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GATE 2024 XH2 (English) – Question 57

Literary Forms, Genres, and Modes of Expression · Aesthetic and Rhetorical Strategies: Narrative and poetic techniques, and figures of speech · 2 marks · Multiple select

“Lear cries out ‘you are men of stones’
as Cordelia hangs from a broken wall.
I step out into Chandni Chowk, a street once
strewn with jasmine flowers
for the Empress and the royal women
who bought perfumes from Isfahan,
fabrics from Dacca, essence from Kabul,
glass bangles from Agra.
Beggars now live here in tombs
of unknown nobles and forgotten saints
while hawkers sell combs and mirrors
outside a Sikh temple. Across the street,
a theater is showing a Bombay spectacular.
I think of Zafar, poet and Emperor,
being led through this street
by British soldiers, his feet in chains,
to watch his sons hanged.
In exile he wrote:
‘Unfortunate Zafar
spent half his life in hope,
the other half waiting.
He begs for two yards of Delhi for burial.’
He was exiled to Burma, buried in Rangoon.”
Which of the following ideas is/are conveyed by this poem?

  1. Delhi is a modern and progressive city despite its imperial past.
  2. Even Kings may be punished when they commit crimes against their children.
  3. An exile’s sense of loss, and longing for their homeland.
  4. History is a constant presence all around us.

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Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: (C) An exile’s sense of loss, and longing for their homeland.; (D) History is a constant presence all around us.

Explanation

The speaker walks through Chandni Chowk and recalls its past and Zafar's exile and his wish to be buried in Delhi, which conveys an exile's longing (C) and the presence of history in the street (D). The poem does not praise Delhi as progressive.