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at., , >, , C3., , Poem 7 - Geography Lesson, , 1X - English, ZULFIKAR GHOSE, , What did the poet see from the jet?, The poet sees the houses, the cities, the rivers and valleys and finally even the, , curvature of the earth., From high above the earth, how did the cities appear to the poet?, , The cities appeared haphazardly developed from ground. However, from high, above the earth, the poet could understand why there was an inevitability in, , the way they had developed., From a higher altitude what lesson could the poet learn about the cities?, , The poet understood that every city had constraints on the way it developed., He also could understand how rivers and valleys decided the location of cities., , According to the poet, what was in greater proportion on earth?, There was a greater proportion of water in the form of seas and oceans than, , land on earth., According to the poet, what do men on earth do?, Men on earth forget that the land they live on is limited and find ways to hate, , each other, build walls across cities and kill each other., , From above, the city looked haphazard and unplanned. Why do you think, the city looked so?, , The city looked haphazard and unplanned from above since the poet was, looking at a scaled down version of the city where every mile appeared as six, inches., , Geographically what is the importance of rivers and valleys? Explain, their importance with reference to the second stanza of the poem?, Rivers provide for the basic necessity of man, water. Hence cities that he built, were close to rivers. Two, valleys provided natural protection to cities and, , draw people., The last stanza shows the degradation of human nature. Do you agree, , with this view? Justify., , Yes, man in spite of knowing that he lives on limited land, fights with other, men for ownership of land. He builds walls around cities and does not hesitate, to even kill for the sake of his land. This clearly shows a degradation of human, , nature., Ponder over the following questions and express your views in the answer :, , The picture of the earth zooms out in the poet’s mind and against that, back ground we see human nature. Bring out the contrast between the, , earth and human nature.

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The earth is giving everything to human race without receiving anything from, them. The earth which zooms out in the poet’s mind is of one huge land mass, appears smaller and smaller as he goes away from it and looks like a round, ball. Geographically walls and boundaries are constructed as man encroached, a part of the land and he became selfish. This selfishness grew at greater, , speed and that built barriers of greater height among people, created hatred, , that resulted in wars., Imagine planet Earth having only water and no land. Do you think man, would still draw boundaries and wage wars? Discuss with your friends., It is difficult to create boundaries on water. It will not be physically possible, for him to claim a certain part of water as his own. But due to man’s thinking, process, he might still wage wars and treat others with hatred and spite.