Which language do you think the author and his grandmother used while talking to each other?

Three ways in which the author’s grandmother spent her days after he grew up.

How does the story suggest that optimism helps to endure “the direst stress”?

Would you agree that the author’s grandmother was a person strong in character? If yes, give instances that show this.

The odd way in which the author’s grandmother behaved just before she died.

The way in which the sparrows expressed their sorrow when the author’s grandmother died.

Why do you think people undertake such adventurous expeditions in spite of the risks involved?

Can you think of a song or a poem in your language that talks of homecoming?

The three phases of the author’s relationship with his grandmother before he left the country to study abroad.

Describe the shifts in the narration of the events as indicated in the three sections of the text. Give a subtitle to each section.

(i) List the deeds that led Ray Johnson to describe Akhenaten as “wacky”.
(ii) What were the results of the CT scan?
(iii) List the advances in technology that have improved forensic analysis.
(iv) Explain the statement, “King Tut is one of the first mummies to be scanned — in death, as in life...”

“The landscape is an inner one, a spiritual and conceptual space.”

“The Emperor may rule over the territory he has conquered, but only the artist knows the way within.”

Locate the lines in the text that support the title ‘The Ailing Planet’.

How does the story suggest that optimism helps to endure “the direst stress”?

Have you heard any boatmen’s songs? What kind of emotions do these songs usually express?

Have you known someone like the author’s grandmother? Do you feel the same sense of loss with regard to someone whom you have loved and lost?

What do you think are the reasons for the extinction of languages?

Find out the correlates of Yin and Yang in other cultures.

What is the language spoken in Flanders?

Discuss the following in groups of two pairs, each pair in a group taking opposite points of view.
1. Scientific intervention is necessary to unearth buried mysteries.
2. Advanced technology gives us conclusive evidence of past events.
3. Traditions, rituals and funerary practices must be respected.
4. Knowledge about the past is useful to complete our knowledge of the world we live in.