EXTRA QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS OF The Lost Child || CBSE CLASS 9 ENGLISH || FIRST FLIGHT ||

1)  Which season it was?
What was the effect of the season? How had the people been moving towards the
fair? How was the boy feeling about?

= It was the spring season.

Since it was spring, there was a
huge fair in the village.
From the
wintry shades of narrow lanes and alleys emerged a gaily clad humanity.

Some people walked, some rode on
horses, others sat, being carried in bamboo and bullock carts.

The boy was young and full of hopes.
He was fascinated by the shops and toys all around and was brimmed with life
and mirth.

 

2)  Why did the child lag
behind? What desire did he have within himself?

 
          = We find the child to be
irresistibly drawn by all the fascinating toys, flowers, roundabouts, shops,
and almost everything he led his eyes onto. 

No wonder, he is a child who was
both repelled and fascinated by the world we see him enter. He was swayed at
the beautiful sight and thus, he lagged
.

He wanted to buy flowers from the
flower seller, ride a roundabout and was fascinated by the toys and balloons
that were being sold in the fair.

 

3)  What had been the
reactions of the father and the mother when the child put his request?

=The
child was engrossed and swayed by the beautiful sight at the fair. But he had
no other option than to recede away because his parents were reluctant to buy
him any of those toys.
To them, it’s an act of greediness.




 

4)  Tell us about the
dragonflies and how the boy was after them.

= As we go through the text, we find
that the child ran into a flowering mustard-field, pale like melting gold as it
swept across miles and miles of even land. A group of dragon-flies were
bustling about on their gaudy purple wings, intercepting the flight of a lone
black bee or butterfly in search of sweetness from the flowers. The child
followed them in the air with his gaze, till one of them would still its wings
and rest, and he would try to catch it. But it would go
fluttering, flapping, up into the
air, when he had almost caught it in his hands.

 

5)  Why was the boy left
behind for the second time?

= The little boy’s eyes lingered on the receded
toys and other shops. It was near the roundabout when he realized he had lost
his way. He was so engrossed in observing it moving in full swing, men and
women shrieking and shouting with dizzy laughter that he lost his way. It was
when he called out his parents to allow him a ride in the roundabout that he
turned back and understood they weren’t with him. He looked around but there
was no sign of them
.


6)  When the boy reached
near the fair, how did the fair appear and how did he react?

=The boy was extremely joyous when
he reached the fair. He was in cloud nine to see such a huge crowd, He was
fascinated by the toys he saw in the shop and couldn’t resist buying them. He
wanted to buy Gulab jamun, burfi, flowers, balloons and wanted to ride a
roundabout. The sight of the fair slowed down his pace due to which he lagged
behind.


7)  How had been the
feeling of the boy when he saw the sweetmeat seller? Why was he sure that his
parents wouldn’t buy any?

= A sweetmeat seller hawked, “Gulab-jaman,
rasgulla, burfi, jalebi,” at the corner of the entrance and a crowd pressed around
his counter at the foot of an architecture of many-coloured sweets, decorated
with leaves of silver and gold. The child stared open-eyed and his mouth
watered for the burfi that was his favourite sweet. He insisted his parents to
buy him a burfi.

  
Little did he know that no matter what his plea would not be heeded
because his parents would say he was greedy. So without waiting for an answer,
he moved on.





8)  What had been the
feelings of the boy about the flower-seller? How did he know that his parents
wouldn’t show any interest?

= A flower-seller hawked, “A garland of Gulmohar, a garland of
Gulmohar!” The child seemed irresistibly drawn. He went towards the basket
where the flowers lay heaped and insisted his parents to buy him a garland. But
he well knew his parents would refuse to buy him those flowers because they
would say that they were cheap. So, without waiting for an answer, he moved on
.


9)  How did the boy feel
for balloons? According to him, how his parents would react?

= A man stood holding a pole with
yellow, red, green and purple balloons flying from it. The child was simply
carried away by the rainbow glory of their silken colours and he was filled
with an overwhelming desire to possess them all.

He well knew his parents would never
buy him the balloons because they would say he was too old to play with such
toys. So he walked on farther.


10) How was the boy disappointed at the snake charmers place
with his parents?

= A snake-charmer stood playing the
flute to a snake which coiled itself in a basket, its head raised in a graceful
bend like the neck of a swan, while the music stole into its invisible ears
like the gentle rippling of an invisible waterfall. The child went towards the
snake-charmer. But, knowing his parents had forbidden him to hear such coarse
music as the snake- charmer played, he proceeded farther.


    11)How was the boy strongly attracted by the
roundabout? 
What request did he make this time?

    =There was a roundabout in full
swing. Men, women and children, carried away in a whirling         motion, shrieked and
cried with dizzy laughter. The child watched them intently and wanted to     ride
the roundabout. It was then he turned around to request his parents to allow
him to ride        when he realised he was lost.




 

12) What shock did the boy experience after making his desire
for the roundabout?

= The little boy’s eyes lingered on the receded
toys and other shops. It was near the roundabout when he realized he had lost
his way. He was so engrossed in observing it moving in full swing, men and
women shrieking and shouting with dizzy laughter that he lost his way. It was
when he called out his parents to allow him a ride in the roundabout that he
turned back and understood they weren’t with him. He looked around but there
was no sign of them.

 

13) What had been the initial reaction of the child when he
realised that he was lost?

= A full, deep cry rose within the child’s dry throat and
with a sudden jerk of his body he ran from where he stood, crying in real fear
screaming, “Mother, Father.” Tears rolled down from his eyes, hot and fierce;
his flushed face was convulsed with fear. Panic-strickenn, he ran to one side
first, then to the other, hither and thither in all directions, knowing not
where to go. He wailed. His yellow turban came untied and his clothes became
muddy.


14) After running to and fro, how did the boy search for his
parents?

=Having run
to and fro in a rage of running for a while, he stood defeated, his cries
suppressed into sobs. At little distances on the green grass, he could see,
through his filmy eyes, men and women talking. He tried to look intently among
the patches of bright yellow clothes, but there was no sign of his father and
mother among these people, who seemed to laugh and talk just for the sake of
laughing and talking.


15) What was the situation of the child near the shrine?

= He ran quickly again, this time to
a shrine to which people seemed to be crowding. Every little inch of space here
was congested with men, but he ran through people’s legs, sobbing and
screaming, “Mother, Father!”


16) How was the child rescued from the crowd near the shrine?

=Near the entrance to the temple,
however, the crowd became very thick: men jostled each other, heavy men, with
flashing, murderous eyes and hefty shoulders. The poor child struggled to
thrust away between their feet but, knocked to and fro by their brutal
movements, he might have been trampled underfoot, had he not shrieked at the
highest pitch of his voice, “Father, Mother!”




 

17) What did the man ask the boy after he saved him?

=A man in the surging crowd heard
the child’s cry and, stooping with great difficulty, lifted him up in his arms.
The man asked about the child’s whereabouts as he steered clear of the mass.
The child wept more bitterly than ever now and only cried, “I want my mother, I
want my father!”


18) The man took the boy to the roundabout. What happened there?

=The man tried to soothe him by
taking him to the roundabout. The man offered the child a ride as he neared the
ring. But the child’s throat tore into a thousand shrill sobs and he only
shouted: “I want my mother; I want my father!”


19) What happened when the man took the boy to the snake
charmer’s place?

=The man headed towards the place
where the snake- charmer still played on the flute to the swaying cobra. He
pleaded to the child to listen to the nice music. But the child shut his ears
with his fingers and shouted his double-pitched strain: “I want my mother; I
want my father!”


20) How did the man try to quieten him with
balloons? How did the child react?

= The man took him near the balloons, thinking the bright
colours of the balloons would distract the child’s attention and quieten him.
He persuasively offered the child a balloon. But the child turned his eyes from
the flying balloons and just sobbed, “I want my mother, I want my father!”


21) What happened when the boy was taken to the flower seller?

=Without being fed up, the man still
tried to woo the child, bore him to the gate where the flower-seller sat. He
showed him all the beautiful flowers the seller was selling and offered him
some flowers. The child denied by turning his nose away from the basket and
reiterated his sob: “I want my mother; I want my father!”


22) What happened when the boy was taken to the sweet seller’s
shop?

=Thinking to humour his disconsolate
charge by a gift of sweets, the man took him to the counter of the sweet shop
and offered him, sweets. But like every time, the child turned his face from
the sweet shop and only sobbed, “I want my mother, I want my father!





23) Compare critically the desires of the boy before and after
getting lost.

= At the beginning, when the child-headed
towards the fair, he was engrossed and swayed by the beautiful sight at the
fair. As he neared the village, he could see many other footpaths full of
throngs, converging to the whirlpool of the fair, and felt at once repelled and
fascinated by the confusion of the world he was entering. He wanted toys as he
headed towards the toy shops, burfi from the sweetmeat seller, the garland of
Gulmohar from the flower seller, the coarse music played by the snake charmer
that had all his ears and last but not the least – a ride in the roundabout.
But as we see, when in a crowd, the child lags behind and lost his parents, we
see a sudden change in his desires.
Having
lost his parents, the child was panic-stricken and was in deep fright. His
voice shook and tears rolled down his cheeks. The same eyes which lingered on
the fascinated toys in the fair are searching for his parents. The attractive
no longer attracts him. He was petrified by the separation from his parents and
all he wanted that time was to be united with his parents. The snake charmer
could no longer charm the child with his music. The flowers smell stale to him.
The child stood defeated and was quietened in the chaos. He realized the worth
of being with parents. The child’s throat tore into a thousand shrill sobs and
he reiterated, “I want my mother, I want my father!

 

 

24) How does the author reflect nature and rural festival
depicting Indian spirit?

=The story starts with the festival
of spring where we see a clad of people heading towards the fair gaily. The
story appropriately upholds the rural festival depicting Indian spirit.
Starting right with the sweet shop, toys, balloons, rural Indian fairs are
incomplete without these things. Nature and aesthetic rural aura become more
conspicuous to us when we come across the small little shops described as sweet
seller, flower seller and snake charmer. We find the child talking about
dragonflies bustling about on their gaudy purple wings, intercepting the flight
of a lone black bee or butterfly in search of sweetness from the flowers in a
flowering mustard-field, pale like melting gold as it swept across miles and
miles of even land. The Indian spirit becomes more evident when the child
heard the cooing of doves and ran
towards it. The raining petals dropped from his forgotten hands. Even when he
went running in wild capers around the banyan tree, and gathering him up they
took the narrow, winding footpath which led to the fair through the mustard
fields. All these earthly things are the evidence of a rural festival depicting
Indian spirit.

 

25) “The story
reflects a playful and innocent desire of a child”—Discuss with references to
the story.

= Out of a gaily clad of
humanity, emerged a little boy brimming over with life and laughter, agitated
by the festival of spring. The little boy is too young to be repelled by
various things exposed to the fair. On his way, he gets fascinated by every
little thing he sees. He saw a lot of toy shops. In the flowering mustard
field, he sees dragonflies intercepting the flight of a lone black bee,
butterflies fluttering around the flowers. Then, while walking on the footpath,
he is distracted by the insects and worms teeming out from their hiding places
to enjoy the sunshine. When a shower of young petals falls upon the child as he
enters the grove forgetting his parents, he begins to gather the raining petals
in his hand. The cooing of doves drives him back to his parents. A sweetmeat
seller selling sweets like burfi, Gulab-jamun amazes him and a little further
he finds a flower seller selling Gulmohar. Walking ahead, he sees a man selling
rainbow-coloured balloons. He also sees a snake charmer playing the flute to
the snake. He sees a roundabout in full swing but by that time he had already
lost his parents. All these things appeared very attractive and fascinating to
him. He couldn’t help but insist on his parents to buy him all of these things
but receded his gaze away as soon as he saw his father’s cold stare. His
innocence is well evident in the story.




 

 

26) The story presents
a strong family bond beyond materialistic things. Discuss with reference to the
story.

=The story compiled by Mulk Raj
Anand depicts a strong family bond beyond the materialistic things. Initially,
we see the child heading
towards the fair, he was engrossed
and swayed by the beautiful sight at the fair. As he neared the village, he
could see many other footpaths full of throngs, converging to the whirlpool of
the fair, and felt at once repelled and fascinated by the confusion of the world
he was entering. He wanted toys as he headed towards the toy shops, burfi from
the sweetmeat seller, the garland of Gulmohar from the flower seller, the
coarse music played by the snake charmer that had all his ears and last but not
the least – a ride in the roundabout. But as we see, when in a crowd, the child
lags behind and loses his parents, we see a sudden change in his desires. He
wants nothing but his parents. Those colourful balloons, snake charmer’s song,
ride on roundabout seemed to not fascinate him anymore.
Having lost his parents, the child was panic-stricken and was in deep fright.
His voice shook and tears rolled down his cheeks. The same eyes which lingered
on the fascinated toys in the fair are searching for his parents. The
attractive no longer attracts him. He was petrified by the separation from his
parents and all he wanted that time was to be united with his parents. The
snake charmer could no longer charm the child with his music. The flowers smell
stale to him. The child stood defeated and was quietened in the chaos. He
realized the worth of being with parents. The child’s throat tore into a
thousand shrill sobs and he reiterated, “I want my mother, I want my father!

 We didn’t get any clear ending in this story
but we find his parents as much tempted as their child getting lost. We find
the parents as well searching for their missing child and keeps no stones
unturned. The story didn’t give us a proper closure. The writer lets us
interpret and decide the future course. 

 

27) “Worldly desires
are of no use when a child has lost parental shelters.”- Discuss this with
reference to the text.

= Having lost his parents, the child was
panic-stricken and was in deep fright. His voice shook and tears rolled down
his cheeks. The same eyes which lingered on the fascinated toys in the fair are
searching his parents. The attractive no longer attracts him. He was petrified
by the separation from his parents and all he wanted that time was to be united
with his parents. The snake charmer could no longer charm the child with his
music. The flowers smell stale to him. The child stood defeated and was
quietened in the chaos. He realized the worth of being with parents. The
child’s throat tore into a thousand shrill sobs and he reiterated, “I want my
mother, I want my father!

Hence from the story,
we can see how the tables got turned. Initially, when the child was fascinated
by the different shops and flowers from the fair and couldn’t buy it due to the
repeated denial from his parents, we found him getting sad. But nothing made
him as sad as losing his parents in the crowd. In time, he realised the worth
of parental shelters and no matter how fascinated things stood Infront of him,
he was not at all moved. Thus, we could conclude how worldly desires are of no
use when one loses one’s parental shelter.