CLASS 12 · KALIEDOSCOPE · CHAPTER 21
Original student-friendly answers to Girish Karnad's play about a writer, her public image, her sister, and the politics of language.
9 worked answers · short steps first, explanations when you need them
Textbook pages
Question Thinking about the Play 1
Weigh her care and affection against the jealousy and defensiveness revealed by the Image.
Her affection seems real, but it exists alongside jealousy and hurt about being treated as second to Malini.
Question Thinking about the Play 2
Use the descriptions of Malini's intelligence, liveliness, disability, and relationships.
Malini is presented as intelligent, lively, loving, and eager to learn, despite disability. Her absence makes her an important presence in Manjula's memories.
Question Thinking about the Play 3
Describe the defensive answer and how it leads to Manjula's admission of feeling second best.
She answers defensively by listing Malini's care. The Image's follow-up reveals Manjula's sense of being second best and complicates her public story.
Question Thinking about the Play 4
Mention celebrity image-making, language prejudice, commercial success, and public-private contradictions.
It satirises celebrity image-making, prejudice about English writing, commercial literary success, and the gap between public claims and private feelings.
Textbook pages
Question Talking about the Play 1
Discuss identity, audience, prestige, and the accusation of betrayal without treating one language as superior.
The play shows how language choice is tied to identity, audience, prestige, and money. It questions the claim that writing in English automatically betrays Kannada.
Question Talking about the Play 2
Explain that bilingual practice is possible and that choosing another language does not automatically mean betrayal.
A writer can work in two languages. Writing in another language is not automatically betrayal; personal experience and artistic purpose matter.
Textbook pages
Question Appreciation 1
Explain that the Image externalises self-questioning and turns a public speech into a confrontation.
The Image makes Manjula's self-questioning visible, challenges her public story, and turns the monologue into a dramatic dialogue.
Question Appreciation 2
Describe the shift from broadcast speech to a conversation with the Image.
The Image speaks after the broadcast and questions Manjula, exposing tensions hidden in her public monologue.
Question Appreciation 3
Contrast her controlled on-camera manner with her relaxed and candid off-camera behaviour.
On camera she is controlled and confident; off camera she relaxes and speaks more candidly, revealing frustration and uncertainty.