Class-VIII L-Father's Help (by R.K. Narayan)

L- Father’s Help

by R.K. Narayan

Q V. Let’s write

(a)  Imagine that you are Swami.Write a diary entry relating your experience with Samuel in the school.

Ans.

Saturday                                                                 

6^th August  2016                                                                                       10:00 p.m.      

Dear Diary    

                                                            

Today was the most terrible day of my life. I didn’t want to go to school and made an excuse that I had a headache. My mother allowed me to stay back home but my father didn’t listen to me and was keen on sending me to school even I was late. I told him that my teacher Samuel punished the late comers badly and gave a false account of his violence in school. My father became excited and wrote a complaint letter against Samuel and told me to give it to the headmaster of the school. On my way to school, I was confused as what I told about Samuel was real and how much of it was imagined. I reached school with a heavy heart. I decided to give the letter to the headmaster in the afternoon so that Samuel might do something that would justify the letter. I entered his class and he was much more friendly than usual. I tried to make him angry and beat me badly. I was already late to the class and told him that I had not done my homework. I behaved strangely to provoke him to beat me and I was successful. Samuel caned me and called me an idiot. I was very happy as I was able to justify the content of the letter. As soon as the bell rang, I ran to the headmaster’s office but was sad to know that he had gone on an afternoon off and wouldn’t be in the school for a week. I was told by the peon to handover the letter to the assistant headmaster, Samuel. But I didn’t as the letter contained complaint against him only. I went back home. My father scolded me for not delivering the letter. He called me a liar and a coward. I have learnt a lesson that I will never tell a lie in my life.

Swami

(b)  Imagine that you are Samuel. Write a diary entry expressing your surprise at Swami’s strange behavior in the class and your feelings at caning him.

Ans.

Saturday                                                             

6^th August  2016                                                                                     10:00p.m.      

Dear Diary                                                                      

A fairly well behaved child- Swami behaved in a very unusual way in the class today. In the morning he came late saying that he had a headache. He hadn’t done his homework but I didn’t take much notice of it. However, in the last period he started misbehaving strangely. Inspite of my warning he spoke out of the turn and at the top of his voice disturbing everybody. Finally, I had to cane him as a punishment. I struck him several times. The boy stood there without showing any sign of fear. I am feeling very guilty at having beaten him, but I couldn’t help it. He provoked me again and again. I don’t know what has happened to him. I will talk to him tomorrow and hope he behaves normally.

Samuel

Poem-The Road Not Taken

Poem- The Road Not Taken

                                                            By-Robert Frost

Textual Questions:

Q7. On the basis of your understanding of the poem, answer the following questions by ticking the correct choice:

(a)  In the poem, a traveller comes to a fork in the road and needs to decide which way to go to continue his journey. Figuratively the choice of the road denotes ______________________.
(i) the tough choices people make the road of life
(ii) the time wasted on deciding what to do
(iii) life is like a forest
(iv) one must travel a lot to realize his dreams

Answer 

(i) the tough choices people make the road of life

(b) The poet writes, 'Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.' The word diverged means
_______________.
(i) appeared
(ii) curved
(iii) branched off
(iv) continued on

Answer 

(iii) branched off

(c) The tone of the speaker in the first stanza is that of ______________.
(i) excitement
(ii) anger
(iii) hesitation and thoughtfulness
(iv) sorrow

Answer 

(iii) hesitation and thoughtfulness

8. Answer the following questions briefly.

(i) Describe the two roads that the author comes across.

Answer 

The poet comes across two roads that lead into the yellow wood. Both the roads are equally attractive. The first one is the beaten path where the grass has been worn down by the passing of feet. Many people have walked on it. The second road is grassy and unspoiled, which shows that not many people have walked down that road.



(ii) Which road does the speaker choose?

Answer 

The speaker chooses the road which is less travelled by people. He feels that this road “wanted wear” that is, is not frequented. It is more grassy and has a better claim, hence  more challenging and adventurous.


(iii) Does the speaker seem happy about his decision?

Answer 
Yes, I think the speaker was happy with his decision. The sigh could be a happy sigh that he wanted to be different from the rest of the crowd. That is why, he chose the path which was less travelled by the people.

(iv) The poet says “I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference.” What is ‘the difference’ that the poet mentions?

Answer 
It refers to the difference that the decision has made to his present life.

When the poet came to the cross roads, he had a choice. He could take the road travelled by many or he could take the road less travelled. He decided to take the road less travelled knowing well that once the choice was made, it was permanent and there was no turning back. That 'choice' he had made, according to him, has changed his life. It may have brought him success, happiness and fulfillment. The choice that he made at that time affected his future. That choice made all the difference to his life.

9. Find the rhyme scheme of the poem.

Answer 

The rhyme scheme of poem is abaab.


Page No: 67

10. Fill in the blanks to complete the following paragraph that deals with the theme of the poem. Use the words given in the box below:

decision	sorry	foresee	choices
pleasant	direction	fork	trail
rewarding	chance	wonder	both

 
The poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is about the choices that one makes in life. It tells about a man who comes to a fork in the road he is travelling upon. He feels sorry that he cannot travel both paths as he must choose one. Frost uses this fork in the road to represent a point in the man’s life where he has to choose the direction he wishes to take in life. As he thinks about his decision he looks down one path as far as he can see trying to foresee what life will be like if he walks that path. He then gazes at the other trail and decides the outcome of going down that path would be just as pleasant. At this point he concludes that the trail that has been less travelled on would be more rewarding when he reaches the end of it. The man then decides that he will save the other path for another day, even though he knows that one path leads to another and that he won’t get a chance to go back. The man then says that he will be telling this story with a “sigh” someday in the future suggesting that he will wonder what life would have been like if he had chosen the more walked path even though the path he chose has made all the difference.