THE DREAMER

 LESSON FOURTEEN 

Introduction

An urchin is a mischievous, small child who probably has  no place to stay, no food to eat, no proper clothes to wear.

Work in pairs. Make a list of reasons why children become urchins. Then compare your list with others in the class.

In this lesson you are going to read a story of an urchin who is called The Dreamer. Read and find out why he is given that name. Also find out why he became an urchin. However, before you read the story, do the following vocabulary exercise. It will help you to understand the story better.

The meaning of some words are given below. The number after each meaning indicates the paragraph where the word is used. Find the word.

1. turned upwards (2)

Answer : cocked

2. dry weather without rain  (3)

Answer : drought 

3. cleaned surface of floor, car etc. with a piece of cloth (8)

Answer : swabbed 

4. the covering over the engine of a car (8)

Answer : bonnet 

5. examined very carefully (12)

Answer : scrutinised 

6. easily bent or turned (12)

Answer : lithe 

7. graceful, neat and beautiful (12)

Answer : elegant 

8. harm the shape of (12)

Answer : disfigured 

9. rude and unpleasant (16)

Answer : officious 

10. small everyday work (18)

Answer : chores

Match the words/phrases correctly with the meanings given.  The number after each word tells the paragraph where the word is to be found in the passage. 

a) toyed with (18)                    -    considered, but not seriously

immortalised (22)                    -    made famous

rinsed (22)                                -    washed                     

relapsed (29)                            -     fell back

conferred (31)                          -     gave as an honour

ventured (55)                           -    dared/risked

b) ecentric (18)                        -     strange, rather mad

enviously (32)                          -    with a feeling of jealousy

tentatively (55)                        -     not fixed, done on trial

grandiose (58)                         -    pretending to be grand

c) splendour (23)                     -     brightness

shafts (30)                                -     beams of light

morale (69)                              -    state of mind which gives one confidence

d) odd man out (1)                  -      person different from the rest

all and sundry (18)                  -    all the people

search high and low (75)         -    to look everywhere

DID YOU READ WELL?

Read paragraphs 1 to 3 again and complete the following notes.

The narrator calls one of the urchins  the 'odd man out' probably because

1) He was blind of right eye,

2) There was lot of mischief in his left eye to make up for the absence of light in the right eye.

The urchin says, 'Sahib, I will wash your car for you with a bucketful of water.' The narrator wishes to allow him to do so because

1) The motor had become dusty.

2)  The other three of the urchins were using very dirty rags to clean his car, and the narrator wanted his car to be properly cleaned.

LISTEN CAREFULLY

Your teacher will read aloud paragraphs 4 to 17. Listen carefully and complete the table below with the information the urchin gives of himself.

Urchin's name	Devaki Nandan Pandey
Class he studies in	Fifth class
Two reasons why he is not   going to school	i) School was closed ii) He had nearly finished with school
The job he wants to take up	Motor engineer
Where he will go for training  and when	Patna,  Next year
Information about his father	He was dead
Who he lived with	His mother

READ FAST 

Read paragraphs 18 to 30 again and complete the following notes.

The two future possibilities the narrator thought for the urchin were

1) The narrator himself wanted to adopt him.

2) Introduce him to the local ashram run by the companions of Jayaprakash Narayan where he could learn some chores like cooking, dusting, driving.

The reason why Devaki Nandan Pandey said he could not take up the job of a cook.

He was Harijan by birth.

The places where Gautam Buddha 

1) argued with the Brahmins. 

    Benaras

2) delivered his first speech.

    Sarnath

3) often stayed.

    Kausambi

4) stayed with Amrapali.

    Mithila 

READ FURTHER 

Read paragraphs 31 to 78 and complete the following statements.

1.The narrator gave Devaki Nandan Pandey a rupee because of the sheer pleasure of friendship that Devaki had conferred on him. 

2. The other boys were envious of him because he was handsomely paid by the narrator.

3. The narrator and his companion's purpose of visit to Bodh Gaya was probably to tour and travel the historic place.

4. Devaki Nandan Pandey entertained them by narrating many legends of the Buddha.

5. Devaki Nandan Pandey wanted to belong to the Budh Math because his mother had told him that Gautam Buddha accepted everyone irrespective of their caste and creed.

6. Devaki Nandan Pandey accepted only half a kilo of ladoos. This shows that he was decent and frugal.

7. The narrator went to look for Devaki because he had promised to come before sunrise the next morning but he did not turn up.

8. The things he discovered about Devaki were he was an orphan and that  his actual name was not Devaki Nandan Pandey but he was known as Kania, one-eyed.

9. After learning the truth about Devaki the narrator admired him even more because he felt that Devaki was very brave and lovable, though he was an orphan, he told those stories in order to keep up his morale.

10. Some information the narrator and his companion collected about Devaki 

i) He was an orphan.

ii) His actual name was not Devaki Nandan Pandey, but he was known as Kania, one-eyed.

iii) He was a great story teller and a dreamer. 

iv) He did not live in that village but sometimes he came there to show visitors the famous hill where Sujata gave rice and milk to Gautama Buddha.

11. Devaki was called a dreamer because he used to console himself dreaming about things he was deprived of in his life.

LET'S WRITE

You are a member of the school's National Social Service team. You made a survey of street urchins in your town. You now wish to write a letter to the Social Welfare Officer drawing her attention to the condition of the urchins, and offering your suggestions for their welfare. Below is your incomplete letter. Complete the letter.

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Social Welfare Officer, Shanti Niketan, Government of Apna Pradesh, Gopalpur                                     Dear Madam, I beg to draw your attention to the recent survey I conducted  on the number of street urchins. It is sad to note that there  are a large number of these urchins who are leading a very  pathetic life , they are deprived of even the basic necessities of life. It is inexplicable for me to describe how pathetic and miserable  their life is. They depend on others for the fulfillment of their basic needs. In our streets, a large number of these under nourished pathetic semi-clad filthy children can be seen begging, picking on heaps of garbage. They can also be seen roaming around from street to street or sit at a  particular place each day begging people to offer them some food, money and sometimes doing odd jobs. Their futre seems very bleak,  dreary and deplorable if nothing is done for their welfare and upliftment.  Madam, I feel that as a Social Welfare Officer you can do a lot for  these urchins and bring about a little happiness not only on their face but in their miserable lives as well. I believe they can become very useful  to society. Let us do something for them. In order to uplift these urchins  I think we could put them in local ashrams and orphanages where they  could learn some chores like cooking, dusting, driving and other life skills.  I request you to kindly take an early action for the welfare and upliftment of these urchins. Yours sincerely, Ratan Lal Sharma