2.5 Book Review-Swami and Friends

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2.5 Book Review-Swami and Friends

BY R. K. Narayan

Warming Up!

Chit-Chat:

1. Form groups of 3 to 4 and share the following with your groups.

*Your favourite book: ‘Shyamchi Aai’

*Type of book: Novel

*Author/Writer: Pandurang Sadashiv Sane

*Main character: Shyam and his mother

*Background: Maximum incident took place in Konkan region of Maharashtra. The story is narrated by Shyam.

*Problem/dilemma: Shyam’s attachment to his mother is depicted in this novel. Shyam’s mother’s love and affection for Shyam are described here.

*Any special message: We should understand the value of mother in our life.

2. You have recently read a short story/novel/drama/ science fiction/ghost-story.

Write in short 3 of its strong points that made you like the book and 2 or 3 drawbacks it has. Fill them up in the tree – diagram given.

The Boy who Broke the Bank

Ruskin Bond

Strength

Very Good

Weakness

-Simple Language

-Special Theme

-Nice Presentation

******

– Little scope for Nathu &

Sitaram

– No scope for Seth Govind Ram

– End appears unsuitable

3. Determiners are words that modify a noun or noun phrase and occur before them in a sentence. Determiners provide a context to the noun they precede.

They may be:

*Articles – a, an, the

*Demonstratives – this, that, these, those, which etc.

*Possessives – my, your, our, their, his, her etc. my friend’s, her mother’s etc.

*Quantifiers – few, many, much, more, every, each, some etc.

*Numerals – one, four, hundred, first, fourth, hundredth

4. Underline only Determiners in the following.

1. My brother bought a few magazines.

2. What is your friend’s name?

3. Which writer was also the President of our country?

4. These are some toys.

5. These toys are new.

6. That doctor is an expert dentist and he has many patients.

Margin Questions for Discussion:

1) Find out what are ‘spoilers’ in a story.

Ans: The mischiefs of Swami like hating school, playing under the sun, kicking something, climbing a tree, breaking something and harassing somebody are spoilers in a story.

2) What is the most striking quality of 10-year-old Swami?

Ans: Swami is a talkative little kid. He thinks that it is his way of facing life, talking himself out of everything.

3) What does the review say about R K Narayan’s style and language?

Ans: The review says that the English used in the book is both plain simple without any troubling words for the kids. The use of simple and short sentences adds to the simplicity of the book.

4) What are the two advantages of reading this book?

Ans :

(i) This book is a good read for children of all ages who may just enjoy a good read.

(ii) It may be good to improve their English skill.

English Workshop

1. Refer to the story ‘The Boy who Broke the Bank’ (Lesson 2.2) by Ruskin Bond. Read it carefully and write a Review of the same, keeping the following points in mind.

Ans : ‘The Boy who Broke the Bank’

Recently I read an interesting story, ‘The Boy who Broke the Bank’. The story is from the pen of a well-known Indian author – Ruskin Bond. This story is a moral story based on the rumours in the society. The background of the story is a well-developed Indian village. The whole story completes within a single day.

Nathu, the sweeper of the bank, and Sitaram, the washerman’s son are the main characters. However, Mrs. Shrivastava, Mrs. Bhushan, Mr. Bhushan, Kamal Kishore, Deep Chand, the elderly gentleman, Ganpat, Manager of the bank are other characters in the story. However, there is a reference of Seth Govind Ram and other customers of the bank. The rumour of bankrupt of Pipalnagar bank is the main Issue of this story. ‘The rumour is spread through the discussion of Mrs. Bhushan and Mrs. Shrivastava.

English in this story by Ruskin Bond is simple and without any troubling words. The writer depicts vivid picture of the Incident. The scene of customers entry in the bank and their immediate demand of money are well presented by the writer. The Writer made minute observations of all events.

The story is readable. I like all the characters and their roles. However, I think that story does not have a suitable end. There is no scope to Seth Govind Ram at all. We should read this story to entertain ourselves and to get fluency in English.

2. Look inside your thinking hat.

Read the evidence/sentences given below and offer a possible explanation of what happened in this house? Make up some questions to gather more information.

Now collect your all evidences and write a story in your notebook. Give a suitable title.

Ans: Mischievous Children

Once there was a mother. She was loving and careful to all family members. She was an expert in She always prepared sweets as well as delicious food items for all. One day she prepared sweet and tasty laddus. It was her habit to prepare sweet food when her children were in school. After preparing she kept some laddus at the secret place.

The children came back to home after their school hours. The mother gave them two laddus to everyone. The children were extremely happy to enjoy laddus. Then they completed their homework’s. They tempted to eat sweet laddus once again. One of them requested, “Give us more laddus.” The mother replied, “I prepared less laddus.” She assured them to give laddus in the next week. The children couldn’t believe in mother. They thought that laddus might be at the secret place.

The children were planning how to get laddus. The mother decided to take rest for a while. She was taking rest in her bedroom. The children took advantage of this opportunity. They rushed in the kitchen secretly. They checked all the jars in the kitchen. As they found the jar of laddus, their joy knew no bounds. They finished all laddus.

Then their mother got up from her sleep. As she rushed into the kitchen, she found that the jars were open. She also noticed footprints of children in the kitchen. She smiled for children’s actions. She kept mum.

3. Identify the new words and phrases which seem to be important, in the review. Try to guess their meaning from the context. You can use a dictionary to confirm it.

Fill up the table.

	Word	Meaning conveyed	One synonym/Antonym	Word class	Other forms	Translation in Mother Tongue
1.	mischievous	naughty but innocent	Synonym- naughty troublesome. Antonym – good and well behave.	Adjective	mischief mischievously	खोडकर
2.	technical	related with machines	Synonym-having to do with mechanical or practical art. – non-technical	Adjective	technology technique	तंत्रविषयक
3.	literary	related with literature	Synonym-about literature. Antonym – non-literary	Adjective	literature literally	वाड्.मयीन
4.	talkative	speaking too much	Synonym-given talking a great deal Antonym – shy, timid	Adjective	talkatively talkativeness	बडबडा
5.	exquisitely	lively	Synonym-very lively Antonym – incompletely non-detail	Adverb	exquisite exquisiteness	रमणीय