FICTION
WRITE FOUR LINE ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: (5 marks each)
I. Why was the term ‘Mother Earth’ used across literatures?
III. In Hindi and Tamil literatures ‘patal’ and ‘paathala’ respectively refer to the underworld. What kind of creatures were said to inhabit these areas?
III. Why was the Rig Vedic Vak Devi, Goddess of Articulation of All Life, implored to ‘let the hem of your skirt sweep over me’?
IV. Why is light associated with revelation in all literatures?
NON-FICTION
V. ARE THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS TRUE OR FALSE: (15 marks)
- Throughout the subcontinent, forests deemed ‘sacred groves’ were not allowed to be felled. The widely implemented concept of ‘Restorative groves’ is its current version.
- Fossil images of trilobites ‘traffic jams’ in 480 million-year-old oceans reveal migration is intrinsic to life.
- The koala was not always an endangered species. Their fingerprints are so indistinguishable from humans that they were, on occasion, confused at a crime scene.
- Early medical texts recommend deer as suitable companions for ‘disturbed’ maidens due to their gentleness which was regarded as an offshoot of the animals’ virtual color blindness to all hues except blue.
- Fungi warp our sense of time as we cannot accurately date when they are born or die.
- Deep time mappings of the Antarctic revealed 3% of the ice in these glaciers was penguin urine.
- Climate Change documents of the early 21st-century state a cyclone would diminish within a week after landfall.
- Macaques were noticed gazing at sunsets and similar spectacles while ignoring distractions like fruiting trees—which indicated they were wonderstruck and lost in awe.
- The Cuckoo Agenda was the name given by the ultra-nationalists of rich nations to climate refugees.
- The bears’ sense of smell is 2,100 times better than that of humans. Black bears could follow a scent trail 32 kilometers away, now it is up to 18 kilometers.
- Luring fish back to dying coral reefs through their recorded calls induced reefs to flower with color and become vibrant ecosystems.
- Switching to micro livestock and Insect Agriculture especially of arthropods, crickets and cockroaches has made a substantial impact on world-wide environmental conservation and food security.
- Archeological findings of submerged towns off the eastern coast of India testify to repeated mentions in royal records of ‘gigantic waves that swallowed cities’ i.e. tsunamis.
- When astronauts first saw The Blue Planet from space 70% of the Earth’s surface was covered by water; it is now 73%.
- 6000-year-old trees still exist on Earth but their locations are kept secret.
TRANSLATION
VI. CHOOSE ANY TEN PHENOMENA THAT STILL EXIST AND TRANSLATE THESE INTO A CONTEMPORARY INDIAN LANGUAGE. (20 marks)
- Diving river dolphin
- Plastic waste islands
- Dew on lotus leaf
- Silence of caves
- Fracking industry
- Peacock’s shimmering dance
- Tumbleweed’s tenacity
- Burning tyres
- Spreading banyan tree
- Scent of first rain
- Tangled leaf shadows
- Untreated sewage
- Salt-encrusted migrants
- Pollen flecked bees
- Species-crossing pathogens
- Wheeling eagle
- Mantling stars
- Building the Wall
- Abandoned chrysalis
- Pole star wander
POETRY
VII. WHAT SIGNIFICANCE DOES THIS POLITICAL POEM OF THE21ST CENTURY HAVE TODAY? (15 marks)
Invocation: Spirit of Water *
Make me dew that touches all
without distinction.
Like snow-flakes let my perfect structures yield
to the melt of being.
As an underground river flowing during drought,
make me draw from secret sources.
Sweet and salt, estuarine,
let differences mingle in my blood.
Tidal courage, I call upon you to return after the ebb:
Spirit of water, give me hope.
Print on me oceans covered with sky;
when fiery fissures open, remind me of life.
Fill my marrow with glacial ice that cuts
rock to nourish springs.
Add one more wish to this:
Make me a mountain lake,
calm and deep,
that reflects light.
VIII. WHY DO YOU THINK CLIMATE BREAKDOWN CAN STILL BE REVERSED? GIVE SIX REASONS REFERENCING MULTISPECIES ETHNOGRAPHIC LITERATURE. (30 marks)
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* “Invocation: Spirit of Water” by Priya Sarukkai Chabria was first published in Dialogue and Other Poems (Indian Academy of Literature Golden Jubilee Imprint, 2005).
