MP Board Class 12th English A Voyage Solutions Chapter 11 My Father Travels (Dilip Chitre)

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MP Board Class 12th English A Voyage Solutions Chapter 11 My Father Travels (Dilip Chitre)

Do you think it is so difficult to get more marks in English Grammar Section and Passage Section? Then, you have the easiest way to understand the question from each concept and answer it in the exam. This can be possible only by reading the excerpts and topics covered in MP Board Board Solutions for Class 12th English Chapter 11 My Father’s Travels. All questions and answers are covered as per the latest syllabus guidelines. Go through the link available here and download Class 12th English Chapter 11 Textbook Answers MP Board Board.

My Father Travels Textbook Exercises

My Father Travels Question Answer MP Board Class 12 Chapter 11 Word Power

A. Give antonyms of the following words:
late, evening, silent, soggy, stale, sullen, static (adj.), narrow

Answer:

• Late — Early
• Evening — Morning
• Silent — Noisy
• Soggy — Dry Pleasant
• Stale — Fresh
• Sullen — Obedient
• Static — Dynamic
• Narrow — Wide

B. There are some phrasai yen’s used in the poem. A phrasai verb is a verb followed by an adverb or preposition, or sometimes by both for give a new meaning. For example,

• (all apart (to be in a very bad condition): The strategy fell apart in the absence of a proper back-up.
• get off (to be lucky to escape unhurt): He got off with minor injuries in the accident.
• hurry on (to continue without giving anyone time to interrupt): Unmindful of the opposition, the leader hurried on with his speech.

Look up a dictionary and find the meanings of other phrasai verbs with ‘fall’, get’ and ‘hurry’.

Answer:
Some other phrasai verbs with ‘fall’, ‘get’ and ‘hurry’ are the following:
Fall —

• fall away — to become gradually fewer or smaller
• fall down — to be shown to be not true
• fall in — to agree with
• fall on — to attack or take hold of somebody/something

My Father Travels Summary MP Board Class 12 Chapter 11 Get —

• get ahead — to make progress
• get away — to have a holiday
• get back — to return
• get down – to leave

My Father Travels MP Board Class 12 Chapter 11 Hurry —

• hurry up – to do quickly

C. Match the words in column A with their meanings in column B:

Column A	Column B
(i) commuters	(a) a way through the mountains
(ii) estrangement	(b) warm and damp
(iii) humid	(c) think deeply
(iv) contemplate	(d) alienation
(v) pass (noun)	(e) daily passengers

Answer:
(i) e, (ii) d, (iii) b, (iv) c, (v) a.

Comprehension

A. Answer in one sentence:

Question 1.
Who Is the narrator in the poem?
Answer:
The poet himself is the narrator in the poem.

Question 2.
‘Suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes. What is implied by ‘unseeing eyes’ in this line?
Answer:
‘Unseeing eyes’ implies that the father is in deep thought. unaware of what is passing through.

Question 3.
What does the poet mean by ‘a word dropped from a long sentence’?
Answer:
The poet means that the father during travel was a part of the train but now he is detached from it after getting down from it.

Question 4.
What does the father contemplate on in the toilet?
Answer:
The father contemplates over the degradation of social values and relationships.

Question 5.
What does the father dream of in sleep?
Answer:
The father dreams of his ancestors, his grand children and thinks about nomads in his sleep.

B. Answer in about 60 words each:

Question 1.
What does ‘yellow’ stand for in the line ‘Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light’?

Answer:
‘Yellow’ stands for ‘fright’ and ‘fear’ here. The poet here focuses on the sense of insecurity developing among our old generations who are being ignored and neglected by their youngsters. Today, in the fast-running way of life, we do not take care of our old guards who once protected us. We do not pay respect to them. We do not bother to share their woes or feelings. Hence, they are scared of their life. They are alone in their journey of life, completely secluded and detached.

Question 2.
Why does father hurry on?

Answer:
The father in this poem represents the old values. He travels alone in the train, standing among the old aged daily passengers with a fearful look and a depressed lot of humanity. He has a sense of attachment with the family. He hurries back home to have some time with his family. He feels overburdened with the feeling of values that he represents. He is tired and secluded. But the whole idea of ‘Home’ makes him hurried on.

Question 3.
Why does the father tremble at the sink? (M.P. Board 2009)

Answer:
The father comes back home. He eats stale chapatis and drinks weak tea. Nobody cares about his presence. He is alone in the house as no one bothers for him. He is ignored by his grandchildren. Nobody shares his woes. He goes to toilet in order to ease himself. It also symbolises a feeling of detachment from the worldly burden of relationship. So, he trembles at the sink out of weakness which is physical but also he shivers, thinking where the new society is led to.

Question 4.
Why does the poet call the children sullen? (M.P. Board 2015)
Answer:
The poet calls the children sullen because they are different from the previous generation. They feel differently and do accordingly. They do not bother for the old generation. They have their own way of living. They have no time to care or even look at their grandparents. They lack affinity and feeling. It is the trend of modern civilization. Moral values are vanishing fast. Children are growing indisciplined. They are becoming self-centred.

Question 5.
What does the poet suggest through the line ‘A few droplets cling the greying hair on his wrists’?
Answer:
The poet here focuses on the degrading moral values. In the modem civilization we ignore our old generations. We do not bother to care for them. They don’t get any proper care and regard. They feel scorned and ignored. They are growing weak with the feeling of alienated and aloof. The droplets clinging the greying hair on his wrists symbolise their unmindfulness of any sense of care. The droplets provide care and togetherness which the old man has been refused by his children.

Question 6.
Explain the following lines:
Home again, I see him drinking weak tea,
Eating a stale chapati, reading a book.
Answer:
This poem highlights the ironies of modern civilisation. It captures the predicament of an aged man in a dehumanised urban world. These lines focus on the real status of the old and aged people in our family. He comes back home, drinks weak tea and eats stale chapatis. Nobody cares to share his feelings. He is treated like these stale chapatis which he eats as his destinies. He spends his times in reading books.

C. Answer in about 75 words each:

Question 1.
Give the central idea of the poem.
Answer:
My Father Travels is a poem on the dehumanising growth of the modern civilization. It captures the predicament of an aged man in this dehumanised urban world. He feels depressed at the crumbling traditional value system and human relationships. The younger generation lacks sincerity and regard for their old generation.

They don’t bother to honour the traditional values and ways of life. They imitate the fast changing world pattern where there is no place for the old and the aged, for them, the old is not gold but stale and outdated. This is the negative aspect of the modernisation.

Question 2.
Comment on the mood in the poem.
Answer:
The poem is written in a mood of deep concern for the changing world where we are losing our values. The poet is pensive. He through a father ‘s travel, puts his ideas about how the modernisation affects us negatively. We are being detached from old values, our tradition, and our ancestors. The new generation has its own views and values. The old and the aged are ignored and overrated. They are subjected to negligence. The poet grows so depressed that he even thinks of the nomads. It means that the present world is not even better than the nomadic period.

Question 3.
Why does the poet refer to the Father ‘thinking of nomads entering a subcontinent through a narrow pass’?
Answer:
My Father Travels is a poem which highlights the ironies of modern civilisation. The poem also calls for concern for the older generation and also for the age old values in meeting the demands of modern times according to our cultural priorities. The modem society is ruthless and indisciplined. It has no feeling, no concern, no care, no honour, no regard, and nothing for the old generation. It appears to be so cruel that the poet even thinks about nomads who were even better than today’s people.

Question 4.
What light does the poem throw on the decline of social values?
Answer:
See ‘Summary in English’ of the poem.

Speaking Activity

A. (i) Find the stress pattern in the first stanza of the poem as part of the group work or pair work. (Look up an English pronunciation dictionary)

Answer:
The stress pattern is not regular.

(ii) Is the metre regular here? Do you find run-on lines?
Answer:
The metre is not regular. Yes, there are run-on lines throughout the poem.

B. ‘Material progress is not meaningful without cultural and social values’. Speak for, or against the motion.
Answer:
Attempt yourself at class level.

Writing Activity

Expand the idea contained in the following lines:

Question 1.
He goes to contemplate man’s estrangement from a man-made world.
Answer:
As the modem generation has left the old and aged people uncared and ignored they feel secluded and aloof. They are cut off from the real world. Nobody cares for them nor shares their woes.

Question 2.
His sullen children have often refused to share jokes and secrets with him.
Answer:
Here the poet means to say that the present generation has no sympathy for the old and aged. They disobey them. They are indisciplined in their behaviour. Also there is a gap in communication. The happy and cost hours are not shared with the old man.

Think It Over

A. Do you think the theme of the poem speaks of social responsibility towards the elderly people?
Answer:
See ‘Summary in English’ of the poem.

B. ‘ Is our value-system threatened by the materialist ethos of modern civilization?
Answer:
See ‘Summary in English’ of the poem.

Things to Do

Read the following extract from the poem, ‘Gerontion’ by T.S. Eliot having the same theme and answer the questions that follow:

Here I am, an old man in a dry month,
Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.
I was neither at the hot gates
Nor fought in the warm rain
Nor knee deep in the salt marsh, hearing a cutlass,
Bitten by files, fought.
My house is a decayed house,
And the jew squats on the window sill, the owner,
Spawned in some estaminet of Antwerp,
Blistered in Brussels, patched and peeled in London.
The goat coughs at night in the field overhead;
Rocks, moss, stonecrop, iron, merds.
The woman keeps the kitchen, makes tea,
Sneezes at evening, poking the peevish gutter.
I am an old man,
A dull head among windy spaces.

Questions:
(i) Who is the narrator in the poem? ,
(ii) What does the image, ‘My house is a decayed house’ suggest?
(iii) Bring out the similarities of the poetic technique in the poems-‘Gerontion’ and ‘My Father Travels’.

Answers:
(i) The poet is the narrator.
(ii) It suggests that the present system has been corrupted by the modern civilization.
There is no value.
(iii) Both the poems delineate the dehumanising effect of the modern civilization where we don’t care for the traditional and value-based things.

My Father Travels by Dilip Chitre Introduction

This poem throws light on the irony of modern civilization. It focuses on the broken traditional value system and human relations. Here, through the activities of a father, a representative of the older generation, the poet throws light on his thoughts.

My Father Travels Summary in English

The narrator says that his father travels in an evening train parked among silent passengers in yellow lights. He is wearing a wet and soft shirt and pants and his black raincoat stained with mud. His bag full of books breaks and falls. He gets off the train and runs to the platform to reach home. His slippers are sticky with mud. He eats stale chapatis, drinks weak tea and reads books. He goes to the toilet to relieve himself of the burden. It symbolizes detachment from worldly burdens. Coming out, he trembles over the sink, but none of his children share his anguish. They ignore him. They take no pleasure in his jokes or secrets. He finally goes to bed, listens to the radio and dreams of his ancestors and grandchildren. The thought of nomads also comes to his mind.

My Father Travels Summary in Hindi

प्रस्तुत कविता आधुनिक सभ्यता की त्रासदी को उजागर करती है। यह पारंपरिक मूल्यों और मानवीय संबंधों को तोड़ने की प्रक्रिया पर केंद्रित है। यहाँ कवि अपने विचार एक ऐसे पिता के माध्यम से प्रस्तुत करता है जो प्राचीन पीढ़ी का प्रतिनिधि है।

कवि कहता है कि उसके पिता देर शाम रेलगाड़ी में यात्रा करते हैं, जो आम यात्रियों के बीच एक भयानक परछाई की तरह खामोश खड़ी रहती है। उन्होंने मलय की गीली शर्ट-पैंट पहनी हुई है और मिट्टी से सना हुआ उनका काला रेनकोट है। किताबों से भरा उसका बैग खुल जाता है। वह ट्रेन से उतरता है और तेजी से प्लेटफॉर्म पार करता है और घर की ओर दौड़ता है। उनकी चप्पलें कीचड़ से लथपथ हैं। वह बासी चपाती खाता है और हल्की चाय पीता है और किताबें पढ़ता है। वह आराम करने के लिए शौचालय जाता है। यह दुनिया के बोझ से छुटकारा पाने का प्रतीक है। बाहर आकर, वह डगमगाता है, घूमता है, लेकिन उसका कोई भी बच्चा अपने दुखों को साझा नहीं करता है। वे उसकी उपेक्षा करते हैं। वे अपने चुटकुलों और रहस्यों का आनंद नहीं लेते हैं। अंत में वे रेडियो सुनते हुए और अपने पूर्वजों और पोते-पोतियों के सपने देखते हुए बिस्तर पर सो जाते हैं। उनके मन में प्राचीन काल के खानाबदोश व्यक्ति की तस्वीर भी उभर आती है।

My Father Travels Word Meaning

My Father Travels Important Pronunciations

My Father Travels Stanzas for Comprehension

Read the following stanzas carefully and answer the questions that follow:

1. My father travels on the late evening train
Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light.
Suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes.
His shirt and pants are soggy, and his black raincoat
Is stained with mud, his bag stuffed with books
Is falling apart. (Page 78)

Questions:
(i) What look does ‘yellow light’ reflects?
(ii) ……… slide past his unseeing eyes.
(iii) Find a word similar in meaning to ‘patched’.
(iv) Where is the father’s bag of books?

Answers:
(i) ‘Yellow light’ reflects a ‘frightening look’.
(ii) Suburbs.
(iii) ‘Stained’ is similar in meaning ‘patched’.
(iv) The father’s bag of books is falling apart.

2. His sullen children have often refused to share
Jokes and secrets with him. He will now go to sleep
Listening to the static on the radio, dreaming
Of his ancestors and grandchildren, thinking
Of nomads entering a subcontinent through a narrow pass. (Page 79)

Questions:
(i) What position of the father does the first line refer to?
(ii) ………entering a subcontinent through a narrow pass.
(iii) Find a word opposite in meaning to ‘Successors’.
(iv) What does the father finally do?

Answers:
(f) The father’s position is neglected in the family.
(ii) Of nomads.
(iii) Ancestors’ has opposite meaning to ‘successors’.
(iv) The father finally goes to bed listening to the static radio and dreaming of his ancestors and grand-children.

We think the data given here clears all your questions from Chapter 11 My Father Travels and assures you to attempt all the questions in the exam. So, practice as much as you can from the MP Board Board Solutions for Class 12th English Chapter 11 and score well. Need any information regarding this then ask us through comments and we will give the best possible answer soon.

Final Words