A Lesson in Life from a Beggar | Sudha Murtey | Question Answer

10th Std | SSC BOARD

 'A Lesson from a Beggar'

.....by Sudha Murtey

Questions and Answers

Q.1 Answer the following questions.

1.Who is Meena?

Ans: Meena is a good friend of the writer and an LIC officer.

2. What was Meena’s nature like?

Ans: Meena was forever unhappy. She was negative-minded. Somebody met her would start feel depressed.

3. What is meant by ‘she never had anything positive to say?

Ans: She never had anything positive to say means her thoughts had always been negative.

4. Describe the location in Mumbai, where the writer spotted Meena.

Ans: It was raining and writer was standing near Akbarally’s popular department store at Bombay’s Flora Fountain in Mumbai, where the writer spotted Meena.

5. What is the difference between an optimistic person and pessimistic person?

Ans: Optimistic person always looks for positive aspect of everything. Pessimistic person sees only the negative side.

6. What surprised the writer?

Ans: The writer surprised about the changed behavior of Meena. She seemed ready to make any number of adjustments.

7. What lesson did Meena learn from her guru- the beggar?

Ans: Accept what you have and enjoy your every moment of life.

8. Describe an experience, where somebody has changed your way of looking at life.

Ans: I and my best friend were going to Kolhapur. We were happy and chitchatting on our way. Suddenly a man came with his car and dashed on our scooty. Before even realizing what happened we were on the road. We both got bruises. The man who was driving the car helped us in every possible way that he could. He even compensated the loss. But that day I learnt that we should enjoy each and every moment of life because we never know when would be your last day…!

9. How did the beggar and his granddaughter enjoy the rain?

Ans: The beggar and his granddaughter enjoy the rain on road and laughing, clapping and screaming joyously as if they were in paradise.

10. What did Meena do to show gratitude to her guru?

Ans: She sponsored his granddaughter to a boarding school.

..English Workshop..

Q1. Complete the following table.

	Utterance	Who said	To whom
1	“Shwetha is a very beautiful girl, isn’t she?”	The writer	Meena
2	“When a pony is young, he looks handsome?”	Meena	The writer
3	“It’s a beautiful day.”	The writer	Meena
4	“No, the sun is too hot.”	Meena	The writer
5	“I’m all excited, it’s nice to meet old friends.”	Meena	The writer
6	“Let’s chat.”	Meena	The writer
7	“We won’t get a taxi in this rain.”	The writer	Meena
8	‘Then, what’s the secret of your energy?”	The writer	Meena
9	“A beggar changed my life.”	Meena	The writer

Q2. State whether the following statements are right or wrong. Correct the wrong ones.

    a) The author and Meena were great enemies.

    Ans: Wrong

    b) Meena was a very cheerful person initially.

    Ans: Wrong

    c) Meena stayed alone in an apartment in Delhi.

    Ans: Wrong

    d) Meena was the second child of her parents.

    Ans: Wrong

    e) The author spotted meena at Bombay’s Flora Fountain.

    Ans: Right

    f) The beggar and the young girl were playing on the 

    road because there was a lot of traffic.

    Ans: Wrong

    g) The scene of the beggar and the girl made Meena peep into her own life.

    Ans: Right

    h) The beggar became Mena’s role model.

    Ans: Right

    i) It took Meenaalmost two years to put the change into effect.

    Ans: Right

    j) Meena was able to give Gurudakshina directly to her Guru,     the beggar.

    Ans: Wrong

Q3.Choose the correct alternative to complete the sentences.

a) Meena , who is an LIC officer, is………………….

i) A pessimistic person

ii) an optimistic person

iii) a disabled person.

Ans: a pessimistic person

b) The writer was standing near Akbarally’s, a popular department store because………..

i) She was waiting for her friend Meena

ii) She was waiting for rain to stop.

iii) She wanted to buy something in Akbarally.

Ans: She was waiting for rain to stop

c) The only thought in the writer’s mind till they reached the Grand Hotel was…………

i) Why the rain was not stopping.

ii) What had brought about such a change in Meena.

iii) How the beggar had changed the entire life of Meena.

Ans: What had brought about such a change in Meena.

d) Meena sponsored the granddaughter of the beggar because.

i) She was alone in her life after his death.

ii) It was a token of respect for the beggar.

iii) She was rich and so she wanted to help.

Ans: It was a token of respect for the beggar.

Q 5. A) Write in your own words:

How did Meena show her gratitude to her guru?

Ans: Unfortunately she did not give gurudakshina to her guru  because when she understood things, he was dead. But she provided funds to his granddaughter to a boarding school as a mark of respect to him. In this way Meena showed her gratitude  to her guru.

Q6. Find antonyms of the following words from the story.

1. Drizzle             × pouring

2. New                 × old

3. Lie                    × truth

4. Ugly                 × beautiful

10. unimportant × important

Q7. Make 4 meaningful words by using letters from “pessimistic”

Ans: met, pie, ice, mice, epic, spice, septic, pessimist, sip, me, it

Q.8 Punctuate the following sentences.

a)did you give any gurudakshina to your guru I asked.

Ans: “Did you give any gurudakshina to your guru?” I asked.

b) no  there isn’t anyone like that she said.

Ans: “No, there isn’t anyone like that”, she said.

Q.9 Write the above summary making Meena the narrator. Begin with ‘I worked in Bangalore in LIC. Sudha was my friend.

Ans: I worked in Bangalore in LIC. Sudha was my friend living in the same city. I was very pessimistic and having the habit of complaining about everything and anything. So, nobody was friendly with me. One day I was transferred to Mumbai and no one was in my contact. 

One day, I found Sudha. I became very happy. She also became very happy to see me. She got shocked because she noticed my smiling and happy face. She wanted to know the secret behind it. I told her that an ordinary beggar changed my life who used to live in front of my house with his five years old granddaughter. I told her that I used to give my leftover to the beggar every day. One day in rainy season, I was surprised to see the beggar and his granddaughter playing on the road because there was no traffic.

They were enjoying the rain and laughing, clapping and screaming happily as if they were in heaven. Hunger and rain did not matter. They were totally drenched but totally joyous. That incident forced me to look at my own life. Even though I had so many comforts none of which the beggar had. But he had the most valuable of all assets one which I lacked. So, I decided to change myself. It look me almost two years to put the change into effect. Now I find happiness in every small thing in every situation and in every person. Sudha was shocked to listen this change and asked me whether I had given any gurudakshina to her Guru or not. I told Sudha that the beggar was dead so I had sponsored his granddaughter to a boarding school as a mark of respect to him. Sudha became very happy to hear the changed story and attitude of my life.

Q.10 Add a suffix to the following words and make nouns.

i) Kind        – kindness

ii) happy     – happiness

iii) ignore    – ignorance

iv)assure     – assurance

v) imagine    – imagination

vi)depute    – deputation

vii) manage    – management

viii)assess        – assessment

Q.11 Change into indirect speech.

a) "Meena, it’s a beautiful day,” I said.

Ans: I told Meena that it was a beautiful day.

b) “Hey! I am really excited. It’s nice to meet old friends. What are you doing here?” said Meena.

Ans: Meena exclaimed happily that she was very excited and added that it was nice to meet old friends. She further asked the writer what she was doing there.

c) “We won’t get a taxi in this rain”, I grumbled.

Ans: I grumbled and said that we would not get a taxi in that rain.

d) “So what? We’ll buy an umbrella and then go to the Grand Hotel”, she said.

Ans: She asked so what and said that they would buy an umbrella and then go to the Grand Hotel.

e) “Did you give any gurudakshina to your Guru?” I asked.

Ans: I asked if she had given any gurudakshina to her Guru.

Passage 1 ( Meena is a………………..…all forget about her)

A1. State whether the following statements are true or false.

1) Meena and the author did not recognize each other.       

Ans: False

2) Initially Meena was a very cheerful person.

Ans: False

3) Meena’s parents lived in Mumbai. 

Ans: False

4) Meena was an LIC officer.

Ans: True

A2. Pick out the sentences from the story which prove that Meena was a pessimist.

Ans:1) She was forever unhappy.

2) She never had anything positive to say on any subject or any person.

3) She stayed alone.

4) She had the habit of complaining about anything or everything.

A3. Find out opposite of the following words from the passage.

i) Never × always        

ii) Negative    × positive

iii) Old × new

iv) Everybody× nobody

A4. Do as directed.

a) Whenever I met her, I would start to feel depressed.

(Underline the sun-ordinate clause and name it)

Ans: Whenever I met her, I would start to feel depressed.

Adverb clause of time.

b) Choose the correct tail tag of.

1) She had habit of complaining about anything and everything.

a) hadn’t she?

b) didn’t she?

c)don’t she?

Ans: didn’t she?

A5. What do you learn from the passage about Meena?

Ans: I learn from the passage about Meena that she was pessimistic. She had bad habit that her thoughts were negative about everything and about every person. She didn’t like to speak anything positive.

Passage 2

(However, what………………….….respect to him)

Q.A Read the following passage and do the activities.

A1. Complete the following sentences.

1. The beggar and the young girl were playing on the road because there was no traffic.

2. The scene of the beggar and girl made Meena to look at her own life.

3. The beggar became the totally drenched and totally happy.

4. Meena sponsored the beggar’s granddaughter to a boarding school as a mark of respect to him.

A2. Add a suffix to the following words and make nouns.

1) realize -realization

2) decide -decision

3) imagine -imagination

4) happy -happiness

A3. Do as directed.

1) I am always happy. (Make negative)

Ans: I am never unhappy.

2) I decided to change my attitude. (Rewrite the sentence using noun form of the underlined word)

Ans: I took a decision to change my attitude.