1. Warm up activity:
□ In a group discuss the last journey yon made out of your village/town/city.
□ Now share the following introduction with a friend.
Bangladesh, despite a fast paced urbanization, still remains predominantly rural Bow many villages are there now? Sixty four thousands or more? Have the villages changed muck aver the years? How did they respond to the onslaught of urbanization or march of development or growth in education? Write dawn your answer. In the following extract, we will see a Bangladeshi village and the villagers through the eyes of an English professor from England who taught in Dhaka university twice-first between 1947 and 1951 and again in 1972.
2. Read the text below and answer the questions that follow:
We set out on the evening of July 21st. Food was scarce in the village so Abdul packed a suitcase with two loaves and some tea and tins of milk, cheese and jam. We travelled Intermediate class in a cross country train not uncomfortably crowded, through a country of shadowy loveliness. It was a moonlit night of broken soft clouds; the land was mostly under water, with paddy and coco-palms growing from it, and a few raised cart-tracks and groups of cottages islanded among clumps of bushes, all reflected among shadows.
Here and there was the red glow of a cooking fire or the lantern of a fisherman's boat in open water. At dawn we reached Sonaimuri, a small canal-side station among wide fields, from there we had eight more miles by country boat, some of it along the canal, some of it across the flooded paddy fields. I was looking forward to that tranquil water-journey in the early morning, and tranquil it must have been, for I fell instantly asleep and knew no more till we reached the landing-ghat at Khorshed's house, in a blaze of sunlight. It turned out that his letter saying that he was bringing me was still on its way, but they rallied to the crisis and gathered round to make me welcome, though as none of them spoke any English they could only stare and laugh and offer me coco-nut juice.
Khorshed set me up a camp, a wooden bed, chair and table in a thatched bamboo outhouse. It was a lovely spot among bamboo and coco-palms, facing a tank where fireflies wove intricate dances at night. He put his own bed beside it for protection, and there I stayed, holding permanent court from dawn to bedtime. Within village memory-and that went back for some two centuries, I was the first European to go there: it was too remote even for a District Commissioner to pass through. Also since I was a woman, the women could come (at different times from the men) to look at me without losing their characters. People kept coming and coming: only the rains and the fact that few of them were rich enough to have boats prevented them from coming from ten miles round. When he saw that they would not stop coming Khorshed fixed some curtains round the bed so that I could crawl behind them when I was tired of being looked at, like a zoo animal into its sleeping hut. Even then the little hut would fill up with women and children. Children followed when I went out, and when Khorshed remonstrated a small boy pleaded, "Don't send us away! After she's gone not even a strange bird will come to the village." I stood up to the celebrity for the two days we had planned, but it was enough.
[A.G Stock, Memoirs of Dacca University 1947-1951, 1973]
3. Put T (true) or F (false) beside the following statements based on the above extract.
a. The author carried some food with her because she disliked local food.
b. She travelled to Sonaimuri by train.
c. She lived in a tent during her stay in the village.
d. She was the first European to visit the village.
e. Khorshed's father had a brick-built house.
4. Answer the following questions briefly:
a. When and why did the author fall asleep during her journey?
b. What trees and insects are mentioned in the passage?
c. Why did the small boy plead, "After she's gone not even a strange bird will come to the village"?
d. Why was there a "crisis" when the author arrived?
e. Why did the women visit her?
f. Find three evidences which suggest that the narrator enjoyed her visit.
g. Why does the narrator compare herself to a sleeping zoo animal?
h. What is the general tone of the passage?
5. Write a short paragraph describing your first visit to a place away from home.
6. Explain the significance of the statement - "I stood up to the celebrity for the two days we had planned but it was enough." What feeling is implied here-amusement or mild annoyance?
7. What do the following phrases mean in the passage?
not uncomfortably crowded; knew no more; rallied to the crisis; tired of being looked at; looking forward to; a blaze of sunlight; of broken soft clouds; fireflies wove intricate dances; clumps of bushes; holding permanent court; kept coming and coming.
8. Find the antonym for the following:
a. gather
b. weave
c. intricate
d. permanent
e. remote
f. remonstrate
g. tranquil
9. Join the pair of sentences in each line to make one sentence using the expressions given in the bracket.
a. He made fixed a tent. He wanted me to get some sleep, (so that)
b. None of them spoke English. They welcomed me. (though)
c. It was dark. He lit a lantern, (as)
d. I was a woman. Women visited me freely, (since)
If you want to read the next lesson of this unit please click the link below:
Lesson 2: Arriving in the Orient
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