Madam Rides the Bus
Oral
Comprehension check
Q.
What was Valli’s favourite pastime? [HSLC 16]
Valli’s
favourite pass time was standing in the front of the doorway of her house and
watching what was happening in the street outside.
Q. What was the source of unending joy for Valli? [HSLC 18]
The bus that traveled between her village and the nearest town always fascinated Valli. The site of the bus filled each time with
a new set of passengers was a source of unending joy for Valli.
Q. What did Valli find out about the bus journey? How did she find
out these details?
The details that she gathered was that the town was six miles from her village, the fare was thirty paise, the trip to the town took forty-five minutes and she also discovered that on reaching the town if stayed in her seat and paid another thirty paise, she could return home on the same bus.
Over many days and months, Valli listened
carefully to conversations between her neighbors and people who regularly used
the bus, and she also asked people about the journey. This is how she found
these details.
Q. What do you think Valli was planning to do?
I think she was planning a trip to the town by
bus and came back to her home on the same bus.
Q. Why does the conductor call Valli ‘madam’?
Valli
insisted that she was as grown-up as any other passengers on the bus and tried
to behave like one. Thus, to humor her the conductor called her as ‘madam’
Q. Why does Valli stand up on the seat? What does she see now?
Vallis’s
view is obstructed by a canvas blind that covers the lower portion of the bus’s
window, so in order to get a better-unobstructed view of the world outside,
Valli stands upon the bus’s seat.
Valli
sees that the bus is going through a narrow road, on one side of which lay the
canal. Beyond the canal, she sees palm trees, grasslands, mountains in the
distance, and the blue sky. On the other side of the road is a deep ditch and
then acres of green fields as far as she can see.
Q. What does Valli tell the elderly man when he calls her a child?
Valli
was angry being referred to as a child and replied that there is no one on the bus
who are a child and she also pointed out that she had paid thirty paise as any
one else in the bus, indirectly she was claiming to be treated as an adult.
Q. Why didn’t Valli want to make friends with the elderly women?
Vallai
found the elderly woman to be very repulsive because she had such big holes in
her ear lobes and she was wearing ugly earrings in them, moreover Valli could
smell the betel nut she was chewing and see the betel juice that was threatening
to spill over the lips at any time. That is why Valli didn’t want to make
friends with the elderly woman.
Q. How did Valli save up money for her first journey? Was it easy
for her?
Valli
saved all the stray coins that came in her way, she had to control the temptation to buy peppermints, toys and balloons, and the like, and finally she
had saved a total of sixty paise.
No,
it was not easy for her as she was only a child.
Q. What did Valli see on her way that made her laugh? [ HSLC ’15, 17, 20,]
A young cow was running in the middle of the road with his tail high. The bus
driver slowed down and blew the horn to get the cow off the road, but this only
served to scare the cow. The more the driver honked, the more scared the cow
become, and faster it ran, but always in the way of the bus. Valli found the
entire situation very funny and she began laughing uncontrollably.
Q. Why didn’t she (Valli) get off the bus at the bus station.
As
she just wanted to experience the bus journey and also, she had to come back
home so she didn’t get off the bus.
Q. Why didn’t Valli want to go to the stall and drink? What does
this tell you about her?
Valli
didn’t want to go to the stall and have a drink because of two reasons, first was
that she didn’t want to get off the bus as she; and secondly, she didn’t have
the money to buy the drink. Moreover, when the conductor offered her the drink
she refused out of her self-respect.
From
this we can assume that she is very responsible and knows her limits. She also
has an ample amount of self-respect.
Thinking about the text
Q. What was Valli’s deepest desire? Find the words and phrases in
the story that tells you this.
The deepest desire of Valli was to ride on the bus that ran between her village and
town.
Words
and phrases from the story that tell us this are-
1. This wish
becomes stronger and stronger.
2. Until it
was an overwhelming desire.
3. Valli would
stare wistfully at the people who got on or off the bus.
4. Their faces
would kindle in her longings, dreams and hopes.
5. If one of
her friends happened to ride the bus and tried to describe the sight of the
town, Valli would be too jealous to listen.
Q. How did Valli plan her bus ride? What did she find out about the
bus, and how did she save up the fare?
Valli
had been planning for this for some months, for this, she picked up knowledge
from the conversation of her neighbors and she also asked a few questions here
and there. She gathered some information like the distance of the town from the village, duration of the journey, etc.
She
saved sixty paise for tow way journey by saving every penny, and controlling
all the temptations of toys and peppermints.
Q. Find the lines in the text which tell you that Valli was enjoying
her ride on the bus?
Lines
in the text which tells us that Valli was enjoying her ride on the bus are
·
Valli devoured everything with her eyes.
·
Oh, it was all so wonderful.
·
She laughed and laughed until there were tears in her
ways.
·
Struck dumb with wonder, Valli gaped at everything.
Q. Why does Valli refuse
to look out of the window on her way back?
On her way back Valli was enjoying the
sights outside, but suddenly she saw a young cow lying dead by the roadside
just where it had been struck by some fast-moving vehicle and she also
recognized it as the same young cow that she saw on her way to the trip of the
town. The sight of the cow what had been a beautiful creature lying
lifeless with a fixed stare haunted her, damping her enthusiasm, so she no
longer wanted to look out the window.
Q. What was Valli mean
when she says, “I was just agreeing with what you said about things happening
about your knowledge”
When Valli come back home after her
trip from the town, she found her mother and her aunt talking. She expressed
her agreement with her mother’s statement that many things are happening without
her knowledge, referring to her mother not knowing about her journey to town by
bus.
Q. The author describes
the things that Valli sees from the eight years old’s point of view. Can you
find the evidence from the text for this statement?
Valli’s point of view as described
by the author can be found in the following expressions-
·
The most fascinating thing of all was the bus.
·
It was a new bus, its out-side printed a gleaming
white with some green strips along the sides.
·
The seats were soft and luxurious.
·
Oh, it was all so wonderful!
·
Palm trees, grasslands, distant mountains, and blue,
blue sky.
QUESTIONS
ASKED IN THE HSLC EXAMINATION
Q. What was the distance from the
Valli’s village to the nearest town? What was the bus fare for a trip from
Valli’s village to the town? [HSLC 19]
The distance between Valli’s house
and the town was six miles and the bus fare from Valli’s village to town was
thirty paise.
Q. Give a description of
the bus on which Valli traveled. [HSLC 19]
The bus in which Valli traveled
was a new bus, it's outside printed a gleaming white with some green strips
along the sides. Inside, the overhead bars shone like silver. There was a
beautiful clock above the windshield. The seats were soft and luxurious.
Q. Why did Valli find the
old women who sat beside her in the bus “absolutely repulsive” [HSLC 20]
The woman who sat beside Valli had
very big holes in her ear lobes in which she was wearing some ugly earrings and
she could smell the betel nut the woman was chewing and saw the betel juice
that was threatening to spill over her lips at any point of time. These are the
reasons Valli found the elderly lady to be absolutely repulsive.
These are some very important questions from ' MADAM RIDES THE BUS.' of NCERT class 10. I hope it had helped you in your exam preparation.
Some more important topics for you
2. Most repeated phrases and group verbs.
3. Most common determiners for board exam
