NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 3 Paper Boats (poem by Rabindranath Tagore) — Let us do these activities before we read

Say what you actually picture, and then say what the picture feels like — that second half is what the teacher is listening for.

Sample answer: The first thing I think of is the first heavy rain, when the drain in front of our house turns into a stream and every child in the lane comes out with a torn notebook page. I think of the careful folding, the wobble as the boat is set down, the race to keep up with it, and the sad soggy moment when it tips over. A paper boat also makes me think of how little you need in order to play — no money, no toy shop, just one sheet of paper and some running water.

They are usually sending a message and a wish, not just a toy.

Sample answer: Someone who floats a paper boat is hoping that it will travel further than they can — that it will reach a place they have never seen and a person they have never met. Some people hope their wish or their prayer will travel with it, the way lamps are floated on the Ganga at Varanasi. Others simply hope that somebody, somewhere downstream, will pick it up, read the name on it, and know that a child far away was thinking of them.

Sample prediction: The title is plain and childlike, so the poem is probably spoken by a child rather than about one. I expect it to describe a child floating boats on a stream during the rains, and to move from the real boats to imaginary ones — where they go, who might find them, what the child dreams at night. Since the boats are made of paper and paper carries writing, the poem may also be about sending a message out into the world.