state. It can make blood run in the streams.
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* 'Water is a witness to centuries of social injustice.' Explain with reference to the poem 'Water'.
OR
* Comment on the social discrimination associated with water as presented in the poem, 'Water'
OR
* Water can give life and can also devour lives. Examine the significance of this statement in the light of 'Water'.
OR
* How does the poem 'Water' demonstrate the disparity and discrimination in our society using water as a symbol?
OR
* How is the destructive nature of water brought out in the poem 'Water'?
OR
* Trace the sufferings of the people of Wada due to social discrimination in the poem 'Water'.
OR
* Describe the struggles suffered by the Wada people to get water.
OR
* "Water knows the generations old strife". Discuss this with reference to the poem "Water".
Ans: The poem 'Water' by Challapalli Swaroopa Rani very effectively describes the pains and problems of dalits. The upper caste people did not allow dalits to draw water from the wells. The poetess makes us feel the pain of humiliation the dalits undergo just for a pot of water. The poetess says that only 'Water' understands and no other human being understands their feelings. The edge of a well where women draw water never dries and in the same way untouchability will never be removed as even today, it is practised in many areas. Water knows the discrimination between upper and lower castes, likewise Negroes and Whites. It also knows the difference between a Samarian women and Jesus Christ. Water also knows the minute differences between a cobbler and a tailor.
Water also knows the agony of the panchama, who is not having the right to draw a pot of water, waits all day near the well with his empty pot until a shudra arrives. Water is the witness of all exploits made on Dalits. An untouchable has to wait to draw water from a well until an upper caste person pours her water from a distance, but will fall all over her in his lust. The water is personified and recalls the incident when a dalit woman named Suvarthamma from the village of Karamchedu who came to draw water from the tank, saw that the upper caste boys were washing dirty buckets they had used to feed their buffaloes directly in the drinking water tank. When a dalit boy asked them to stop washing the buckets, they beat up the dalit boy.
Suvarthamma proctected the dalit boy from the upper caste boys by lifting her pot. This resulted in a big quarrel between the Kammas and Dalits. Water has witnessed all these quarrels till now. The poetess remembers the time she spent at the Wada for a glass of water throughout the day. She tells that water is a movement and not the chemical formula of H2O. She also remembers the Mahad struggle at Chadar tank which became a symbol of bloodshed for a drop of water, because of lack of water, people of Wada used to take bath only once a week. The poetess remembers how she had gone to fetch water from a distant irrigation canal in her childhood and how her veins were bursting while carrying the pots on her head. She also remembers the Mallepalle village incident shen the village caught fire and was burnt, as there was no pot of water to extinguish the fire. Water which has the capacity to give life or destroy it, had destroyed many villages in Coastal Andhra and Tamil Nadu in the form of Tsunami in the year 2001. She also reminds us how water creates struggle between states. Water can ignite struggles and strikes letting blood flow and can sit innocently as if nothing has happened inside a bisleri bottle as mineral water.
Finally, the poetess concludes that the water for which many lives were lost, many wars were fought has now become an international commodity. With water, every person lives. It is the elixir of life but then everybody is destroyed when struggles are happening for want of water. This is ironically questioned by the poetess.
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* The difference of race and agony of the panchama due to water has been effectively brought out in 'Water'-Discuss.
Ans: Water knows the discrimination between upper and lower castes, likewise Negroes and Whites. It also knows the difference between a Samarian woman and Jesus Christ. Water also knows the minute differences between a cobbler and a tailor. Water also knows the agony of the panchama, who is not having the right to draw a pot water, waits all day near the well with his empty pot until a shudra arrives. Water is the witness of all exploits made on Dalits. Water has seen an upper-caste person pouring from a distance, but falls all over her in his lust.
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* The poem 'Water ' demonstrates the disparity and discrimination of the society. Justify.
OR
* Is water instrumental in social discrimination and disparity? Discuss with reference to 'Water'.
OR
* The poem 'Water' demonstrates the disparity and discrimination in our society. Justify.
Ans: The poem describes the discrimination between upper and lower caste people. Water is essential and necessary for all the people. But upper caste people get essential water, but poor and lower caste people do not get water even for their basic needs. The untouchables have to go far like irrigated canals, to bring water. From there they have to fetch the water on their heads, when their necks would feel like bursting. People even do not have water to extinguish fire when Mallepalle village had one. Some people do not get water even to drink but, the rich buy Bisleri water. Many quarrels happen between upper and lower caste people. When uppercaste boys were washing dirty buckets, it was questioned by a lower caste boy and he was being beaten up and this was stopped by Suvarthamma. There was a communal clash that started between kammas and the untouchables. This discrimination had led to a wide-spread water movement to gain right to water by the dalits.
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* Discuss the problems face by Wada people while collecting water.
Ans: The poem 'Water' describes vividly the problems faced by Wada people while collecting water. The Wada people were much exploited by the upper caste people. For a pot of water near the well, they have to wait for shudra who helps them to bring the water. Even if he doesn't come they have to wait for whole day. The Wada people struggled a lot to get a pot of water, and they held movements and agitations. They could take bath just once a week. They have to go for miles to the irrigated canals for a pot of water. When there was a fire in Mallepalle village, they did not have enough water to extinguish the fire.
1) Discuss the travails suffered by the Wada people to get water.
Ans: In the poem 'Water', the speaker reviews
the 'pretended by water as a specialist of social change. By chance, she
utilizes the setting of the poem to feature the struggles and adversities
endured by individuals in wadas, with specific reference to the untouchability
in Andhra Pradesh in the pre-and post-freedom periods. It is a deep rooted
practice that the Dalits or the untouchables live in discrete provinces
arranged farther away from different communities and are called 'wadas'. At
whatever point the Dalits required water they used to stand by close to the
lake or tank until a shudra came there and gave them some water. This caused a
lot of embarrassment, torment, enduring and torment to the Dalits.
The speaker
portrays how an upper caste individual
poured water from a distance at a more elevated level into the pot of a wada
young lady at a lower level and how some water would fall on her body causing
her to feel embarrassed. The writer also portrays a shocking incident that
occurred in Madigapalle in Karamchedu. It so happened that a Dalit kid
attempted to forestall two upper castes (Kamma) young people from washing their
messy containers in their drinking water lake. The two upper castes adolescents
attempted to assault the kid yet a Dalit lady by name Suvartamma went to the
boy’s defence taking her vessel to avoid.
The speaker reviews
how her wada individuals would thirst throughout the day for a glass of water
and describes how individuals in wadas energetically anticipate their week by
week washing day as though it was a wondrous celebration while individuals in
the whole town washed extravagantly double a day. She additionally reviews
agonizingly, how in her youth she used to walk miles and miles to gather water
from the enormous trench and convey back home hefty pots adjusted on her head,
with the muscles and veins on her necks stressing and blasting. At last, the
speaker makes references to how a few covered cottages in Malapalle (a Dalit
province) were burnt up for need of a pot of water to splash the fire.
2) ‘For us, water is not simply H2O’,
suggests
a) it’s chemical significance.
b) it is a common resource available for all.
c) it is a symbol of struggle against
discrimination.
Ans: c) it is a symbol of struggle against discrimination.
3) What does the contrast ‘some taking bath
once a week and others twice a day’ connote?
Ans: 'Some taking bath once a week and others twice a day' suggests that
the Dalits had the option to scrub down just a single time in seven days since
they had no free admittance to public water and just when they had put away
sufficient water for every one of them to wash up, would they scrub down on
that day. Then again, the town individuals had free admittance to water thus
they would wash up double a day.
4) Why does water become a matter of dispute?
Ans: The accessible
nature of water contrasts from one region to another so it turns into a matter
of question, some individuals get overabundance of water and a few group don't
get water even to drink. Water is a need for every one of the essential
necessities and for water system, for power, and for Industries. At the point
when the necessary amount of water isn't accessible, individuals should get it
from somewhere else; when they go to different zones, individuals from that
space dissent and shake, so wars occur. A comparable battle happened among
Karnataka and Tamilnadu. Individuals of the two states obliterated each other's
property and destroyed and harmed transports directly over the subject of
sharing water. Along these lines, numerous squabbles have occurred for water
5) Look at the expressions ‘many a circus feat’ and ‘dances its way into
the Pepsi man’s bottle.’ What contrast do you notice between the two?
Ans: The phrase
‘many a circus feat’ alludes to the women walking with heavy pots of water on
their heads, miles, and miles, from a major canal. This shows the strain, the
pain, and the embarrassment endured by Dalits to bring water for their day by
day needs. Actually, the expression, 'moves its way into the Pepsi man's
container' alludes to water being sold as a worldwide market ware. Here the
expression 'dances its way' shows the straightforwardness and the clandestine
manners by which 'water' is sold at a cost when it is known everywhere on the
country that huge number of needy individuals and Dalits even today, walk miles
to get drinking water. For the Dalits and poor people, water is a need and
'Pepsi' is a thing of extravagance. This reflects how the poor become survivors
of segregation.
Comprehension III
1) How does the poem ‘Water’ demonstrate the
disparity and discrimination in our society using water as a symbol?
Ans: In the poem
'Water', the speaker reviews a few occasions taken from the existence of the
Dalits to feature the difference between the Dalits and the upper caste people
in their ways of life. The speaker expresses that water is observer to the
Panchama's predicament when he goes to the lake or tank to gather water. Since
he doesn't reserve the option to draw a pot of water straightforwardly from a
well, he stands by the entire day close to the well until a shudra shows up
there and fills his pot. Then, the speaker makes reference to the embarrassment
of the Wada young lady, when she gets water poured from a good ways. A few
cascades on her body and she felt embarrassed. Afterward, the speaker expresses
the equitable ire appeared by Karamchedu Suvartamma, when she raised her vessel
to ward of an assault by the Kamma adolescents against the Dalit kid who asked
them not to dirty their drinking water. These examples represent how the Dalits
were victimized utilizing water from a public well.
The speaker reviews
how individuals in the Wada would thirst the entire day for a glass of water
while the locals had a ton of water to drink and wash as and when they needed.
Then again, individuals in the town appreciated the shower double a day, since
they had a lot of water, and the Dalits were made to forego water on the guise
of untouchability. Then, the speaker describes how in her youth they strolled
miles and miles to gather water from the enormous trench and strolled back
conveying weighty pots of water on their heads, with the veins in their neck
stressing and blasting. At long last, the speaker reviews how a few covered
hovels in Malapalle were burnt up for need of a pot of water to splash the
fire.
2) How are the poor affected by a) lack of water. b) denial of
water. c) the fury of nature ?
Ans: In the poem ‘Water’ the speaker highlights how ‘water’ becomes a
symbol of discrimination against the Dalits.
(a) Since the Dalits don't have free admittance to water, they can't
clean up as and when they like. They can scrub down solely after they have
amassed sufficient water for every one of the individuals from the family.
Ordinarily, this used to happen just once every week in those, days.
(b) The Dalits were denied from bringing water from a lake or tank in a
town. Normally, when they required water they needed to go to the lake with
their pot and stand by until a shudra showed up and gave them water. Also, when
the town individuals gave them water, they used to empty water from a distance
into the pots conveyed by the Dalits and some water would fall on their bodies.
This caused a great deal of agony and embarrassment to the Dalits.
(c) The speaker talks about 'water' as a characteristic social
specialist. Water is fundamental forever. It can give daily routine yet
additionally can eat up experiences. The water that wouldn't extinguish dried
throats turned into the executioner wave and gulped a great many towns. Along
these lines 'water' filled in as an image of Nature and showed its anger
against individuals who oppressed the Dalits.
3) Trace the journey of water from ancient
times as a symbol of purity to the age of the multinational market where it is
a commodity.
Ans: The Dalits'
well established battle for water has its inception in individuals' impression
of 'water' as a wellspring of immaculateness and the 'Dalits' as
'untouchables'. Despite the fact that all living animals reserve a privilege to
share it, the upper caste society denies it to the Dalits for the lone
explanation that they are Dalits. The writer makes an endeavor to follow the
excursion of water which starts as an image of virtue in the existence of
individuals and at last winds up turning into a worldwide market product. It
likewise questions the insight of individuals who denied free admittance to
water, a solution of life, to the Dalits one-sided and in the end made it a
worldwide ware and denied them of their normal assets.
She presents a
clashing circumstance where Jesus, a Jew, requests water from a Samaria lady,
who is viewed as a lower caste lady. She likewise presents the occurrence of
the Panchama, who is compelled to stand by with his pot the entire day close to
the well until a shudra comes. She at that point presents the instance of the
Dalit young lady, who gets embarrassed by accepting water poured from a higher
place and getting her garments soaked in water. Then, she communicates the
wrath of the Dalit lady Munnangi Suvartamma, who goes to the salvage of the
Dalit boy who objects to the Kamma young people washing their filthy buckets in
their drinking water Malapalle. We figure out how the Dalits need a glass of
water to extinguish their thirst.
We also discover
that the Dalits used to have a shower just once per week while the others in
the town appreciated washing extravagantly double a day. We at that point
figure out how the Dalits needed to walk miles and miles to get water from the
huge canal and conveyed back home substantial pots offset on their heads with
the muscles and veins in their neck stressing and blasting. She at that point
says that many covered cottages burst into flames in Malapalle and were burnt
up, the lone explanation being the shortfall of a pot of water to splash the
fire. At that point we figure out how individuals in Mahad district in Mumbai,
affirmed their entitlement to public water under the administration of Dr
Ambedkar. Every one of these occurrences is given to follow the excursion of
water from that of being an image to that of getting attested as an essential
right.
The poem
additionally portrays the excursion of 'water' in the existence of individuals
over the most recent twenty years. 'Water', which can save 'lives', can also
eat up lives as a tsunami. It can also transform towns into dry deserts and
incur a ton of enduring on individuals. Simultaneously, in certain spots water
can negatively affect the existences of individuals in numerous towns as
floods. In the last piece of the poem, the speaker endeavors to follow the
excursion of water into bisleri bottles as 'mineral water', turning into a
worldwide market ware. Here once more, such movement exhausts the groundwater
and influences the poor Dalits.
