Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Sher Singh could feel immediately the heat of the boy’s body burning through the cotton
cloth.
He felt the weight too, and he wondered how he was going to manage.
‘He is too big for you’ said the mother. She spoke in the whisper of despair. ‘You will
never get there.’
Sher Singh said nothing.
He set off.
(i) Who was the ‘boy’? Why was Sher Singh sure that the little boy would die?
(ii) What did Sher Singh’s father do for a living? Mention any two acts of courage he had
performed that had earned him the title ‘Bahadur’.
(iii) How does his mother use her skill as a hill woman to prepare Sher Singh for his long and
dangerous journey?
(iv) Mention any three challenges that Sher Singh encountered on his way to the hospital.
(v) How does the doctor at the hospital address Sher Singh at the end of the story? Why do you think he refers to him in this way?
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(i)
- Kunwar, Sher Singh’s younger brother/Sher Singh Bahadur’s younger son
- When Sher Singh’s mother said the little boy had to be taken to the hospital he was convinced that he would die – the hospital was the last resort of the doomed/ Whoever went to the hospital never came back/ He could see death in his eyes
(ii) He grazed animals / and cultivated his bit of land/ He was a shikari/ Whenever there was an
expedition he was called.
Any two of the following:
- He had a scar down his skull and back and shoulders from rescuing a comrade from a tiger.
- He had a wound on his leg to mark the spot where he had cut and burned his flesh where a snake had bitten him.
- Two fingers missing, and face marked.
- Reputed to have walked 5 miles through the jungle with his puggree tied around his stomach to stop everything from falling out through the torn skin.
(iii) Sher Singh’s mother knew how to carry loads.
- How to sling a load from a band round the forehead and down the back so that the shoulders and the strong muscles of the neck could take heavy weights up and down hills.
- She used her saree / to make a sling for Sher Singh to carry Kunwar in.
(iv) Any three of the following:
- a cobra sunning itself – Sher Singh backed away and the snake slid away without harming him.
- Bear tracks – he was nervous and quickened his steps – managed to avoid an encounter with the bear.
- Herd of wild elephants – the tusker almost discovered the boys – Sher Singh stayed still and prayed fervently. The elephant trumpeted and hurried away.
- Tiger pug marks – indicating the presence of the predator in the vicinity.
- Crossed two icy cold rivers – the second in flood – tied his brother to himself with a grass rope he made and courageously entered the river – almost swept away by the floods.
(v)
- The doctor calls him Sher Singh Bahadur
- To acknowledge the boy’s courage and determination to bring his little brother to the hospital etc./will power/ bravery/ just 12 years old/ all alone/ never gave up/ sense of responsibility and duty.