Read the following poem. Answer the question :

A River

In Madurai,
city of temples and poets,
who sang of cities and temples,
every summer
a river dries to a trickle
in the sand,
baring the sand ribs,
straw and women's hair
clogging the watergates
at the rusty bars
under the bridges with patches
of repair all over them
the wet stones glistening like sleepy
crocodiles, the dry ones
shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun
The poet only sang of the floods
He was there for a day
when they had the floods.
People everywhere talked
of the inches rising,
of the precise number of cobbled steps
run over by the water, rising
on the bathing places,
and the way it carries of three village houses,
one pregnant woman
and a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda as usual.

What do the 'wet stones' and 'dry stones' in the poem compared to?

Crocodiles and water buffaloes

The correct answer is Option (4) - Crocodiles and water buffaloes

In the poem, the "wet stones" and "dry stones" are explicitly compared to crocodiles and water buffaloes:

• Wet stones: "The wet stones glistening like sleepy crocodiles."
• Dry stones: "The dry ones shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun."

This creates vivid imagery, likening the appearance of the stones to these animals based on their wet or dry state.

Options:

1. Cobbled steps and concrete steps:

   • Incorrect: The cobbled steps are mentioned elsewhere in the poem but are not related to the comparison.

2. Water buffaloes and Crocodiles:

   • Incorrect: The order here is reversed and does not match the poem's descriptions.

3. Cows named Gopi and Brinda:

   • Incorrect: Gopi and Brinda are the names of cows carried away by the flood, unrelated to the stone comparisons.

4. Crocodiles and water buffaloes:

   • Correct: This matches the explicit comparisons in the poem.