question_answer

Answer the following in 120-150 words:

Describe the difficulties the bangle makers of Firozabad have to face in their lives.

Or

The peddler declined the invitation of the ironmaster but accepted the one from Edia. Why?

Answer:

Every family in Firozabad was engaged in the task of making bangles. It was the centre of India?s glass blowing industry, where families had spent generations working around furnaces, welding glass and making bangles for apparently all the women in the country. The circumstances that kept them in this trade were the vicious circle of middlemen who would interfere if the young men tried to form a cooperative. Moreover, these youngsters would be hauled up by the police, beaten and dragged to jail for doing something illegal, while it was the middlemen who performed such practices. There was no leader among them who could help them see things differently. Their fathers were as tired as they and continued to sink in the mire? of an endless spiral of poverty, apathy, greed and injustice. The bangle seller?s families were caught in a web of poverty, burdened by the stigma of the caste into which they were born and simultaneously suffered under the oppressive regime of a vicious circle of sahukars, middlemen, policemen, bureaucrats and politicians. Together they imposed a baggage on the children born into such families, from which they could not free themselves.

Or

Edla proved to be much more persuasive than her father in dealing with the peddler. His gentle behavior and kind treatment managed to effect a monumental change in the latter. Although Edla had misgivings, she convinced her rather to let the peddler stay and revelled in the opportunity to actually help a poor, hungry, homeless man, who was always chased away by everyone. She wanted him to enjoy a day of peace and partake in the Christmas festivities. She was kind, sympathetic and friendly with the stranger, taking hold of his hand and leading him to the dinner table, thus, making him a part of her family, at least for a day. It was this act of kindness that helped the peddler change himself. Besides, before leaving, he left a Christmas present for her and signed it as Captain Von Stahle.