Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
What do you call, O ye pedlars?
Chessmen and ivory dice.
What do you make, O ye goldsmiths?
Wristlet and anklet and ring, … .
(In the Bazaars of Hyderabad: Sarojini Naidu)
(i) What all were being sold by the merchants?
(ii) What is being ground by the maidens? Which items are the vendors weighing?
(iii) Describe the bells that the goldsmiths are crafting for blue pigeons?
What do the goldsmiths make for the dancers and the king?
(iv) Which instruments are the musicians playing? What are the magicians doing?
(v) Mention the happy as well as the sad occasions for which the flower girls are weaving flowers. Write one reason why the poem has appealed to you.
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(i) Crimson and silver turbans / tunics of purple brocade / mirrors with panels of amber / daggers with handles of jade
(ii)
- The maidens are grinding sandalwood/ henna/spice
- The vendors are weighing saffron/ lentil/ rice
(iii)
- Frail (delicate, light) as a dragon fly’s wing.
- The goldsmiths are making girdles (belts) for dancers
- Scabbards for the king
(iv)
- The musicians are playing sitar / sarangi / drum
- The magicians are chanting spells for aeons to come / spells that will remain potent for ages
(v)
- The flower girls are weaving garlands of blue and red flowers / They are making crowns to be worn by a bridegroom / garlands to decorate his marriage bed.
- They are making sheets of white flowers to perfume the sleep of the dead /.
- Personal response.