Supp. Unit 6 English - FL - Supp. Unit 6

Look up the dictionary for the meaning of the word ‘diaspora’. What do you understand of the Indian diaspora from this piece?

How do Shahid and the writer react to the knowledge that Shahid is going to die.?

What impressions of Shahid do you gather from the piece?

What does ‘The Ghat of the only World’ mean?

How does Shahid face death? Describe the hospital scene.

No matter how many people there were, Shahid was never so distracted as to lose track of the progress of the evening’s meal. From time to time he would interrupt himself to shout directions to whoever was in the kitchen: ‘yes, now, add the dahi now. Even when his eyesight was failing, he could tell from the smell alone, exactly which stage the rogan josh had reached. And when things went exactly as they should, he would sniff the air and cry out loud: ‘Ah! Khana ka kya mehek hai!
Q.1. What did Shahid never lose track of during gatherings?
Q.2. How did Shahid know the stage of the rogan josh even when his eyesight was failing?
Q.3. What would Shahid exclaim when the food turned out perfectly?

No matter what the question, Shahid worked poetry into his answer. Finally, the exasperated woman asked: ‘Are you carrying anything that could be dangerous to the other passengers?’ At this Shahid clapped a hand to his chest and cried: ‘Only my heart.’
Q.1. What did Shahid always include in his answers?
Q.2. What did the exasperated woman ask Shahid?
Q.3. What was Shahid’s poetic reply to the woman’s question?

His head was shaved and the shape of the tumor was visible upon his bare scalp, its edges outlined by metal sutures. When it was time to leave the ward a blue-uniformed hospital escort arrived with a wheelchair. Shahid waved him away, declaring that he was strong enough to walk out of the hospital on his own. But he was groggier than he had thought and his knees buckled after no more than a few steps.
Q.1. What was visible on his bare scalp?
Q.2. Who arrived with a wheelchair for him?
Q.3. Why did his knees buckle after a few steps?

‘I would like to go back to Kashmir to die.’ His voice was quiet and untroubled. ‘Now I have to get my passport, settle my will and all that. I don’t want to leave a mess for my siblings. But after that I would like to go to Kashmir. It’s still such a feudal system there and there will be so much support-and my father is there too. Anyway, I don’t want my siblings to have to make the journey afterwards, like we had to with my mother.”
Q.1. Where did he want to go to die?
Q.2. What did he need to do before going to Kashmir?
Q.3. Why didn’t he want his siblings to make the journey afterwards?

He had a special passion for the food of his region, one variant of it in particular: ‘Kashmiri food in the Pandit style’. I asked him once why this was so important to him and he explained that it was because of a recurrent dream, in which all the Pandits had vanished from the valley of Kashmir and their food had become extinct. This was a nightmare that haunted him and he returned to it again and again, in his conversation and his poetry.
Q.1. What kind of food did he have a special passion for?
Q.2. Why was Kashmiri Pandit food important to him?
Q.3. How did this fear affect him?

In 1998, 1 quoted a line from The Country Without a Post Office in an article that touched briefly on Kashmir. At the time all I knew about Shahid was that he was from Srinagar and had studied in Delhi. I had been at Delhi University myself, but although our time there had briefly overlapped, we had never met. We had friends in common however, and one of them put me in touch with Shahid. In 1998 and 1999 we had several conversations on the phone and even met a couple of times. But we were no more than acquaintances until he moved to Brooklyn the next year.

Q.1. Name the book written by Shahid from which the narrator quoted a line.
Q.2. Mention the common factors between the narrator and Shahid.

No matter how many people there were, Shahid was never so distracted as to lose track of the progress of the evening’s meal. From time to time he would interrupt himself to shout directions to whoever was in the kitchen: ‘yes, now, add the dahi now. Even when his eyesight was failing, he could tell from the smell alone, exactly which stage the rogan josh had reached. And when things went exactly as they should, he would sniff the air and cry out loud: ‘Ah! Khana ka kya mehek hai!
Q.1. What did Shahid never lose track of during gatherings?
Q.2. How did Shahid know the stage of the rogan josh even when his eyesight was failing?

No matter what the question, Shahid worked poetry into his answer. Finally, the exasperated woman asked: ‘Are you carrying anything that could be dangerous to the other passengers?’ At this Shahid clapped a hand to his chest and cried: ‘Only my heart.’
Q.1. What did Shahid always include in his answers?
Q.2. What did the exasperated woman ask Shahid?

His head was shaved and the shape of the tumor was visible upon his bare scalp, its edges outlined by metal sutures. When it was time to leave the ward a blue-uniformed hospital escort arrived with a wheelchair. Shahid waved him away, declaring that he was strong enough to walk out of the hospital on his own. But he was groggier than he had thought and his knees buckled after no more than a few steps.
Q.1. What was visible on his bare scalp?
Q.2. Who arrived with a wheelchair for him?

‘I would like to go back to Kashmir to die.’ His voice was quiet and untroubled. ‘Now I have to get my passport, settle my will and all that. I don’t want to leave a mess for my siblings. But after that I would like to go to Kashmir. It’s still such a feudal system there and there will be so much support-and my father is there too. Anyway, I don’t want my siblings to have to make the journey afterwards, like we had to with my mother.”
Q.1. Where did he want to go to die?
Q.2. What did he need to do before going to Kashmir?