ANIMALS

GLIMPSES OF INDIA
MADAM RIDES THE BUS

NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 7 Animals (poem)
Thinking About the Poem
(Page 84)

Question 1.
Notice the use of the word ‘turn’ in the first line, “I think I could turn and live with animals…”.
What is the poet turning from?
Answer:
In this line here, the poet wants to turn from human into an animal. This turning is symbolic of
the poet’s detachment from human beings and their nature and his appreciation of the animal
kind.

Question 2.
Mention three things that humans do and animals don’t.
Answer:
Animals do not cry and complain over their conditions. They do not. commit sins and therefore
do not weep for them. They are also very satisfied creatures and have no desire to possess
material things. Humans, on the contrary, complain all the time, commit all sorts of sins and are
affected with the madness of owning things.

Question 3.
Do humans kneel to other humans who lived thousands of years ago? Discuss this in groups.
Answer:
Yes, humans kneel to other humans who lived thousands of years ago as it is a cultural tradition
to do so.

Question 4.
What are the ‘tokens’ that the poet says he may have dropped long ago, and which the animals
have kept for him? Discuss this in class .
(Hint Whitman belongs to the Romantic tradition that includes Rousseau and Wordsworth,which
holds that civilisation has made humans false to their own true nature.
What could be the basic aspects of our nature as living beings that humans choose to ignore or
deny?)
Answer:
The tokens mentioned in the poem mean the symbols of the true nature of human beings.
These tokens are actually tokens of virtue such as containment, honesty, innocence and the
likes of it.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 7 Glimpses of India
Part I A Baker from Goa
Page 86

Question 1.
What are the elders in Goa nostalgic about?
Answer:
The elders in Goa are nostalgic about the good old
Portuguese days and their love of bread and loaves. The writer says that the eaters of loaves
have left but the makers still exist.

Question 2.
Is bread-making still popular in Goa? How do you know?
Answer:
Yes, bread making is still popular in Goa. This is very clear from the narrator’s statement that
the eaters have gone away leaving the makers behind. There are mixers, moulders and the
ones who bake the loaves. The time tested furnaces still exist there.

Question 3.
What is the baker called?
Answer:
The baker is called a pader in Goa.

Question 4.
When would the baker come everyday? Why did the children run to meet him?
Answer:
The baker would come twice a day—once early in the morning and the second time when he
returned after selling his stuff.
The children would run to meet him as they wanted to have bread-bangles.

Question 2.
What did the bakers wear :
1. In the Portuguese days
2. When the author was young
Answer:
1. The bakers were usually dressed up in a peculiar dress called kabai. It was a single piece
long frock reaching down to the knees.
2. During his childhood days, the author saw the bakers wearing a shirt and trousers which were
shorter than full length ones and longer than half pants.

Question 3.
Who invites the comment – “he is dressed like a pader” Why?
Answer:
Any person who is wearing a half pant which reaches just below the knees invites this comment.
This is because the baker, known as a pader, used to dress like that.

Question 4.
Where were the monthly accounts of the baker recorded?
Answer:
Monthly accounts of the baker were recorded on some wall in the house with a pencil.

Question 5.
What does a ‘jackfruit-like appearance’ mean?
Answer:
It means having a plump physique, like a jackfruit.

Question 2.
Is bread an important part of Goan life? How do you know this?
Answer:
Yes, bread is an important part of Goan life. It is needed for marriage gifts, parties and feasts.
Bread is also needed by a mother for preparing sandwiches during her daughter’s engagement.
Thus, it is necessary to have breads for every occasion, because of which the presence of a
baker’s furnace in the vi .age is very important

Part II Coorg
Thinking About The Text
(Page 92)

Question 1.
Where is Coorg?
Answer:
Coorg or Kodagu is the smallest district of Karnataka. It is situated midway between Mysore and
the cbastal town of Mangalore.

Question 2.
What is the story about the Kodavu people’s descent?
Answer:
The fiercely independent people of Coorg are descendents of Greeks or Arabs. A section of
Alexander’s army moved South along the coast and settled here only when they were unable to
return to their country. These people married among the locals. This is the story about the
descent of Kodavu people.

Question 3.
What are some of the things you now know about?
1. the people of Coorg?
2. the main crop of Coorg?
3. the sports it offers to a tourists?
4. the animals you are likely to see in Coorg?
5. its distance from Bangalore and how to get there?
Answer:
1. They are fiercely independent people and have descended from the Greeks or the Arabs.
2. Coffee is the main crop of Coorg.
3. It mostly offers adventure sports which include river rafting, canoeing, rappelling, rock
climbing and mountain biking.
4. The animals likely to be seen in Coorg are macaques, Malabar squirrel, langurs, slender loris,
elephants etc.
5. By road, it is around 250 – 260 kilometres from Bangalore.

Madam Rides the Bus

1. What was Valli’s favourite pastime?

2. What was a source of unending joy for Valli? What was her strongest desire?
Ans: A source of unending joy for Valli was the sight of the bus that travelled between her village
and the nearest town, filled with a new set of passengers each time it passed through her street.
Her strongest desire was to ride on that bus.

3. What did Valli find out about the bus journey? How did she find out these details?
Ans: Valli found out that the town was six miles from her village. The fare was thirty paise one
way. The trip to the town took forty-five minutes. On reaching the town, if she stayed in her seat
and paid another thirty paise, she could return home on the same bus. She found out these
details by listening carefully to the conversations between her neighbours and the people who
regularly used the bus. She also gained information by asking them a few questions.

4. What do you think Valli was planning to do?

NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Madam Rides the Bus

1. Why does the conductor call Valli ‘madam’?

2. Why does Valli stand up on the seat? What does she see now?
Ans: Valli stood up on her seat because her view was cut off by a canvas blind that covered the
lower part of her window. She stood up to look over the blind. She saw that the road was very
narrow, on one side of which there was the canal and beyond it were palm trees, grassland,
distant mountains, and the blue sky. On the other side, there was a deep ditch and many acres
of green fields.

3. What does Valli tell the elderly man when he calls her a child?
Ans: When the elderly man called her a child, Valli told him that there was nobody on the bus
who was a child. She had paid her fare of thirty paise like everyone else.

4. Why didn’t Valli want to make friends with the elderly woman?
Ans: The elderly woman was having big earlobes with bigger holes. She chewing betel nut and
the betel juice was about to seep out of her mouth. She was giving a sight of unrefined elderly
lady. That is why Vaali did not want to make friends with her.
5. How did Valli save up money for her first journey? Was it easy for her?
Ans: Valli saved every coin that came her way. She made great sacrifices by controlling her
normal childish urges of having candies, toys and joyrides. This must have been difficult for her.
Kids find it very difficult to savour a candy or to enjoy a toy.

6. What did Valli see on her way that made her laugh?
Ans: Valli saw a young cow, whose tail was high in the air, running right in front of the bus in the
middle of the road. The bus slowed and the driver sounded his horn loudly. However, the more
he honked, the more frightened the cow became and it kept running faster and faster, right in
front of the bus. Valli found it so amusing that she had tears in her eyes. At last, the cow moved
off the road.

7. Why didn’t she get off the bus at the bus station?
Ans: She did not get off the bus at the bus station because she had to go back on that same
bus. She took out another thirty paise from her pocket and handed the coins to the conductor.
She just wanted to ride on the bus.
8. Why didn’t Valli want to go to the stall and have a drink? What does this tell you about her?
Ans: Valli did not want to go to the stall and have a drink because she did not have any money
for that. Even when the conductor offered her a cold drink free of charge, she refused firmly and
said that she only wanted her ticket. This shows that Valli had a lot of self will and pride.
Possibly, she did not want to take anything for free, particularly from a stranger.

1. What was Valli’s deepest desire? Find the words and phrases in the story that tell you this.

Ans: Valli’s deepest desire was to ride on the bus she saw everyday. The sentences in the story
which depict this are as follows:
“Day after day she watched the bus, and gradually a tiny wish crept into her head and grew
there: she wanted to ride on that bus, even if just once. This wish became stronger and
stronger, until it was an overwhelming desire.”

2. How did Valli plan her bus ride? What did she find out about the bus, and how did she save
up the fare?
Ans: Valli planned that she would take the one o’clock afternoon bus, reach the town at one
forty-five, and be back home by about two forty-five. She found out that the town was six miles
from her village. The fare was thirty paise one way. The trip to the town took forty-five minutes.
On reaching the town, if she stayed in her seat and paid another thirty paise, she could return
home on the same bus. She had carefully saved whatever stray coins came her way, resisting
every temptation to buy peppermints, toys, balloons, and the like, and finally she had saved
sixty paise
3.Why does the conductor refer to Valli as ‘madam’?
Ans: When the conductor stretched out his hand to help her get on the bus, Valli said
commandingly that she could get on by herself, and that she did not require his help. She did
not act like a child, but as a grown-up girl and therefore, the conductor called her ‘madam’.
When the elderly man called her a child and asked her to sit down on her seat, she replied that
nobody was a child on the bus. She kept stressing on the fact that she had paid her fare like
everybody else and therefore, she should not be treated differently.

NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Madam Rides the Bus

5. Find the lines in the text which tell you that Valli was enjoying her ride on the bus.
Ans: The following lines in the text show that Valli was enjoying her ride on the bus:
(i) “Valli devoured everything with her eyes.”
(ii) “On the one side there was the canal and, beyond it, palm trees, grassland, distant
mountains, and the blue, blue sky. On the other side was a deep ditch and then acres and acres
of green fields − green, green, green, as far as the eye could see. Oh, it was all so wonderful!”
(iii) “Everyone laughed, and gradually Valli too joined in the laughter. Suddenly, Valli clapped her
hands with glee.”
(iv) “Somehow this was very funny to Valli. She laughed and laughed until there were tears in
her eyes.
6. Why does Valli refuse to look out of the window on her way back?
Ans: Valli refused to look out of the window on her way back because she saw a young cow
lying dead by the roadside, just where it had been struck by some fast-moving vehicle. It was
the same cow that was running in front of their bus, during their trip to the town. She was
overcome with sadness. The memory of the dead cow haunted her and therefore, she refused
to look out of the window.

7. What does Valli mean when she says, “I was just agreeing with what you said about things
happening without our knowledge.”
Ans: Valli’s mother said that many things happen around us, but we are usually unaware of
them. Valli had gone on a bus ride to town, all alone, and had come back without any harm. She
did all this without the knowledge of her mother. Hence, she agreed with what her mother said.

8. The author describes the things that Valii sees from an eight-year-old’s point of view. Can you
find evidence from the text for this statement?

Ans: The author has described the things that Valli saw from an eight-year-old’s point of view.
She was fascinated by a bus. Watching the bus filled with a new set of people each time was a
source of unending joy for her. Her strongest desire was to ride the bus. She saved money by
cutting on peppermints, toys, and balloons, and even resisting the temptation to ride the
merry-go-round at the fair. When the author describes the bus, the points he stresses on are the
colour and look of the bus. It was a ‘new bus’, painted a ‘gleaming white’. The overhead bars
‘shone like silver’. The seats were ‘soft and luxurious’.

The descriptions that the author gives when Valli looked outside are also typical for an
eight-year-old. The ‘blue, blue sky’ and the ‘acres and acres of green fields − green, green,
green’ show the enthusiasm of a kid on looking at different colours. Valli clapped her hands in
glee on watching a cow run right in front of the bus. She found it so funny that tears came into
her eyes. On the other hand, she was overcome with sadness on her way back when she saw
the same cow lying dead. It had been a ‘lovable, beautiful creature’ and later it ‘looked so
horrible’. The memory of the dead cow haunted her so much that she refused to look outside
the window. These are the typical reactions of a young child.