Before You Read: The Many Hands of Bharat
Every job a song; every worker a voice
Think of every person whose work touched your day before you reached school: whoever grew and sold your food, stitched your clothes, fixed the road, drove the bus, swept the street, wired the electricity. Most you will never meet. If each of them sang a song about their work, what do you think the song would say?
Don't think about salaries or status. Think about what each person might feel proud of in what they do.
This poem clearly answers a famous one. The American poet Walt Whitman wrote 'I Hear America Singing' in 1860 — listing carpenters, masons, boatmen, shoemakers, mothers, each 'singing what belongs to him or her and to none else.' This anonymous Indian poem takes that idea and makes it ours: 'I hear Bharat celebrating … each celebrating what belongs to them and to none else.' One poem, two countries, the same deep respect for the working hands that hold a nation up.
A vocation (you met the word in The Pot Maker) is skilled work that becomes part of who you are. This poem celebrates dozens of them at once. Before you read, here are its key words.
Words from the poem. Tap each to flip.
Q1.Myriad means:
Q1.Which famous poem is this Indian poem clearly echoing?
Think of every person whose work touched your day before you reached school: whoever grew and sold your food, stitched your clothes, fixed the road, drove the bus, swept the street, wired the electricity. Most you will never meet. If each of them sang a song about their work, what do you think the song would say?
Don't think about salaries or status. Think about what each person might feel proud of in what they do.
This poem clearly answers a famous one. The American poet Walt Whitman wrote 'I Hear America Singing' in 1860 — listing carpenters, masons, boatmen, shoemakers, mothers, each 'singing what belongs to him or her and to none else.' This anonymous Indian poem takes that idea and makes it ours: 'I hear Bharat celebrating … each celebrating what belongs to them and to none else.' One poem, two countries, the same deep respect for the working hands that hold a nation up.
A vocation (you met the word in The Pot Maker) is skilled work that becomes part of who you are. This poem celebrates dozens of them at once. Before you read, here are its key words.
Words from the poem. Tap each to flip.
Q1.Myriad means:
Q1.Which famous poem is this Indian poem clearly echoing?