WBBSE 9th Class English Solutions Chapter – 1 Tales of Bhola Grandpa
WBBSE 9th Class English Solutions Chapter – 1 Tales of Bhola Grandpa
West Bengal Board 9th Class English Solutions Chapter – 1 Tales of Bhola Grandpa
WBBSE 9th Class English Solutions
Introduction
About the Author: Manoj Das (1934-) is an Indian award winning bilingual writer who writes in Oriya and English. He has written many novels, short stories, poems, travelogues and articles on history and culture. The text is an edited version of Das’s short story which narrates Bhola Grandpa’s hilarious adventures seen through the eyes of a young man who had known him closely. The simplicity and forgetfulness of Bhola Grandpa provides an element of humour on which the story hinges.
Manoj Das was born at village Shankhari, Balasore, Odisha in 1934. He settled as an ashramite of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry in 1963. He works as an English professor at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondicherry present concentrating on novel writing. He was a youth leader in his college days. He played an active role in Afro-Asian student’s conference at Bandung, Indonesia, in 1959. He edited a cultural magazine, ‘The Heritage’ published from Chennai in the 1980s. He also wrote columns in ‘The Times of India’, ‘The Hindustan Times’, ‘The Hindu’ and ‘The Statesman’. Among the other important positions that Das has held are Member, General Council, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi 1998-2002, and Author-consultant, Ministry of Education, Government of Singapore, 1983 – 85. He was the leader of the Indian delegation of writers to China in 1999. He got recognition in the form of the Sahitya Akademi Award, 1972, in English; Orissa Akademi Award, 1965 and 1982; Sarala Award, 1981; Vishuba Award, 1986; and Sahitya Bharati Award, 1995; Saraswati Samman, 2000; Padma Shri, 2001.
SUMMARY AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE STORY
The text, the edited version of Manoj Das’s short story ‘Tales of Bhola Grandpa’ is humorous in tone. Literature may be divided into two categories, tragedy and comedy. The tragedy is serious in tone, the comedy is light-hearted and humorous. The elements of humour provide us with subjects of laughter.
Here Bhola Grandpa is a man who used to forget now and then. But basically he was a simple man. Three such stories are narrated here. On a moonlit night, while coming back from a festival the narrator saw him forgetting his grandson. Bhola Grandpa was holding his grandson’s fingers tightly. But when those fingers slipped he did not know. Because of others’ warning, he became conscious about the loss and let out a loud wail., However, his grandson was found from under the belly of a cow.
One day, Bhola Grandpa told the narrator’s father and his friends that he had seen a gang of pirates hiding something under the sand dunes of the sea-shore. They thought it to be costly jewellery or some other valuable items. They started searching. After a long painstaking search, Bhola Grandpa told them that he saw the pirates in his dream, and not in reality. All became disheartened and laughed a lot about Bhola Grandpa’s forgetfulness.
In the Sunderbans, one evening, Bhola Grandpa, while returning from the weekly market fell in front of a Royal Bengal tiger. Somehow he climbed up a banyan tree and saved himself for that time. But the tiger was keeping watch on him continually. As night fell, Bhola Grandpa fell asleep on the tree with the tiger. under it. In the morning, waking up, Bhola Grandpa came down from the tree and walked away. By that time he completely forgot the tiger’s presence under the tree. As the tiger was also sleeping, he was saved from the tiger’s clutches. When another man gave him the reminder about the tiger, he was about to be senseless in fear. Such kind of story of forgetfulness gives birth to a hilarious laughter.
Bhola Grandpa lived a long life. When he died at the age of ninety-five, his old wife wailed a lot and uttered time and again in her lamentation that her husband surely forgot to take breath and so he died.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Tick (√) the correct answer from the given alternatives:
1. In the bokal tree there lived
A. crows
B. monkeys
C. tigers
D. sparrows
2. On the way back from the festival, Bhola Grandpa tightly held on to the two fingers of his
A. son
B. cousin
C. grandson
D. nephew
3. A gang of pirates were burying a —
A. large box
B. small box
C. large bag
D. small bag
4. Bhola Grandpa was returning from the
A. yearly market
B. monthly market
D. daily market
D. weekly market
5. Bhola Grandpa died at the age of —
A. eighty-five
B. ninety-five
C. fifty-five
D. seventy-five
6. In the village Bhola Grandpa and his wife lived at the —
A. eastern part
B. northern part
C. western part
D. southern part
7. The storyteller was riding on —
A. a horse
B. a donkey
C. a motorcycle
D. a village chowkidar’s shoulders
8. The road was —
A. long
BB. foggy
C. short and foggy
D. long and foggy
9. All of a sudden Bhola Grandpa let out —
A. a cry
B. a healthy laugh
C. a loud wail
D. a shout
10. Bhola Grandpa was –
A. laughing
B. taunting
C. mourning
D. smiling
11. How many people accompanied Grandpa in his search?
A. one
B. two
C. three
D. four
12. The night referred to was—
A. dark
B. star-studded
C. moonlit
D. semi-dark
13. The narrator’s father and his friends looked for –
A. the sand dunes
B. hidden treasure
C. tiger
D. Bhola Grandpa
14. Ultimately, Bhola Grandpa admitted that the gang of pirates seen by him was actually —
A. a dream
B. an imagination
C. the reality
D. read in a novel
15. In earlier days people travelled in the Sundarbans after sundown–
A. alone
B. with weapons
C. in groups
D. none of these
16. The growl was of a —
A. lion
C. dog
C. fox
D. Royal Bengal Tiger
17. Finding the tiger too close to him, Bhola Grandpa—
A. ran in fear
B. sat down in frustration
C. climbed up a tree
D. became extremely nervous
18. With nightfall, the forest gradually became —
A. bright and vibrant
B. calm and quiet
C. dark and silent
D. cool and mysterious
19. Bhola Grandpa requested the first man on the mound for—
A. drinking water
B. food
C. shelter
D. weapon to kill the tiger
20. According to Bhola Grandpa’s wife the cause of his death was —
A. forgetting to take medicine
B. forgetting to take water
C. forgetting to take food
D. forgetting to breathe
Answer the following questions
1. When did Bhola Grandpa let out a loud wail?
Ans. When Bhola Grandpa lost his grandson, he let out a loud wail.
2. Where had the grandson found a cosy shelter?
Ans. The grandson found a cosy shelter under the belly of a cow.
3. What request did Bhola Grandpa make to the first man on the mound?
Ans. Bhola Grandpa made a request of giving him some drinking water.
4. How old was Bhola Grandpa’s wife when he died?
Ans. When Bhola Grandpa died, his wife was eighty years old.
5. Where did Bhola Grandpa live with his wife?
Ans. They lived at the western part of the narrator’s village.
6. What overshadowed Bhola Grandpa’s hut?
Ans. A large bokal tree overshadowed Bhola Grandpa’s hut.
7. When was the narrator with others returning from a festival ?
Ans. The narrator with others was returning on a moonlit night from a festival.
8. Who was with Bhola Grandpa in the festival?
Ans. Bhola Grandpa’s grandson and a few villagers were with him.
9. What happened to Bhola Grandpa when he was returning from a weekly market in the evening?
Ans. In the evening, Bhola Grandpa faced a Royal Bengal tiger.
10. Who buried the treasure in the sand dunes?
Ans. A gang of pirates buried the treasure in the sand dunes.
11. Who roamed freely in the jungles of the Sunderbans?
Ans. Royal Bengal tigers roamed freely in the jungles of the Sunderbans.
12. Hearing about the tiger from the man on the mound why did Bhola Grandpa almost lose his senses?
Ans. Bhola Grandpa almost lost his senses out of fear.
13. How was the bokal tree?
Ans. It was a large bokal tree which overshadowed Bhola Grandpa’s hut.
14. What did Bhola Grandpa do when he saw the tiger?
Ans. When Bhola Grandpa saw the tiger, he instantly climbed up a nearby banyan tree.
15. How long did the narrator’s father and others search for the hidden treasure?
Ans. They searched for the hidden treasure from afternoon to past midnight.
State True or False. Write T’ for True and ‘F’ for False
1. Bhola Grandpa lived alone.
Ans. F
2. Bhola Grandpa lived in a big palace.
Ans. F
3. There was a large margosa tree near Bhola Grandpa’s hut.
Ans. F
4. In the bokal tree there lived monkeys.
Ans. T
5. Bhola Grandpa and his wife disliked monkeys.
Ans. F
6. On a new moon night Bhola Grandpa was returning from the festival.
Ans. F
Complete the following sentences with information from the text:
1. The wail let out by Bhola Grandpa was ……………………
Ans. The wail let out by Bhola Grandpa was loud.
2. Bhola Grandpa’s grandson was found from ……………………
Ans. Bhola Grandpa’s grandson was found from a cosy shelter under a cow’s belly.
3. The story of the pirates was narrated by Bhola Grandpa with………………..
Ans. The story of the pirates was narrated by Bhola Grandpa with wild excitement.
4. The search for hidden treasure continued upto……………………….
Ans. The search for hidden treasure continued upto past midnight.
5. Bhola Grandpa was returning in the……………………………..
Ans. Bhola Grandpa was returning in the evening.
6. Bhola Grandpa instantly climbed up a nearby banyan tree when ……………………………..
Ans. Bhola Grandpa instantly climbed up a nearby banyan tree when he found a Royal Bengal Tiger very close to him.
7. At dawn the doves were…………………………
Ans. At dawn the doves were cooing. [ভোরবেলা ঘুঘুপাখিরা কূজন করছিল।]
8. Bhola Grandpa died at………………………………
Ans. Bhola Grandpa died at the age of ninety-five.
9. The name of the author is…………………………….
Ans. The name of the author is Manoj Das.
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