1. Explain with reference to the context any four of the following passages in about 150 words each:

When shall those children by their
mother's side

Gather, ah me As erst at eventide

Silence hath bound thee with her fatal chain;
Neglected, mute, and desolate art thou,
Like ruined monument on desert plain:

This is the soul of man. Body and brain
Hungry for earth our heavenly flight detain.

The trip had darkened every face, Our deeds here neither great nor rare. Home is where we have to earn our grace.

I resemble everyone
but myself, and sometimes see
in shop-windows,
despite the well-known laws
of optics
the portrait of a stranger,
date unknown
often signed in a corner
by my father.

O Love, alas, that love could not assuage
The burden of thy human heritage,
Or save thee from the swift decrees of Death.

I look around for a cleansed feeling,
the kind you experience
walking in a temple
after a river-bath.
I cannot find it.
I have misplaced it somewhere
in the caverns of my past.

2. How does Mulk Raj Anand paint the picture of a socially fragmented nation in Untouchable (450 words)

OR

Comment on the role of the narrator in Raja Rao's Kanthapura. (450 words)

3. Write a critical essay on Anita Desai's art of characterization in 'Clear Light of Day'. (450 words)

OR

What aspects' of Indian culture figure in the writings of Swami Vivekananda or Sri Aurobindo (450 words)

4. Write on the structure and theme of
R.K Narayan's An Astrologer's Day. (450 words)

OR

How are love, faith and science intertwined in Deshpande's Miracle? (450 words)

5. "Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is a trend-setter for a new genre of fiction." Discuss. (450 words)

OR

How does Dattani deal with the theme of gender in Tara? (450 words)