4.

Bepin Choudhury’s Lapse of Memory

1. What would Bepin Choudhury do every Monday?
Answer: Every monday Bepin Choudhury would go to Kalicharan’s shop to buy
books.
2. How did Bepin try to decide whether he was right on Parimal Ghosh?
Answer: Bepin tried to decide whether he was right by confirming it from Dinesh
Mukherjee, the person about whom Parimal Ghosh was talking about and later by
going to Ranchi himself.
3. How did Chunni use his imagination?
Answer: Chunni had a good power of imagination so he created the story of Bepin
Babu’s visit to Ranchi which helped in the retribution of Bepin Babu’s behaviour.
4. What all things did Parimal Ghosh tell Bepin Babu to remind him of his
visit to Ranchi?
Answer: Parimal Ghosh told Bepin that he had been to Ranchi in 1958. He fell in
Hudroo and cut his right knee. Next day he had to go to Netarhat but due to pain he
couldn’t and he stayed at Dinesh Mukherjee’s bungalow.
5. What does Chunni make Bepin realise through his letter?
Answer: Through his letter, Chunni made Bepin Babu realize that affluence of
money had brought change in his life. He did not like to help his old friend who
was having bad time. He had become a man of unfeeling behaviour.
6. What was Bepin Babu’s hobby? What would he do every Monday?
Answer: Bepin Babu’s hobby was reading books. Every Monday, he would
purchase books of crime stories, ghost stories and thrillers from Kalicharan’s shop.
7. What type of man was Bepin Babu?
Answer: Bepin Babu was a loner. He was not a good mixer. He had a few friends
and he didn’t like spending time in idle chat.
8. How can you say that Bepin Babu’s encounter with Parimal Ghose made
him restless?
Answer: Bepin Babu’s encounter with Parimal Ghose made him really very
restless. Even in the office, he noticed that with every passing hour, his encounter
with Parimal Ghose was occupying more and more of his mind.
9. Why couldn’t Bepin Babu ignore what Parimal Ghose had said to him?
Answer: It was because Parimal Ghose knew a great deal about him. He knew
about his (Bepin Babu’s) wife’s death, his brother’s insanity… If the man knew so
much about him, how could he make such a mistake about the Ranchi trip.
10. What was wrong with Bepin Babu? What did Dr. Chanda suggest him?
Ans. He had completely forgotten about his visit to Ranchi. Dr. Chanda suggested
him to go to Ranchi once again in order to get back his lost memory.
 POEM-4 THE LAST BARGAIN
uestion 1. Why speaker deny the king proposal?
Answer: The speaker stated the king power as nothing so he denied the proposal
of king.
Question 2. What did the old man want? Was he successful in his bargain?
Answer: The old man wanted to hire the speaker with his money. No, he was not
successful in his bargain.
Question 3. Explain, “I hire you with nothing”?
Answer: The child has no material thing so he used the word nothing here. He has
only goodwill and cheer to hire to speaker.
Question 4. Who is the speaker in the poem?
Answer: The Poet “Rabindranath Tagore” is the speaker of this poem.
Question 5. “The king, sword in hand” suggests
(i) wealth
(ii) power
(iii) more power than wealth
Mark the appropriate item in the context of stanza 1.
Answer: (ii) power
II. Read the extract and answer the questions that follow:
1.“Come and hire me”, I cried, while in the morning
I was walking on the stone-paved road.
Sword in hand the king came in his chariot
He held my hand and said, “I will hire you with my power”
But his power counted for naught and he went away in his chariot.

1. Who is the speaker of the above lines?

Ans. An unemployed but freedom loving person is the speaker of these lines.
2. What does ’sword in hand’ suggest?
Ans. ‘Sword in hand’ suggests the power of the king.
3. Why could the king not conquer the narrator?
Ans. The king could not conquer the narrator because the narrator did not give
any importance to his power.
2. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
In the heat of the mid-day the houses stood with shut doors
I wandered along the crooked lane
An old man came out with his bag of gold.
He pondered and said, “I will hire you with my money.”
He weighed his coins one by one, but I turned away.
1. Why were the houses with the doors shut?
Ans. The houses had the doors shut because of the heat of the mid-day.
2. What did the old man bring out?
Ans. The old man brought out a bag of gold to hire the man.
3. How did the speaker react to the old man’s offer?
Ans. Speaker turned down the old man’s offer.
S.R-4
THE TREASURE WITHIN
1. What nightmare did Hafeez contractor have?
Answer: Hafeez contractor had nightmares about appearing for maths examination
where he did not know anything.
2. What was the one thing said by the principal that changed Hafeez life?
Answer: The principal said Hafeez how hard his mother worked to bring him up
and that he should study hard and repay her mothers hard work.
3. What distraction did Hafeez contractor create one day?
Answer: Hafeez contractor played Chor police for one whole hour.
4. Was Hafeez contractor interested in architecture?
Answer: Hafeez contractor had no such interest in architecture. It all happened by
chance.
5. Hafeez Contractor wanted to join the police force. Why didn’t he?
Answer: Hafeez contractor did not join Police Force as because his mother said
him not to. She said him to complete his graduation.
6.Who in your view is an unusual learner? 
Answer: an unusual learner can be different from the rest. He can be a genius.
7. How did he help fellow students who had lost a button?
Answer: when his fellow students lost a button, he helped them by cutting a button
from chalk by using a blade.
8. What was Mrs Gupta’s advice to Hafeez contractor?
Answer: Mrs Gupta who was Hafeez contractors teacher in the second and third
grade advised him to become an architect when he grew up.
9. What is Hafeez contractor’s definition of mathematics?
Answer: He said that putting design, construction, psychology, and sociology
together and making a sketch from all that is mathematics.
10. In What special way did Hafeez contractor remember things?
Answer: He didn’t remember them through his mind and saw things as
photographs.