Chapter 9 -important points -observations -questions

Important points• The work was not easy for the boys at the

eating house.

• Hari is paid one rupee a day.

• He doesn’t fancy being confined in the sweltering kitchen day and night.

• The streets of Bombay are crowded, busy and noisy at all hours.

• The lights were never put out in Bombay so that Hari longed for the deep darkness and quiet nights of his seaside village.

• He had been away from Thul for one season.

• Hari went to sit on the pavement as it was cooler than the eating house.

• Mr Panwallah advises Hari to sleep in the city park since it is cooler.

• Hari went there and found it much more bearable than the restaurant.

• The park was watched over by a young police man.

• On Hari’s first night in the park, he scolded him for sleeping there and threatened to take him to the police station.

• An old gentleman asked the police man to go after the dangerous men of the city rather than bullying a poor harmless boy and he was insulted.

• The police man greeted him every night he came to the park and gaurded him as well.

•Bombay people care for animals. There was a man scattering handfuls of grain

to feed the pigeons. There was an old woman painstakingly

sprinkling a pinch of flour on every ant hill.

• Hari would never spend his money on feeding birds and ants. He saved every rupee for his family.

• He is reminded with Bela and Kamal by the schoolchildren running across the park to the school building.

• The two boys at the kitchen looked at Hari with less hostility when they came to know that he was only there to help and not to take their work or food.

• Jagu spent his spare moments drumming and singing.

• Hari realized that Jagu too has a village somewhere that he calls home.

• Mr Panwallah was a true benefactor.

• He taught Hari watch mending and asked him if he could be an apprentice in his shop.

• He said that he would pay him money if he helped him for two hours in the afternoon.

• Hari could not believe that Mr. Panwallah is willing to share his secrets with a village boy who works as a cook’s help in a beggars’ kitchen.

• Hari was delighted to find that there is a possibility that Mr. Panwallah would make something of his life and that he would learn to put his hands to good use, handle delicate tools and work upon intricate machinery.

• Hari became an apprentice watch mender , he saw that it was possible to have a bright future.

• After getting permission from Jagu to spend the afternoon hours at the watch mender’s shop ,he began to brighten up and look happy and alive .

• The watch mender informed hari that the first lessons will be finished as the monsoon arrives and by the end of it he would be able to mend watches on his own .

In thu

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• Mr. Sayyid Ali ,who was going to stay at Mon Repos through the monsoon, arrived in thul the day before the De Silvas left .

• Lila and her sisters were not aware of his presence immediately because:

He arrived in a bus from Bombay and walked down the path with his bag without any noise.

The De Silvas family was so large and noisy that one extra person would not be noticed.

• Lila was busy helping the cook clear the kitchen and pack their belongings.

• Her sisters went to collect some flowers for Mrs. de

Silva and garlands for the children who were quarrelling over the shells.

• Mr. de Silva asked Lila to stop worrying about her mother and asked her not take her mother from the hospital until Diwali or else she would become ill in the wet and damp hut.

• He said that he would stop at Alibagh and giver father money.

• He asked lila to take good care of mr sayyid ali and make sure that he eats his meals because this is something that he forgets.

• He gave her money to buy vegetables, eggs, milk and fish for him daily.

• He asked her to clean the kitchen every night.

• Mr. Sayyid Ali was a thin elderly man with a white beard, spectacles on his nose and a pair of binoculars glued to his eyes.

• He was staring intently into the trees.

• Lila cooked, marketed, washed and swept for him.

• He never spoke to them.

• He disappears the whole day with his binoculars and a bag full of books and pencils.

• Sometimes they had to run into him as he stumbled about the marsh.

• He usually sits on a stone under the tree and stares at everything except people.

• They did not seem to interest him at all.

• He was quiet, polite and made no trouble as he had neither complaints nor demands and so they did mind their oddities.

• Once he steeped backwards off the log into the creek and they had to help him retrieve his bag and papers.

• They were surprised to know that he was a bird watcher.

Observations •The two boys in the kitchen work hard in

the sweltering restaurant. Jagu also works hard and he couldn’t afford to feed the boys if they didn’t work. Life in India is hard for the children of the poor. Hari can hardly believe his luck when the watch mender teaches him his trade. Parents usually had to pay for their sons to a craftsman to learn a trade.

• Mr. sayyid ali came to stay in thul to study the local birds, no doubt because he believes that the procession will fail and that the birds will disappear along with their natural habitat. True to his beliefs about the preservation of the environment he doesn't have a car but arrives by bus. He is totally absorbed by his studies and relies on Lila to see that he is fed and looked after.

Questions :•Why did Mr. Panwallah advise Hari to sleep

in the park? - He knew that hari was irritated by

the restaurant’s fiery heat, stuffy air and stale smell. He knew that it is terribly hot in the restaurant in the month of May.

- He also knew that the park is more bearable than the eating house.

•Why do you think one season staying in Bombay seemed like a lifetime for hari?

- This is because he was homesick.

- He missed his family, the soft sounds of the sea, the wind in the coconut grove and the village life.

- He was tired in Bombay and wished he could return thul. He wanted the time to pass faster.

•Why did the police man feel ashamed after hearing the old gentle man’s words?

- This is because he was bullying a poor young boy where there was adult work to be done that is tackling the real criminals of the city.

•What might have made jagu a friend as well as a benefactor?

- He was a silent, hard worked, worried man who had no time and no gift for speech.

•Sayyid ali is an ornithologist

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