Chapter 2
The River Came Home
A. Answer the questions in a few lines.
1. How did Gopala and his friends go to school?
Gopala and his friends went to school in a rusty mini-van that sped down the road, honking
loudly and scattering other travellers and chickens on either side of the road.
2. Why were the children excited?
The children were excited because Ananta’s mother had given him money to buy a
beyblade.
3. How did the boys from Stoney Hill High School behave with Gopala and his friends? Why?
The boys from Stoney Hill High School were condescending and rude.
This is because they were rich and thought they were better than Gopala and his friends,
who were from poor families.
4. Who was Mr. Kiran? How did he try to handle the difficult situation in his shop?
Mr Kirtan was the owner of the downtown toy shop ‘Jolly Toys’.
He tried to pacify Sunil by telling him that he could place an order for another beyblade with
the same colours. When Sunil refused, he made the same offer to Ananta.
5. Why did Gopala hit Sunil? What did Mani Sir think of the fight?
Gopala hit Sunil because he had threatened Mr Kirtan that he would make sure none of his
friends buy stuff from the shop if Mr Kirtan sold the beyblade to the village boys. Mani
Sir thought that Gopala was not in the wrong, the other boy was.
6. According to Mani Sir, why was Gopala suspended?
The rich boy’s parents would have reported the fight to the police, making things more
difficult for Gopala. Therefore, the school suspended him to save him from getting into
greater trouble.
7. Describe the place where Mani Sir found Gopala. The description uses two figures of
speech. Explain them in your own words.
Gopala sat on the banks of the river, where they had their homes before they were displaced.
‘A great unmoving blanket of water from which the thick stump of a dead tree pointed up to
the sky like an accusing finger.’
‘Great, unmoving blanket of water’: This is a metaphor. The water of the river was still and
covered the surface underneath like a blanket covering something that lies below it. ‘Like
an accusing finger’: This is a simile. The tree pointed at the sky like a person points his/her
finger at another person when accusing them of wrongdoing.
B. Answer the questions with reference to the context.
1. Children are naughty. Talkative. Boisterous. These children were none of these.
a. Who were ‘these children’? Where were they at the time?
These children were the students of Saraswati Vidyashala who came from the other side of
Pandupur. They were in the classroom at Saraswati Vidyashala.
b. Who had these thoughts about the children?
The English teacher, Mani Sir, had these thoughts. He had asked the children to be quiet and
pay attention in class.
c. How were ‘these children’ different from the others?
These children felt out of place in the school. They did not interact with the other kids, or
share jokes, laughs or sweets. They responded only when they were spoken to.
2. Sunil turned away dismissively and said, “Mr. Kiran, I’ll take this beyblade and those
computer games.”
a. Who was Sunil? Why did he say these words?
Sunil was a student from Stoney Hill High School. He belonged to a rich engineer’s
family. Sunil said these words, deliberately ignoring Gopala’s question about whether he
intended on buying the whole pile of toys. He wanted to show Gopala’s question was
unimportant to him.
b. What were Sunil and his friends doing?
Sunil and his friends were examining toys, and selecting and rejecting
them. c. What did Sunil eventually threaten to do if he did not get what he
wanted?
Sunil threatened that he would make sure none of his friends bought toys from Mr
Kirtan’s shop henceforth.
3. “There is no wrong or right, Sir. Only people with money and those without. My Gopala is
finished.”
a. Who were these words spoken to? Why did Gopala’s mother say these words?
These words were spoken to Mani Sir.
Gopala’s mother said these words in context of Mani Sir’s narration of the events at the toy
shop. The mother felt that being right or wrong does not matter, because all that matters in
the world is money.
b. Why did she say that Gopala was ‘finished’?
The mother thought that her son Gopala was blacklisted because he had been suspended
from school.
c. What events had brought about such a change in Gopala’s life?
Gopala had protested against the rude and arrogant behaviour of a few rich boys at the local
toy store, which had got him into trouble after he hit one of them.
The families of Gopala and his friends had to leave their homes and shift to a new place.
Houses and stores in this new place were makeshift. Their homes at the river bank were
more comfortable. This made Gopala irritated and he reacted when the boys from Stoney
Hill High School behaved rudely towards them.
4. Gopala turned away. ‘Neither could I’, he said almost to himself.
‘But there is something you can do, ‘said Mani Sir cheerfully.
a. What were Gopala and Mani Sir talking about in these lines?
Gopala and Mani Sir were talking about the guava and tamarind trees that had been
cut down, much to the helpless dismay of the two.
b. What did Gopala mean when he said ‘Neither could I’?
Gopala expressed his inability to prevent the tree from being cut down, much like his
teacher who had also been helpless when his favourite guava tree had been cut down.
c. What did Gopala do next?
Gopala stood up suddenly, stripped to his shorts, picked up a stone and dived into the
water. He swam to the tree stump, carved his message –‘Gopala climbed this tree’ on it and
came back.
d. Why do you think Mani Sir suggested that Gopala do something?
This would have lessened the frustrating sense of helplessness that Gopala was feeling due
to the different events in his life. Things were beyond his control but he could always
register his protest against them.
Think and answer.
1. What are the differences between the two groups of boys in the story? Give examples to
support your answer.
The boys from Saraswati Vidyashala were from a lower economic background, unlike the
boys from Stoney Hill High School. The latter were pompous, rude and arrogant in their
behaviour.
2. Do you think Gopala was unjustly punished? Give reasons for your answer. Yes, I think that
suspension was too strong a punishment for Gopala. Gopala was right in protesting against
the rude behaviour of Sunil and his friends at the toy shop. But he had hit Sunil, thereby
making himself the target of the punishment. He should not have hit the other boy.
3. What do you think the title of the story means?
The title refers to the displacement of the people like Gopala, when the river inundated their
villages, leaving them homeless and outcasts in new surroundings.
4. What do you think of Mani Sir? Which actions of his showed that he was intelligent and
sensitive?
Mani Sir was a wise and understanding teacher, who was very compassionate. He was
sensitive and kind as well. The fact that he shared his own life experiences of a similar
nature with Gopala indicates his intelligence and sensitive handling of the matter. He did not
preach to the boy or give him lessons in right and wrong. He also showed his wisdom in
quietly observing the argument at the shop, because that gave him a clear idea of the nature
of the boys. But later, he intervened to prevent a fight between them.
