Our Great Escape By Ruskin Bond

Questions and Answers

Answer the following briefly:

1.How old was the narrator in the short story ‘Our Great Escape’? Where does he live?
2.How did he spend his vacation?
3.Why was it difficult for the narrator to befriend anyone from his school?
4.What about Omar caught the narrator’s attention?
5.What positions did Omar and the narrator get in their school’s hockey team? What
achievements did they get from there?
6.From where did Omar belong?
7.Which book reminded the narrator of Omar?
8.Why was Lawrence Royal Military School special to the narrator? What about his father
did he find there?
9.What happened to the narrator and Omar’s fathers?
10.What was the narrator’s nickname?
11.What was the narrator’s book about?
12.Who was Omar’s guardian?
13.Who distributed the prizes to students on Founder’s Day?
14.What did he tell the students about the world?
15.Who was the ‘old boy’ who nobody talked about? Why?
16.What were the consequences of the partition of Bengal and Punjab?
17.What made the tunnel so special to the narrator and Omar?
18.What movie were the students shown? Did the narrator like it? Why was it the last movie
which they were shown that year?
19.What did Omar write to the narrator in his letter?
20.What happened to Omar years later?
21.How did the narrator react to the death of his childhood friend?
Reference to context:
A. “‘Oh it won’t happen’ I said glibly. ‘How can they cut up such a big country?’”

i.Who is the speaker?

ii.What historical event is being referred to here?
iii.Who were the three people involved in this event?
iv.What happened in the narrator’s school after this historical event was announced?

B. “Before their decision impinged on our lives and everyone else’s, we found a little
freedom of our own…”

i.Whose decision and what is being referred here?

ii.What was the ‘freedom’ of their own? Describe.

C. “And when all wars are done” I said, “ a butterfly will still be beautiful”

i.Who is the speaker?

ii.How did his friend react to this?
iii.How did Rudyard Kipling describe Shimla’s lower bazar?

Theme based questions and character analysis

1.Comment on the theme of friendship displayed in the short story ‘Our Great Escape.’
2. Comment on the theme of war displayed in the short story ‘Our Great Escape.’
3. Comment on the theme of escapism displayed in the short story ‘Our Great Escape.’
3.Analyse the characters of
i.The Narrator
ii.Omar