Answers for questions from chapter 2 Wind are given below.

1. What are the things the wind does in the first stanza?

The wind breaks the shutters of the windows, scatters the papers, throws down the books on the shelf, tears the pages of books and brings rain.

3. What does the poet say the wind god winnows?

The wind god winnows crumbling houses, crumbling doors, crumbling rafters, crumbling wood, crumbling bodies, crumbling lives and crumbling hearts.

4. What should we do to make friends with the wind?

In order to make friends with wind, we should build strong homes and fix the doors firmly. We should also make our body and heart firm and steadfast so that we can weather any storm.

5. What do the last four lines of the poem mean to you?

The wind can be our friend or foe depending upon how strong we are. If we are weak in the body and mind, it will destroy us just as it blows out weak flames. By contrast, if we are strong, the wind will make us stronger just like strong flames that roar and flourish in the wind. The poet says that friendship with wind is good and in order to be friends with wind, we have to make our body firm and heart steadfast. The wind represents the raw, brutal force of nature and it has no sympathy for the weakling.

6. How does the poet speak to the wind – in anger or with humour? You must also have seen or heard of the wind ‘crumbling lives’. What is your response to this? Is it like the poet’s?

The poet’s tone is humorous. The poet does ask wind to come softly without breaking the shutters of the windows. But then he says that the wind won’t do what you tell him to.

Wind can certainly crumble lives. It can destroy homes and crops and thus crumble lives.

I have seen wind causing considerable damage to life and property in my country. And my response to destruction caused by wind is not always humorous.