Chapter 3: The Planners
You have heard the proverb ‘Plan your work, work your plan’. It means - ________________.
Solution
Planning of the work is important.
Without planning work cannot be accomplished.
Make planning and work according to that plan.
Planning and work are two sides of the same coin.
Choose the proper alternatives from the statements given below which would explain why town planning is essential - _______________.
To develop the city according to the guidelines.
To get the ‘Best City Award’.
To attract tourists.
To use and develop the land available in the city for the interest of the citizens.
Solution
why town planning is essential -
To develop the city according to the guidelines.
To use and develop the land available in the city for the interest of the citizens.
Given below are various professions in column A and in column B, the nature of work in respective professions. Match the columns.
Solution
Read the poem and complete the web about the activities the planners do.
Solution
The Planners
Plan and build.
Grid all the spaces and fill them with permutations of possibilities.
Rearrange buildings with roads that meet at desired points.
Kick aside useless blocks with dental dexterity.
Erase the flaws and blemishes of the past.
Drill right through the fossils of the last century.
Pile non-stop.
Go through the poem and state whether the following statement is true or false.
Planners plan to construct buildings wherever they find a place.
Solution
True
False
Planners take public consent for the alterations they make in the old structures of the city.
Solution
True
False
Planners are concerned about the environment of the area.
Solution
True
False
Planners make their plans mathematically perfect, at the same time they calculate their profit.
Solution
True
False
Planners deliberately find drawbacks in the old city planning.
Solution
True
False
The newly planned city looks modern and amazingly beautiful.
Solution
True
False
Planners paint beautiful pictures of the upcoming changes in the city that charm the citizens.
Solution
True
False
Planners make tactful changes so that citizens do not recognize familiar landmarks.
Solution
True
False
Read the expression:
‘the blueprint of our past’s tomorrow’. Consider in a group why the poet has not mentioned ‘the present’. It is because of the planners who have possessed our ‘present’ in order to change ‘our past’ into the ‘future’ they desire. Go through the poem and write the lines which support this thought.
The buildings are in alignment with the roads which meet at desired points.
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________.
Solution
The lines which support the thought mentioned in the question are as follows:
The buildings are in alignment with the roads which meet at desired points.
They build and will not stop.
Even the sea draws back and the skies surrender.
They erase the flaws, the blemishes of the past.
So history is new again
The drilling goes right through the fossils of the last century.
The term 'Anaesthesia' in the poem means - 'The planner gives beautiful pictures of the new modern city'. Now find out what is Amnesia and Hypnosis in the given context.
Solution
The poet uses the words 'Anaesthesia', 'Amnesia' and 'Hypnosis' to convey that the planners have all the means to distract the people from the pain of their history being replaced in order to give way for the planners' vision of modernisation.
The word 'Amnesia', in the given context, means the various incentives offered by the planners, so that the people lose any sentimental attachment to the past. They brainwash people so that they forget the importance of their country's history and nature's bounty.
The word 'hypnosis', in the given context, refers to the manipulation of the people's thoughts by the planners, so that the people conform to the developments made and the policies laid down by the planners. They hypnotise people into welcoming the new world by making it seem perfect.
Pick out the statements which aptly depict the theme of the poem.
In the poem, the speaker memorises the past.
In ‘The Planners’ the poet describes the unstoppable force of modernisation.
The poet talks about the replacement of the natural environment with the concrete jungle.
The poet proposes to stop modernisation.
The poet laments helplessly.
Solution
In the poem, the speaker memorializes the past.
In 'The Planners' the poet describes the unstoppable force of modernisation.
The poet talks about the replacement of the natural environment with the concrete jungle.
The poet laments helplessly.
The tone of the poet is sarcastic. When he writes ‘All spaces are gridded filled with permutations of possibilities’ he intends to indicate the efforts made by the planner to exploit every available piece of land without any consideration of harming nature or violating attachments of people to places. Make pairs/groups and find out some more sarcastic lines having the same effect.
Solution
Some more sarcastic lines from the extract are as follows:
…linked by bridges all hang in the grace of mathematics. Though these lines seem appreciative of the planners, they are actually not intended as praise. The fact, that the poet means the opposite of what he has written, makes these lines sarcastic.
Write the appreciation of the poem.
About the poem / poet / title
Theme
Poetic devices, language, style
Special features / novelties / focusing elements
Values, message
Your opinion about the poem.
Solution
Appreciation of the poem 'The Planners'
The poem, 'The Planner', is a criticism of modernisation at the cost of the country's history and heritage. The poet, Boey Kim Cheng, is an Australian poet of Chinese descent, born in Singapore. He expresses his disapproval of the unyielding building projects carried out by the planners. The poet's country, Singapore, is being turned into a concrete jungle and losing its past in the process. The poem revolves around the theme of the preservation of history and nature against the onslaught of urbanisation. Though improvement is essential for a country, it should not come at the expense of losing its roots. And this is precisely what the poet is trying to convey through the poem. The poet has used a number of poetic devices like Alliteration, Antithesis, Inversion, Irony, Onomatopoeia, Oxymoron, Paradox, Personification, Repetition, and Tautology.
The language used by the poet is positive, but the tone is that of sarcasm. By portraying history and heritage as flawed, blemished, and useless, the poet is, in reality, mocking the planners; because it is the planners who are thoughtlessly destroying the past in their craze for a perfect future. The poet has written the poem in short lines, which show his curtness in criticising the planners and also the planners' desire to build ceaselessly. The line 'They plan. They build' is an example of this as it shows the inconsiderate action of the planners implementing their plans without factoring in the people's opinion.
The poet has used literary devices imagery and extended metaphor to clearly convey his emotions. The mathematical reference in the first stanza creates the visual image of all the structures being crammed into grids of various sizes, making them appear confined. The extended metaphor of dentistry in the second stanza conveys that the planners' treatment of the ancient structures in the city is the same as a dentist's treatment of a rotten tooth. The planners are adept at erasing blemishes and filling gaps to create a country with perfectly aligned buildings and numbing the people's senses so that they don't feel the pain of this transformation. In the last stanza, the poet says in a melancholic yet sarcastic tone that the new city does not inspire his creativity and that is why he would not stain this perfectly-structured world with his poetry.
The poet conveys the message of not losing the past in this day and age of modernisation, because without the past, a country would be nothing but a cluster of lifeless structures.
In my opinion, this poem is a fine read as it focuses on the severe consequences of rapid urbanisation on the history of a country, rather than the more commonly known effects on the environment.
Write a summary of the poem.
Title
Introductory paragraph (about the poem, type, nature, tone)
Main body (central idea, the gist of the poem)
Conclusion (opinion, views, appeal).
Solution
The Planners
The title of the poem is 'The Planners' and it focuses on the planners' need for perfection and uniformity, which leads to the loss of history as well as nature.
The poem is a satire as it mocks the planners' desire to build a flawless world. The poet has written this poem in a free-verse format as he strongly opposes structural uniformity. The tone of the poet throughout the poem is sarcastic, except for the last stanza where it changes to melancholic. The poet's reference to the city's structures as rigid mathematical designs and his comparison of the planners to dentists convey his sarcastic tone with great clarity.
The poet expresses how his country, the island-state of Singapore, is being torn down by the planners for building perfectly measured and confined structures that erase Singapore's history and push nature away from its landscape. The planners destroy the ancient structures that form a part of Singapore's past by terming them as 'flawed' and 'useless'. The poet stresses how the skyscrapers built by the planners resemble perfect rows of teeth, which symbolize artificiality, just like a dentist straightens crooked teeth to create the perfect smile. Though aesthetically appealing, the smile is not real. Similarly, Singapore's scene has also lost its originality. The planners want to reinvent history and therefore recklessly drill to build sky-high structures without being sensitive to the country's heritage. At the end of the poem, in a state of acceptance, the poet declares that he shall not stain with his poetry, the immaculate world that the planners have built. This is ironic because the poet is writing the poetry while declaring that he won't write one.
The poem's appeal lies in its unique stance on the destruction caused by modernisation, as it emphasizes the consequences of urbanisation on history, as opposed to just nature. In my opinion, this makes the poem stand out from the others that talk about the ill-effects of building a concrete jungle.
Read the first and second stanza of the poem. We understand that the poet wants to suggest the powerful dominance of the planners who shape the town according to their selfish desires. Make a list of such expressions. You may begin with -
All the spaces are gridded, filled with permutations of possibilities.
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
Solution
All the spaces are gridded, filled with permutations of possibilities.
The buildings are in alignment with the roads which meet at desired points linked by bridges all hang in the grace of mathematics.
They build and will not stop.
Read the expression ‘permutation of possibility’. The consonant sound ‘P’ at beginning of the successive words creates a sonorous effect. This is an example of Alliteration. Find out more examples of Alliteration from the poem.
Solution
“…knock off useless blocks with dental dexterity.”
Alliteration - The sound of the letter „d‟ has been repeated for poetic effect.
“All gaps are plugged
with gleaming gold.”
Alliteration - The sound of the letter „g‟ has been repeated for poetic effect.
“But my heart would not bleed poetry.”
Alliteration - The sound of the letter „b‟ has been repeated for poetic effect.
Explain the extended metaphor related to dentistry in the poem.
Solution
The poet has compared the skill and precision of the planners with that of a dentist. This comparison starts with the
They erase the flaws,
the blemishes of the past, knock off
useless blocks with dental dexterity.
All gaps are plugged.
with gleaming gold.
The country wears perfect rows
of shining teeth.
Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis.
They have the means.
They have it all so it will not hurt.
so history is new again.
The piling will not stop.
The drilling goes right through
the fossils of the last century.
A comparison of this kind which continues through a series of lines and forms a dominant part of the poem is known as an Extended Metaphor.
The poet says that the planners erase the flaws and blemishes of the past, just like a dentist removes the imperfections and stains from the teeth. The planners even knock off useless blocks the same way a dentist would extract a rotten tooth because it doesn't serve its purpose anymore. The skillful uprooting of the past by the planners has been compared to the expertise possessed by a dentist. The poet goes on to say that like the dentist, the planners, too, plug the gaps of the city with gleaming gold, that is, they build glassy skyscrapers which are so flawlessly aligned, that they resemble perfect rows of shining teeth. The poet further adds that the planners also have the means to anaesthetise the people, so that they don't feel the pain of their history being taken away from them, which is similar to the dentist using anesthesia to numb the sensation during a dental procedure. Even the drilling is done for building new structures is compared to the drilling done by a dentist to remove all that is old and unwanted, just like the planners remove the traces of history by digging right through the fossils of the last century. The planners and the dentists perform similar tasks of replacing the old with the new and substituting imperfections for artificial perfection.
Give suggestions to protect our national heritage monuments.
Solution
The following are some of the measures we can take in order to protect our national heritage monuments:
Trespassing should be prohibited and access to heritage sites must be closely monitored.
Local administrative bodies in charge of their upkeep must be held accountable for their maintenance.
Littering or damaging such sites should invite a hefty fine.
Local residents must be involved in the preservation efforts.
A periodic survey of their structural integrity should be undertaken and restoration should be scheduled as and when required.
Complete the following table.
Solution
Compose four lines expressing the grief of having lost nature due to modernisation.
Solution
The feeling of gloom enveloped me,
As I witness the concrete consume my city.
Not a green sight visible for miles,
All I see around me are glossy bright tiles,
Not a mountain, stream, or even waterfalls,
I'm only surrounded by big grey walls.
There is no way for nature to come back,
To this city shut with fences that just don't crack.
Imagine that a person who has returned to his native place after a long time is talking to his old friend about the changes that have taken place in the village. Write a dialogue between two friends who have become nostalgic about their old village.
Solution
Write in short about at least five cities in India that are considered to be the most developed cities.
Solution
Mumbai:
Mumbai is regarded as the economic capital of India as well as its industrial hub. Financial institutions like the Reserve Bank of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange, and the National Stock Exchange have their headquarters in Mumbai. Several prominent Indian companies like the Tata Group, the Reliance Industries, and the Essel Group have their base in Mumbai. This city of dreams also boasts of India's largest film industry. With its rich, beautiful colonial architecture, well-connected rail routes, and endless job opportunities, the city attracts migrants from all over the country. Once merely a cluster of seven islands, Mumbai transformed into a city when these islands were connected by concrete.
New Delhi:
It is the second-most developed city in India. It houses the Indian Central Government and chief institutions that form the basis of the Indian economy. It has a well-formed network of all modes of transport. New Delhi is also famous for its booming retail industry. Delhi also attracts a lot of foreign investment in various sectors such as construction, power, etc.
Kolkata:
Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, used to be the British capital of India. Several industrial units like mining, steel, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and textile have led to Kolkata's economic growth. It is one of the most important financial centres of East & Northeast India and also houses the Calcutta Stock Exchange. Kolkata attracts several tourists due to its splendid architecture. As the sole eastern city to have an international airport, Kolkata plays a major role in connecting the eastern part of India to the world. The network of the Metro-rails plays a major role in the city's transport system along with the cycle-rickshaws.
Bangalore:
Bangalore is also known as the IT hub or the Silicon Valley of India. Various IT companies like Infosys, Wipro, and Mphasis have their headquarters in this city. The space agency ISRO and aerospace company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited also have their headquarters in Bangalore. The city boasts of a pleasant climate, which attracts a lot of tourists.
Hyderabad:
Hyderabad is also known as the city of pearls. However, with the largest number of Special Economic Zones in the country, this city is attracting a lot of national and international companies to set up base here. It has already attracted Apple to open a development centre and Microsoft India to set up its headquarters here. The technological park, Genome Valley, situated in this city is very well-known. The city's unique culture, interesting monuments, museums, and bazaars attract lots of tourists. Home to many educational institutes, this city is well-known for educational excellence.
Your examinations are only two months ahead. Plan your schedule of studies and write in your notebook.
Solution
Do it yourself.
Read 'The City Planners' by Margaret Atwood.
Solution
Do it yourself.
