Question

State whether the following statements are true or false :
(i) The narrator’s father was a rationalist —
(ii) It was summer when the incident took place —
(iii) Mother found relief after twenty hours —
(iv) Mother thanked the neighbours for sparing her children —

Answer 1

(i) “My father, sceptic, rationalist” — explicitly stated.
(ii) “endless rain” implies monsoon, not summer.
(iii) “After twenty hours it lost its sting” — relief after 20 hours.
(iv) She thanked God the scorpion spared her children, not the neighbours.

Answer 2

Contrast: Rationalist father \emph{yet} desperate, using both folk and quasi-scientific methods (compounds, cautery). Holy man uses spiritual ritual/chant. The poem juxtaposes empirical vs. ritual responses under stress.

Answer 3

Antithesis = placing contrasting ideas together. Here “sceptic, rationalist” vs “curse and blessing” (superstition/ritual) sharpen the contrast.