Class 11 commerce students can refer to Chapter 6 The Ghat of the Only World notes given below which is an important chapter in the class 11 English book. These notes and important questions and answers have been prepared based on the latest CBSE and NCERT syllabus and books issued for the current academic year. Our team of English teachers has prepared these notes for class 11 English for the benefit of students so that you can read these revision notes and understand each topic carefully.

The Ghat of the Only World Notes Class 11 English

Refer to the notes and important questions given below for The Ghat of the Only World which is really useful and has been recommended by Class 11 English teachers. Understanding the concepts in detail and then solving questions by yourself will help you to learn all topics given in your NCERT Books.

MAIN POINTS:

• SHAHID is an expatriate who hails from Kashmir. He has been described as a ‘gregarious’ (very social) person who is very fond of throwing parties at his home in Brooklyn where he moved to in 1975.
• He is diagnosed with cancer. But even in his last days he likes to be surrounded by friends and family members. He still enjoys get-togethers. He has a keen taste for food and can tell by the aroma about the stage of each meal being cooked. Amitav’s memoir inspires each one of us to live life one day at a time. He comes across as a fun-loving personality who loves his homeland deeply.
• Shahid is very patriotic and secular. He doesn’t believe in boundaries created by religion. He has imbibed these qualities from his parents. As a child, he had built a small temple in a corner of his house. His parents too supported him
• Amitav Ghosh came in touch with him during his graduation years at Delhi University due to their common love for poetry.
• Both of them cross paths again when Amitav too migrates to America. They become close friends owing to shared love for Kashmiri food-Roganjosh, old Bollywood movies and poetry.
• Shahid suffers from a sudden blackout in February 2000. Soon it is discovered that he is suffering from a malignant brain tumor. Shahid is aware about the fact that he has only numbered days left in the world. But that doesn’t change his spirit.
• In a very casual manner he asks Amitav to write a story on him. Amitav is taken for a surprise at this unusual request. Unable to refuse he starts keeping a record of each and every call and meeting with Shahid. Shahid’s health declines continually as the tumor grows inside his brain but he becomes livelier with every passing day.
• Finally he surrenders before the disease after struggling for several months.

Question. What promise did the writer make with Shahid? How did he fulfil it?
Ans. Writer promised Shahid to fulfil his wish to write something about live after his death. To fulfill his wish the writer, Amitav, use to keep a record of all the conversations and meetings he had with Shahid. This record helped him to fulfil his promise.

Question. Who was Shahid?
Ans. Shahid was from Sringar, Kashmir. He studied in Delhi. He was an academician, a creative writer and a very popular and leaned teacher of English literature. He settled in America. He was a gregarious being. There was never an evening when there wasn’t a party in his living room. He suffered from brain tumour.