Read the poem and answer the questions given below it.
The Kite on the Wire
Munna’s kite was the best on our roof that day,
green paper, with a tail of yellow thread,
till a sharper string came cutting through the sky,
and it fell, and caught on the wires overhead.
Now it hangs above the lane by the tea stall,
between two poles, too high for any hand.
Munna threw stones at it all evening long.
The shopkeeper laughed. The kite would not land.
Each morning the wind stops by to coax it,
tugs at its tail and whispers, “Fly.”
The kite shivers, lifts one paper corner,
and stays where it is, against the sky.
The rains have washed its green to grey.
Its tail is now a knot of string.
Munna has two new kites this year,
but he still looks up when the wires sing.
Someday a storm will take it, or the rain,
and the lane will forget it was ever there.
But for now it holds on, a scrap of green,
still flying, in its fashion, in the air.
What does the word “fashion” mean in the line “still flying, in its fashion, in the air”?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → a way or manner of doing something
Here fashion means a way or manner. “In its fashion” means “in its own way”.
- The kite is stuck on the wires and cannot really fly.
- But it still moves in the wind high above the lane. So it is “still flying, in its fashion”: flying in its own way, not like a free kite. Example: Dadi still cooks in her own fashion, without measuring anything.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: a popular style of dress — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is a real sense of fashion, as in “the latest fashion”. But a kite has no clothes or style of dress.
Option 2: a trend that lasts a short time — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This sense is used for things many people like for a while. The line is about how the kite flies.
Option 4: to make or shape something by hand — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of the verb “to fashion”. In the line, fashion is a noun after “its”.