Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
Most buildings are made to rise. The stepwells of Gujarat and Rajasthan were made to sink. Their builders started at ground level and worked downwards, flight after flight, towards water that might stand a few steps below the surface in August and far below it by May. The first purpose of all this digging was utilitarian. Nobody could say in advance where the water would be, so the whole building was a way of reaching it at any level, in a wet year or a dry one.
Somewhere along the way the builders grew ambitious. At Chand Baori in Abhaneri, the steps run down three sides in a zigzag so dense that photographs of it look like a trick of the eye. At Rani ki Vav in Patan, the walls of the long descent are crowded with carved figures, among them the avatars of Vishnu, so that going down for water feels oddly like walking through a temple. Adalaj, near Ahmedabad, was begun under a Hindu chief and finished by a sultan, and its stone carries the patterns of both.
Visitors usually praise the carving. I would give at least as much credit to the shade. Down at the lower landings the air is noticeably cooler than in the glare above, and for centuries the women who came for water lingered there to talk. A well was also a meeting place.
Then water began to arrive through pipes and taps, and the stepwells lost their reason to exist. Many filled up with rubbish. Rani ki Vav had already spent centuries buried under silt before it was dug out in the last century. Today it appears on the hundred-rupee note, admired by people who have never had to climb down it with a pot.
Which of the following best describes the writer’s attitude towards the stepwells?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Appreciative: admires their practical good sense as much as their beauty
The writer likes the stepwells and values both their use and their beauty.
- The writer admires the zigzag steps of Chand Baori and the carved walls of Rani ki Vav.
- The writer also says, “I would give at least as much credit to the shade.” The cool lower landings came from good planning, not from decoration.
- Appreciative means seeing and valuing the good in something. Here the writer values the good sense of the design as well as its looks.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Nostalgic: longs for the days when every village drew its water from a stepwell — Incorrect. Overstated: Nostalgic means sadly wishing for the past to come back. The writer admires the old wells but never wishes for those days again.
Option 2: Indignant: angry that the stepwells were left to fill up with rubbish — Incorrect. Only partly true: Indignant means angry at something unfair. The writer does say that many wells filled up with rubbish. But it is said calmly, in one short line.
Option 3: Detached: reports facts about the stepwells without giving a personal view — Incorrect. Contradicted: Detached means not showing your own feelings. But the writer gives a personal view: “I would give at least as much credit to the shade.”