Cart Driver by Padma Sachdev
Central Idea: The poem “Cart Driver ” is a wonderful poem written by Padma Sachdev. The poem talks about the love that a mother has for her children. It is an atmosphere of mystery that creates fear and dread. The bulbul feels the danger of fire in its home (forest) in the poem. To save her fledgelings, she wants to rush to them, but she finds herself unable to move or fly out of fear.
Cart Driver Summary
This poem is about the love a mother has for her children. It is a hair–raising atmosphere that created fear an dread. It is a tussle between love the mother has for her own self and she has for her children. In the darkness of night, a bulbul is looking for food for its four little ones. It is moving its steps very cautiously. On hearing a sound the bulbul gets unstable. It wants to reach its nest quickly with grain in its beak. A bullock cart passes through the forest. The bulbul hides. The cart is moving but the driver is asleep. The bird imagines that if the hookah overturns the forest will catch fire. The bulbul wants to fly to its nest but it is not able to lift its legs out of fear.
CART DRIVER BY PADMA SACHDEV ( TEXT)
(Translated from the Dogri by Dr Karan Singh)
Paraphrase of Cart Driver
Line (1 – 7): The poet says he hears the sound of the footfalls of a careful bulb in a fearful silence of the forest. The bulb was out in the evening, shaking its feathers on his head. In the frightening night, the bulbul finds food for his young ones hungry in the nest.
Line (8 – 18): The poet says the bulbul is slowly moving out of fear. It has raised its ears because of the sound that it has heard from somewhere.
The bulb with the grain carrying in it hastens to its nest. The fledgelings make a series of short, high sounds in the nest, without knowing that their living place ( forest) is in danger. They continue to chirp, but the bulb continues to tremble out of fear. The bulbul carefully moves with its ears raised and remains itself on a complete alert.
Line (19 – 28): All of sudden, there is a sound of wheels in the forest. The wheels of the bullock-cart also produce a sound of dry leaves crackling. It is a sound that grows and then becomes less powerful. When this sound is heard, the bulbul rushes to the bushes and hides behind them. It saw a bullock-cart loaded with goods, the driver sleeping. He snores and his eyes are covered with a turban on his head. The bullocks move with their heads down by themselves.
Line (29 – 36): The bulbul is worried, filled with fear. He fears that if the cart stumbles and the hookah of its driver overturn and then the entire forest( Bulbul ‘s dwelling) could catch fire. The bulbul imagines the forest is already on fire. She wants to hasten to her nest, where she has kept her chicks, but cannot lift her legs out of fear.
Cart Driver Question and Answers
Q.1 Why is the bulbul afraid? Why does the bulbul hasten to its nest?
Ans: The bulbul is afraid because the forest is in the throes of terror. There is fearful silence all-round. In this fearful silence the bulbul hears some sound. It is the sound of wheels and the sound of the crackling of leaves. The bulbul hastens to its nest in order to take care of its four fledgelings which are hungry and alone in the nest.
Q.2 Why does the bulbul hide in the bushes?
Ans: It hides behind the bushes because it doesn’t want to be noticed by anyone. The bird gets terrified of hearing the sound of the wheels of the cart.
Q.3 What does the bulbul imagine?
Ans.: It imagines the forest on fire.
Q.4 What feeling does bulbul”s imagination arouse in the readers?
Ans.: Bulbul’s imagination arouses in the readers the feeling of selfless love and attachment that a mother has for its young ones. Mothers are always worried about their children more than themselves. The imagination also arouses in the readers the feeling sympathy for the bird.
Q.5 Why is a poem named “Cart Diver”?
Ans.: It is the cart driver’s irresponsible behaviour that petrifies the bulbul. The poet conveys his message through the folly of the cart driver. From the beginning, we also see the mother bird work hard to feed her young ones but it is only at the arrival of the cart driver that we come to know the extent of love a mother has for the children. Therefore the poem has been named “Cart Driver”.
Q. What images does the poet use to create an atmosphere of fear and silence in the poem?
Ans. An atmosphere of tear and silence is created by the following images in the poem:
- Fearful silence of the forest.
- Ears picked to pick some sound
- Throes of fear
- Hooka overturns
- The forest on fire
- Can’t lift its leg
- Sound of paws
- Bulbul trembles
- The bulbul hides in the bushes
Really nice