:GLOSSARY

Zemindar : Landlord
Kinsmen : Family people
Darling : Beloved person
Fostered: Brought up
Thwarted : Prevented
Banian : Variety of atree
Reverenced : Respected
Incessant: Continous
Yama :: Vedic god of the underworld
Vividly : Clearly, brightly
’ Apparition : Resident, inhabitant
Prejudiced : Biased, preconceived opinion
Abstraction : Absent-mindedness
’ Eternity: Without beginning or end
Partiality : Special fondness
Forlorn : Sad
Abominably : Very unpleasant
14
Sluggish: Slow moving
Greatly surprised
Astounded :
one in custody
back
Detention : Keeping
Slow movement
-’
Drift :
Nettled : Irritated
Decision-making ability
Executive ability :
forco
’
Asserting: With positive
Contradicting : Conflicting
Impending : About to happen
Parched: Dried out
Anguished : Expressing severe pain
Incessant : continuous
Maya : goddess of illusions
Illusory : Imaginative, ureal
: EXERCISE :

(A) Answer the following questions inone or two sentences

1. Who was Kadambini ?
Ans. Kadmbini was the widow of the Ranihat Zemindar Saradasanka
2. Who took away the dead body of
Kadambini
?
OR
Who took Kadambini for cremation after she
problem ? had a cardid
Ans FOur of the
zemindar´s
of Kadambini.
Branmin servants took away the dead b0@)
3. Who went to see why the wood did not
ground ? reach to the burning
Ans. Nitai and Gurucharan went to see why
to the burning ground. the wood did not reach
4. Why did Nitai and Grucucharan
Ans. Nitai and Gurucharan abused Bidhu
abuse Bidhu and Banamali?
and
and Banamali had lefi the dead Banamali because Bidhu
body at the
ran away from that place.
burning-ground and
 Bliss
Antnology of
Text short Stories
5
What
áctually had happened to
(Macmillan) 15

believed to be
Kadambini wawas
dead ? Kadambini when she was
Ans. nol dead; only the
reason
suddenly stopped. machine of her life had for some
Who was Sripati ?
Ans. Sripati was Jogmaya's husband,
What do
7. womennot love ? Why ?
Ans. Women do not love
mystery, because, though uncertainty may be
transmuted into poetry, into heroism, into scholarship, it cannot
he turned to account in
household work.
What did Kadambini ask
8.
ns One Jogmaya one midnight ?
midnight, Kadambini came out from her bedroom
and wailed at Jogmaya's door asking her to weeping,
her bedroom. permit her to stay in
9. What did Jogmaya ask Sripati to do ?
Ans. Jogmaya asked her husband Sripati to go to
place to know the truth about her.
Kadambini's in lavw's
10. What did Jogmaya think to
prove that Sripati erred ?
Ans. Jogmaya thought that if she could find a discrepancy between the
day of death and the date of some letter from Kadambini, she could
prove that Sripati erred.
11. What did the child ask Kadambini when she came back to her
home ?
Ans. The child awoke and embraced her and asked her if she had died.
12,
How did Kadambini prove that she was not dead ?
OR
What did Kadambinido to prove that she was alive and not
a ghost ?
aS. When nobody wanted to believe that Kadambini was alive, she
Went down the steps to the zenana well and plunged in it.
13. Who is the writer of Leaving or Dead ?*
OR
Who has written Leaving or Dead ?
Ans. Rabindranath Tagore has written Leaving or Dead.
 TextBIIS
16 Saradasankar's ?
Kadambini has fostered because after thebirth
14. Why Sardasankar's son
had fostered
Ans. Kadambini his mother had been very il1.
of the child ground of Ranihat ?
15. Where was
the burning ver÷ far from the village.
burning-ground of Ranihat was
to bring tobacco 2
Ans. The
Why Banmali was eager to go of fear of ghost
16. tobacco out
to go to bring,
go
Ans. Banmali was eager
was considered,to behaunted.
ground
as the burning when they returned at
the hut on the
17. What did the four see
burning- ground ?
to the hut, they saw atonce that the body
Ans. When the four returned
remained
was gone and an empty bed
Kadambini ?
18. What did the tráveller offer
reaching her.
Ans. The traveller asked Kadambini to help her
19. What did Kadambini say to traveller as where sh wanted to
go ?
Ans. Kadambini said to the traveller that she would go to Sripati's house
at Nisindapur.
20. What do women do when they cannot understand a thing ?
Ans. When a woman cannot understand a thing, she either destroys and
forgets it or she shapes it a new for her oWn use.
21. What did Jogmaya tell to her husband Sripati ?
OR
Why did Jogmaya scold her
Ans. Jogmaya scolded her husband?
husband saying that he had not taken any
objection
22. What did against Kadambini's long stay at their home.
Sripati tell Jogmayaa after
Ans. After returning to Ranihat
? 3

living
to Ranihat,
with them was not Sripati returning
told Jogmaya that the
Wom:al
23.
How did Kadambini
Ans. At first,
Jogmaya's friend Kadambini.
Spend her 3
Kadambini first day at Ranihat ?
day in a
ruined showed herself to no one, but spent the
whole'

was Satis temple,

24. Who A
Ans. Satis was the ? starving.
son of
Sardasankar.
Text
Bliss
Anthology of short
Stories
25.
Who Was

Saradasankar Ranihat Zemindar (Macmil an)

was
17

Ans.
How and when Ranihat Zcmindar.
26.

Ans. One
night in
beating.
Kadambi ni dicd
Sraban Kadambini died ?

Give the names of

suddenly as her heart
stopped
27. the four men
of Kadambini ? who took over the dead
hody
Ans. The
four men who took over the dead
Nitai, Gurucharan, Bidhu and body of Kadambini were
Why Bidhu and Banmali got
Bananali.
28. afraid at the burning ground ?
OR
Why did Bidhu and Banmali run away
from the hut at the
burning ground ?
Ans. Bidhu and Banmali run away from the hut at the
burning-ground
hecause they noticed the bed shook slightly and the dead body had
turned on its side at the burning-ground which was considered to
be haunted one.
29. What did the four Bidhu, Nitai, Gurucharan and Banamali -
decided after the dead body was found to be missing ?
decided that it would be best to
Ans.After much duscussion, the four
body had been burnt.
say to Saradasankar th¡t the
30. Wh0 was Jogmaya ?
OR

was Kadambini's childhood friend ?

Who friend.
Kadambini's childhood
Ans. Jogmaya was make to her friend Jogmaya
Kadambini treat her
31. What request did coner, and
Jogmaya to give her a
Ans. Kadambini requested shaping
as a servant. destroying or
do when shefails
32. What does a woman understand ? understandin
cannot cannot
a new thing she thing she with it.
with the
Ans. If Women fails to deal she loses her temper
a anew,
it
shaning
Sroying or
 Stories)
Anthology of Short
(An
Text: Bliss
in relation
18 about men
make
does theauthor
observation
33. What womankind in general.
to women ?
natural partiality foraccountable.
have a
Ans. Men, as a racc, themselves hold them after knowing
the
womnen Kadambini
for which belive about
34. What did Sripanti
Ranihat ? deceived his wife
truth from Kadambini had
believedthat their guest
Ans. Sripati by a pretended acquaintance. in-Haw's place from
all the time come back to her
Kadambini
35. Why did
Jogmaya's home ? child again.
place to see her
her in-law's
Kadambini came back to
Ans.
following questions in brief :
(B) Answer the
Saradanskar
relationship with the
Kadambiní's
1. What was
family ?
OR
introduction of Kadambini.
Give a brief
Saradasankar, the Ranihat zemindar.
house of
Ans. The widow in the father's family. One after another all
had
had not kinsmen of her husband's family any one she could cal
died. Nor had she in her The child of her brother-in
husband nor son.
her own, neither long time after his birth,
was her darling. For a
law Saradasankar Kadambini,
mother had been very ill, andd the widow. his aunt
his
had fostered him.
the servants go back to the house and say that they
2. Why did
had burnt Kadambini's body ?
OR
What happened to the dead body of Kadambini ?
her heart stoppeu
Ans. In fact, Kadambini was not dead, for some time
the burning
beating. When she got consciousness in the hut on feared
ground, the two Brahmin servants Bidhu and Banamali got
they
and ran away from there. After running about three miles, had
what
met their colleagues. Bidhu and Banamali told them story,
at the
happened in the hut. Nitai and Gurucharan scoffed duty.
and abused Bidhu and Banamali angrily for leaving their
 Text
Bliss :Anthology of short Stories
without delay all four
(Macmillan) 19

returmed to the
saw at once ihat the body was gone; hut. As they entered, they
remaincd. So after much discussion the nothing but an emply bed
four decided that it would
bebest to say that the body had been burnt.
Why did Kadambini go to her friend's
3. house ?
OR
Where did Kadambini go from the burning ground ?
Ans Kadambini made up her mind not to return home as she was not
a living creature in the eyes of her family members. She started
walking aimlessly. She then met with a traveller. He asked her
politely where she wanted to go. Then she remembered the friend
of her childhood. She had not seen Jogmaya since the days of her
youth, but from time to time they had exchanged letters. Therefore,
Kadambini told the traveller that she wanted to go to Sripati's
house at Nisindapur. Sripati was Jogmaya's husband.
4. Explain Kadambini's fears. about returning to the home of
Saradanskar.
OR
from the burning
Why did Kadamnbini not return her home
ground ?
When Kadambini got consciousness and came to know that she
Ans.
brought to the burning ground for burial, she thought of returning
was she was not alive. She was
then she thought that
home first. But
returned her home, it would bring disaster on her
dead. If she ghosts
she was her own ghost and
family members. She thought
hever return home.
S. of Kadambini and her friend Jogmaya.
The meeting
OR
ask from her friend Jogmaya?
Kadambini
What favour did Kadanmbini reached to her
friend
traveller,
Ans. With the help of aNisindapur. Jogmayabecame glad to see her.
Jogmaya's home at Kadambini asked her not to ask
welcomed her byheart. But requested her friend
She her-in-law's house and she
ner anythingabout
treat her as a servant. She expressed
cornerand normal.
Ogmaya togive her a there. Her behaviour was not
her willingness to work
 Anthology of Short
Text: Bliss (An
the
20
suicide at the end of
Kadambini to commit
6. What force towards
story inhumanity and cruetly brother-
much
The patriarchal system caused living atthe mercy of her
Ans. widow could be
women. Kadambini is a fanily Joved her. It
None but the child in the bury her. They had not the
in-law. hurry to
interpreted that they had been
body and confirm the death.
willingness tocheck the could
patience and Saradanskar and others. They her
death was a great reliefto even when she proved
Her return to life.
Hence
never wish her to blood, Saradanskar was not
existence by shedding her not admit her,
physical society would
Since the
willing to welcome her. death.
Kadambinihad no option but leave the dead body of
Brahmin servants
7. Why did the
Kadambini and run away Bidhu and
Gurucharan had gone to bring woods. Here
Ans. Nitai and to guard a dead body on the
Banamali were alone in the night
was considered as a haunted'one. There was
burning ground which
anywhere, except the incessant noise offrogs and crickets
nosound
the tank. Then suddenly they.fancied that the bed shook
from
side. Bidhu and
slightly, as if the dead body had turned on its
Banamali trembled, and began muttering name of God. A deep sigh
was heard in the room. In a moment the watchers leapt out of the
hut, and raced for the village.
8. What happened to Kadambini when she got consciousness o
the burning ground ?
Ans. When Kadambini got consciousness, at first, she thought thelonely
dark place was the House of Yama, where there is nothing to s
nothing to hear, nothing to do, only an eternal watch. But when
a cold damp wind drove through the open door, and she heardthe
croaking of frogs, she remembered vividly and in a moment all
the rains of her short life, and could feel her kinship with the carth.
Then came a lash of lightening. and she
saw the
the great plain, the far-off trees. She remembered tank,
how atthefullmoo1
she had sometimes come to bathe in this tank, and how dreadtiul
death had seemed when she saw a corpse on the burning- ground.
 Bliss:
Text Anthology of short Stories
What happened to
(Macmil an) 21

9.
Ans. Jogmaya
could not Kadambini at her fricnd Jogmaya's home ?
he understand her friend Kadambini's absúrd nature,
change in her nature.
Furthermore, Kadambini started getting
afraid of herselt; yet she could
foar ghosts fear those who are not fec from herself. Those who
see there is fear. But behind them: wherever they cannot
Kadambini's chief
che dreaded nothing extenal. At the terror lay in herself, for
dead of night, when alone
in her room, she screamed; in the
evening, when she saw her
shadow in the lamp light, her whole body shook.
fearfulness, the rest of the Watching her
house fell into a sort of terror. The
servants and Jogmaya herself began to see ghosts.
10. How did Sripati come to know that Kadambini was
dead ?
What did Jogmaya say to him ?
Ans. Looking at the changed and absurd behaviour of Kadambini, Sripati
went to Kadambini's father in law's place and there he came to
know that Kadambini had died. Jogmaya told him that he might
have committed some huge mistake. She further asked her who
had told him to go there andinvestigae it. She suggested him to
write a letter to Saradanskar.
How did Kadambini return to her in-law's place ? What she
do first ?
Leaving the home of her friend Jogmaya, Kadambini returned
Kanihat. At first she showed herself to no one, but spent the whole
came forth. The
ay in a ruined temple, starving. At night, she
her widowed
istress, Saradasankar's wife., was playing cardswith was
Sister. A servant was in the kitchen, the sick notice,sleeping
child
every one's entered
ne bedroom. Kadambini, escaping come to her father-in-law's
this room. I do not know why she she had
felt only that she wanted to
house, she herself
See her child again.
did not know;

of Kadambinitaken to be buried ?
Ans. Where
was the dead b0dy of
as her heart stopped beating. Four
Kadambini died suddenly servantstook away the body, without
the zemindar's Brahmin burning ground of Ranihat was very
to be turned. The a hut beside a tank, a huge banian
cerefrom
far mony, the Village. There was
 /ies

Anthology of Si.
Text : Bliss (An completelydricd
been
22
more. Formerly a river, nowwatercourse
had
The
nothing
near it. and and part of the rites.
ran through the ground, performance reverencedit
of funeral
up,
make a tank for the and
dug out to
tank as part of the river
considered the husband ?
people her Kadambini
as such. take against
objection did Jogmaya One midnight, door
'sdoor
13. What afraid of herself. Jogmaya's
started getting weeping,andwailedat
"Ans. Kadambini from her bedroom Jogmaya's anger was uo
came out
her lie in her bedroom. drive Kadambini from
saying her to let She would have liked to Sripati, aftermuch
fear. good-natured
less thanher second but the put her in the
next
very guest, and
the house that quieting their
effort, succeeded in he had not
saying why
scolded her husband
rOom.
Jogmaya he had left her in-
Next day word against the woman
single for a month.
uttered even a with them
laws and had
been living
leave her friend Jogmaya's
and why did Kadambini
14. When
day
home ? disturbed as day by
and her husband Sripati are Furthermore, Sripaticame
Ans. Jogmaya getting absurd.
Kadambini's behavior was On this end, Kadambini was
Kadambini had died.
to know that herself. She believed herself as a ghost. She was
of
gett1ng afraid she had been a livin creature of a dead one.
Once
quite confused as
SO she
and Sripati talking about her negatively
she heard Jogmaya suddenly.
made up hermind to leave the place and she left widow
the social realism and place of a
15. Write in brief about
in this story. main
Tagore depicts relationship and|emotional turmoil between the
Ans. on the Cxperiences
characlers of the story with special emphasis
rural A rejection
of the widow in this setting in Bengal. A widow's
intensely
by society, and loneliness and despair, are depicted
her widows
and in a touching manner within this simple plot where Social
are lrcated like the living dead. Tagore's commitment to the
also
realism is depicted with elenments of the Supernatural and
peculiar and bizarre.
Jexi
nort Stories (Macmillan)
Write a note
16. On: The 23

What happened at
dramatic
OR ending of the
story
the end of the
Ans. Looking
got Kadambini
afraid,
at
as they all
the bed of Satis,
story Living or Dead' ?

alltook her as a
ghost.
had believed
Even
thatSaradanskar's
Kadambini
son
everybody
was dead. They
handto forgive them. He Saradanskar requested her with folded
funeral honours. He urged assured her that they would
her relationship with this her to break the maya as she perform all
had broken
the ground and dashed it world. Kadambinitook a brass pot from
her brow. Showing her against her forehead. The blood ran from
blood, she tried to convience that she was
alive. Then she plunged into the
was not dead.
well and died to prove that she

(C) Write short notes :

1.
Rabindranath Tagore
Ans. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of
Debendranath Tagore, awealthy Bengali landlord. He was educated
at home, and when he was 17, sent to England for formal schooling.
On his return to India, he immersed himself in literary pursuits,
besides managing his family esttes. For a time, he participated in
the Indian Nationalist Movement: He also founded Shanti Niketan,
where he introduced a new style of education. Tagore wrote
Innumerable bookS, short stories, poems and plays in Bengali, many
won him the
0f which he translated into English. His Gitanjali
sensitive, fresh and
Nobel Prize for Literatre for its profoundly British in 1915.
knightd by the
Ocautiful verse, Tagore was also
composed the Jana Gana Mana, which was chosen
e Wrote and Besides Gitanjali, Tagore is famous
dsthe Indian National Anthem.
of Cards, and his short story, Living
for Kabuliwallah,Kingdom
or Dead ?
Kadambini OR

Kadambini's plight OR
Kadambini
The Character of
 Stories)

of Short
Text : Bliss (An Anthology feudal
24 thewomen.
character of Kadambini. Tagore criticized
Ans. Through the which ruled over life of Bengali
brother-in-l:jaw
morals ans customs staying with her relatives
left.
Kadambini was a widow
his house at Ranihat. She had no days nursing
Saradsankar in she spent her unburried
favourite and left
Saradsankar's son was her her body was actually; for
suddenly and
him. One night she dicd Kadambini was not dead She
understood
servants.
by the horrified life-function had|been suspended. to go to her
decided not
some reason her woman. Kadambini she went to her friend,
that she was a 'dead'
and make problems thereso started to suspect
brother's house Nishindapur. Jogamaya Sripati came
Jogmaya's house at husband.
especially with her informed this to
Kadambini's behaviour, gone. He
know that Kadambini was deal and argument between them.
to
that night which led:to aneame to their.room and
Jogmaya in these and the
Kadambini overheard al dead Kadambini. Kadambini left
the brother-inlaw's house at
announced that she was her.
straight to When
house at once and came where the child wassleeping.
the room shocked to tee the
Ranihat. She got into They were
the room. She told
servants who came. to lothiers.rushed to the room.
and
ghost.' Her brother-inlaw living. To prove this she broke
dead but
them that she was not vessel and blood o0zedout. At last
bronze
her forehead with the and proved that she was not dead.
well
she threw herself into
or Dead ?
3. Significance of the title Living
OR
or Dead
The title of the story Living
OR
of the story.
The appropriateness of the title
OR
Summary of the story Living or Dead ?*
widow living in the hous
Ans. Living or Dead ? is about Kadambini, a brother-in-law'3
of her brother-in-aw lovingly takes care of her
dead athe
son. A situation arises where Kadambini is mistaken formuch to
her body is brought to the cremation-ground, where, andthe
surprise of men who have taken her there, she awakens
Text Bliss
Ant hology of
short Stories
men jee.
She does noi
achildhood return (Macmil an)
home, and imstead
25

friend,
friend's house
Jogmaya. oes to live with
and she Things don't go well for her at her
where
creature
her
nephew lives.eventually
She is returns tolo her former residence
unaccepted in society. Herregarded by all as a ghost like
reiected by the sOCiety
and misery that when trauma of bcing left alone, and
she returns, bring out
in India. She is widows had to endure in those the loneliness
from the room of
not noticed as she
the cnters, but conservative
on hearing
times
They scream
little child, the family voices
and her finds Kadambini there.
saving that she 1s not sister-in-law faints. Kadambini rushes out
dead but, alive.
iumping into a well, dying to prove thatShe then kills herself by
of their world of the she was alive and part
were dead. living' although they treated her as if she