FLAMINGO (PROSE)

Chapter 1: The Last Lesson

1. What was Franz expected to be prepared with for school that day?

2. What did Franz notice that was unusual about the school that day?

3. What had been put up on the bulletin-board?

4. What changes did the order from Berlin cause in school that day?

5. How did Franz’s feelings about M. Hamel and school change?

6. How did M. Hamel pay a tribute to the French Language?

7. Why was M. Hamel wearing his special dress?

Chapter 2: Lost Spring

1. What is Saheb looking for in the garbage dumps? Where is he and where has he come from?

2. What explanations does the author offer for the children not wearing footwear?

3. Is Saheb happy working at the tea-stall? Explain.

4. What makes the city of Firozabad famous?

5. Mention the hazards of working in the glass bangles industry.

6. Who is Mukesh? What is his dream?

Chapter 3: Deep Water

1. What is the “misadventure” that William Douglas speaks about?

2. How did this experience affect him?

3. Why was Douglas determined to get over his fear of water?

4. How did Douglas overcome his fear of water?

5. How did the instructor “build a swimmer” out of Douglas?

Chapter 4: The Rattrap

1. From where did the peddler get the idea of the world being a rattrap?

2. Why was he amused by this idea?

3. Why was the crofter so talkative and friendly with the peddler?

4. Why did he show the thirty kronor to the peddler?

5. When did the ironmaster realize his mistake?

6. What made the peddler think that he had indeed fallen into a rattrap?

Chapter 5: Indigo

1. Why is Rajkumar Shukla described as being ‘resolute’?

2. Why do you think the servants thought Gandhi to be another peasant?

3. List the places that Gandhi visited between his first meeting with Shukla and his arrival at Champaran.

4. Why did Gandhi agree to a settlement of 25 per cent refund to the farmers?

5. What was Gandhiji’s politics intertwined with?

6. How did the episode change the plight of the peasants?

Chapter 6: Poets and Pancakes

1. What does the writer mean by ‘the fiery misery’ of those subjected to make-up?

2. Why did the author appear to be doing nothing at the studios?

3. Who was Subbu’s principal?

4. Subbu is described as a many-sided genius. List four of his special abilities.

5. Why was the legal adviser referred to as the opposite by others?

Chapter 7: The Interview

1. What are some of the positive views on interviews?

2. Why do most celebrity writers despise being interviewed?

3. What do you understand by the expression “thumbprints on his windpipe”?

4. Do you think Umberto Eco likes being interviewed? Give reasons for your opinion.

5. How does Eco find the time to write so much?

6. What was distinctive about Eco’s academic writing style?

7. What is the reason for the huge success of the novel The Name of the Rose?

Chapter 8: Going Places

1. Where was it most likely that the two girls would find work after school?

2. What were the options that Sophie was dreaming of? Why does Jansie discourage her from having such dreams?

3. Why did Sophie wriggle when Geoff told her father that she had met Danny Casey?

4. How does Sophie include her brother Geoff in her fantasy of her future?

5. Which country did Danny Casey play for?

6. Sophie and Jansie were classmates and friends. What were the differences between them that show up in the story?

FLAMINGO (POETRY)

Poem 1: My Mother at Sixty-Six

1. What is the kind of pain and ache that the poet feels?

2. Why are the young trees described as ‘sprinting’?

3. Why has the poet brought in the image of the merry children ‘spilling out of their homes’?

4. Why has the mother been compared to the ‘late winter’s moon’?

5. What do the parting words of the poet and her smile signify?

6. What is the central idea of the poem “My Mother at Sixty-six”?

Poem 2: Keeping Quiet

1. What will counting up to twelve and keeping still help us achieve?

2. Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death?

3. What is the ‘sadness’ that the poet refers to in the poem?

4. What symbol from Nature does the poet invoke to say that there can be life under apparent stillness?

5. What does the poet mean by “keeping quiet”?

6. What is the central idea of the poem “Keeping Quiet”?

Poem 3: A Thing of Beauty

1. List the things of beauty mentioned in the poem.

2. List the things that cause suffering and pain.

3. What does the line, “Therefore are we wreathing a flowery band to bind us to earth” suggest to you?

4. What makes human beings love life in spite of troubles and sufferings?

5. Why is ‘grandeur’ associated with the ‘mighty dead’?

6. What image does the poet use to describe the beautiful bounty of the earth?

7. What is the central idea of the poem “A Thing of Beauty”?

Poem 4: A Roadside Stand

1. The city folk who drove through the countryside hardly paid any heed to the roadside stand or to the people who ran it. If at all they did, it was to complain. Which lines bring this out? What was their complaint about?

2. What was the plea of the folk who had put up the roadside stand?

3. The government and other social service agencies appear to help the poor rural people, but actually do them no good. Pick out the words and phrases that the poet uses to show their double standards.

4. What is the ‘childish longing’ that the poet refers to? Why is it ‘vain’?

5. Which lines tell us about the insufferable pain that the poet feels at the thought of the plight of the rural poor?

6. What is the poem about?

7. What is the central idea of the poem “A Roadside Stand”?

Poem 5: Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers

1. How do ‘denizens’ and ‘chivalric’ add to our understanding of the tiger’s attitudes?

2. Why do you think Aunt Jennifer’s hands are ‘fluttering through her wool’ in the second stanza? Why is she finding the needle so hard to pull?

3. What is suggested by the image ‘massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band’?

4. Of what or of whom is Aunt Jennifer terrified with in the third stanza?

5. What are the ‘ordeals’ Aunt Jennifer is surrounded by, why is it significant that the poet uses the word ‘ringed’? What are the meanings of the word ‘ringed’ in the poem?

6. Why do you think Aunt Jennifer created animals that are so different from her own character? What might the poet be suggesting, through this difference?

7. Interpret the symbols found in this poem.

8. Do you sympathise with Aunt Jennifer? What is the attitude of the speaker towards Aunt Jennifer?

9. What is the central idea of the poem “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”?

VISTAS (SUPPLEMENTARY READER)

Chapter 1: The Third Level

1. What does the third level refer to?

2. Would Charley ever go back to the ticket-counter on the third level to buy tickets to Galesburg for himself and his wife?

3. Do you think that the third level was a medium of escape for Charley? Why?

4. What do you infer from Sam’s letter to Charley?

5. “The modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and stress.” What are the ways in which we attempt to overcome them?

6. Do you see an intersection of time and space in the story?

7. Apparent illogicality sometimes turns out to be a futuristic projection. Discuss.

8. Philately helps keep the past alive. Discuss other ways. What do you think of the human tendency to move between past, present and future?

9. Compare the interweaving of fantasy and reality in ‘Adventure’ and ‘The Third Level’.

Chapter 2: The Tiger King

1. Who is the Tiger King? Why does he get that name?

2. What did the royal infant grow up to be?

3. What will the Maharaja do to find the required number of tigers to kill?

4. How will the Maharaja prepare himself for the hundredth tiger which was supposed to decide his fate?

5. What will now happen to the astrologer? Do you think the prophecy was indisputably disproved?

Chapter 3: Journey to the end of the Earth

1. How do geological phenomena help us to know about the history of humankind?

2. What are the indications for the future of humankind?

3. The world’s geological history is trapped in Antarctica. How is the study of this region useful to us?

4. What are Geoff Green’s reasons for including high school students in the Students on Ice expedition?

5. ‘Take care of the small things and the big things will take care of themselves.’ What is the relevance of this statement in the context of the Antarctic environment?

6. Why is Antarctica the place to go to, to understand the earth’s present, past and future?

Chapter 4: The Enemy

1. Who was Dr. Sadao? Where was his house?

2. Will Hana help the wounded man and wash him herself?

3. What will Dr. Sadao and his wife do with the man?

4. What will Dr. Sadao do to get rid of the man?

5. Will Dr. Sadao be arrested on the charge of harbouring an enemy?

6. How did Dr. Sadao help the prisoner escape?

Chapter 5: On the Face of It

1. Who is Mr Lamb? How does Derry get into his garden?

2. Do you think all this will change Derry’s attitude towards Mr Lamb?

3. What is it that draws Derry towards Mr Lamb in spite of himself?

4. In which section of the play does Mr Lamb display signs of loneliness and disappointment? What are the ways in which Mr Lamb tries to overcome these feelings?

5. The actual pain or inconvenience caused by a physical impairment is often much less than the sense of alienation felt by the person with disabilities. What is the kind of behaviour that the person expects from others?

6. Will Derry get back to his old seclusion or will Mr Lamb’s brief association effect a change in the kind of life he will lead in the future?

7. Write the character sketch of Derry.

8. Write the character sketch of Mr. Lamb.

Chapter 6: Memories of Childhood

1. The two accounts that you read above are based in two distant cultures. What is the commonality of theme found in both of them?

2. It may take a long time for oppression to be resisted, but the seeds of rebellion are sowed early in life. Do you agree that injustice in any form cannot escape being noticed even by children?

3. Bama’s experience is that of a victim of the caste system. What kind of discrimination does Zitkala-Sa’s experience depict? What are their responses to their respective situations?

4. What are the two parts of “Memories of Childhood”?

5. What was Zitkala-Sa’s reaction to the cutting of her hair?

6. How did Bama feel after seeing the elder carrying food like that?

7. How did education help Bama?

8. What message does “Memories of Childhood” convey?