2-6) The Planners

 ICE BREAKERS

• (i) You have heard the proverb ‘Plan your work, work your plan’. It means-

 (a) Planning of the work is important.

 (b) Without planning work cannot be acomplished.

 (c) Make planning and work according to that plan.

 (d) Planning and work are two sides of same coin. 

(ii) Choose the proper alternatives from the statements given below which 

would explain why town planning is essential-

 (a) To develop the city according to the guidelines.

 (b) To get the ‘Best City Award’.

 (c) To attract the tourists.

 (d) To use and develop the land available in the city for the interest of the citizens 

(iii) Given below are various professions in column A and in column B, the 

nature of work in respective professions. Match the columns.

A B

(i) Anaesthetist

(ii) Pharmacist

(iii) Orthodentist 

(iv) Dermitologist

(v) Architect

(vi) Chartered 

 Accountant

(vii) Editor

(a) Specialist in the treatment of problems concerning 

the position of teeth and jaws.

(b) A person who designs buildings and supervises the 

process of constructing them.

(c) A person who is in charge of a newspaper or of 

a part of a newspaper.

(d) The medical study of the skin and its diseases

(e) A person who has been trained to prepare medicines 

and sell them to public.

(f) A person whose job is to give drugs which make 

the person not to feel pain especially in preparation 

for a medical operation.

(g) A person who is engaged in the profession of 

accounting and examining the statements and 

records of accounts.

Boey Kim Cheng (born in 1965) is a Singapore - born  Australian poet. He is of Chinese descent. He is widely regarded  as one of the most promising Singapore poets to emerge in the 1990s. Boey has published four collections of poetry. For his  artistic achievements, he received the 'National Arts Council  Young Artist Award' in 1996. He taught for thirteen years at  the University of Newcastle in Australia. In 2016, he joined  Nanyeng Technological University as an Associate Professor at  its School of Humanities and is currently head of English Department. He is the  co- editor of the anthology ‘Contemporary Asian Australian Poets’ published in 2014.  Boye’s works are highly regarded by both the academic and writing communities in Singapore

The poet begins the poem by stating what the planners do. As the poem proceeds  we come to know how the planners achieve what they aim for. Towards the end of  the poem the poet depicts how the planning has affected the poet. Boey Kim Cheng  is talking about fast- developing modern Singapore. He laments on the disturbing and  loss of humane element in his surrounding. He becomes nostalgic about his bonding  with the old city. We all can hear the echoes of his words in our own hearts when  we come across such modernization around us. We may sympathise with the poet  when he declares at the end of the poem that the harsh realities of modernisation  have numbed his heart. The free verse form of the poem is suitable to the free  expressions of the poet’s feelings. 

The Planners

They plan. They build. All spaces are gridded

Filled with permutations of possibilities.

The buildings are in alignment with the roads

which meet at desired points

linked by bridges all hang

in the grace of mathematics.

They build and will not stop.

Even the sea draws back

and the skies surrender.

They erase the flaws,

the blemishes of the past, knock off

useless blocks with dental dexterity.

All gaps are plugged

with gleaming gold.

The country wears perfect rows

of shining teeth.

Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis.

They have the means.

They have it all so it will not hurt.

so history is new again.

The piling will not stop.

The drilling goes right through

the fossils of last century.

But my heart would not bleed

poetry. Not a single drop

to stain the blueprint

of our past’s tomorrow.

   Boey Kim Cheng

 

 permutation : a variation in the order of a set of things

Many times the word ‘they’ is used in the poem. Explain the use of they’ in this context.

blemishes : a mark of fault spoiling something that is otherwise beautiful or perfect.

dexterity : skill in using one’s hands

 BRAINSTORMING

(A1) Read the poem and complete the web about the activities the planners do.

The Planners

drill

..........

Rearrange

..........

.......... Kick aside

..........

Plan

..........

..........

..........

(A2) Go through the poem and state whether the following statements are true 

or false.

 (a) Planners plan to construct buildings wherever they find place.

 (b) Planners take public consent for the alterations they make in the old 

structures of the city.

 (c) Planners are concerned about the environment of the area.

 (d) Planners make their plans mathematically perfect, at the same time they 

calculate their profit.

anaesthesia: a state of controlled, temporary loss at sensation or awareness.

amnesia : lnability to remember events for a period of time.

hypnosis: A trance like state with heightened focus and concentration

fossil : the remains of an animal or a plant which have hardened into rock

blueprint : a photographic print of building plans with white lines on a blue 

background a detailed plan 

or scheme(e) Planners deliberately find drawbacks in the old city planning.

 (f) The newly planned city looks modern and amazingly beautiful.

 (g) Planners paint beautiful pictures of the upcoming changes in the city which 

charm the citizens.

 (h) Planners make tactful changes so that citizens do not recognise the familiar 

landmarks. 

(A3) Read the expression: 

 ‘the blueprint of our past’s tomorrow’. Consider in a group why the poet 

has not mentioned ‘the present’. It is because of the planners who have 

possessed our ‘present’ in order to change ‘our past’ into the ‘future’ they 

desire. Go through the poem and write the lines which support this thought.

 (a) The buildings are in alignment with the roads which meet at desired points.

 (b)

 (c) 

 (d)

 (e)

 (f)

(A4) The term 'Anaesthesia' in the poem means - 'The planner gives beautiful 

pictures of the new modern city'. Now find out what is Amnesia and Hypnosis 

in the given context. 

(A5) Pick out the statements which aptly depict the theme of the poem.

 (a) In the poem the speaker memorises the past.

 (b) In ‘The Planners’ the poet describes the unstoppable force of modernisation.

 (c) The poet talks about the replacement of natural environment by the 

concrete jungle.

 (d) The poet proposes to stop modernisation.

 (e) The poet laments helplessly.

(A6) The tone of the poet is sarcastic. When he writes ‘All spaces are gridded 

filled with permutations of possibilities’ he intends to indicate the efforts 

made by the planner to exploit every available piece of land without any 

consideration of harming nature or violating attachments of people to 

places. Make pairs/groups and find out some more sarcastic lines having 

the same effect.

(A7) (i) Write the appreciation of the poem. 

(ii) Write the summary of the poem. 

 (Both appreciation and the summary can be written with the help of the 

points given in previous poems.)(A8) Read the first and second stanza of the poem. We understand that the 

poet wants to suggest the powerful dominance of the planners who shape 

the town according to their selfish desires. Make a list of such expressions. 

You may begin with -

(a) All the spaces are gridded, filled with permutations of possibilities.

(b)

(c)

(d) 

(A9) (i) Read the expression ‘permutation of possibility’. The consonant sound ‘P’ 

at beginning of the successive words creates sonorous effect. This is an 

example of Alliteration. Find out more examples of Alliteration from the 

poem.

(ii) Explain the extended metaphor related with dentistry in the poem.

Give suggestions to protect our national heritage monuments.

(A10) Complete the following table.

No. Figure of Speech Line of the poem Explanation

1. The sky is imagined to 

art like human being.

2. with gleaming gold

3. Oxymoron

4. The country wears the 

perfect smile. 

Anaesthesia, Amnesia, 

Hypnosis

5. Paradox

(A11) Compose four lines expressing the grief of having lost nature due to 

modernisation.

(A12) Imagine that a person who has returned to his native place after long 

time is talking to his old friend about the changes that have taken place 

in the village. Write a dialogue between two friends who have become 

nostalgic about their old village.

(A13) (i) Write in short about at least five cities in India that are considered to be 

the most developed cities.

(ii) Your examinations are only two months ahead. Plan your schedule of

studies and write in your notebook.

(iii) Read 'The City Planners' by Margaret Atwood.