NCERT Solutions For Class 10 English

First Flight Chapter 9 Madam Rides the Bus

Question 1: What was Valli’s favorite pastime?

Answer: Standing in the front doorway of her home and observing what was going on in the street
outside was Valli's favourite pastime.

Question 2: What was a source of unending joy for Valli? What was her strongest desire?

Answer: Valli experienced unending happiness every time she saw the bus carrying passengers as it
passed through the street close to her house on its way between her village and the closest town. Her
most fervent wish was to board a bus someday.

Question 3: What did Valli find out about the bus journey? How did she find out these details?

Answer: Valli learned that the bus ride from her village to the town was about six kilometers and
took 45 minutes. The cost of the one-way fare was 30 paisa. In order to learn more about the bus
trip, she carefully listened to the conversations between her neighbours and those who regularly took
it. She also asked a few questions.

Question 4: What do you think Valli was planning to do?

Answer: Valli intended to board the bus, go to the town, then board the bus again to return home.
According to what she had been told, the next leg would cost 30 pias and take around 45 minutes to
get to the town. She made the decision to stay in her seat and pay an additional thirty pence for the
return trip in this way. This allowed her to board the bus at noon, get in town at 1.45, and depart for
home at 2.45.

Oral Comprehension Check (Page 122)

Question 1: Why does the conductor call Valli ‘madam’?

Answer: Valli was acting audaciously and shrewdly like a woman, so the conductor addressed her as
"madam." She refused his assistance in boarding the bus and gave the conductor's queries an
immediate response. She was called "madam" by the conductor, who was amused by her antics and
behavior.

Question 2: Why does Valli stand up on the seat? What does she see now?

Answer: Valli was making a concerted effort to gaze outside the bus since she was mesmerised by
the view of the stunning surroundings. However, the canvas blind that was covering the lower
portion of the window prevented her vision. She got up on the seat and peered over the blind to get a
closer look. The bus was travelling by the bank of a canal when she noticed the curvy road, palm
palms, grassland, distant mountains, green fields, and the blue sky. She could see as far as her eyes
could go on the other side, where there was a big ditch and numerous acres of lush fields.
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First Flight Chapter 9 Madam Rides the Bus

Question 3: What does Valli tell the elderly man when he calls her a child?

Answer: Valli immediately responded that no one in the bus was a child when the elderly passenger
in the bus referred to her as a child. She continued by saying that, like the other passengers on the
bus, she had paid her fare of thirty pence.

Question 4: Why didn’t Valli want to make friends with the elderly woman?

Answer: The elderly woman seemed quite disgusting to Valli, so she had no desire to become
friends. She wore hideous earrings and had large earlobes with larger holes. Additionally, she was
chewing on a betel nut and had betel juice in her mouth, which was probably going to drip all over
her lips. Valli concluded after seeing all of this that the elderly woman lacked the social skills to be a
friend.

Oral Comprehension Check (Page 125)

Question 1: How did Valli save up money for her first journey? Was it easy for her?

Answer: Valli had diligently saved every stray dime that came her way. In order to save enough
money for the bus trip, she resisted the need to buy candy canes, toys, balloons, and other items. It
had been extremely challenging for her to restrain her desires and resist the urge to ride the merry-
go-round at the village fair. She was able to save sixty pence after making numerous sacrifices for
her first bus trip.

Question 2: What did Valli see on her way that made her laugh?

Answer: When Valli saw a young cow racing extremely quickly in the middle of the road just in
front of the bus with its tail raised in the air, she was ecstatic. The driver repeatedly honked his horn
to get the cow to move out of the way. The cow galloped as quickly as she could, but the more he
honked, the more terrified she became. When Valli saw all of this, she thought it was incredibly
humorous and laughed aloud until tears began to fall from her eyes.

Question 3: Why didn’t she get off the bus at the bus station?

Answer: Valli had no intention of exploring the town; she merely intended to ride the bus. She had
patiently saved up sixty paise for the bus rides there and back. She would pay the thirty pence fare
for her next trip, go to the town, and then get back on the same bus before her mother woke up from
her afternoon nap because she knew she only had a limited amount of money to travel by bus. She
didn't get off the bus at the bus station since she didn't have the money or the time to go around the
town and investigate it.
 NCERT Solutions For Class 10 English

First Flight Chapter 9 Madam Rides the Bus

Question 4: Why didn’t Valli want to go to the stall and have a drink? What does this tell you
about her?

Answer: Due to the fact that she had only saved sixty pence for the bus fare, Valli didn't want to go
to the stand. She had to take the same bus back, so she didn't want to squander money on anything
superfluous. As a result, she declined the conductor's suggestion that she get down and obtain a
drink for herself. In case she didn't have any money, he also offered to buy her a drink, but she
continued to say no. This suggests that she was a strong-willed young woman who didn't want to
rely on anyone for anything.

Thinking about the Text (Page 127)

Question 1: What was Valli’s deepest desire? Find the words and phrases in the story that tell
you this.

Answer: The bus that Valli saw every day as she left her house was what she yearned for the most.
Words and phrases like "an overwhelming desire," "source of unending joy," "stare wistfully," and
"kindle in her longings, dreams and hopes" are used in the story to describe her desire.

Question 2: How did Valli plan her bus ride? What did she find out about the bus, and how
did she save up the fare?

Answer: Since several days, Valli had been attentively listening to the conversations between her
neighbours and the frequent bus users while also sneakily probing them. She discovered from them
that the town was six miles from her village, the bus cost thirty paise for the return trip, and the one-
way trip took forty-five minutes. Additionally, she decided that she would continue travelling in the
bus, which would cost her sixty pence to get there and back. She didn't have enough money to
wander the town, so she was determined not to get off the bus. She therefore diligently saved sixty
pence and resisted all desires and temptations to purchase peppermints, toys, etc., as well as a ride on
the merry-go-round at the village fair. It was Valli's secret, exciting bus trip that she had organised
without telling her parents.

Question 3: What kind of person is Valli? To answer this question, pick out the following
sentences from the text and fill in the blanks. The words you fill in are the clues to your
answer.

(i) “Stop the bus! Stop the bus!” And a tiny hand was raised ______________________________.

(ii) “Yes, I __________________ go to town,” said Valli, still standing outside the bus.

(iii) “There’s nobody here ______________________,” she said haughtily. “I’ve paid my thirty
paise like everyone else.”

(iv) “Never mind,” she said, “I can ___________________. You don’t have to help me. ”I’m not a
child, I tell you,” she said, ___________________________________.
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First Flight Chapter 9 Madam Rides the Bus

(v) “You needn’t bother about me. I ___________________________,” Valli said, turning her face
toward the window and staring out.

(vi) Then she turned to the conductor and said, “Well, sir, I hope _________________________.”

Answer: Valli was a confident eight-year-old girl who believed that her age was not a limiting factor
for her to travel alone in the bus to the town. She considered herself to be a grown-up person and
also acted like one.

(i) “Stop the bus! Stop the bus!” And a tiny hand was raised commandingly.

(ii) “Yes, I simply have to go to town,” said Valli, still standing outside the bus.

(iii) “There’s nobody here who’s a child,” she said haughtily. “I’ve paid my thirty paise like
everyone else.”

(iv) “Never mind,” she said, “I can get on by myself. You don’t have to help me. ”I’m not a child, I
tell you,” she said, irritably.

(v) “You needn’t bother about me. I can take care of myself,” Valli said, turning her face toward the
window and staring out.

(vi) Then she turned to the conductor and said, “Well, sir, I hope to see you again.”

Question 4: Why does the conductor refer to Valli as ‘madam’?

Answer: Valli was addressed as "madam" by the conductor since she was acting like a grown
woman and reacted angrily when she was called a child. She believed herself old enough to ride
alone in the bus at the age of eight. In addition, she declined his assistance when he reached out to
help her board the bus, saying sternly that she could manage it on her own.
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First Flight Chapter 9 Madam Rides the Bus

Question 5: Find the lines in the text which tell you that Valli was enjoying her ride on the bus.

Answer: Valli thoroughly enjoyed her bus ride to the town. The following lines from the text are a
proof that exhibit her excitement:

• “Valli devoured everything with her eyes.”

• “The bus was now going along the bank of a canal. The road was very narrow. On one side
there was the canal and, beyond it, palm trees, grassland, distant mountains, and the blue,
blue sky. On the other side was a deep ditch and then acres and acres of green fields —
green, green, green, as far as the eye could see.”
• “Oh, it was all so wonderful!”
• “Everyone laughed, and gradually Valli too joined in the laughter.”
• “Suddenly Valli clapped her hands with glee. A young cow, tail high in the air, was running
very fast, right in the middle of the road, right in front of the bus.”
• “Somehow this was very funny to Valli. She laughed and laughed until there were tears in
her eyes.”
• “Valli wasn’t bored in the slightest and greeted everything with the same excitement she’d
felt the first time.”

Question 6: Why does Valli refuse to look out of the window on her way back?

Answer: Because she was angry after seeing the dead body of the cow that had been racing toward
the bus when she was traveling to town, Valli refused to look out the window as she was traveling
back to her village. The unlucky animal was struck on the road by a swiftly moving vehicle. The
memory of the cow was haunting her, and it made her feel incredibly depressed and afraid to look
out the bus window.

Question 7: What does Valli mean when she says, “I was just agreeing with what you said
about things happening without our knowledge.”

Answer: I was just agreeing with what you said about things happening without our knowledge,"
Valli replied when her mother casually mentioned that there are some things that happen around
them without their knowledge. She was pleased with her daring bus trip to the town that she had
taken on her own, without telling her parents.
 NCERT Solutions For Class 10 English

First Flight Chapter 9 Madam Rides the Bus

Question 8: The author describes the things that Valli sees from an eight-year-old’s point of
view. Can you find evidence from the text for this statement?

Answer: Yes, the author discussed different topics from the perspective of an eight-year-old. She
was fascinated with the bus, to name a couple. She also found endless satisfaction in seeing the bus
fill up with new passengers each time. The new bus was characterized by the author as having "a
sparkling white exterior with some green stripes around the sides." The ceiling bars inside glistened
like silver. The author intended to convey how a child might be drawn to the bus's colour through
this description."The seats were plush and comfortable." According to this description, the author
wished to capture the thrill a child has while riding in the comfort of a bus for the first time. The
words "blue sky" and "acres and acres of green field" express a child's energy and joy. Additionally,
Valli was as captivated by the cow that was racing in front of the bus as she was by the dead cow,
which made her cry. On her return trip, she was haunted by the memory of the cow and would not
look out the window. These were a few of the lines that perfectly captured the typical responses and
behaviour of an eight-year-old child.