Writing Skill Development for Competitive Examinations
(Passage sourced from NYT)
Original Paragraph
When I was a girl, my dad would ride his bicycle to the local ration shop in Chennai with a large plastic container, which he would have filled with kerosene.
Model Answer
As a girl, I often saw my father riding his bicycle to the local ration shop in Chennai to fetch kerosene in a plastic container.
Original Paragraph
For decades, state-subsidized kerosene was an essential fuel for cooking in Indian homes. Not ours. We used it as a cheap way to boil the buckets of water needed by the three women in our house to wash their knee-length hair each week. I remember the glug-glug as dad poured the kerosene into our stove, fumes rising like a genie escaping its bottle.
Model Answer
During those years, people availed subsidized kerosene for use as cooking fuel in their homes. We used the fuel for a different cause. My father used to fill our stove with the kerosene, so that the three women in our household could heat water using it for their weekly washing of their knee-length hair.
Original Paragraph
I watched, fascinated and afraid. Kerosene was stigmatized as fuel for the poor. But its pungent fumes also bore a sinister association — it was the fuel of choice in bride burnings, the immolation of women by their husbands or in-laws for failing to bring a large enough dowry, produce male heirs or simply for talking back.
Model Answer
I was bewildered to see this. During those days, it was the fuel of choice for poor peoples’ cooking needs. Apart from this, kerosene was used by some for an extremely hideous purpose. Brides coming with less-than-expected dowry were incinerated by their husbands’ family members, so that a replacement bride with enough dowry could be brought in. The fuel for such a ghastly crime was kerosene that emitted obnoxious smell on being lighted. Brides failing to give birth to male children, or indulging in counter-shouts against family members also suffered the same fate, of being reduced to ashes with kerosene flames.
Original Paragraph
In 2014, the government began phasing out kerosene in favor of cleaner-burning liquefied petroleum gas. Dirty kerosene stoves disappeared, ushering in cleaner, safer kitchens, less drudgery for the poor and, probably, fewer dead brides. We were so done with kerosene.
Model Answer
In 2014, kerosene’s use was discontinued. LNG that hardly emitted any pungent fumes was adopted as its replacement. Kitchens got a facelift with the exit of dirty kerosene stoves and entry of cleaner LNG stoves. It probably curbed the brutal practice of bride-burning. The poor also got a respite from the pungent fumes emanated by kerosene.