Growing up with Kites
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
We flew kites too; we loved to fly them. Made of coloured paper and fine bamboo, Indian kites are as brilliant as huge butterflies and almost as light…The gatekeeper ,Guru ,bought them for us in the bazaar and showed us how to glass our strings, how to run the fine thread through a mixture of flour paste and ground glass until the whole string was armoured and then to wind the string around the polished bamboo roller that had a slim bamboo handle at each end and which are small hands could grasp. He showed us how to launch and fly our kites, how to send them higher and higher, standing with our legs well apart, holding our rollers in both hands bracing ourselves against the tug and pull. He taught us how to make our kite bob three times as a challenge to the other kites in the sky and then, as a distant cry of “Dhari, Dhari!”Rose from an invisible rooftop, to cross strings with our opponent until the vanquished kite, cut loose, floated helplessly away over the river.
Sometimes we heard a shrill commotion on the road below and looking over the parapet, saw a crowd of boys running with bamboo poles after a drifting kite mended and patched, could do battle again.
_ Jon and Rumer Godden
On the basis of your reading of the above passage answer the following questions:
(i) Why does the author find flying kites an enjoyable hobby?
(ii) How was the string made into a lethal weapon?
(iii) What all did the gatekeeper Guru teach the authors?
(iv) How did the sport of kite –flying become a battle?
(v) Find words from the passage which mean the following
(a) splendid (b)keep
(c)sharp (d)remote
(e)defeated (f) ruined
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