03 Feb 2022

TNPSC General English – After the Storm

TNPSC General English: Authors and their Literary Works – After the Storm:

TNPSC Group 4 General English consists of three parts. Part A: Grammer, Part B: Literature, and Part C: Authors and their Literary Works. In this section, we discuss the third Authors and their Literary Works part. Actually, the Authors and their Literary Works part is easy & students who are preparing for TNPSC Exams can easily score maximum marks in this part. So, we provide the TNPSC General English Study Material – Authors and their Literary Works in an easy way for the TNPSC aspirants.

Look at the Deepa Agarwal – After the Storm below and also find other Part B Authors and their Literary Works part questions and answers links given below. Complete TNPSC General English study material/ complete notes, question and answers PDF available below for free download.



Characters, Quotes, Important Lines from the following works of Indian Authors:

Deepa Agarwal – After the Storm

The storm raged all night. Lightning crackled and the wind howled like ademon. Saruli cowered under the covers and clung to her mother when she heard the thunder. A peculiar crack-crack-SNAP, followed by a tremendous crash, as though agiant had fallen to the ground.

“What is that?” she asked her mother. “The trees,” her mother replied. “The wind is blowing them down. “The trees!” Saruli was shocked. The wind was strong, very strong. But was it powerful enough to knock down those enormous pines—so straight and tall?

The next morning she saw it for herself. Row upon row of the lofty pines lay stretched helplessly on the ground. Saruli was stunned. Half the jungle seemed bare.

Most of the people from the small hill village were there, foraging for branches and dragging them away. But Saruli, a wiry girl of thirteen, stood there stunned. Gripped with fear Saruli was thinking of the barren hillside across the valley. How desolate it looked! A real contrast to the forest near their village, which was full of Fresh grass and shrubs. Suppose… suppose all the trees fell down … wouldn’t the forest disappear? With an effort she dismissed these thoughts and began to collect wood. Fuel was always an important need. Saruli gathered a large bundle. On her way back, she passed Diwan Singh’s house. The old man was seated outside. “You want some wood, uncle?” she asked. Without waiting for an answer she dropped part of her bundle in one corner of the paved courtyard.

Characters:

Saruli – A little girl who wished to save the forest. She removed the resin-tapping containers from the tree.

Diwan Singh – The head man of the village. He is very old.

Jaman – Saruli’s friend.

Lal Singh – He and his companions put up the resin-tapping containers in the trees.

Radha – Sauruli’s friend.

———————————————————————————————————

“So you have been to the forest, girl?”

“Yes, uncle, lots of trees fell down last night.

Old Diwan Singh was the headman of her village. ”It was to be expected,” he said slowly. The trees have been totally hollowed by the resin-tappers.” Saruli’s brown eyes opened wide. ”I wondered how so many trees had fallen down”. Diwan Singh said, “First they only made one cut on the trees to tap resin. Now they keep on making gashes till the trees are utterly drained. Even a moderately strong wind can below them over, they are so dry.” “Can’t… can’t someone stop them?’ Saruli asked, horrified. Diwan sighed. “Who can stop them, girl? The contractors are rich, influential people. They pay a lot of money to tap the trees.

Saruli got up go home. As she stood up, she glanced at Diwan Singh’s strange nursery. He was growing saplings. Not the baby pines which sprang up themselves in the rains, but shoots of oak and deodar- the native trees of the hills. Diwan Singh told Saruli, ‘When I was a boy this was a forest of oak and deodar. The British Government cut them down and planted pines.”

But, Why?” Saruli had asked.

“Because pine trees can be tapped for resin and resin has many uses. But they forgot that oaks bring rain and trap the water. Pines dry out the land.”

It was a holiday for school. Saruli took her cow to graze in the forest. The sight of the fallen trees-trunks was depressing. Many of the other village children were there too, with their goats and cows. “Come and play hide and seek Jaman called. But Saruli shook her head. She sat on a rock, thinking and thinking.

How could they save their forest?

‘What is the matter?” Jaman asked after a while.

“I am scared,” she replied, after a short pause.

“Suppose another storm comes along and all the trees are blown down. What will we do then?”

“The contractors pay money to the Forest Department to tap the trees. They are allowed to do it, “said Jaman in a low voice. But Saruli was rushing to the nearest pine tree. There she found several gashes which had gone dry. At the end of one, there was a conical tin cup, into which the sticky resin fell, drop by drop. She wrenched off the tin cup and threw it away.

“That is what we can do!” She cried triumphantly. Jaman put some clay to seal the gashes. The other children gathered around curiously. Saruli cried excitedly. “Come on, help to save our forest!”




She raced around pulling the tin cups off the trees. And Jaman followed with the clay. The others joined in enthusiastically. A week passed. The little group managed to remove the tin containers from a large portion of the jungle. Then, one morning, four men entered the forest to collect resin. Saruli’s heart thudded suddenly. The showdown had come. But she had to stay calm. She could hear their muttered exclamations of surprise which turned into anger to find the trees devoid of the resin containers.

Finally, they came up to the children who were swarming up around a tree. “Do you know who has done this?” one of the men demanded. Saruli had seen him around. He was called Lai Singh. The children looked at each other, not knowing what to say. Then Saruli jumped down from the Kafal tree. “We did it,” she said.

“Wha-at?” the man seemed unable to understand.

“Yes,” Saruli said quietly. “We threw away the containers”.

“You brats! How dare you!” Lai Singh exploded. His companions swore and muttered angrily. “Now we will have to put them again,” Lai Singh continued. “Don’t you dare touch the trees now?”

He produced a chisel-like tool and began to scrape off the mud plaster the children had applied.

“Stop!” Saruli cried, hurling herself at him. He pushed her aside roughly but Jaman and the others joined in too. “Run, Radha!” Saruli cried. ”Get help from the village. We have got to save the forest!”

Radha ran fast. But the taller man caught up quickly. He was about to grab her. Suddenly, a jeep jerked to an abrupt halt. “What is going on?” a voice spoke from inside.

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