Arpit Porwal

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Flamingo
| Questions discussed in video
1. What changes did the order from
Berlin cause in school that day?
2. Franz thinks, "Will they make
them sing in German, even the
pigeons?" What could this mean?
3. How did M. Hamel give the
shocking news to the students and
the villagers ? How did it affect
them?
4. The bangle-makers of Firozabad
make beautiful bangles and make
everyonehappy but they live and
die in squalor. Elaborate.
5. Is Saheb happy working at the
tea stall? Why/Why not?
6. How is Mukesh more ambitious
in life than Saheb? Give a reasoned
answer.
7. How did the instructor make
Douglas a good swimmer?
8. How did Douglas make sure that
he conquered the old terror?
9. What made the peddler think that
he had indeed fallen into a rattrap?
10. When did the ironmaster realise
his mistake?
11. Why did Gandhiji go to
Lucknow in December 1916? Who
met him there and why?
12. What did the British planters try
to do when they came to know that
synthetic indigo had been
developed by Germany?
13. Why didn't Sophie want Jansie
to know about her story with
Danny?
14. “Damn that Geoff, this was a
Geoff thing not a Jansie thing."
Why did Sophie say so?
15. Which was the only occasion
when Sophie got to see Danny
Casey in person?
Ans1. The order from Berlin led to the
announcement that French would not be
taught anymore, and instead, German
would be taught by a new master. This was
to be their last French lesson.
Ans1. The class was quiet as it was a
Sunday morning with no bustle and
commotion. The teacher, M. Hamel was
patient and calm but inwardly emotional.
He was in his special dress. The sad
villagers were sitting on the last benches
like other students and the teacher
explained the lesson very patiently
Ans2. It meant that the Germans could
enslave the French but they couldn't take
away their love of the French language. It
was in their blood and could not be
finished as long as they were alive.
Ans3. The classroom was full. Villagers also
sat with the students on the back benches. M.
Hamel mounted on his chair. He spoke gravely
but gently. He said that it would be the last
French lesson he would give to them. He
disclosed that an order had come from Berlin.
All the schools of Alsace and Lorraine would
now teach only German. The new teacher was
to come the next day. The news left everyone
shocked and grieved.
Ans4. The bangle-makers of Firozabad live in
utter poverty generation after generation. They
believe that they are the people who are
destined to work as glass banglemakers. They
make beautiful bangles for women but they live
in dark. The workers have to look at the hot
bright furnaces while polishing bangles. While
welding pieces of coloured glass into bangles
they have no other option but are Forced to sit
near flickering lamps.
Ans4. Hence, they are forced to stay in a
dark room huts and their eyes are not in a
position to see the daylight outside. Their
eyes become blind before they become
adults. They are in a vicious circle drawn
between moneylenders, middlemen and
politicians. Instead of helping them.
Ans5. No, Saheb does not seem happy
working at the tea-stall. He is no longer his
master and that relaxed look on his face is also
lost. The steel canister seems heavier than the
plastic bag that he would carry so lightly over
his shoulder. It was because the bag was his
and the canister belonged to the man who
owned the tea stall.
Ans6. Mukesh is definitely more ambitions than
Saheb, unlike most of them in Firozabad.
Mukesh did not want to follow profession of
making bangles. No one else could dare to
think of breaking the conventional style of
living. Mukesh dreamt of becoming a motor-
mechanic. He had already decided to go to a
garage and learn about caps. Through the
garbage was a long way from his home, but he
was prepared to walk that distance.
Ans6. He insisted on becoming his own master
Saheb on the other hand had sacrificed his
freedom as a rag picker to take up a salaried
job that would pay him 800 rupees and give
him all his meals. Now he was no longer his
own master. He had lost his carefree look,
which he had when he was a rag picker. The
can that he carried seemed heavier than the
bag he carried as a rag picker.
Ans7. The haunting fear of the water followed
Douglas in his fishing trips, swimming boating
and canoeing. He used every way he knew to
get rid of this fear but it held him firmly in its
grip. So, he finally engaged an instructor to
learn swimming. The instructor made him
practice five days a week, an hour each day.
He held one end of the rope in his hands and
the other end through a pulley overhead of
Douglas, was tied to the belt.
Ans7. Thus the instructor relaxing his hold on
the rope made Douglas swim back and forth in
the pool. After three months of this much
training, the instructor taught Douglas to put
his face under water and breathe out and to
raise his nose and breathe in. Here peated this
breathing out and breathing in exercise
hundreds of times. Bit by bit, he got rid of part
of the terror which gripped him.
Ans7. Next, the instructor held Douglas at the
side of the pool and made him. After weeks of
practice, he could command his own legs for
swimming in water. Thus piece by piece, the
instructor built a swimmer. When he had
perfected each piece, he put them into an
integrated whole in the seventh month of the
training.
Ans8. When Douglas was alone in the
pool, the remnants of the old terror would
return. He would stare at and rebuke it,
then go for another length of the pool.He
was not satisfied. He went to Lake
Wentworth and dived off a dock at Triggs
Island and swam two miles. Now he could
mock at the terror.
Ans9. After stealing the crofter's money,
the peddler believed that it was not safe to
walk along the public highway. So he went
into the woods. He walked there but could
not get out of it. So he thought that he had
fallen into a rattrap. The forest having its
trunks, branches and under growths
appeared to him like a big rattrap.
Ans10. The ironmaster had seen the
peddler in the dim light of the furnace.
When the peddler came well groomed in
the broad daylight, the ironmaster realised
he was mistaken.
Ans11. Gandhiji went to Lucknow to attend
the annual convention of the Indian
National Congress. A poor peasant named
Rajkumar Shukla met him there. Hewas
from Champaran. He wanted Gandhiji to
come to Champaran to help thepoor
sharecroppers.
Ans12. The British planters realised that it
was no longer profitable to produce natural
indigo. The synthetic indigo was much
cheaper. Thus, they compelled the
peasants to give them compensation for
not having to plant indigo on their land
Ans13. Sophie thought that Jansie was a
stupid girl as he would not be able to keep
a secret. She would tell the whole
neighbourhood. People would come to
Sophie to ask her what it was all about.
Her father would be angry with her and
there would be a row in their family.
Ans14. Sophie uttered this meaning to say
that Geoff was a better person than Jansie
as he could keep secrets while Jansie
would not keep a secret. She feared that
Jansie might tell the whole neighbourhood
about this.
Ans15. Sophie met Danny Casey only
once when she along with her family went
to see the football match. She saw him
only from a distance sitting among the
spectators. She always cooked stories and
made a picture of him and artificial
dialogues.
 Thank-You
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