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I GET a cheap room in the centre of town and sleep for hours. The next morning, with Mr Shah’s son and nephew, I visit the two temples in Kathmandu that are most sacred to Hindus and Buddhists.

At Pashupatinath (outside which a sign proclaims ‘Entrance for the Hindus only’) there is an atmosphere of ‘febrile confusion’. Priests, hawkers, devotees, tourists, cows, monkeys, pigeons and dogs roam through the grounds. We offer a few flowers. There are so many worshippers that some people trying to get the priest’s attention are elbowed aside by others pushing their way to the front. A princess of the Nepalese royal house appears; everyone bows and makes way. By the main gate, a party of saffron-clad Westerners struggle for permission to enter. The policeman is not convinced that they are ‘the Hindus’ (only Hindus are allowed to enter the temple). A fight breaks out between two monkeys. One chases the other, who jumps onto a shivalinga, then runs screaming around the temples and down to the river, the holy Bagmati, that flows below. A corpse is being cremated on its banks; washerwomen are at their work and children bathe. From a balcony a basket of flowers and leaves, old offerings now wilted, is dropped into the river. A small shrine half protrudes from the stone platform on the river bank. When it emerges fully, the goddess inside will escape, and the evil period of the Kaliyuga will end on earth.

Proclaims: make known publicly or officially

Febrile confusion: hurried activity; complete chaos

Saffron - clad westerners: foreigners dressed as sadhus

Corpse: dead body

Wilted: dry and withered

Shrine: a place of worship

Protrudes: comes out

Kalyug: it is the fourth and last stages or time period of a Mahayuga. It started with the end of Mahabharata when Lord Krishna left the Earth.

At the Boudhnath stupa, the Buddhist shrine of Kathmandu, there is, in contrast, a sense of stillness. Its immense white dome is ringed by a road. Small shops stand on its outer edge: many of these are owned by Tibetan immigrants; felt bags, Tibetan prints and silver jewellery can be bought here. There are no crowds: this is a haven of quietness in the busy streets around.

Immigrants: a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.

Haven: a safe place

Kathmandu is vivid, mercenary, religious, with small shrines to flower-adorned deities along the narrowest and busiest streets; with fruit sellers, flute sellers, hawkers of postcards; shops selling Western cosmetics, film rolls and chocolate; or copper utensils and Nepalese antiques. Film songs blare out from the radios, car horns sound, bicycle bells ring, stray cows low questioningly at motorcycles, vendors shout out their wares. I indulge myself mindlessly: buy a bar of marzipan, a corn on- the-cob roasted in a charcoal brazier on the pavement (rubbed with salt, chilli powder and lemon); a couple of love story comics, and even a Reader’s Digest. All this I wash down with Coca Cola and a nauseating orange drink, and feel much the better for it.

Deities: gods and goddesses

Cows low: the ‘moo’ sound made by cows

Marzipan: a sweet made with grated almonds

Brazier: open stove

Wash down: to drink something after a meal to digest it

Nauseating: sickening

I consider what route I should take back home. If I were propelled by enthusiasm for travel per se, I would go by bus and train to Patna, then sail up the Ganges past Benaras to Allahabad, then up the Yamuna, past Agra to Delhi. But I am too exhausted and homesick; today is the last day of August. Go home, I tell myself: move directly towards home. I enter a Nepal Airlines office and buy a ticket for tomorrow’s flight.

Propelled: drive or push something forward

Per se: by itself

I look at the flute seller standing in a corner of the square near the hotel. In his hand is a pole with an attachment at the top from which fifty or sixty bansuris protrude in all directions, like the quills of a porcupine. They are of bamboo: there are cross-flutes and recorders. From time to time he stands the pole on the ground, selects a flute and plays for a few minutes. The sound rises clearly above the noise of the traffic and the hawkers’ cries. He plays slowly, meditatively, without excessive display. He does not shout out his wares. Occasionally he makes a sale, but in a curiously offhanded way as if this were incidental to his enterprise. Sometimes he breaks off playing to talk to the fruit seller. I imagine that this has been the pattern of his life for years.

Meditatively: thoughtfully

Offhanded: casual; not showing much interest in something

I find it difficult to tear myself away from the square. Flute music always does this to me: it is at once the most universal and most particular of sounds. There is no culture that does not have its flute — the reed neh, the recorder, the Japanese

shakuhachi, the deep bansuri of Hindustani classical music, the clear or breathy flutes of South America, the high-pitched Chinese flutes. Each has its specific fingering and compass. It weaves its own associations. Yet to hear any flute is, it seems to me, to be drawn into the commonality of all mankind, to be moved by music closest in its phrases and sentences to the human voice. Its motive force too is living breath: it too needs to pause and breathe before it can go on.

Fingering: way of placing the fingers to play different notes 

Compass: here, range

That I can be so affected by a few familiar phrases on the bansuri, surprises me at first, for on the previous occasions that I have returned home after a long absence abroad, I have hardly noticed such details, and certainly have not invested them with the significance I now do.

In this chapter, the writer Vikram Seth describes his visit to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. He visited two temples there - one was the Pashupatinath temple which is a pilgrimage for the Hindus and the other was the Baudhnath temple which is a holy place for the Buddhists. 

Answer the following questions.

Q1. “I got him for her by accident.” 

(i) Who says this? 

(ii) Who do ‘him’ and ‘her’ refer to? 

(iii) What is the incident referred to here?

A. 

(i) The narrator says this. 

(ii) ‘him’ refers to the bear and ‘her’ refers to the narrator’s wife. 

(iii) The incident referred to here is when the narrator’s companion shot a bear dead and they found that the baby bear was alive. They caught the baby bear and took it along with them.

Q2. “He stood on his head in delight.” 

(i) Who does ‘he’ refer to? 

(ii) Why was he delighted?

A. 

(i) ‘he’ refers to Baba. 

(ii) Baba was delighted to see the narrator’s wife.

Q3. “We all missed him greatly: but in a sense we were relieved.” 

(i) Who does ‘we all’ stand for? 

(ii) Who did they miss? 

(iii) Why did they nevertheless feel relieved?

A. 

(i) ‘we all’ stands for the narrator, his wife, his son, the alsatian dogs and the tenant’s children. 

(ii) They missed Baba. 

(iii) They nevertheless felt relieved because Baba was a big bear now and keeping him at home was inconvenient for them.

                     Answer the following questions in 30 to 40 words each.

Q 1. On two occasions Bruno ate/drank something that should not be eaten/ drunk. What happened to him on these occasions?

A. In the first incident, Bruno ate the poison Barium carbonate which had been kept to kill rats. He was struck by an attack of paralysis. The narrator took him to a veterinary doctor who injected medicines twice to revive Bruno. 

In the second incident, Bruno drank the old engine oil which the narrator had drained out of the sump of his old car in order to fight a termite attack. This did not have any adverse effect on Bruno.

Q 2. Was Bruno a loving and playful pet? Why, then, did he have to be sent away?

Q 3. How was the problem of what to do with Bruno finally solved? 

A. The problem of what to do with Bruno was finally solved by sending him off to the zoo at Mysore. They wrote a letter to the zoo in-charge at the zoo at Mysore. Upon his consent, Baba was packed in a cage and was sent away.

I WILL begin with Bruno, my wife’s pet sloth bear. I got him for her by accident. Two years ago we were passing through the sugarcane fields near Mysore. People were driving away the wild pigs from the fields by shooting at them. Some were shot and some escaped. We thought that everything was over when suddenly a black sloth bear came out panting in the hot sun.

Now I will not shoot a sloth bear wantonly but, unfortunately for the poor beast, one of my companions did not feel that way about it, and promptly shot the bear on the spot.

As we watched the fallen animal we were surprised to see that the black fur on its back moved and left the prostrate body. Then we saw it was a baby bear that had been riding on its mother’s back when the sudden shot had killed her. The little creature ran around its prostrate parent making a pitiful noise.

I ran up to it to attempt a capture. It scooted into the sugarcane field. Following it with my companions, I was at last able to grab it by the scruff of its neck while it snapped and tried to 

scratch me with its long, hooked claws.

scooted: ran away 

scruff of the neck: take hold of the back of the neck or collar suddenly and roughly

We put it in one of the gunny-bags we had brought and when I got back to Bangalore I duly presented it to my wife. She was delighted! She at once put a coloured ribbon around its neck, and after discovering the cub was a ‘boy’ she christened it Bruno.

Bruno soon took to drinking milk from a bottle. It was but a step further and within a very few 

days he started eating and drinking everything else. And everything is the right word, for he ate porridge made from any ingredients, vegetables, fruit, nuts, meat (especially pork), curry and rice regardless of condiments and chillies, bread, eggs, chocolates, sweets, pudding, ice-cream, etc., etc., etc. As for drink: milk, tea, coffee, lime-juice, aerated water, buttermilk, beer, alcoholic liquor and, in fact, anything liquid. It all went down with relish.

condiments: spices 

Relish: great enjoyment

The bear became very attached to our two Alsatian dogs and to all the children of the tenants living in our bungalow. He was left quite free in his younger days and spent his time in playing, running into the kitchen and going to sleep in our beds.

One day an accident befell him. I put down poison (barium carbonate) to kill the rats and mice that had got into my library. Bruno entered the library as he often did, and he ate some of the poison. Paralysis set in to the extent that he could not stand on his feet. But he dragged himself on his stumps to my wife, who called me. I guessed what had happened. Off I rushed in the car to the vet’s residence. A case of poisoning! Tame Bear—barium carbonate—what to do?

Out came his medical books, and a feverish reference to index began: “What poison did you say, sir?” “Barium carbonate”. “Ah yes—B—Ba—Barium Salts—Ah! Barium carbonate! Symptoms— paralysis—treatment—injections of . .. Just a minute, sir. I’ll bring my syringe and the medicine.” A dash back to the car. Bruno still floundering about on his stumps, but clearly weakening rapidly; some vomiting, heavy breathing, with heaving flanks and gaping mouth.

Floundering: struggling to move 

Heaving: taking deep breaths 

Flanks: the side of the body between the ribs and hips 

Gaping: wide open

Hold him, everybody! In goes the hypodermic— Bruno squeals — 10 c.c. of the antidote enters his system without a drop being wasted. Ten minutes later: condition unchanged! Another 10 c.c. injected! Ten minutes later: breathing less stertorous— Bruno can move his arms and legs a little although he cannot stand yet. Thirty minutes later: Bruno gets up and has a great feed! He looks at us disdainfully, as much as to say, ‘What’s barium carbonate to a big black bear like me?’ Bruno is still eating.

Hypodermic: a long needle used to give an injection under the skin 

Squeals: screams 

Antidote: a medicine taken or given to counteract a particular poison 

Stertorous: noisy 

Disdainfully: disapprovingly

Another time he found nearly one gallon of old engine oil which I had drained from the sump of the Studebaker and was keeping as a weapon against the inroads of termites. He promptly drank the lot. But it had no ill effects whatever.

the sump: the base of an internal combustion engine, which serves as a reservoir of oil for the lubrication system

Studebaker: an old American car

The months rolled on and Bruno had grown many times the size he was when he came. He had equalled the Alsatians in height and had even outgrown them. But was just as sweet, just as mischievous, just as playful. And he was very fond of us all. Above all, he loved my wife, and she loved him too! She had changed his name from Bruno, to Baba, a Hindustani word signifying ‘small boy’. And he could do a few tricks, too. At the command, ‘Baba, wrestle’, or ‘Baba, box,’ he vigorously tackled anyone who came forward for a rough and tumble. Give him a stick and say ‘Baba, hold gun’, and he pointed the stick at you. Ask him, ‘Baba, where’s baby?’ and he immediately produced and cradled affectionately a stump of wood which he had carefully concealed in his straw bed. But because of the tenants’ children, poor Bruno, or Baba, had to be kept chained most of the time.

Then my son and I advised my wife, and friends advised her too, to give Baba to the zoo at Mysore. He was getting too big to keep at home. After some weeks of such advice she at last consented. Hastily, and before she could change her mind, a letter was written to the curator of the zoo. Did he want a tame bear for his collection? He replied, “Yes”. The zoo sent a cage from Mysore in a lorry, a distance of eighty-seven miles, and Baba was packed off.

curator: here, a person in charge of the zoo 

fretting: worried; unhappy; not relaxed

We all missed him greatly; but in a sense we were relieved. My wife was inconsolable. She wept and fretted. For the first few days she would not eat anything. Then she wrote a number of letters to the curator. How was Baba? Back came the replies, “Well, but fretting; he refuses food too.”

After that, friends visiting Mysore were begged to make a point of going to the zoo and seeing how Baba was getting along. They reported that he was well but looked very thin and sad. All the keepers at the zoo said he was fretting. For three months I managed to restrain my wife from visiting Mysore. Then she said one day, “I must see Baba. Either you take me by car; or I will go myself by bus or train.” So I took her by car.

Friends had conjectured that the bear would not recognise her. I had thought so too. But while she was yet some yards from his cage Baba saw her and recognised her. He howled with happiness. She ran up to him, petted him through the bars, and he stood on his head in delight.

For the next three hours she would not leave that cage. She gave him tea, lemonade, cakes, ice cream and what not. Then ‘closing time’ came and we had to leave. My wife cried bitterly; Baba cried bitterly; even the hardened curator and the keepers felt depressed. As for me, I had reconciled myself to what I knew was going to happen next.

“Oh please, sir,” she asked the curator, “may I have my Baba back”? Hesitantly, he answered, “Madam, he belongs to the zoo and is Government property now. I cannot give away Government property. But if my boss, the superintendent at Bangalore agrees, certainly you may have him back.”

There followed the return journey to Bangalore and a visit to the superintendent’s bungalow. A tearful pleading: “Baba and I are both fretting for each other. Will you please give him back to me?” He was a kind-hearted man and consented. Not only that, but he wrote to the curator telling him to lend us a cage for transporting the bear to Bangalore.

Back we went to Mysore again, armed with the superintendent’s letter. Baba was driven into a small cage and hoisted on top of the car; the cage was tied securely, and a slow and careful return journey to Bangalore was accomplished.

Hoisted: raised by means of ropes or pulleys 

Accomplished: completed

Once home, a squad of coolies were engaged for special work in our compound. An island was made for Baba. It was twenty feet long and fifteen feet wide, and was surrounded by a dry pit, or moat, six feet wide and seven feet deep. A wooden box that once housed fowls was brought and put on the island for Baba to sleep in at night. Straw was placed inside to keep him warm, and his ‘baby’, the gnarled stump, along with his ‘gun’, the piece of bamboo, 

both of which had been sentimentally preserved since he had been sent away to the zoo, were put back for him to play with.

Squad: team 

Gnarled: rugged, twisted

In a few days the coolies hoisted the cage on to the island and Baba was released. He was delighted; standing on his hind legs, he pointed his ‘gun’ and cradled his ‘baby’. My wife spent hours sitting on a chair there while he sat on her lap. He was fifteen months old and pretty heavy too!

The way my wife reaches the island and leaves it is interesting. I have tied a rope to the overhanging branch of a mango tree with a loop at its end. Putting one foot in the loop, she kicks off with the other, to bridge the six-foot gap that constitutes the width of the surrounding pit. The return journey is made the same way. But who can say now that a sloth bear has no sense of affection, no memory and no individual characteristics?

In the story, the narrator highlights the emotional bond shared by his wife and their pet bear Bruno. He got the baby bear in an accident and presented it to his wife. She named the bear ‘Bruno’ and treated it like a baby. The bear was fed milk with a bottle and later it started eating different food items. He enjoyed eating and drinking everything and anything. Bruno was attached to everyone including their tenant’s children and their pet Alsatian dogs. It would play, run around the house and even sleep in their bed. 

Page No: 102
Thinking about the Text
I. Answer these questions in one or two sentences each. (The paragraph numbers within brackets provide clues to the answers.)
1. Why was the ‘holy man’ who gave Santosh’s mother his blessings surprised? 

(1) 2. Give an example to show that even as a young girl Santosh was not ready to accept anything unreasonable. (2) 

3. Why was Santosh sent to the local school? (3)

 4. When did she leave home for Delhi, and why? (4)

 5. Why did Santosh’s parents agree to pay for her schooling in Delhi? What mental qualities of Santosh are brought into light by this incident? (4) 
Answer  
1. The ‘holy man’ was surprised because he had assumed that Santosh’s mother wanted a  son. But grandmother told him that they did not want a son.  
2. Santosh, from the very beginning, lived life on her own terms. She was not content with the traditional way of life and was not ready to accept anything unreasonable. Where other girls wore traditional Indian  dresses, Santosh preferred shorts. 
3. Even though Santosh’s parents could afford to send their children to the best schools, she was sent to the local village school due to the prevailing custom in the family.  
4. When she turned sixteen and was under pressure to get married, Santosh threatened her parents that she would never marry if she did not get a proper education. Therefore, she left home and got herself enrolled in a school in Delhi.  
5. When Santosh's parents refused to pay for her education, she politely informed them of her plans to earn money by working part time to pay her school fees. Then, her parents agreed to pay for her schooling in Delhi. This shows that Santosh was a mentally-strong girl and was determined to work very hard to get herself properly educated. 

Page No: 103  
II. Answer each of these questions in a short paragraph (about 30 words).  

1. How did Santosh begin to climb mountains?

 2. What incidents during the Everest expedition show Santosh’s concern for her team-mates?

 3. What shows her concern for the environment? 

4. How does she describe her feelings at the summit of the Everest? 

5. Santosh Yadav got into the record books both times she scaled Mt Everest. What were the reasons for this?   

Answer   

1. From her room in Kasturba Hostel, she watched people going up the Aravalli Hills and vanishing after a while. On investigating, she found nobody except a few mountaineers, and she asked if she could join them. They agreed and even motivated her to take to climbing and so she later accompanied them on their climbing expedition. This was how she began climbing mountains.  

2. During the Everest mission, Santosh showed immense concern for her fellow climbers. Though she was unsuccessful in saving the life of one of them, she did manage to save another climber through artificial respiration. 

3. Santosh was a fervent environmentalist. Her concern for the environment is evident from the fact that she collected and brought down 500 kilograms of garbage from the Himalayas.   

4. Santosh asserted that her feeling at the summit of the Everest was “indescribable”. Unfurling the Indian flag on the top of the world was a spiritual moment for her and she felt proud as an Indian.

  
5. When Santosh Yadav first scaled Mt Everest, she became the youngest woman in the world to achieve the feat. When she scaled the Everest the second time, she became the only woman to have scaled it twice. 

Page No: 89 

Thinking about the Text 

I. Discuss in pairs and answer each question below in a short paragraph (30 − 40 words).
1. How many characters are there in the narrative? Name them. (Don’t forget the dog!). 
2. Why did the narrator (Jerome) volunteer to do the packing? 
3. How did George and Harris react to this? Did Jerome like their reaction? 
4. What was Jerome’s real intention when he offered to pack? 
5. What did Harris say after the bag was shut and strapped? Why do you think he waited till then to ask? 
6. What “horrible idea” occurred to Jerome a little later? 
7. Where did Jerome finally find the toothbrush? 
8. Why did Jerome have to reopen the packed bag? 
9. What did George and Harris offer to pack and why? 
10. While packing the hamper, George and Harris do a number of foolish and funny things. Tick the statements that are true. 

i) They started with breaking a cup

 (ii) They also broke a plate. 

(iii) They squashed a tomato. 

(iv) They trod on the butter.

 (v) They stepped on a banana. 

(vi) They put things behind them, and couldn’t find them. 

(vii) They stepped on things. 

(viii) They packed the pictures at the bottom and put heavy things on top. 

(ix) They upset almost everything. 

(x) They were very good at packing. 

Answer  
1. There are four characters in the narrative. They are Jerome (the narrator), George, Harris and Montmorency (the dog). 

2.  The narrator volunteered to do packing because he thought he was the best packer. He felt proud of his packing and wanted to show it. 

3. George and Harris readily accepted Jerome’s suggestion. George smoked a pipe and “spread himself over the easychair”, while Harris put his legs on the table and lit a cigar. No, Jerome irritated by their reaction.  

4. When Jerome offered to pack, his real intention was to supervise the work. He wanted to show his ability through the supervision.  

5. After the bag was shut and strapped, Harris mentioned that Jerome had not packed the boots. He had waited till then to ask because he wanted to make Jerome realise his mistake and ridicule his packing skills.  

6. The "horrible idea" that occurred to Jerome a little later was wether he had packed his toothbrush or not. Whenever he travelled he could never remember if he had packed his toothbrush or not. This thought haunted him and made his life a misery.  

7. Jerome finally found the tooth brush inside a boot when he was putting the things back one by one after turning them out of the bag.  

8. Jerome had to reopen the packed bag twice owing to his forgetfulness. Once he had to reopen the bag as he had forgotten to pack the boots. The next time, he unpacked when he realised he had packed his tobacco-pouch in.  

9. George and Harris offered to pack the hampers because It was getting late and they thought that Jerome had taken too much of time. They also wanted to show their skill to Jerome.  

10. Statements (i), (iii), (iv), (vi) and (vii) are true.   

II. What does Jerome say was Montmorency’s ambition in life? What do you think of Montmorency and why? 
Answer  
Jerome says Montmorency’s ambition in life was to get in the way and he sworn at. Montmorency was a mischievous little dog who loved creating troubles for others. I think that Montmorency was a perfect nuisance because whenever he found people busy with their work, he might feel bored and wanted to get involved. He meant no trouble intentionally. But when people shouted at him or threw things at his head, he got discouraged and then went away to sit silently, which the narrator calls as the fulfillment of his conceit. 

DO NOT WRITE DOWN THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS. THESE ARE FOR YOUR READING ONLY. 

Discuss the following questions.

1. Of the three, Jerome, George and Harris, who do you think is the best or worst packer? Support your answer with details from the text.  

2. How did Montmorency ‘contribute’ to the packing?  

3. Do you find this story funny? What are the humorous elements in it? (Pick out at least three, think about what happens, as well as how it is described.)  

Answer  
1. Of the three, Jerome is the best packer He knew how to arrange things in order. Both Harris and George messed everything. Harris packed the strawberry jam on top of a tomato and squashed it. George stepped on the butter. They were getting constantly irritated by Montmorency. Till the time Jerome packed, although he took his time, the job. They even kept things behind them and then kept searching for it. They made everything such a mess.  

2. The packing escapade was already a messy job and Montmorency's contribution made it even more tiresome. He did his level best to be a “perfect nuisance”. He came and sat down on things, just when they were wanted to be packed. He put his leg into the jam and worried the teaspoons. He also pretended that the lemons were rats. So he got into the hamper and killed three of them before Harris could land him with the frying-pan.  

3. Yes, this story is definitely funny. Not only is the way in which the three friends pack for their trip quite mirthful, but the way the author narrates all the incidents is also entertaining. The first humorous element is that he offered to pack, George and Harris leaves the whole matter to him. Consequently, he has to do packing though his real intention was to boss the job. The second humorous element is that George placed the butter on the chair and Harris sat on it and it stuck at his back. When they searched it for packing it was missing. They walk and walk round the room. At last, George saw it at Harris’s back. The third humorous element is that Montmorency squirms in where he is not wanted. He wants somebody stumble over him and curse him steadily for an hour. He pretends that lemons were rats.

 NCERT SOLUTION

 

Page No: 81 

Thinking about the Poem  

1. (i) “Beneath all uniforms…” What uniforms do you think the poet is speaking about? 

(ii) How does the poet suggest that all people on earth are the same? 
 

Answer  
(i) The poet is probably speaking about the uniforms that the soldiers wear at the time of war. The word “uniform” here could also mean the traditional dresses of a country. 
(ii) The poet suggests that all people on earth are the same as they breathe, buried, wake, sleep, hate, love and labour. The importance of the sun and air and water is equal for everyone. Everyone needs peace and suffers from starvation during wars.  
 

2. In stanza 1, find five ways in which we all are alike. Pick out the words. 
 

Answer  
Words which suggest the five ways in which we all are like are: 

 Each of us has a similar body 

All of us breathe

All of us walk

We live and die on the same earth   

3. How many common features can you find in stanza 2? Pick out the words. 
 

Answer  
There are five common features in stanza 2. These features are the sun, the air, the water, peaceful harvest, hands and the labour.  

4. “…whenever we are told to hate our brothers…” When do you think this happens? Why? Who ‘tells’ us? Should we do as we are told at such times? What does the poet say?  

Answer   

Whenever there is war, leaders tell people to hate the other country. They tell us to do so because of their personal gains. But we should not act as a puppet in their hands and do as they say. We should understand that war is futile and analyses the situation before jumping to conclusions.. The poet says that if we fight against them, we kill and condemn ourselves.