CLASS 12 · KALIEDOSCOPE · CHAPTER 12
Original student-friendly answers for A.K. Ramanujan's poem about public clocks, social conflict, and repeated change.
6 worked answers · short steps first, explanations when you need them
Textbook pages
Question Responding to the Poem 1
Describe the opening as a city-and-clock scene, then note its wider social meaning.
At first it seems to be about city clocks; gradually they become images of social difference and conflict.
Question Responding to the Poem 2
Point to the final stanza and its sequence of repeated disruptions.
The final stanza makes the title clear: riots, peace marches, and natural upheavals recur.
Question Responding to the Poem 3
Explain the clocks' material or maker differences and the comparison with communities.
Different materials and makers alter the clocks; their differences suggest the distinct histories and habits of communities.
Question Responding to the Poem 4
Contrast lightning's exact, impartial strike with the disorder of human conflict.
Lightning strikes suddenly and without taking sides, unlike the confused causes of human violence.
Question Responding to the Poem 5
Choose the option and support it with the poem's sorrowful, reflective tone.
Wistful lament: the speaker sounds sorrowful about conflict that keeps returning.
Question Responding to the Poem 6
Offer a qualified view and distinguish personal responses.
It can represent some people's weariness with violence and awe before nature, but no single feeling represents everyone.