Flamingo Chapter 13 A Roadside Stand

1. The little new shed was put up in front of an old house at the edge of the road. It was to sell some cheap things.
2. It pleaded for monetary help from the polished traffic with the sale of their cheap items. It pled pathetically because people of high strata of life passed from the road indifferently.

C.

A little newshed

D.

Both (a) and (c)

A.

people of high strata of life passed from the road indifferently

1. It is the flow of money that supports the flower of cities, i.e.,all the best part of the city life.
2. The cash flow is the life line of cities.
3. The fast moving refined traffic of cars is the polished traffic.
4. It pointed that the landscape was marred by wrong direction signs shown by N and S.
5. Fading = withering.

C.

the flow of money

B.

refined traffic of cars

A.

pointing out that the landscape was marred by wrong direction signs

1. Berries and golden squash were offered for sale on the roadside stand.
2. According to Robert Frost the beauty rests in a beautiful mountain scene.
3. It states that if the car rider wanted to be miser, he may keep his money with him.

D.

both (b) and (c)

C.

mountain scenes

B.

they are miserly

1. The poor rural people made a roadside stand in their village that was far from city.
2. The rural folk wanted to feel money in hand from the city folk.
3. The rural folk hoped to be helped by the city folk.
4. The promise was made to give a life of motion pictures to the rural folk. It was made by the government.

C.

the poor rural people

C.

From the city folk

A.

the government

1. The news was about the resettlement of the poor rural people.
2. The people were to be resettled in villages next to the theatre and the store. They would be close to the cities.
3. There they won’t have to worry about themselves anymore.
4. The poor rural folk and the farmers are the ‘pitiful kin’ here.

C.

the resettlement of the poor rural people

D.

D.

their worries and tension would vanish

A.

the poor rural folk

D.

Both (a) and (c)

1. These greedy good-doers are the city people. They think only of their own benefits.
2. They would crowd around the poor rural people.
3. The city people cunningly calculate how to derive their benefits.
4. They misguide the poor villagers and deprive them of their sleep.
5. The city people are the beasts of prey.

D.

their good actions enshrine greed

C.

how to derive their benefits

D.

All of the above

1. Here I stands for the poet, Robert Frost.
2. The speaker calls his thought as childish longing in vain.
3. The open prayer is for the sound of coming cars to stop at the roadside stand.
4. When there turns up no customer, there prevails a lurking sadness near the open window.

C.

childish longing in vain

A.

the sound of coming cars

B.

no customers turn up there

1. The rural people wait and went to hear the sound of stopping cars.
2. The passing cars that don’t stop there are called selfish cars because they purchase nothing.
3. The first car stopped there to use the yard to have a turning.
4. Another car that stopped asked where the road led to.

C.

hear the sound of stopping cars

B.

the selfish cars

B.

use the yard to have a turning

1. He wanted to buy a gallon of gas.
2. The poet talks about both the rural folk and the city folk.
3. The city folk didn’t have the feeling to help the poor villagers.
4. It seems to say that the city folk are doing injustice to them by not helping them with money.

C.

a gallon of gas

C.

Both (a) and (b)

A.

the feeling to help the poor villagers

C.

they never helped the poor people with money

1. The poet, Robert Frost, is the speaker of these lines.
2. These people referred to here are the poor rural people.
3. The city folk at one stroke can put the poor rural folk out of their miseries and pains.
4. The poet will feel a great relief if the villagers are freed out of their pain by the city people.

B.

Robert Frost

C.

the city folk

A.

if the city people free the villagers of their pain

Yes, last Saturday I drove down to go to Dehradun. It was a very long journey of about six hours from Delhi. On the way, we took a halt at the roadside stand made by the villagers.

To our surprise the poor villagers became very glad. We saw some rare varieties of fruits put for sale in wooden containers. The quality of all the things was very good.

Of course, I asked the price of each item.

One or two were really priced higher than that in cities. So I had to bargain, and that was the villager wanted to induce me for a bulk purchase. I bought many varieties of different fruits. We ate and relished the natural taste in each. We brought a lot for the home We were happy to note the pleasure that glowed on their faces at our stopping near them. They were gentle, sympathetic, curious to help and even obliged us by their country scale, we can’t explain. It is now a beautifu landscape for us now.

The poet, Robert Frost, through his poem ‘A Roadside Stand’ has presented a universal countryside picture. The city folk drive fast through the countryside in their cars. They show their indifference towards the rural folk. If at all they did, it was only to complain. The following lines will bring this out -(i) ‘Then out of sorts’.

At having the landscape marred with the artless paint.

(ii) ‘Of signs that with N turned wrong and S turned wrong.’

They complain the artless paint has spoiled the complete landscape. On seeing N and S turned wrong, they feel irritation.

The poor rural people had put up the roadside stand in the countryside. It was here the speeding city folk cars could wait a while and see the beautiful natural mountains and landscape. They can buy the fruits and other things put on sale for them.

The rural people pathetically plead that the speeding polished traffic to stop for a while. They wait all day for the cars to stop and buy something and give them money. They wanted to earn money from them. That is why, they had put up the roadside stand in the countryside.

Tips: -

Imp.

Robert Frost says that the city good-doers, other social agencies and the government do them no good. They all make very attractive promises. They are indifferent towards their promise to settle them. Their promises are like the moving pictures for them that don’t improve their lot. They swarm around the poor villagers, destroy their peace and night sleep. Their double standard is evident from -

“While greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey

Swarm over their lives enforcing benefits. That are calculated to soothe them out of their wits.”

Robert Frost in the poem ‘A Roadside Stand’ has given a very lively picture of the poor rural people waiting for the polished city traffic to stop at the stand and help them with money. The poet thinks that they suffer from a childish longing.

They wait there all the day long to hear the sound of cars to stop there by applying its brakes. They wait so eagerly but hardly anyone of the thousand passing cars stop there. They keep their windows to attract them but all in vain. They don’t complain about but the sadness of the untold trusting sorrow lurks on their faces.

Their hope of getting some help of money or cash flow remains unfulfilled. Their all day wait longing proves to be the childish longing in vain. The poor innocent rural people get deeply hurt.

Robert Frost, sees the poor rural people waiting for the polished city traffic to stop and help them with city money. But their waiting and this childish longing go in vain. Robert Frost gives the readers, the hint of his insufferable pain as -

“Sometimes I feel myself I can hardly bear

The thought of so much childish longing in vain.”

“I can’t help owning the great relief it would be

To put these people at one stroke out of their pain.”

When a country is progressing economically on all spheres of growth, then its people also become well off. The proportionate economic growth in the standard of living of the people speaks of the economic well-being of the country. In the poem ‘A Roadside Stand’, the poet has tried to ensure a balanced development of the villages and the cities by their mutual co-operation.

It is time that the balanced development ensures real satisfaction and happiness. The cities and villages are interdependent for essential things of everyday use. The villagers grow for them the agricultural produce, corns, vegetables, fruits, & oil, etc. The cities provide more employment avenues in the fields of education, business, research, amusements, industries, technology and medical sectors. Therefore, their mutual co-operation in all spheres of progressive activities ensures the balanced economic well-being of the country.

Robert Frost also expected that the city folk must have the requisite lift of spirit for the waiting poor rural people for their economic growth. The city people, if so determine, can at one stroke of help bring the poor villagers out of their pain.

Tips: -

Imp.

It is purely a students’ activity.

Hints: They must individually avail themselves of the opportunities to stop at a dhaba or a roadside eatery in the countryside and then note down as demonstrated below -

1. The number of travellers stopping there to eat; say 20 per hour.

2. Those who stopped for other reasons (water, cold drink, etc.); say 10 per hour.

3. How the shopkeepers treated either respectfully and courteously or roughly.

4. Kind of business of shopkeepers: eaters, items for sale, cold drinks, water bottles, fruits, magazines, pickles, etc.

5. Kind of life they lead: very hectic, full of diverse activities, not of quality, pathetic but inviting.

Robert Frost says to them, “You have money, but if you want to be mean (the central figure for the villagers) why keep your money and go along buy somethings and then go.

Tips: -

V. Imp.

The poet points that his complaint to the city people would not be of the hurt to the scenery, but of the untold trusting sorrow given to the poor villagers by not purchasing any item.

The rural people have extended a shed at the edge of the roadside so that the city traffic may come and purchase their commodities but they pay no heed to them.

They go on waiting throughout the day with their window open but all in vain. On seeing this indifference the poet is much aggrieved at the attitude of the city folk.

Tips: -

Imp.

The poet says that the government and other social agencies seem to help the rural people and make promises like the moving pictures. They will swarm them only to earn benefit out of them. They are like wild animal flesh-eaters. They disturb their sleep and peace because of their calculated mind. They show double standard.

The villagers living near the roadside extended an old house with a little shed. In the front, on one side, a road side stand was set up. Thousands of polished people in their cars passed that road. The owners who set up the stand, went on waiting for the city customers to purchase common items from them. They expected some money from them by selling their items. It will help in their progress. They did not want any dole of bread from them.

The roadside stand was set up by the rural folks for selling some ordinary things of daily use. Among them they offered wild berries in wooden quarts. There were crooked-necked gourds with silvery hard lumps but the city folk did not stop to purchase these items.

The rural people running the road side stand were poor and they were devoid of the best life of the city. Since the city folk had money and led a life of prosperity and happiness, so the poor people needed money which could bloom their lives. They will bring changes in the poor set up.

The people driving along the highway saw the clumsy paint (that spoiled the landscape.) It made them think that the landscape was marred.

Here the poet referred the city folk as the polished traffic since they were affluent and move in decent and costly cars. They drove with their eyes fixed forward. If ever anyone looked aside, he felt initiated. He felt troubled on seeing the artless paint done on the building to spoil the mountain landscape. The poet called them mean because they kept the money in their pockets.

The poet says that the city folk are like the greedy doers. They will swarm over the poor and make oily and long promises. They will plan to extract money from them. In reality they are more cruel than the beasts of prey. Their only aim is to earn money and earn profit befooling the innocent villagers. They will sleep all day long but destroy their sleep at night.

While implementing the upliftment plans, these greedy good-doers and beneficent beasts of prey (the cunning city folk) will crowd around them to derive their calculated benefits through these poor villagers.

They actually desired to ask for some city money (money from the city people) to feel in hand by selling them the fresh quality of things, etc.

The city people will misguide the villagers to earn their benefits subjecting them to financial losses and uneasiness. It will destroy their sleeping at night.

The villagers who run the roadside stand hope getting the cash flow from the stopping cars of city people. The cars don’t stop or if some do, it will not fulfil there awaited desire to buy things there. Therefore, their longing proves a foolish desire in vain.

Robert Frost draws readers attention towards a very common universal event. The city folks drive through the countryside, hardly pay any need to the roadside stand or the people who run it. If at all they do, it is to complain. This indifference of city folk towards the rural folk is a universal event.

Far from the city in the countryside, the roadside stand is made and run by the poor villagers. The rural people sell fruits, squash and other things for the travellers. Though it provides wrong direction signs, yet maintains requisite activities of a little shed. But mostly a trusting sorrow and sadness of a childish longing, of cars to stop and buy things from them, goes in vain.

Tips: -

V. Imp.

Robert Frost sympathizes with the rural poor because of their poverty and pitiable condition. They are financially weak and eagerly wait and watch towards the polished people for some help by buying certain goods kept for sale but none stops to buy except asking for the rates.

At the roadside stand, the poor rural people wait all day for hearing the sound of breaks of speeding cars. They expect the polished city people to buy some consumables from them. But out of thousand passing cars, hardly any stops there and that too, for some inquires. Thus their hopes become childish longing in vain.

The poet expects the city folk will help and uplift the poor rural people. They can bring them out of their pain in one stroke. And on the next day, the happy faces of these villagers will gently take the poet out of his pain and make him happy too.

Tips: -

Imp.

Being an acclaimed poet, Robert Frost has used the device of ‘fantasy’ and ‘image’. A fantasy is a work of imagination filled with unrealistic situations and the same is quite visible in the above lines. The polished people of city do not stop at the roadside stand whereas the rural people are keenly awaiting for them. They hope to buy something and the money will raise the rural villagers. With the help of words the poet has formed an imaginary picture but the city people are averse to the deserves of the villagers.

Robert Frost in his poem ‘A Roadside Stand’ has very clearly visualised the plight of the rural folk. The city folk who drived through the countryside hardly pay any heed to the roadside stand or the people who run it. The poet has urged the necessity of the balanced development of both.

On the roadside stand, the poor villagers wait all day for the polished city traffic passing through, to stop for a while there. They have put good quality consumables on sale for them. But hardly any out of thousand selfish cars stop there. If any does it for some inquiry and not for any cash-flow to the poor people.

The sadness of the trusting sorrow lurks on their faces. They feel their childish longing goes in vain. The city people don’t have a spirit of co-operating and raising the lot of the rural people. On the other hand, they look for their calculated benefits. Still the poet hopes that the city people will take the poor villagers out of their pain by helping them. In return it will remove the insufferable pain of the poet as well.

The poet has rightly portrayed the selfish human nature. The indifferent attitude of the city folk towards the rural folk is also a well-known fact.

The refined city people passing through the countryside in their luxurious cars, hardly pay any heed to the people who run the roadside stand. They don’t stop there thinking it to be a mere waste of time. If they do, it is for making some or the other inquiry. It leaves behind a trusting sorrow on the faces of the poor people because they don’t make any purchase there.

The Government and other social agencies make tall promises but they do no good. They misguide them and obtain profit from them. The poor go on waiting in vain. The greedy good-doers make false promises of their upliftment but do nothing.

The news in the poem 'A Roadside Stand' that is making its rounds in the village is that the villagers will be provided with homes near theatres and shopping complexes; that they will be taken care of; and that they have to worry no more.

The ‘polished traffic’ refers to the insensitive attitude and gentlemanly appearances of the city-men. These people who passed by the roadside stand were self-centered and their minds were restless with greed for money and ambitions for great profits in their business.