Felling of the Banyan Tree, English Literature, Class 8, Magic Place

POEM : FELLING OF THE BANYAN TREE BY DILIP CHITRE

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Part A: Short Answer Type Questions:-

A1. What were the structures that surrounded the speaker's house?

Ans: The speaker's house was surrounded by other houses that were inhabited by tenants.

2. Why did the speaker's grandmother feed that felling a tree was a crime?

Ans : The speakers grandmother believed that trees was sacred and she felt that it was a crime to cut them down.

3. Why does the speaker use the word 'massacre' to describe the felling of the trees?

Ans: The speaker uses the word 'massacre' to convey the utter cruelty and violence which was involved in the cutting down of these trees.

4. Which trees were cut down?

Ans : The sheoga, the oudumber and the neem trees were cut down.

5. Describe the Banyan tree.

Ans: The Banyan tree was sturdy and it presented a problem to the wood cutters as it could not be cut down easily. It had roots which went deep into the soil and it was three times taller than the speaker's house. Its trunk had a circumference of fifty feet and it's thin aerial roots fell to the

ground from a height of around forty feet.

6. How was it cut down?

Ans: The Banyan tree had to be cut down in sections by the wood cutters employed by the speaker's father. First they cut the branches and the aerial roots of the tree for a week. Then, they chopped its

enormous trunk till its rings of two hundred years were revealed.

6. What effect did the destruction of the tree have on the poet and his family?

Ans : The destruction of the tree filled the poet and his family with a strange sense of fascination and terror. They were unable to look away as the men carried out the slaughter of the ancient Banyan tree.

Later the memory of the tree would continue to haunt them in the dreams even after they left Baroda and moved to Bombay.

Part B- REFERENCE TO CONTEXT.

1a. Why does the poet say that the tree stood like a problem?

Ans: The poet says that the tree stood like a problem because it could not be easily cut down and seemed to pose as an obstruction to the speaker's father's plans to clear all the land around his house.

b. Who wanted to remove the tree?

Ans : The poets father wanted to remove the tree.

c. How did the speaker's father deal with the problem?

Ans : The speakers father dealt with the problem in a cruel and violent way. He ordered for the removal of the tree and demanded that the men cut it down in sections . According to his commands the

branches of the tree were felled first and then its trunk.

d. Years later, how did the speaker realise that tree's roots 'lay deeper than all our lives'?

Ans: The tree continued to haunt the speaker and his family in their dreams even after they left Baroda for Bombay. The tree may have been uprooted but it still continued to seethe in their consciousness. Thus they realised that the tree lay deeper than all their lives.

2a. What does the 'slaughter' refer to?

Ans: The 'slaughter' refers to the felling of the ancient Banyan tree that stood near the speaker's old home in Baroda.

b. Why has the word 'slaughter' been used?

Ans : The word 'slaughter has been used to convey the violence of the act. It puts across the idea that the felling of the Banyan tree is compared to murder.

c. What is meant by 'raw mythology' over here?

Ans: The Banyan tree is associated with age , wisdom and a host of different legends and myths. Here , the words 'raw mythology ' refer to this treasure trove of stories and memories contained in the tree.

C. THINK AND ANSWER.

1. The poet describes in detail the way in which the massive tree was felled. He uses words like 'slaughter' and 'massacre' to convey the violence of the act. He also writes about the effect that the felling of the tree had on him and his family. The poet is thereby able to evoke a sense of horror and pity. On the other hand , the description of the glory and grandeur of the Banyan tree with its massive form and its birds and beasts evokes a sense of awe in the readers. Its rings of two hundred years indicative of its age, are used skilfully by the poet to evoke a sense of wonder.