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?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Crocodiles and water buffaloes
The poet uses two similes for the stones in the dried river bed. The wet stones glisten "like sleepy crocodiles", while the dry ones are "shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun". The order matters: wet stones are compared to crocodiles and dry stones to water buffaloes.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Cobbled steps and concrete steps — Incorrect. Wrong part of the passage: the cobbled steps appear later, as the steps that the flood water rises over; they are not compared to the stones, and concrete steps are not mentioned at all.
Option 2: Water buffaloes and Crocodiles — Incorrect. Misread: both animals appear, but in the reverse order: the wet stones are the crocodiles and the dry stones the buffaloes.
Option 3: Cows named Gopi and Brinda — Incorrect. Wrong link: Gopi and Brinda are the cows carried away by the flood, not images for the stones.