Structured Questions Answers from The Blue Bead by Norah Burke
QUESTION AND ANSWERS from The Blue Bead
Read the extract and answer the following questions:
1. Now, nothing could pierce the inch-thick armoured hide. Not even rifle bullets, which would bounce off. Only the eyes and the soft underarms offered a place. He lived well in the river, sunning himself sometimes with other crocodiles-muggers, as well as the long-snouted fish-eating gharials-on warm rocks and sandbanks where the sun dried the clay on them quite white, and where they could plot off into the water in a moment if alarmed.
1. What were sleepers? How can they be dislodged?
Answer
Sleepers are the heavy pieces of timber or stone on or near the ground to support a superstructure. They were lying stuck around the stones in the deep water from which the crocodile came until someone dislodged them and send them on their way or until floods lifted them and jostled them along.
2. Describe the grandeur of the giant reptile.
OR
Where did the huge crocodile live? Where did it come to rest?Answer
The huge crocodile lived in the deep black water. It was twice the length of a tall man. It had not to hide. It came to rest in the glassy shallows, among logs with its eyes and nostrils raised above the water. Its tail had irresistible power to move with a vast force in the water. Its mouth ran almost the whole length of its head. It lay closed with an evil smile and where the yellow underside came up to it, it was green in colour.
3. How did the huge crocodile rest in the shallows?
Answer
The crocodile came to rest in the grassy shallows, among logs and balanced there on tiptoe on the rippled sand. It raised its eyes and nostrils out of the water to breathe the clean sunny air. Around him broad sparkling water travelled between cliffs and grass and forested hills. The mugger crocodile, blackish brown above and yellowy white under, lay motionless, able to wait forever till food came.
4. When and how had the crocodile made water its permanent abode?
Answer
It is assumed that perhaps a hundred years ago, the crocodile had been hatched at the sandbank. Since then in order to protect and support itself, it had made for the water. There it escaped from being becoming the prey of the birds and great carnivorous fishes. It stored the food in holes in the bank until it was rotten. Lukewarm water and plenty of food made it grew to its great length.
5. The strength of the crocodile was unbeatable. Pen it down.
Answer
The body of the crocodile was covered with the inch-thick hide that nothing could pierce it. Even the rifles bullets would bounce off. Only the eyes and the soft underarms were exceptions. It was ferocious and formidable. It propelled in the water by the irresistible and unimaginable power of its tail. It lived well with other crocodiles, muggers and fish eating gharials.
2. Barefoot, of course, and often goosey-cold on a winter morning, and born to toil. In all her life, she had never owned anything but a rag. She had never owned even one anna-not a pice, not a pi, even, to buy, say, a handful of blown glass beads from that stall in the bazaar where they were piled like stars, or one of the thin glass bangles that the man kept on a stick, and you could choose which colour you'd have.
1. On which things did crocodile feed?
Answer
The place where the crocodile rested, fed and moved had strange objects around him. In the shoals, beside him there lay a glimmered blue gem. It was actually a sand worn glass that had been rolling about in the river for a long time. It was piercing through the neck of the bottle.
2. Which objects were found near crocodile in the river?
Answer
The place where the crocodile rested, fed and moved had strange objects around him. In the shoals, beside him there lay a glimmered blue gem. It was actually a sand worn glass that had been rolling about in the river for a long time. It was piercing through the neck of the bottle.
3. Throw the light on Sibia's lifestyle?
Answer
Sibia lived in a mud house in a village above the ford. She was a thin starving child. She had no proper clothes but her body was covered with rags. Her skin was of oiled brown cream colour. Those rags were also torn to make a skirt and a saree. She ate chapatti wrapped round green chilli and rancid butter. It was her best meal. Her hair was black and she had great eyes. She was poor and never owned anything except a rag.
4. Why is Sibia called as 'child woman' and how was she born to toil?
Answer
Sibia, the main character or the protagonist of the story, is called a happy immature child-woman at the age of only twelve years just because of her appearance and the burden which she bore to help in household chores. She was marked for work since her childhood. She had to carry the household duties and in them also she found the objects of happiness. She was immature in the sense that in spite of doing all the work, she had not lost her childishness.
5. What was Sibia's economic background?
Answer
Sibia belonged to a poor family. She lived in a mud house. She did not possess even one anna, a pice or a pi even to buy a handful of blown glass beads or one of the thin glass bangles from the stall in the bazaar where they were piled like stars or one of the thin glass bangles that the man kept on a stick from where one could choose the colour of his choice. She had been living with her parents and brothers all through the jungle to the little town at the railhead.
3. But Sibia, in all her life from birth to death, was market for work. Since she could toddle, she had husked corn, and gathered sticks, and put dung to dry, and cooked and weeded, and carried, and fetched water, and cut grass for fodder. She was going with her mother and some other women now to get paper grass from the cliffs above the river. When you had enough of it, you could take it down by bullock cart to the railhead and sell it to the agent who would arrange for its dispatch to the paper mills.
1. Where was the bazaar located? While passing through this bazaar, which things or sounds she came across?
Answer
Though Sibia belonged to a poor family, she knew what finery was. She used to go through the jungle with her parents and brothers to the little town at the railhead where the bazaar was located. She walked through all the milling people, and the dogs and monkeys full of fleas, idle human beings spitting betel juice, bargaining and gossiping. On the way she heard the bell of a sacred bull clonking as he lumped along through the dust and hubbub.
2. Which things attracted Sibia on her way to work?
Answer
Sibia was a little girl with little likings. She did not have high expectations. Very petty things attracted her attention. She could even enjoy the sight and smell of the honey confections, abuzz with dust and flies at the sweetmeat stall. The smell was wonderful above the smells of drains and humanity and cheap cigarettes. At home, she sometimes tasted wild honey or crunched the syrup out of a stalk of sugar cane. There was the cloth stall stacked with great rolls of new cotton cloth, stamped at the age with the maker's sign of a tiger's head and the smell was so dear to her that she could stand by it whole day.
3. Other wonders also fascinated her. What were they?
Answer
The other wonders that fascinated her were satin sewn with real silver thread tin trays from Birmingham and a saree which had got chips of looking glass embroidered into the border. She also liked to follow the Kashmiri merchant on his way to bungalows. He had dawn coloured silks that poured like cream, a little locked chest with turquoises and opals in it. Best of all the things was a box which when pressed, a bell tinkled and a yellow woollen chicken jumped out of it.
4. Which thoughts never troubled her?
Answer
Sibia was marked only for work since birth. She had started husking the corn and gathering sticks, putting the dung to dry, cooked and weeded, and carried and fetched the water and cut the grass for fodder, when she was just a toddler. She accompanied her mother to get the paper grass to sell it to the agent who was rich enough to sit on silk cushions smoking a hookah. But these things never troubled her.
5. Why couldn't Sibia skip during her return journey?
Answer
Sibia was a child-woman but she had the heart of a child. She was not bothered by the thoughts of an agent sitting on silk cushions or smoking hookah. She, with her mother and other women, toiled all through the day. She skipped along with her sickle and homemade hayfork beside her mother. But on the way back home she couldn't skip due to excessive tiredness when the back ached and had a great load to carry.
4. The women came out on the shore, and made for the stepping-stones. They had plenty to laugh and bicker about, as they approached the river in a noisy crowd. They girded up their skirts, so as to jump from stone to stone, and they clanked their sickles and forks together over their shoulders to have ease of movement. They shouted their quarrels above the gush of the river. Noise frightens crocodiles.
1. What were the ornaments of the village women? Why could not she make a necklace for herself?
Answer
The village women who wore the necklaces made of shiny scarlet seeds, black at one end, that grew everywhere in the jungle looked very beautiful to Sibia. They were made every year as it was better to discard the old faded ones. Sibia was making one for her too. But the seed was hard to pierce, it required a red hot needle and the family needle was snapped. So she could not make it for herself.
2. Who were 'nomadic graziers'? Describe the nomadic Gujars.
AnswerNomadic graziers are the people who roam from one place to another without a fixed pattern along with their cattle. While going towards the river, the village women passed a Gujar encampment where these nomadic graziers would live for a short period of time. They lived till their animals finish all the grazing or are unable to sell their white butter and white milk in the district or there is no one to buy the young male buffaloes for tiger bait.
3. How were the Gujar women dressed?
OR
What did Sibia notice about the Gujar women's appearance?Answer
Sibia looked at the Gujar women as she went past. They were wearing trousers, tight and wrinkled at the ankles. In their ears, they wore large silver rings which were made out of melted rupees. One of the women was clinking a stick against the big brass gurrahs in which they fetched water from the river for the camp, to see which ones were empty.
4. Where had the boys and men of Gujar community gone? Why were they called junglis?
Answer
The men and the boys of the Gujar community were out of the camp either with their herd for grazing or gone to the bazaar to sell the product when the women were away to fetch the water from the river. The Gujars were junglis as they were born and bred in the forest. They did not know the world outside the jungle. For many centuries, their forebears had lived like this, getting their living from animals, grass and trees. They were a man in the wandering Pastoral Age, not Stone Age hunters and not yet Cultivators.
5. Why did the women make noises while crossing the river?
Answer
There was a river on the way where the women went to collect the paper grass twinkling between the trees, sunlit beyond dark trunks. The women came out on the shore and made for the stepping stones. They laughed and quarrelled while going towards the river. They clanked their sickles and forks together over their shoulders. They shouted above the gush of the river. It was all due to keeping the crocodiles away as the noises frightened them.
5. Sibia hung back. She would just dawdle a bit and run and see if the little clay cups were still there in the cave, waiting to be painted and used. Although the women were now tired and loaded, they still talked. Tose in front yelled to those behind. They crossed the river safely and disappeared up the track into the trees on the other side. Even their voices died away. Silence fell. Sibia came down alone to the stepping-stones.
1. What was the course of flow of the river which the women used to cross?
Answer
After crossing the river, the women had to climb the hillside to get the paper grass. Down below them was the broad river pouring powerfully out from its deep narrow pools among the cold cliffs and shadows, spreading into warm shallows, lit by kingfishers. Great turtles lived there along with mahseer which weighed more than a hundred pounds.
2. Under what conditions did Sibia work? What did she keep in the cave?
Answer
Sibia was a hard worker. She worked nonstop under her mother's vigilance but her imagination sore high over the bright water and golden air to the banks where she had played as a child. She had stored some little bowls, moulded of clay while they hardened for painting. The only thing that cooled her sweating body was wind coming across the hundreds of miles of trees.
3. Why was Sibia's mother angry with her? What was Sibia's reaction when her mother shouted at her?
Answer
The women used to climb a still hillside across the river to get the grass. Sibia also worked with them in harsh conditions but she never thought of that. Even she did not dare to stop for a moment but her imagination took a flight over the bright water and golden air to the banks where she had played as a child. In the cavelets above the high water mark of the highest flood, she had kept some little bowls of moulded clay for coloring while they hardened. Suddenly her mother cried in a sharp voice, "Child!" Hearing this and looking at the glare of her mother's angry sweating face pulled Sibia back to work.
4. What was the condition of the women when they return?
Answer
In the evening, after collecting the grass, it was the time to go back for women to see their animals and the evening meal. The women carried the load and set out to cross the river again. Sibia hung back. She would walk slowly and run to see if the clay cups were still there in the cave. The women were now tired and loaded. Still, they talked. Those who were in front yelled to those who were behind. They crossed the river safely and disappeared in the track into the trees on the other side.
5. Why did Sibia come alone when there were other women too in the group?
Answer
It was evening and the time to return back to see the grazing animals and evening meal. The loaded women set out to cross the river again. But Sibia remained there only. She walked slowly a bit and ran to see if the little clay cups were still there in the cave, waiting to be painted and used. When all the women left for their homes, she ran behind to see her cups and had to come down alone to the stepping stones.
6. Bang!—bang!—to and fro in great smacking flails as he tried to drag her free and carry her off down into the deeps of the pool. Blood spread everywhere. Sibia sprang. From boulder to boulder she came leaping like a rock goat. Sometimes it had seemed difficult to cross these stones, especially the big gap in the middle where the river coursed through like a bulge of glass. But now she came on wings, choosing her footing in midair without even thinking about it, and in one moment she was beside the shrieking woman.
1. Why did Sibia put her load down when she was halfway over?
OR
When did Sibia stop and why?Answer
The light of the evening was striking up the gorge, pink into the ultraviolet shadows. The sun was off; the water poured was totally invisible with no reflection to show where it began. Sibia stepped onto the first stone. She was heavily weighted, her muscles stretched and aching. The hayfork squeaked in the packed dry grass and dug into her collarbone so close under the skin, in spite of the sari bunched up to make a pad. Out of tiredness, she put her load down on a big boulder to rest when she was halfway over.
2. Why did the Gujar woman walk onto the stepping stone?
Answer
Sibia was halfway over on her way back to hut; she put her load down on a big boulder to rest. At the same moment, a Gujar woman came down with two hurrahs to the water on the other side. She walked onto the stepping stone to get the good clear water which would quickly fill both gurrahs up to the brim without sand.
3. What happened to her?
Answer
When the woman went to the other side to fill her hurrahs with clear water, she reached within a yard of the crocodile unknowingly. The great reptile heaved up out of the darkling water with its livid jaws yawning and all its teeth fleshing as it slashed at her leg. Crocodile pulled her leg, threshing its mighty tail to and fro in great movements and dragged her down into the deeps of the pool. Blood spread everywhere.
4. How did Sibia react later on seeing this?
OR
What did Sibia do when she saw the Gujar woman attacked by the crocodile?Answer
Sibia was watching everything. She came into action leaping like a rock goat and jumped from boulder to boulder. She reached beside the shrieking woman and drove the hayfork at the reptile's eyes. The beast crashed back, exploded the water and disappeared in the bloody-foam water. She then pulled the wounded woman out from the water and thus, saved her life.
5. If Sibia hadn't taken action on time, do you think that woman would be dead?
Answer
Yes, the woman would be dead if Sibia hadn't taken action on time. She did the daring thing which sometimes adults are unable to do. Besides taking action it was her mental status too that supported her in taking the right decision at the right time. She was a small girl of twelve years whose age allowed her to play childlike games but she showed courage and got success in saving a woman's life.
7. The fork was lying in the river, not carried away, luckily, and as she bent to pick it up out of the water, she saw the blue bead. Not blue now, with the sun nearly gone, but a no colour white-blue, and its shape wobbling in the movement of the stream. She reached her arm down into a yard of the cold silk water to get it. Missing it first of all, because of refraction. Then there it lay in her wet palm, perfect, even pierced ready for use, with the sunset shuffled about inside it like gold-dust. All her heart went up in flames of joy.
1. Which body part of the crocodile was aimed at by Sibia and how?
Answer
The face of the crocodile was fastened round the Gujar woman's leg in the boiling bloody water. He was tugging to and fro. His eyes rolled on to Sibia. One slap of its tail could kill her. But Sibia did not either hesitate or got frightened. She gathered her courage and with all the force of her little body, she drove the hayfork at crocodile's eyes. One prong of it went in while the other scratched past on the horny cheek.
2. How did crocodile react on being attacked by Sibia?
Answer
The crocodile reared up in convulsion, till half his lizard body was out of the river, the tail and nose nearly met over his stony back. Then he crashed back, exploding the water and in an uproar of bloody foam, he disappeared.
3. Did the crocodile die immediately? If not then when and how would one come to know about it?
Answer
The crocodile did not die immediately after being attacked. And it's not sure when would it die as his death would not be known for days. It would be found upside down among the logs at the timber boom with pus in his eyes only when his stomach blown with gas would float him.
4. How did Sibia manage to get the Gujar woman out of water? What did she do with her wound?
Answer
Sibia got her arms round the fainting woman and somehow dragged her out of the water. She stopped her wounds with sand and bound them with rags and helped her home to the Gujar encampment where the men made a litter to carry her to someone for treatment.
5. What did Sibia find in the river? Why her heart was going up in flames of joy?
Answer
Sibia took the wounded Gujar woman to her encampment and then went back to the river for her grass, sickle and fork. The fork was lying in the river and as she bent to pick it up, she saw the blue bead. At that time it was not appearing blue because the sun had already set but its shape was wobbling in the stream. She reached her arm down into the cold silky water and took it out. It was already pierced and ready for use. Finding it, her heart went up in flames of joy as since long she wanted a bead to make her necklace.
Compound Questions and Answers
1. (a) The writer presents a vivid graphic picture of a huge crocodile which is a significant character in the story. How does she achieve it?
Answer
Norah Burke begins the story with a dramatic presentation of a huge crocodile. She refers to it as 'he' to make it appear like a character out of a suspense thriller. "Out of black water, curved with whirlpools, and into the frill of gold shallows by the stepping stones", came the crocodile. This vivid description, full of life and visual details marks the appearance of the huge animal that can fill us with awe and trepidation.
The description of the beast, "Twice the length of a tall man", "Fed mostly on fish but also on deer and monkeys that came to drink perhaps a duck or two and half-burned bodies of Indians" conceives a physical image of sheer viciousness. Apart from this, it is referred to as a prehistoric juggernaut, ferocious and formidable, a vast force in the water, propelled by the power of his huge tail. "His mouth almost the whole length of his head, closed in a fixed evil bony smile" completes the picture of the awesome creature.
The survival instinct showed by the animal also portrays its brainless craft by which he has lived for a hundred years. The whole description is to create an awesome image in the reader's mind, so that Sibia, the young girl who fights with the crocodile rises to a heroic proportion.
(b) Sibia is a little frail girl with a zest for simple things in life. How does the author bring out the simplicity of the girl?
Answer
Sibia lived in a mud house above a ford in which dangerous creatures like crocodiles lived. She is described as a starveling child dressed in rags. She had ebony hair and great eyes and her skin was creamy brown. A child of twelve years old, she was born to toil.
In all her life, she had never owned anything but a rag. She did not even have a pi to buy even a single glass bead which she admired in the market. She would often pause before the sweetmeat stall, gazing longingly at the display. Yes, she sometimes tasted wild honey or sugar cane at home but never the green and magenta sweets. There were other wonders like soft silk fabrics and stones like turquoises and opals but these wonders of the world were not for a forest girl like her. She was marked for work, husking corn, putting dung to dry, gathering dry sticks and fetching water. Her only adornment could be the black and red jungle beads, but that too was denied to her as the needle to thread them was broken.
(c) How does the unassuming simple girl of the village assume an aura of heroism in the story? What is the dramatic irony at the end of the story?
Answer
Sibia was walking along with the stepping stones when she saw a Gujar woman approaching to fill her earthen pots. It was at that time when the crocodile lunged at her and slashed at her leg with his sharp teeth. The huge animal tried to drag her away. Sibia sprang into action. From boulder to boulder, she came leaping like a rock goat. She seemed to come on wings, choosing her footing instinctively, without thinking about it. In a moment, she was beside the screaming woman. Seeing the girl, the crocodile struck, throwing the water twenty feet high. Sibia did not hesitate. She aimed at the animal's eyes. With all the force of her body, she drove her hayfork into one of its eyes. The crocodile reared up in convulsion, crashed back and disappeared into the bloody water. It would die in a few days. But Sibia did not think about its fate. She put her arms around the woman, dragged her from water, stopped her wounds with sand and bound them with a rag and helped her home.
The dramatic irony is that Sibia was not aware of the heroic deed she had done. She went through an adventurous battle with a ferocious creature and arrived home to her worried mother. Instead of stating her courageous and adventurous rescue act, she simply said: "I found a blue bead for my necklace, look!" The readers may marvel at her heroism, but for the girl, it was the blue bead that mattered by which she could make a beautiful necklace.
2. (a) How does the author paint the majesty, ferocity and strength of the giant animal?
Answer
The huge crocodile lived in the deep black water. It was twice the length of a tall man. It did not have to hide. It came to rest in the glassy shallows, among logs with its eyes and nostrils raised above the water to breathe the clean sunny air. Its tail had irresistible power to move with a vast force in the water. Its mouth ran almost the whole length of its head. It lay with its eyes closed with an evil smile and where the yellow underside came up to it, it was green in colour. The mugger crocodile, blackish-brown above and yellowy-white under, lay motionless, ready to wait forever till food came.
The body of the crocodile was covered with the inch-thick hide that nothing could pierce it. Even the rifle bullets would bounce off. Only the eyes and the soft underarms were exceptions. It was ferocious and formidable. It propelled in the water by the irresistible and unimaginable power of its tail. It lived well with other crocodiles, muggers and fish-eating gharials.
(b) What is said about, Sibia, the child-woman, and her routine life?
Answer
Sibia, the main character or the protagonist of the story, is called a happy immature child-woman at the age of only twelve years just because of her appearance and the burden which she bore to help in household chores. Her hair was black and she had great eyes. She had to carry the household duties. She husked corn, gathered sticks, put dung to dry, cooked and weeded and fetched water and cut grass for fodder. She went with her mother and other ladies to get paper grass from the cliffs. She lived in a mud house in a village above the fort. She had no proper clothes but her body was covered with rags. Those rags were also torn to make a skirt and a saree. She ate chapatti wrapped round green chilli and rancid butter. She was poor and never owned anything except a rag. She was interested in the natural jewellery made by seeds that rattled around her neck. She appreciated little things in life like watching Kashmiri merchant selling silks, the smell of the wonderful dressing of the cloth stall and much more. She was brave, laborious, courageous and extremely observant.
(c) Describe in detail, the ferocious fight between the crocodile and Sibia.
Answer
When Sibia saw the Gujar woman carried away by the giant crocodile, she immediately ran beside the shrieking woman without thinking anything and without wasting a moment. With a quick presence of mind, she came into action and sprang up. She jumped from boulder to boulder leaping like a rock goat. She came on wings, choosing her footing mid-air and without even thinking of it she reached beside the shrieking woman. She did not hesitate and with all the force of her little body, drove the hayfork at the crocodile's eyes and one prong went in while the other scratched past the thorny cheek. The crocodile reared up in convulsion, till half his lizard body was out of the river, the tail and nose nearly met over his story back. Then he crashed back, exploding the water and in an uproar of bloody foam, he disappeared. Sibia got her arms round the fainting woman and somehow dragged her out of the water. She stopped her wounds with sand and bound them with rags and helped her home to the Gujar encampment where the men made a litter to carry her to someone for treatment.