Page 42 - ENGLISH 10

This morning is damp and the road is wet. The sky is overcast. I walked on,
with an umbrella on my head. The road is broad, its sidewalks lonely and
desolate. These are shaded by tall trees like poplars; there were some maples,
too. The leaves of maple and different exotic trees along the boulevard shine
yellow like a Àower. They keep falling all the time in early autumn, soft

paper-like dry leaves have made the street a carpet of different colours. Some
were swept by rainwater, waiting to be swept in the manholes. Having walked for
Curriculum Development Centre
about ¿ve minutes, I again asked a slim lady walking towards me, tick-tocking her

pointed soles, ‘Excuse me, how far may be Musée Rodin, please? She also
pointed towards the same direction and moved ahead. She spoke no words.
There are people, but they don’t know me, neither do I expect to know any of
them. A total stranger, a bit scared, I am walking. And I felt a bit lonely and
helpless. After a hundred steps I came to a sharp bend like a dead end, and
across this stood a yellowish cream colored building, at the entrance of which
I could read Musee Rodin.
I entered the building, and as instructed by the curator, I bought a ticket and
hired a special hand machine that will play the recorded voice to explain to me
everything in English. As I passed the administrative building, I came across a
beautiful garden; it was full of pointed shapes of ¿ r and pine trees, giving the
best proof of French topiary. Far away stood other trees like walnut, juniper and
CDC
yew, birds chirruped from the top. Among the topiary art stood a huge black
bust, on top of which lay a drooping ¿gure of Rodin. Not Rodin himself but a

magni¿cent sculpture of him. It is commonly known as Rodin’s Thinking Man.
The Thinking Man squatted on a large and tall marble slab, in half bent
posture and pensive mood. This is one of the masterpieces in modern art, an
incomparable work. Rodin’s pensive mood is remarkable.
Three years ago I had visited a smaller museum in Baltimore; Sewa had joined
me from Illinois. In that very small museum, Rodin’s copy too was quite small.
Rodin’s little thinker in Baltimore was a black metal work, just a replica. I
remember writing an article which reminds us of our visit to Baltimore, and
van Gogh’s Irises. It got published in Antarderisti edited by Jyoti Ghimire of
the USA.
Since I heard of the name of Rodin as one of the greatest sculptors of the
twentieth century, I had always desired to see him, that is, his work, or his
Museum. The brochure distributed at the metro station suggests: If you are
going to spend four days in Paris, please visit Rodin Museum on the very ¿ rst
day. Enter the sculpture garden premises and go close to the thinker and feel or
experience the weight of the pensive mood he has.
On that noon, it was drizzling I tried to feel the pensive mood Rodin sculpted
in his immortal art. At that moment my mood also turned like his.

ENGLISH, Class 10 37