SEBA Class 9 English Supplementary Reader Chapter 1: The Lost Child--- Mulk Raj Anand All Questions & Answers
The Lost Child
Think about it
1. What are the things the child sees on his way to the fair ? Why does he lag behind ?
Ans: The child sees a myriad of colourful and amazing things on his way to the fair. He sees toys in the shops lining the way, a flowering mustard field that stretched for miles, groups of dragonflies with purple wings, and a number of teeming insects and worms along the footpath. He also had a shower of petals fall on him from a tree, heard the cooing of doves, and saw crowds of people converging to the fair.
The child lagged behind because he was fascinated by all the things that he saw and each time stopped to admire them, while his parents moved on.
2. In the fair he wants many things. What are they ? Why does he move on without waiting for an answer ?
Ans: The child is attracted by most of the colourful and amazing things on display at the fair. Just at the entrance is a sweetmeat shop and he wants to eat a burfi; he is the drawn by garlands of gulmohur displayed by a flower hawker; he then wants all the colourful balloons, and wants to listen to and see a snake charmer and hist snake. Finally he wants a ride on the roundabout.
The child moves on without waiting for an answer because he knows his parents would not accede to his requests.
3. When does he realise that he has lost his way ? How have his anxiety and insecurity been described ?
Ans: After suppressing all desires for things that the child sees at the fair he finally submits to a strong want to take a ride on the roundabout and announces this to his parents. His request is met with silence. So he turns around to look at his parents but cannot see them. He looks left, right and all around and is still met with no sight of them. It is then that he realises that they are not with him and he has lost his way.
When a person is seized with sudden fear and anxiety, his throat runs dry, his face is flushed and he trembles with insecurity. So also the little boy’s anxiety and insecurity is described by a wail rising from his dry throat; it is said that he moved with a jerk indicating that he had stood transfixed with utter fear on realising that he had lost his parents in the fair; his tears are described as being hot and fierce, and his face flushed and trembling. Seized with naked panic he is said to run one side, then the other, not knowing where and how to seek his parents. He wails out to them and in that short while his clothes become untidy and muddy, so unaware of himself is he in grief.
4. Why does the lost child lose interest in the things that he had wanted earlier ?
Ans: The lost child loses interest in the things he had wanted earlier because the grief and anxiety of being separated from his parents and the fear of losing them overwhelms him and overpowers his desire for those things. Scared and lost, finding his parents becomes his top priority and he forgets his desire to possess the pretty things that had fascinated him earlier.
5. What do you think happens in the end ? Does the child find his parents ?
Ans: I think the kind stranger helps reunite the child with his parents. Being a grownup he is more adept at handling the situation and in finding the child’s parents as compared to the scared small boy. Moreover, the parents too would be looking for the boy, and would spot him in the man’s arms.
Talk about it
How to ensure not to get lost.
Suggested reading
The Coolie by Mulk Raj Anand. “Kabuliwala’ by Rabindranath Tagore
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS
Answer the following questions :
1. “Look, child what is before you!”
(a) Who is the speake r?
Ans: The speaker of the above quoted sentence is the little boy’s mother.
(ii) What thing is the speaker referring to ?
Ans: The mother of the child is referring to a flowering mustard field, that seemed pale like melting gold as it stretched across miles and miles of even land.
(iii) What is she trying to distract the child from ?
Ans: The child had asked for a toy, which request his father had rebuked with a stern look. His mother’s heart had melted, and she tried to distract him away from the toy by showing him the mustard field.
2. Why did the child not stay and watch the snake charmer’s performance ?
Ans: The child did not stay and watch the snake charmer’s performance because his parents had forbidden him to hear such coarse music as played by the snake charmer.
3. How does the author describe the snake charmer’s charge ?
Ans: The author describes the snake charmer’s snake as lying coiled inside the basket with only its head raised in a graceful bend like the neck of a swan. The music seemed to steal into its invisible ears like the gentle rippling of an invisible waterfall.
4. How does the man try to console the lost child ? Does he succeed ?
Ans: The man tries to console the child by offering him the goodies on display at some of the shops in the fair. To begin with the man offers the child a ride on the roundabout; next he tries to get the child to watch the snake charmer and his snake. But the child would have none of it and continues wailing, so the man proceeds to offer the child a balloon but even that fails to console the child. Lastly the man tries to pacify the child by offering to buy him a garland to put around his neck.
No, the man does not succeed. The child ignores all the things offered to him and instead continues wailing for his parents.
5. “Come, child come,”
(i) Who says this ?
Ans: The child’s parents say the above quoted words.
(ii) To whom does the speaker address these words ? Why ?
Ans: The child’s parents address the above quoted line to him as he lingers behind them fascinated by all the amazing things. he spots along the way. The parents of the child fear he might be left behind as he pauses to observe every little thing on the road to the fair; so they ask him to hurry up and join them.
(iii) Give the antonym of ‘come’.
Ans: Go
6. The child was with his mother and father and all of them were headed to the
(i) fair held in the festival of spring.
(ii) fair held during winter.
(iii) the village shrine.
(iv) flowering mustard fields.
Ans: (i) fair held in the festival of spring
7. The child lost his way and got separated from his parents because
(i) he got distracted watching the sights and sounds of the fair.
(ii) he was watching the snake charmer’s performance.
(iii) he went to the shrine alone.
(iv) he was busy chasing dragonflies near the mustard field.
Ans: (i) he got distracted watching the sights and sounds of the fair.
8. What methods were employed by the people to get to the fair ?
Ans: The people employed a variety of ways to get to the fair. While some of them walked, others rode on horses. Some others sat and were carried in bamboo and bullock carts.
9. “I want that garland.”
(i) Who is the speaker ?
Ans: The speaker of the above quoted sentence is the little boy.
(ii) Who is the speaker talking to ?
Ans: The speaker is talking to his parents.
(iii) What response is he expecting ?
Ans: He expected his parents to move ahead without purchasing the garland for him. He knew they would not heed to his request to buy him the garland because they considered it to be cheap.
(iv) Where did the speaker see the garland ? What kind of a garland was it ?
Ans: The little boy saw the garland in the fair where a flower seller had put up his shop.It was a fragrant and colourful garland made of gulmohur.
10. “I want that burfi”
(i) The child wanted the burfi because.
(a) it was his favourite sweet.
(b) he had come to the fair to buy sweets.
(c) it smelled appealing.
(d) he was greedy.
Ans: (a) it was his favourite sweet
(ii) The child knew his plea would not be heeded because
(a) he had lost his way and could not find his parents.
(b) the stranger would not spend money on him.
(c) his parents would say he was greedy.
(d) his parents thought eating sweets was not a good idea.
Ans: (c) his parents would say he was greedy.
