NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English Flamingo Chapter 6 “Poets and Pancakes” by Asokamitran offer comprehensive, accurate, and easy-to-understand answers to all textbook questions. This detailed study guide covers Think as You Read, Understanding the Text, Talking About the Text, Noticing Transitions, and more. Also read the complete Poets and Pancakes Summary to master the chapter and score high in your board exams!
Poets and Pancakes Class 12 Questions and Answers
Think as you read (page 58)
Q.1. What does the writer mean by ‘the fiery misery’ of those subjected to make-up?
Ans. The make-up room had half a dozen large mirrors with incandescent lights at all angles. These lights produced intense heat, so the actors sitting under them while thick layers of make-up were applied suffered great discomfort, as if they were being burnt.
Q.2. What is the example of national integration that the author refers to?
Ans. The make-up department had people from many regions. It was first headed by a Bengali, then by a Maharashtrian, who was assisted by a Dharwar Kannadiga, an Andhra, a Madras Indian Christian, an Anglo-Burmese and local Tamils. The author says this was national integration long before A.I.R. and Doordarshan began broadcasting programmes on it.
Q.3. What work did the ‘office boy’ do in the Gemini Studios? Why did he join the studios? Why was he disappointed?
Ans.
- Work: He was in charge of the make-up of the crowd players. On crowd-shooting days he mixed paint in a giant vessel and slapped it on their faces.
- Why he joined: He had entered the studios years ago in the hope of becoming a star actor, a top screen writer, a director or a lyrics writer. He was also a bit of a poet.
- Why disappointed: He was in his early forties and still an “office boy”. His ambitions were not fulfilled and his talent was going waste. He blamed Kothamangalam Subbu for his neglect and failure.
Q.4. Why did the author appear to be doing nothing at the studios?
Ans. His job was to cut out newspaper clippings on various subjects and file them. He sat in his cubicle tearing up newspapers day after day, so people thought he was doing next to nothing, and the Boss probably thought so too.
Think as you read (page 60)
Q.1. Why was the office boy frustrated? Who did he show his anger on?
Ans. He was frustrated because his early hopes of becoming a star, writer, director or lyricist had not come true, and he was stuck in a lowly job. He directed his anger at Kothamangalam Subbu, convinced that all his woes, humiliation and neglect were due to Subbu. He also lectured the author about how his literary talent was being wasted.
Q.2. Who was Subbu’s principal?
Ans. Subbu’s principal was The Boss, S.S. Vasan, the head of Gemini Studios.
Q.3. Subbu is described as a many-sided genius. List four of his special abilities.
Ans.
- He could instantly produce many ideas for a scene. When the producer asked for a scene, Subbu gave four ways, then fourteen more alternatives.
- He was a poet who composed original “story poems” in folk refrain and diction for the masses.
- He wrote a long novel, Thillana Mohanambal, with many well-drawn characters.
- He was an amazing actor who performed supporting roles better than the main players.
- He was cheerful, loyal and loving, and supported dozens of relatives and acquaintances in his house.
Q.4. Why was the legal adviser referred to as ‘the opposite’ by others?
Ans. He was officially the legal adviser, but he was very different from the rest of the Story Department. The others were poets and writers wearing khadi, while he was a man of cold logic in pants and a tie. He stood out as the opposite of all of them, so people jokingly called him “the opposite” instead of “legal adviser”.
Q.5. What made the lawyer stand out from the others at Gemini Studios?
Ans.
- He was the only one in pants, tie and a coat that looked like a “coat of mail”, while the others wore khadi dhoti and shirt.
- He was a man of cold, logical thinking among dreamers, a neutral man among Gandhiites and khadiites.
- He was the one who recorded the temperamental actress’s outburst and played it back to her, which ended her career.
Think as you read (page 62)
Q.1. Did the people at Gemini Studios have any particular political affiliations?
Ans. No. Most of them wore khadi and worshipped Gandhiji, but beyond that they had no real understanding of political thought. They were against “Communism”, which they thought of as a godless creed that spread unrest and violence.
Q.2. Why was the Moral Re-Armament Army welcomed at the Studios?
Ans. The MRA was seen as a group opposed to Communism, which the Gemini people disliked. Also, the big bosses of Madras, like Mr. Vasan, welcomed them, and the visitors presented two plays with first-rate sets and costumes. The staff enjoyed hosting about two hundred people of twenty nationalities, which was a change from their usual routine.
Q.3. Name one example to show that Gemini Studios was influenced by the plays staged by MRA.
Ans. For some years afterwards, almost all Tamil plays had a scene of sunrise and sunset in the manner of “Jotham Valley”, with a bare stage, a white background curtain and a tune played on the flute.
Q.4. Who was The Boss of Gemini Studios?
Ans. S.S. Vasan, the founder of Gemini Studios, who was also the editor of the Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan.
Q.5. What caused the lack of communication between the Englishman and the people at Gemini Studios?
Ans. The audience knew nothing about him or his poetry and did not understand English well. His English accent made it impossible to follow what he was saying. They were simple people making Tamil films, and a talk on the problems of an English poet was completely out of their world.
Q.6. Why is the Englishman’s visit referred to as an unexplained mystery?
Ans. No one at the studios knew why an English poet (or editor) had come to a studio that made Tamil films for ordinary people. The Boss’s speech was vague and general, the poet’s talk was not understood, and both sides were baffled. The purpose of the visit stayed unclear to the author until years later.
Think as you read (page 63)
Q.1. Who was the English visitor to the studios?
Ans. He was the English poet Stephen Spender, who was the editor of the periodical The Encounter.
Q.2. How did the author discover who the English visitor to the studios was?
Ans. The author wanted to send a story to a short story contest organised by The Encounter. At the British Council Library he looked at a copy and read the editor’s name, Stephen Spender. He realised that this was the poet who had visited Gemini Studios. Later, he bought a cheap copy of The God That Failed, which included Spender’s essay, and it explained the mystery of the visit.
Q.3. What does The God That Failed refer to?
Ans. It is the title of a book in which six famous writers (Andre Gide, Richard Wright, Ignazio Silone, Arthur Koestler, Louis Fischer and Stephen Spender) described in six essays their journeys into Communism and their disillusioned return. “The God that failed” refers to Communism, in which they had once believed but which disappointed them.
Understanding the text
Q.1. The author has used gentle humour to point out human foibles. Pick out instances of this to show how this serves to make the piece interesting.
Ans.
- Pancake and Clive: He jokes about “truck-loads” of pancake, and about Robert Clive’s stables and “a dozen other buildings” said to be his residence, saying Clive “seems to have done a lot of moving”.
- National integration: He says the make-up men showed national integration long before A.I.R. and Doordarshan talked about it.
- Make-up: The make-up men could turn a decent-looking person into “a hideous crimson hued monster”, and actors had to be made ugly in order to look presentable on screen.
- The “office boy”: A man in his forties is still called the “boy”, and the make-up department has an “office boy” too.
- The legal adviser: He was called “the opposite”, and when the Story Department was closed, “a lawyer lost his job because the poets were asked to go home”.
- The MRA: He calls them an “international circus” who were not good on the trapeze, and whose acquaintance with animals was “only at the dinner table”.
- The English poet: The audience heard a speech they could not understand, and everyone left baffled.
This gentle humour exposes human weaknesses such as vanity, frustration, jealousy and pretence, without being bitter. It keeps the piece lively and entertaining.
Q.2. Why was Kothamangalam Subbu considered No. 2 in Gemini Studios?
Ans. Subbu was the Boss’s right-hand man, closest to Vasan, and gave direction and definition to the studio in its golden years. He was a creative genius who could produce ideas on command, a poet, a novelist and a fine actor. He was loyal and used all his creativity for his principal’s benefit. Because of his position and his closeness to The Boss, he was treated as the second most important man at Gemini Studios.
Q.3. How does the author describe the incongruity of an English poet addressing the audience at Gemini Studios?
Ans. The author says that the audience was “dazed and silent”. No one knew what he was talking about, and his accent defeated every attempt to understand him. Everyone wondered what an English poet was doing in a film studio that made Tamil films for the simplest sort of people, people whose lives hardly gave them the chance to cultivate a taste for English poetry. The poet also looked baffled, as he must have felt the incongruity of speaking about the “thrills and travails of an English poet” to such an audience.
Q.4. What do you understand about the author’s literary inclinations from the account?
Ans.
- He is deeply interested in literature and well read (he knows of Spender, The Encounter and The God That Failed).
- He wanted to be a writer and planned to send a short story to the contest, but he treats prose writing with humour, calling it the work of “the patient, persistent, persevering drudge” and not of a genius.
- He values poets and writers, though he is not blindly impressed by them.
- He has a sharp sense of humour and observes people and institutions with a keen, satirical eye.
- He likes the chatty, rambling style of narration, where one thought leads to another.
Talking about the text
(Group discussion topics, so here are points you can use.)
1. Film production today has come a long way from the early days of the Gemini Studios.
- Then: Mostly indoor shooting (only 5% outdoors), heavy incandescent lights, thick pancake make-up, black-and-white or early colour, and raw film stock that was costly and could not be wasted. Everything was done in a studio, and actors were on monthly salaries.
- Now: Digital cameras, CGI and special effects, natural and LED lighting, light make-up, extensive outdoor and foreign locations, editing on computers, and global release. Films are made by independent producers, and social media promotes them.
- Common: Storytelling, music and talented writers and actors are still the core. Films still influence society.
2. Poetry and films.
Poets like Subbu wrote lyrics, dialogues and stories for films. Gemini Studios was a haunt of poets. Film songs reach the masses and make poetry popular, so poetry gets a wide audience. But some feel that commercial demands dilute a poet’s art, as in the remark that Subbu’s film success overshadowed his literary achievements.
3. Humour and criticism.
Humour can criticise without hurting. The author points out human weaknesses (vanity, frustration, sycophancy, pretence) through gentle laughter. Satire and cartoons use humour to comment on society and leaders. Humour makes people accept criticism more easily than a direct attack.
Noticing transitions
Read the text again and mark the transitions from one idea to another.
The piece moves from one idea to the next in a chatty, rambling way:
Pancake (make-up material) → Gemini Studios’ make-up department → Robert Clive’s stables → the make-up room and its staff (national integration) → the office boy → the author’s cubicle and his job → the office boy’s anger at Subbu → Kothamangalam Subbu and his abilities → the Story Department → the legal adviser and the actress → closing of the Story Department → poets at Gemini Studios and their fear of Communism → the MRA’s visit (1952) → the English poet’s visit → the author’s short story contest and The Encounter → Stephen Spender → The God That Failed → the mystery solved.
Writing
Write a humorous piece about the idiosyncrasies of an interesting character in your neighbourhood or among your relatives, in a rambling style (sample):
Our Neighbour, Mr. Sharma
Mr. Sharma lives in the house next to ours, and he owns the loudest alarm clock in the colony. It rings at four every morning, not for him, since he sleeps through it like a log, but for the rest of us. His wife says he is a very light sleeper, which is the greatest lie ever told in the history of our lane, because I once saw him sleep through a thunderstorm, two cricket matches and my cousin’s wedding band.
Speaking of weddings, Mr. Sharma never misses one, invited or not. He believes that a wedding is a public festival, like the monsoon, where any citizen may attend. He arrives early, eats the most, and leaves by praising the cook so warmly that the poor hosts feel it would be rude to ask who he is. Once he even gave advice to the groom’s father about the seating arrangements, and the poor man thanked him.
And that reminds me of his advice, which he gives free to all, whether you ask for it or not. If you buy a new phone, he tells you that his was better. If you fall ill, he says it is because you do not drink warm water, a remedy he recommends for all diseases from fever to bad marks. He is also an expert on cricket, and every Indian loss is explained by his one rule that the captain did not consult him.
Yet, if the electricity goes or a child falls sick at night, it is always Mr. Sharma who is at your door first with a torch and a car key, still in his nightclothes. We laugh at him all day, but I think the colony would be very dull, and a little less safe, without him.
(Choose any real person from your neighbourhood or family, and let one thought lead to another, as the author does.)
Things to do
Collect about twenty cartoons from newspapers and magazines to discuss how important people or events have been satirised. Comment on the interplay of the words and pictures.
How to do it: Collect cartoons from newspapers or magazines in any language (for example, political cartoons on elections, prices, traffic, corruption or sports events). Paste them in a file and write a few lines on each.
Points for your comments:
- Exaggeration: Cartoonists exaggerate a feature or situation (a very large nose, a tiny common man, a giant politician) to bring out a weakness.
- Symbols: Familiar symbols are used, such as the “common man” for the public, a scale for justice or an empty plate for hunger.
- Words and pictures: The picture shows the situation, while the caption or speech balloon gives the punch or irony. Often the words say one thing and the picture shows the opposite, which creates humour and a sharp comment.
- Purpose: They criticise with laughter and make people think about serious matters without being offensive.
- Example comment: “In this cartoon, a leader promises to remove potholes while standing in one. The picture shows the reality, and the caption shows the empty promise. The contrast makes us laugh and think.”
