Chapter 7: Madam Rides the Bus (Madam Rides the Bus)

Phrases found in the text (ticked):

• a set of passengers ("filled each time with a new set of passengers")
• get on the bus ("I'm the one who has to get on")
• get off the bus ("aren't you ready to get off?")
• a roar and a rattle ("a tremendous roar and rattle", of the train)
• slowing down to a crawl ("The bus slowed down to a crawl")
• blowing a whistle ("he blew his whistle twice")

Not found in the text: platform, Tickets, please, a row of seats.

Sample answer: From a fast-moving bus I can see green fields, rivers and hills slipping past. Trees seem to run backwards. We pass roadside shops, crowded market places and level crossings where trains thunder by. In the town I see vehicles on the road, big crowds and shops with colourful clothes. Sometimes I notice cows, goats and dogs by the roadside.

Valli's favourite pastime was standing in the front doorway of her house and watching what was happening in the street outside.

The sight of the bus that travelled between her village and the nearest town, filled each time with a new set of passengers, was a source of unending joy for Valli. Her strongest desire was to ride on that bus, even if just once.

Valli found out that the town was six miles from her village, the fare was thirty paise one way, and the trip took forty-five minutes. If she stayed in her seat on reaching the town and paid another thirty paise, she could return on the same bus. So she could take the one-o'clock bus, reach the town at one forty-five and be back home by about two forty-five.

She found these details by listening carefully to the conversations between her neighbours and the people who regularly used the bus, and by asking a few discreet questions here and there.

Valli was planning to ride the bus to the town and back by herself, secretly, in the afternoon, without telling anyone, using the one-o'clock bus.

The conductor was a jolly man, fond of joking. He found it funny that a tiny girl stopped the bus, insisted on getting on by herself and paid her own fare like a grown-up. He therefore teased her by calling her "my fine madam".

A canvas blind covered the lower part of her window and cut off her view, so she stood up on the seat and peered over it. She saw the bus going along the bank of a canal with palm trees, grassland, distant mountains and the blue sky on one side. On the other side there was a deep ditch and acres and acres of green fields.

Valli tells him haughtily, "There's nobody here who's a child. I've paid my thirty paise like everyone else."

Valli found the woman absolutely repulsive. She disliked the big holes in her ear lobes with ugly earrings, and the smell and sight of the betel nut and betel juice. The woman also asked too many questions about where she was going, which Valli did not like, so she answered curtly and turned to the window.

Valli thriftily saved whatever stray coins came her way and resisted every temptation to buy peppermints, toys, balloons and the like. In this way she saved sixty paise. It was not easy for her. It was particularly difficult at the village fair, where she had the money but stifled a strong desire to ride the merry-go-round.

She saw a young cow with its tail high in the air running very fast in the middle of the road, right in front of the bus. The more the driver honked, the more frightened the animal became and the faster it galloped. Valli found this very funny and laughed until there were tears in her eyes.

Valli had come only for a bus ride and not to see the town. She had saved just enough money for the ride to the town and back, so she paid another thirty paise to go back on the same bus. She was also too afraid to see the sights alone.

Valli did not have enough money for a drink and she would not accept a treat from the conductor. She also said she could not do it, and she was too shy to go alone among strangers. This shows that she was careful with money, self-respecting and independent. She was bold enough to travel alone but also cautious and sensible with strangers.

Valli's deepest desire was to ride on the bus even if just once. The words and phrases that tell us this are:

• "gradually a tiny wish crept into her head and grew there: she wanted to ride on that bus, even if just once"
• "This wish became stronger and stronger, until it was an overwhelming desire."
• "Valli would stare wistfully at the people who got on or off the bus"
• "The sight of the bus... was a source of unending joy for Valli."

Valli listened carefully to the conversations of her neighbours and regular passengers and asked a few discreet questions. She learnt that the town was six miles away, the fare was thirty paise one way, and the trip took forty-five minutes. She worked out that on the one-o'clock bus she could reach the town at one forty-five and return home by about two forty-five.

She saved the fare by collecting stray coins and resisting temptations to buy peppermints, toys and balloons, and even the merry-go-round, until she had sixty paise. She chose the hours from one to four, when her mother took her afternoon nap, so that she could slip out unnoticed.

She gathered details by listening and asking, saved sixty paise coin by coin, and slipped out when her mother napped.

1. "Stop the bus! Stop the bus!" And a tiny hand was raised commandingly.
2. "Yes, I simply have to go to town," said Valli, still standing outside the bus.
3. "There's nobody here who's a child," she said haughtily. "I've paid my thirty paise like everyone else."
4. "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.
5. "You needn't bother about me. I can take care of myself," Valli said, turning her face towards the window and staring out.
6. Then she turned to the conductor and said, "Well, sir, I hope to see you again."

Clues: commandingly, simply have to, who's a child, get on by myself, irritably, can take care of myself, to see you again. They show that Valli is determined, confident, independent and self-respecting. She is proud and wants to be treated like a grown-up, but she is also friendly and curious, and has a sense of humour.

The conductor is a jolly man who likes to joke. Valli is a tiny girl but behaves like a grown-up: she stops the bus, refuses help to get on, pays her own fare and wants to travel alone. The conductor, amused by this, teases her by calling her "madam".

• "Valli devoured everything with her eyes."
• "Oh, it was all so wonderful!"
• "Suddenly Valli clapped her hands with glee."
• "She laughed and laughed until there were tears in her eyes."
• "Struck dumb with wonder, Valli gaped at everything."
• "Valli wasn't bored in the slightest and greeted everything with the same excitement she'd felt the first time."

On the way back Valli saw the young cow that had run in front of the bus lying dead by the roadside, hit by a fast-moving vehicle, with its legs spread out, a fixed stare in its lifeless eyes and blood all over. The sight made her sad and frightened. The memory haunted her and dampened her enthusiasm, so she no longer wanted to look out of the window.

Valli's mother said that there are many things in our midst and in the world that we do not know about, and even when we know of something we often cannot understand it completely. Valli agrees because she has just experienced this. Her mother and aunt did not know that she had made a secret bus journey. Valli also now knew death in a new way: she knew that creatures die, but she did not truly understand it until she saw the dead cow.

Yes. The story shows the world as a child sees it:

• Valli thinks thirty paise is "a fortune", as she hardly saw that much money in a month.
• She sees the bus as something alive: "the bus seemed on the point of gobbling up another vehicle".
• She sees trees move: "Trees came running towards them but then stopped as the bus reached them and simply stood there helpless for a moment by the side of the road before rushing away in the other direction."
• She notices the bright details of the bus, the shining bars "like silver" and the beautiful clock, and the "big, bright-looking shops" and "glittering displays".
• She finds the running cow very funny and the elderly woman's earrings repulsive, and she cannot see why the elders worry about her.

This is a classroom activity. Guidance: choose a conversation you remember, such as a relative who asks many questions when you travel alone, or a shopkeeper who teases you for acting grown-up. Repeat their exact words in their style and tone, as the conductor mimics Valli's tone, and then give your own replies. For example: Aunt: "Where are you going, dear? Does your mother know?" Me: "I am going to the library, Aunty. Mother knows."

Sample answer on topic 3:

I am deeply concerned about traffic and road safety. Every day I see people who drive fast, jump signals, talk on mobile phones while driving, and ride two-wheelers without helmets. Roads are crowded with vehicles, and pedestrians, cyclists and animals often have no safe place to move, so accidents are common.

I would make road travel safer if everyone followed the rules. Drivers should observe the speed limit, wear seat belts and helmets, and never drive after drinking. Roads need well-marked zebra crossings, footpaths, proper lighting and speed breakers near schools. Traffic police should punish rule breakers strictly, and children should learn road safety in school.

Travel can also be made more enjoyable by keeping buses clean and on time, with polite staff, safe seats and space for children and the elderly. When everyone is patient and respectful, a journey like Valli's can be a delight and not a danger.

For topics 1 and 2, write three paragraphs: the first introduces the plan or journey, the second tells what happened and how you felt, and the third tells the result and what you learnt.

This is a project. Guidance: stick the tickets on a chart in groups, such as travel tickets and entertainment tickets, or low price and high price, and name the most desirable tickets and the ones no one wants. Then write a paragraph, for example: "This ticket from Jaipur to Delhi reminds me of a journey I made with my grandfather. We left at dawn and ate hot kachoris at the first stop..." Imagine who bought each ticket, where they went and why.

These are discussion activities. Sample answers:

1. I spent most of my pocket money on stationery and snacks for myself, but I also bought a small gift for my younger sister's birthday and saved some for later. Spending on someone dear gave me more happiness than spending on myself.
2. Once I saw an injured puppy on the road and could not help it, and that image stayed in my mind for days. It made me sad, but it also taught me to be kind to animals. Sharing such an incident with friends and elders makes the memory easier to bear.

The characters in the poem are:

• Belinda, the little girl who lives in the little white house
• Ink, her little black kitten
• Blink, her little grey mouse
• Mustard, her little yellow dog
• Custard, her "realio, trulio" pet dragon (whom the others rudely call Percival)
• the pirate, who climbs in through the window

Custard cried for a nice safe cage because he was afraid. He looked fierce, with big sharp teeth, spikes and daggers on his toes, but he was timid, while the others, Belinda, Ink, Blink and Mustard, boasted about their bravery. He wanted a safe place to hide from danger.

He is called "cowardly dragon" because, in spite of his terrifying looks, he behaves like a coward and asks for a cage whenever there is trouble.

Belinda tickled him unmercifully to tease him for being a coward. She and the pets thought it was funny that a dragon should be so afraid, so they laughed at him, called him Percival rudely and tickled him for fun.

• Simile: "Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears"; "Mustard was as brave as a tiger in a rage"; "Mouth like a fireplace"; "snorting like an engine"; "He went at the pirate like a robin at a worm."
• Metaphor: "chimney for a nose" (the dragon's nose is a chimney).
• Onomatopoeia (sound words): "Weeck!", "Meowch!", "clatter", "clank", "jangling".
• Alliteration: "brave as a barrel full of bears"; "clatter and a clank".
• Repetition: "Suddenly, suddenly"; "she tickled him"; the refrain "realio, trulio".
• Exaggeration (hyperbole): "as brave as a barrel full of bears", "Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs".
• Personification: the kitten, mouse and dog speak like humans.

In stanza three Custard is described as a fearsome creature with big sharp teeth, spikes on top of him and scales underneath. His mouth is like a fireplace and his nose like a chimney, and he has "realio, trulio daggers on his toes". He looks frightening and ready to fight, which makes his cowardice funnier.

The poem is written in rhyming couplets, so the rhyme scheme is aabb.

• Stanza 1: house, mouse (a), wagon, dragon (b)
• Stanza 2: Ink, Blink (a), Mustard, Custard (b)
• Stanza 3: teeth, underneath (a), nose, toes (b)

The rhyme scheme is aabb in each stanza.

• The little white house, little black kitten, little grey mouse, little yellow dog and little red wagon create a bright, colourful picture.
• "Mouth like a fireplace, chimney for a nose" gives a picture of a huge, smoking dragon.
• "Pistol in his left hand, pistol in his right, / And he held in his teeth a cutlass bright, / His beard was black, one leg was wood" gives a clear picture of a pirate.
• "Ink trickled down to the bottom of the household" and "little mouse Blink strategically mouseholed" show the frightened pets.
• "Clashed his tail like irons in a dungeon" gives a sound picture of Custard's attack.

It is a light-hearted, humorous poem. The introduction calls it a humorous ballad close to a parody. The reasons are:

• The names are funny: Ink, Blink, Mustard and Custard, and the invented words "realio, trulio".
• The exaggerated comparisons, such as "as brave as a barrel full of bears", make us laugh.
• The coward dragon turns out to be the only one who fights the pirate, while the "brave" pets run away.
• The ending is comic: after Custard gobbles up the pirate, everyone claims they could have been braver, and Custard says, "I quite agree / That everybody is braver than me", and still cries for a safe cage.

Sample answer: Songs that tell a story include folk ballads like Alha-Udal, sung in Bundelkhand, which narrates the bravery of two brothers, and the English song "Puff, the Magic Dragon", which tells the story of a dragon and a boy. Many Hindi film songs also narrate a story. For the project, collect the lyrics of such songs, write the story each one tells, and present them in a class booklet.

Sample ballad:

Tinku was a tortoise, slow and round and green, / The slowest tortoise ever, the slowest ever seen. / The hares all laughed and giggled, "You'll never win a race!" / But Tinku only smiled and said, "I'll go at my own pace."

One day a fox came sneaking to steal the hares' feast, / And all the hares ran off in fright, the greatest and the least. / But Tinku sat upon the bag and closed his shell up tight, / And the fox could not move him, though he pushed with all his might.

The hares came back and cheered him, they hugged him and they said, / "We're sorry, Tinku, you're so brave!" He nodded his round head. / So still, when hares are racing, and Tinku comes in last, / They never laugh, for they recall the day he stood so fast.

Guidelines followed: purpose is to entertain; audience is classmates; simple story; three main characters (Tinku, the hares, the fox); strong rhythm and rhyme (aabb); divided into verses.