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Karnataka State Syllabus Class 9 English Supplementary Chapter 3 Balai
Balai Questions and Answers, Summary, Notes
Answer the following questions:
Question 1.
How is Balai related to the writer?
Answer:
Balai is Tagore’s elder brother’s son. Since Tagore’s brother went to England for higher studies, the motherless Balai was left in the care of Tagore and his wife.
Question 2.
What kind of a boy was Balai?
Answer:
Balai was a very sensitive boy who was intensely attached to plant kingdom. The trees, flowers, sky, rain, grass etc. used to be living creatures to him and he used to speak to them. He would get upset if anyone broke a branch or plucked a flower or even hit a tree. He used to be anguished when the grass cutter mowed the grass.
Question 3.
What traits in Balai do you admire most?
Answer:
Balai’s sensitivity towards plants and trees is his most admirable trait. When we see people around us becoming more and more dehumanized, it is appreciable that Balai was hurt when someone broke a branch or plucked a flower or hit a tree. He was upset even when the grass-cutter came to mow the lawn. This feeling for every living creature in nature is remarkable.
Question 4.
Why didn’t Balai want the grass-cutter to cut the plants?
Answer:
Balai’s relationship with plants was unique. Plants were his friends. Be it the small creepers, insignificant violet and yellow flowers, blue flowers with a little golden dot at the center, medicinal plants near the fence, Kalmeghs, Anantamuls and neem seeds, everything in nature was a cause of Balai’s wonderment. All this would be lost if the grass-cutter cut the plants.
Question 5.
What do you think is the message in the story?
Answer:
The message in the story is that every, creation of nature is important. The plants also have life and have to be treated with respect. Nothing is great and nothing is useless. All species are equal and they have to be treated as species with life.
Balai Additional Questions and Answers
Question 1.
How would Balai react to rains, clouds and sunshine?
Answer:
When layers of dark clouds gathered, his entire soul seemed to fill with moist winds carrying the aroma of a forest during the rains. When the rain came down, his whole body listened to its sound. When the sun shone brightly, he would walk bare-chested as if to absorb something from the sunlight.
Question 2.
What was grass to Balai?
Answer:
To Balai grass was not an immovable object, but a rolling mass in an endless game. Every tiny flower on the grass brought wonder and joy to him.
Question 3.
What was the prayer of the plant?
Answer:
The plant, Vanguard of all living things had raised its hands to the sun and prayed that it wanted to stay there and live and wanted to be an eternal traveller towards the goal of endless life.
Question 4.
How had Balai nurtured the silk- cotton plant?
Answer:
Balai had noticed a tiny sapling come out of the ground in the gravelled garden path. He watered it every morning and evening and eagerly kept track of its growth. When it had grown about two cubits height, he admired its foliage and brought Tagore to see it.
Question 5.
What was Tagore’s reaction to the silk- cotton plant?
Answer:
When Tagore saw that the plant had grown in the middle of the gravelled garden path he wanted the gardener to uproot it and throw it away. When Balai requested him not to, Tagore said that since it was growing right in the middle of the path, it would create problem by scattering cotton all around.
Question 6.
How did Balai stop Tagore from cutting the silk-cotton plant?
Answer:
When Balai could not convince Tagore, he ran to his aunt, Tagore’s wife and pleaded with her not to cut the plant. The plea of the motherless child moved the aunt and she ordered that the plant be not cut.
Question 7.
Why did Balai go away with his father?
Answer:
Balai’s father had gone to England to study engineering leaving the motherless child under the care of Tagore and his wife. Tagore’s brother came back after ten years from England and decided to provide British style schooling for Balai. So he took him to Shimla with the idea of later moving to England.
Question 8.
What was Tagore’s wife’s reaction to Balai’s going away?
Answer:
Balai’s aunt became desolate at his going and used to cry thinking of him. She used to wander into Balai’s bedroom and browse among his torn shoes, ripped rubber ball and picture books with animal stories.
Question 9.
Describe the silk-cotton tree that grew’ in Tagore’s garden path.
Answer:
The plant could not be chopped off by Tagore due to the orders given by his wife at the request of Balai. The tree grew quite tail within a year and looked perennially stupid. It stood in the same inconvenient spot and grew taller and taller every year. Anyone seeing it thought that it was an eyesore.
Question 10.
What was Balai’s request and why did he make that request?
Answer:
Balai wrote a letter from Shimla to his aunt requesting her for a photograph of his silk- cotton tree. He had planned on visiting them before leaving for England. But since that plan could not materialise, he wanted to take a picture of his friend with him.
Balai Summary in English
In this lesson Rabindranath Tagore describes his brother’s son Balai who had an intense attachment towards plants of all varieties. He loved all seasons, be it monsoon or summer. He used to have silent conversations with trees, grass, flowers. He never used to like if someone plucked flowers, or threw stones at amla trees to bring down the fruits.
Knowing his feeling, his friends used to break a branch or hit a plant just to tease him. He used to get very upset when the gardener used to mow down the grass. Balai would sit on his aunt’s lap and plead with her to stop the gardener to stop cutting the grass. But his aunt used to chide him saying that they were weeds.
One morning, he ran excitedly to his uncle and called him to view a marvel. It was a silk-cotton plant which was growing in the middle of the gravelled garden path. But Tagore wanted to uproot it immediately as it marred the beauty of his garden path. Balai implored his uncle and then ran to his aunt and whimpered to stop his uncle from cutting the plant.
Taking pity on the motherless child, Tagore’s wife ordered the tree to be left alone. Though the tree looked stupid in the middle of the path, it could not be cut at all. Tagore’s brother who had gone to England after his wife’s death to pursue his engineering came back to take Balai with him to provide him British style schooling at Shimla, with the idea of later moving to England. Balai’s departure brought depression to Tagore’s wife who used to look at his articles and wipe her tears.
Since Balai had left, Tagore got the silk cotton tree cut. One day Tagore’s wife got a letter from Balai in which he had asked for a photograph of the silk-cotton tree sent to him as a reminder of days spent in Tagore’s place. When his wife asked him where the tree was, Tagore said that he had chopped the tree. Balai’s aunt refused to eat for two days, refused to talk to Tagore for a long time. When Balai was taken away from her, she felt as if her lifeblood was drained. When Tagore cut the tree, she felt very wounded, as to her the tree represented Balai.
Glossary:
- tacit: indirectly understood
- trait: characteristic
- dominant: powerful, important
- expanse: width
- inarticulate: width
- intense: extreme
- lest: otherwise
- vanguard: to be in the forefront
- foster mother: a lady taking care of a child like a mother
- beleaguered: experiencing a lot of difficulties and criticism
- perennially: continuously
- recoiled: flinched, moved the body away quickly
- scrawl: handwriting