Q.V: Answer the following questions briefly: 1. Who was Ali? Where did he go daily? 2.

Ali displays qualities of love and patience. Give evidence from the story to support the statement. 3. How do you know Ali was a familiar figure at the post office? 4. Why did Ali give up hunting? 5. What impression do you form of the postmaster after reading the story, The Letter? 6. The postmaster says to Ali,What a pest you are, brother! Do you agree with the statement? Give reasons for your answer. 7. Ali came out very slowly, turning after every few steps to gaze at the post office. His eyes were filled with tears of helplessness, for his patience was exhausted, even though he still had faith. Why were Alis eyes filled with tears of helplessness? What had exhausted his patience? How / why was his faith still intact? 8. Tortured by doubt and remorse, he sat down in the glow of the charcoal sigri to wait. Who is tortured by doubt and remorse? Why? What is he waiting for? Ans: 1. Ali was an old man and a good hunter in his youth. He was also known as coachman Ali. Everyday he would go to the post office at 5 a.m. He was the first to reach there. He sat on a bench and waited there for a letter from hisdaughter Miriam who had left him many years ago after her marriage. He had followed this practice for the last five years. 2. Alis only child Miriam had left him after her marriage. Ali did not get any news of his daughter for the last five years. Alis loneliness changed his life completely as he gave up once upon his favourite sport hunting without which he could not pass even one day earlier. Now it was his love for daughter that kept him alive. During this time, he would go the post office daily in anticipation of a letter from his daughter. He used to sit patiently at a particular corner in the post office daily from five in the morning till late evening. His faith and love for his daughter kept him warmed to bear the bitter cold. Despite going back empty handed, he followed his routine visit to the post office without any failure and patiently waiting for the moment when the letter from his daughter would be delivered to him. His actions display the qualities of love and patience. 3. Ali would walk to the post office each morning in anticipation of a letter from his daughter Miriam. He would reach the post office at 5 a.m. daily and always occupied a seat in a particular corner of the building. People laughed at him as he waited for a letter which never came in the last five years. The postmen began to make a fun of him. They would call out his name for the fun of seeing him, up and come to the door. Thus he was a familiar figure at the post office. 4. A change came in Alis life when his only child Miriam left him alone after her marriage. She went off with her husband to his regiment in the Punjab. After this incident Ali understood the meaning of love and separation. He could no longer feel pleased or laugh at the bewildered terror of young partridges bereft of their parents. Being unable to deal with the emptiness and helplessness in life, Ali gave up hunting as it no longer gave him enjoyment as before. 5. In the beginning of the story, the postmaster seems haughty, cold and indifferent. He would reproach Ali for his anxiety and even called him a pest. Later his personal experience of anxiety, worry and tension for his owndaughter makes him a sympathetic person and a loving father. He considers each letter as a warm beating heart and realizes essential human worth. At the end of the story he is filled with remorse and reproaches himself for failure to understand Alis anxiety. 6. Here the word pest has been used in a derogatory sense. Alis regular and persistent presence at the post office and asking for his letter would have been irritating to anybody. In the view of the above so far the post masters irritation is concerned, his calling Ali a pest is understandable. But his statement was definitely harsh which we can not agree with. Actually, the post master failed to realize the anxiety, love and hope of a father in Ali which he understood later on.

7. Ali had grown very weak. He did not come to the post office for several days. When he came at last, it was a struggle for him to breathe. There were clear sign of his approaching end on his face. He enquired about his letterimpatiently. The post master lacked sympathy or understanding. He lost temper on Ali and talked rudely. This sort of treatment made old Ali shed tears at his helplessness. Although he had not lost faith, his patience was exhausted by the harsh treatment of the post master and the indifference shown by the clerk. He still hoped to hear from Miriam. 8. The post master is tortured by doubt and remorse. His daughter lay ill in another town. He was anxiously waiting for some news from his daughter. The letter did not come. A single night spent in suspense; anxiously waiting for the news of his daughter had made him sympathetic for the poor old Ali who had spent his nights in the same suspense for the last five years. He was filled with remorse as he realized that he had treated Ali harshly. The postmaster was waiting for a letter from his daughter who was suffering from an illness in another town. Q.VII: Tortured by doubt and remorse, the postmaster sits in the glow of a charcoal sigri that night, waiting for news of his daughter. As he sits, he writes his diary. As the postmaster, write a diary entry in about 150 words outlining your feelings about the days events. Ans: 11th August, 2010 In my long career as a post master, I have never felt as bewildered and miserable as I am feeling today. Pray God, I shall never be the same person again. Something paradoxical that happened today has changed my views about the letters completely. They are not a mere piece of paper delivered by our peons but each of them contains a warm, beating heart. I had been waiting anxiously for news of my daughter who lay ill at Lucknow. Today I came to the office at 3o clock in the morning and saw an envelope of the colour and handwriting on it that I expected to receive. I snatched it eagerly, but the next moment I dropped it as the letter was addressed to coachmen Ali. At the stroke of five, I heard a soft knock at the door. It was Ali. He was leaning on a stick, bent double with age. Tears were wet on his face. He looked strange and unearthly, with a kind of glow around him. He disappeared before I could give him the letter. Later I was surprised to learn from Lakshmi Das that Ali had died three months ago. I was bewildered, perplexed. Had I really seen Ali or was it his spirit or had my imagination deceived me? I suffered the pangs of anxiety and separation of my daughter yet again as I did not receive any letter from her today. In the evening I, visited Alis grave and laid the letter on it. For the first time in my life I realized what the anxietyand pain of separation from the child mean to a father. After spending but a single night in suspense and anxiety for the news, I can understand now the plight of old Ali who had to spend the last five years in the same suspense. Oh how long and tiresome must have been Alis waiting!

Q.III: Answer the following questions: 1. When the poet says that the mirror has no preconceptions it means: (i) it reflects your image objectively. (ii) it gives a biased view of the person. (iii) it is emotionally involved with the person whose image it reflects. Answer: (i) 2. Why has the mirror been described as being unmisted? What is the image that the poet is trying to convey about the nature of the mirror? Answer: The mirror has been called unmisted because it simply shows what it sees. It does not change the image if somebody shows love or hatred to him.Mirror is free from preconceptions and prejudices. The image that the poet is trying to convey about the nature of the mirror is that it is unbiased and does not distort the reality. 3. How does the mirror swallow? What is the poetic device used here? Answer: The Mirror swallows everything that comes in front of it immediately by showing its reflection without any distortion. The poetic device used here is personification. It is compared to a person who swallows everything. Therefore it is also a metaphor. 4. From the poem find out the words that have been used to describe themirror. For example, exact . Answer: These words are truthful, unmisted, not cruel, four cornered, having no preconceptions. 5. The mirror has been called a four cornered God because: (i) it is square shaped (ii) like God it watches you unbiased and fair from all angles (iii) it faithfully reflects all that it sees. Answer: (ii) 6. How does the mirror spend its time? Answer: The mirror spends its time in contemplating the opposite wall. 7. What disturbs its contemplation of the opposite wall? Answer: Darkness and faces disturb the mirrors contemplation of the opposite wall. 8. The pink speckles refer to: (i) the opposite wall that is pink. (ii) a person with a healthy pink face with freckles. (iii) spots made on the mirror with red paint. Answer: (i) 9. In the second stanza the mirror is compared to another object. What is it? Why do you think this comparison has been made? Answer: The mirror is compared to a lake. This comparison is made because when a person looks into a mirror or a lake, the memories of life flash across his or her mind as both the mirror and the lake reflect the true identity of the person. Both seem to be deep and reflect images truthfully without any bias. 10. What is the woman searching for in the depths of the pool? Answer: She is searching for the beauty and grace she had when she was younger 11. The phrase agitation of the hands means:

(i) the person is very upset. (ii) the persons hands are cold. (iii) the person is worried. Answer: (i) 12. Why does she start crying? Answer: She feels worried and anxious at the loss of beauty. She is upset to see the signs of advancing age. So, she starts crying. 13. Why does the poet refer to the fish in the last line? Why has it been described as being terrible? Answer: The stanza containing the last line of the poem starts with the mirrorbeing compared with a lake. Thus, the image of the woman emerging from it has been compared with a fish. The feeling of losing youth and beauty due to ageing as found by the woman in her image is terrible. Q.V: Read the given lines and answer the questions that follow:
A woman bends over me, Searching my reaches for what she really is. Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.

1. What is the woman bending over? Answer: The woman is bending over the mirror, now a lake. 2. Why does the woman bend over? Answer: The woman bends over the edges over the lake-like mirror and searches its depths to know what she really looks like. 3. Is she satisfied with what she observes? Give reasons for your answer. Answer: No, she is not satisfied with what she observes. Her tears and agitation of hands convey her displeasure and dissatisfaction. She keeps turning to the moon and the candles. 4. Why have the candles and the moon been called liars? Answer: The candles and the moon have been called liars because they create the illusion of beauty in their soft light. So, even an ugly face looks glamorous in their faint light. They do not show the woman her real image. 5. Why does she turn to these objects in spite of calling them liars? Answer: She wants to satisfy the general human weakness of appearing beautiful. The liars make her look beautiful in their soft and faint light. Perhaps her ego is also satisfied this way. So, she turns to these objects in spite of calling them liars.