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NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 5 The Kites — Let us think and reflect

Book page 145 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
Read the given lines from the poem: ‘What fun it would be / To look right down, / Over the park / And the rooftops of town.’ Circle the word that does not share the same feeling as ‘fun’: joy, excitement, care, happiness.
Answer

care — that is the word to circle.

WordDoes it feel like ‘fun’?Why
joyYesGreat happiness — very close to fun.
excitementYesThe lively, eager feeling you get while having fun.
careNo‘Care’ means worry, or looking after someone. It is a serious, heavy feeling, not a light and happy one.
happinessYesThe plain word for the feeling fun gives.
Tip: In an odd-one-out question, first say what the other three share. Here joy, excitement and happiness are all light, pleasant feelings — so the odd word must be the one that is not.
Q2.
Which line tells us that the poet was somewhere above?
Answer

The line is “To look right down,”.

You can only look right down at something if you are above it. The next two lines confirm it — “Over the park / And the rooftops of town” — because you can be over the rooftops only from the sky.

One more clue in the last stanza: “The people below / Would stand and stare.” If the people are below, the child must be high above them.
Q3.
Choose the scene the child saw. (Four pictures: (i) people crossing a road at a zebra crossing, (ii) a top view of houses with coloured roofs and trees, (iii) a top view of a highway with cars, (iv) a front view of houses in a street.)
Answer

Picture (ii) is the correct choice — the bird's-eye view of a colony of houses with coloured roofs and green trees between them.

PictureWhat it showsWhy it is right or wrong
(i)A boy and a woman crossing a road at a zebra crossing, seen from the sideWrong — this is seen from the ground, at eye level.
(ii)Rooftops and trees seen from high aboveRight — the poem says “To look right down, / Over the park / And the rooftops of town.” Trees for the park, roofs for the rooftops.
(iii)A wide highway with cars, seen from aboveWrong — it is a view from above, but there are no rooftops and no park, only a road.
(iv)The fronts of houses in a streetWrong — this is what you see standing on the road, not what you see from the sky.
How to choose: the poem names two things — a park and rooftops — and one position, right down. Only one picture has all three.
Q4.
How does the poet describe the kites in the first two lines?
Answer

In the first two lines — “Up in the air / See the kites fly,” — the poet describes the kites as flying high up in the air, and she invites us to look at them by saying “See”.

She completes the picture in the very next line by comparing them to “coloured birds / In the wind-whipped sky”. So the kites are bright, many-coloured shapes moving freely and alive, high above, in a sky full of strong wind.

Notice the word ‘See’: the poem opens with a command, as if a friend beside you were pointing upward. That is why we feel we are standing in the field with the child from the very first line.
Q5.
Why does the child say that they have to climb a tree first to get onto the kite?
Answer

The child never says this — there is no tree anywhere in the poem. What the child says is that he would first have to become small and light as air:

“I wish I were small
And light as air,
I would climb on a kite
And sail up there.”

So the condition for climbing on to a kite is not height but weight. A paper kite is lifted by nothing more than a breeze; it could never carry a child of normal size. Only a body as weightless as air could sit on those “paper wings” without pulling them down.

How to write this in your notebook: “The child does not mention climbing a tree. He says he would first have to be small and light as air, because only then would a paper kite be able to carry him.”
Q6.
What are the songs that the child hears when flying atop the kite?
Answer

They are the songs of the wind — “And hear the songs / That the wild wind sings.”

High above the town there is no traffic and no talking; the only sound is the wind rushing past. Its whistling, humming and roaring is what the child calls ‘songs’.

Name the device: This is personification — the wind is given a human power, singing. Calling the noise a ‘song’ also tells us the child is not frightened up there; he is enjoying it. And ‘wild wind’ is the poem's second piece of alliteration.
Q7.
Why did the people look up at the child and stare? If you looked up and saw that, what feelings would you have?
Answer

Why they stare: because a child sailing through the sky on a paper kite is an impossible, astonishing sight. Nobody has ever seen such a thing, so they stop walking, stand still and go on looking. The poem adds a second reason in the very next line — “And wish they were me” — so they stare partly out of wonder and partly out of envy: they too would love to be up there.

What I would feel: answer this part about yourself, in two or three sentences.

Sample answer: If I looked up and saw a child riding a kite over my street, I would first be so amazed that I would not believe my eyes. Then I would feel a rush of excitement and would shout to my friends to come and look. Along with that I would feel a little envy, because I would want to be up there instead — and perhaps some fear as well, wondering how that child would ever come down.
Q8.
If you were the kite carrying the child high up in the air, what would you tell them?
Answer

Speak as the kite. A good answer has three parts — a promise, a warning, and something the kite would want the child to notice.

Sample answer: “Hold my line tightly and do not be afraid — I have carried the wind on my back all my life, and today I shall carry you. Sit very still, because I am only paper and sticks, and one sudden movement could tear my wings. Now look right down: that little green square is your park, that grey thread is your road, and those tiny coloured boxes are the rooftops of your town. Remember what it looks like from here, and remember that you are not big and the world is not small — it is only that we are very high. When the wind grows tired I shall bring you down gently, and you can tell everybody what you saw.”
Why this works: it stays in character (the kite speaks of its paper wings and of the wind), it uses details from the poem (“look right down”, “the rooftops of town”), and it ends with a thought, not just a description.
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