Maharashtra Board Class 12 Solutions for English Chapter 2.5: Father Returning Home

Ice Breakers

1. Discuss with your partner the difficulties that you face while commuting to and from the college by public transport.

1. ……………..

2. ……………..

3. ……………..

4. ……………..

Ans:

1. Extremely crowded trains and buses

2. Possibility of unplanned train and bus cancellations are all factors

3. Protracted lines to purchase rail tickets

4. Possibility of being late owing to delays and traffic

2. The similar problems are faced by the other commuters on the way to their work place. Imagine their plight and suggest three solutions.

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3. Complete the following table.

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4. Write your duties towards the following-

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Duties towards Family:

Duties towards School/College:

Brainstorming

(A1)  (i) Discuss with your friend the difficulties faced by the father in the poem.

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1. He faced a difficult commute because he was standing the entire journey in the train, as the train was packed.

2. As a result of the rainy season, his problems worsen since his clothes get soaked and his chappals and raincoat get dirty.

3. When he arrives at home, he isn't given nutritious meals.

4. His kids don't interact with him.

5. The radio merely transmits static, so he doesn't even have a source of entertainment.

(ii) Discuss the character sketch of the father with the help of the given points. (His pathetic condition, the treatment he receives at home, his solitude, the way he tries to overcome it)

Ans: The dad is getting back on a packed train on a dull rainstorm evening. This demonstrates how diligent he is. He doesn't spend any money on himself because he appears scruffy. He is undoubtedly lonely and heartbroken, which is why he doesn't care about how he looks.

On the return train ride, he remains silent. Co-passengers are not addressed by him. Perhaps his grief stops him from even making small talk. He is travelling alone. He stays silent the entire journey and exits the vehicle without saying goodbye to any other passengers.

His family is cold, heartless, and distant. No one welcomes him when he arrives. Food is served to him cold and is not nourishing. He drinks cold tea and eats old chapatti. He is left on his own and reads a book while eating. After work, he reads a book, has a solo meal, turns on the radio, and daydreams about the future. As a result, the father is an elderly guy who is lonely, heartbroken, and forgotten by his own family despite his efforts to provide for them.

(A2) (i) Given below are the ideas conveyed through the poem. Match the pairs and draw out the hidden meaning from those expressions.

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(ii) Find the lines to prove the following facts from the poem.

1. Father is deprived of good food.

2. Children did not have a healthy relation with the father.

Ans: 

1. “Eating a stale chapati, reading a book” - Line 14

2. “His sullen children have often refused to share” - Line 20

(iii) The poet deals with the theme of man’s estrangement from a man-made world. Analyze it with the help of the poem.

Ans: Father arrives at home. He eats alone and receives a careless dinner. The cold, stale food also reflects the chilly nature of familial connections where bonding does not exist. The comment suggests that the man ends up as a nobody among many individuals around him. A home is merely a place for him to stay, and all he is to them is a provider. Even within his own family, the father feels lonely. The artificial world alludes to the social framework wherein this man continues with his standard life.

(iv) The father contemplates about his past and peeps into his future. Give reasons.

Ans: The dad is demoralized with his present, as he sees nothing thrilling in it. He continues with his current life in the midst of the lack of concern of individuals around him, including his own kids. In this way, he contemplates his past and future as a rest from his vile present.

(A3) Complete the following using suitable describing words as appeared in the poem with the help of the words given in the brackets :

(weak, dim, muddy, soggy, stale)

1. Father’s attire

2. Father’s tea

3. Father’s footwear

4. Father’s food

5. Father’s eyesight

Ans:

1. Father’s attire – soggy

2. Father’s tea – weak

3. Father’s footwear – muddy

4. Father’s food – stale

5. Father’s eyesight – dim

(A4)  (i) 'Fade homeward through the humid monsoon night'.

In the above line the weather is humid, not the night. The epithet or adjective is transferred from the weather to the night. This figure of speech is Transferred Epithet.

Find out such other expressions from the poem.

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Alliteration - The depiction of poetic effect is done by repeating the sound of “h”. 

(ii) Identify and write the lines from the poem which express the following figures of speech.

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(iii) I see him drinking weak tea, eating a stale chapati. 

Here ‘stale chapati’ stands for stale food/non-nourishing food or diet, where the part symbolizes the whole, i.e. food. Guess the name of the figure of speech.

Ans: The figure of speech is ‘synecdoche’.

(A5) (i) Write a counterview on the following topic.

“Every day is a mother’s/ father’s day.”

1. If you love them, you don’t need to wait for such days.

2. Celebrating days is just a formality.

3. Celebrations of the days condition your expression of emotions.

4. It is a kind of a pretext to neglect your everyday responsibilities.

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Counterview of “Every day is a mother’s/ father’s day.”

We should cherish and honour our parents. We must make sure to act and behave in a kind and courteous manner on a daily basis. They toil, smile, and make sacrifices just for their children! Cards or a special day of the year become formalities when we treat elders with respect and compassion.

Our love for our parents is unequivocal. When communicating with family elders, we should never remark, "If they do anything, only then will we do something in return." We can't just be kind, considerate, submissive, and helpful on Father's Day or Mother's Day. All of these things must be shown daily to our parents and elders.

(ii) Conduct a group discussion on the role of children towards their 'Parents and Senior Citizens.’

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(iii) Write an appreciation of the poem 'Father Returning Home.’

Ans: A lonely old man returns home after a long day at work in the bilingual poet Dilip Chitre's poem "Father Returning Home." The poet talks of taking the crowded Mumbai local train home alone and in silence. Although the father is surrounded by people, it serves as a metaphor for his lonely life.

The poet describes the train's passing countryside as being seen by "unseeing" eyes. Like his uninteresting existence, the man commutes every day and sees the same thing. Monsoon at night is the scene. The man's attire and outward appearance are allegorical as well.

His drenched attire and mud-stained jacket serve as a metaphor for his scruffy demeanour and depressing life. The man is toting a sack of books. He may be a good reader. The poet likens the man getting off the train to a word dropping from a sentence as a result. He is ignored as a simile that was accidentally lost from a lengthy statement. We see the long train and the passenger as one word that is getting shorter thanks to the "long sentence" idea.

The platform he is on is grey, a colour that depicts unclean surroundings. The poet writes in simple, everyday words. The poet says that he "hurries" down the platform and then "hurries" home. His urgency to get to his shelter is demonstrated by this repeated word, and I stay dry. The words conjure up images of a scruffy, pitiful, yet learned man.

The man at his home is the subject of the poem's second section. He consumes a dish that is of inferior quality and is presented carelessly. He consumes food while reading a book. That perfectly captures his feeling of loneliness at home. After a long day at work and a strenuous commute, the family provides no company.

He is thinking about how, despite being in the crowd, he has been cut off from the world as he uses the restroom. In his own home, he is an outsider to his family. His kids won't talk to him or let him into any aspect of their lives. They are also uninterested in his personal life. He drifts off to sleep while listening to ominous radio sounds and reflecting on the past and future.

The idea is that older people are taken advantage of by their own offspring while being ignored when they need care. The subject of the poem is a man who could be misconstrued. Even in the midst of a crowd, he feels lonely. It teaches us how to interact inappropriately with people who are approaching the end of their lives. I feel bad for these people who have put a lot of effort into their lives but are discarded by their younger relatives once their usefulness has passed.

(iv) Compose a short poem in about 4-6 lines on your father.

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Father

He is kind, selfless, and

Sincere and diligent

Simple, stern, educated

Honest and always appreciated

By all of my family and friends.

He made a final effort to perform well.

(v) Write a character sketch of your family member.

Ans: 

My Mother

Come see my mum if you don't believe that angels can walk on earth. The kindest and most loving person I have ever come across is my mum. As far as I can remember, she has never used a harsh word against anyone. She neglects herself since she cares so much about everyone else's comfort.

She takes care of her 80-year-old father-in-law. He receives a lot of visitors and is a wonderful scholar. Except for taking care of us, she attends to them all with cheerfulness. I try to help out as much as I can with the household tasks, along with my father, sister, and mother.

But she bears most of the responsibility for managing the house. She handles the duty with such joy that it seems quite minor. She treats our friends with love and joy when my sister and I bring them over. She gives us financial advice but ensures that we always have a delicious meal when friends and family get together for a holiday feast.

In the absence of my mother, my father does not make any significant decisions. She talks about everything till they make the best choice. Anything that my mother hasn't made, our grandfather won't eat. Since my grandma passed away, he depends on my mother, "Laru," to keep everything in its proper location, including his diet meals, medications, reference books, walking stick, and shawl. My mother is my world, my everything.

(A6) (i) Dilip Chitre has translated Sant Tukaram's 'Abhang' (devotional poem) for which he received Sahitya Akademi Award. Browse the internet to collect more information about it.

Ans: This is an activity-based question and is advised to be done by the student.

(ii) List various occupations related to services which can be rendered to senior citizens.

1. To counsel patients of Alzheimers' disease.

2. 
   
3. 
   

Ans:

1. To counsel patients of Alzheimer's disease

2. Provide assistance to nursing homes.

3. Provide geriatric medicine as a speciality in hospitals for the care of the elderly.

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