NCERT Solutions for Class 8 English It So Happened Chapter 8 Jalebis

NCERT Solutions for Class 8 English

Jalebis NCERT Solutions for Class 8 English It So Happened Chapter 8

Jalebis NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers

Jalebis Comprehension check – I

Question 1.
Why didn’t he pay the school fees on the day he brought money to school?
Answer:
He didn’t pay the school fees on the day he brought money to school because the teacher who collected the fees, Master Ghulam Mohammed, was on leave. So the fees would be collected the next day.

Question 2.
i. What were the coins ‘saying’to him?
Answer:
The coins were ‘saying’ to him to spend the fees money and buy jalebis with them.

ii. Do you think they were misguiding him?
Answer:
Yes, they were clearly misguiding him because it wasn’t the coins talking but his mind.

Question 3.
Why didn’t he take the coins ’advice? Give two or three reasons.
Answer:
He didn’t take the coins’ advice because he was from a well-to-do family that met all his needs. Also, he knew that if he spent his fees money, his teacher Master Ghulam Mohammad would punish him. He was also an honest boy who obeyed his elders.

Question 4.
i. What did the oldest coin tell him?
Answer:
The oldest coin told him to buy the jalebis with the fees money, and then use the scholarship money to pay the fees.

ii. Did he follow his advice? If not, why not?
Answer:
No, he didn’t follow his advice because he was a promising student who had even secured a scholarship of four rupees. He enjoyed considerable prestige at his school as he belonged to a well-to-do family. He had never been beaten by his teachers.

Question 5.
He reached home with the coins in his pocket. What happened then?
Answer:
When he reached home with the coins in his pocket, they kept trying to pursue him to spend the money on the jalebis. When he was having his lunch, they began to shriek. This is when he went to the market to buy jalebis.

Jalebis Comprehension check – II

Question 1.
i. Why didn’t he eat all the jalebis he had bought?
Answer:
He didn’t eat all the jalebis he had bought because he had eaten one too many. His stomach could take no more of them, and that is when he stopped eating them.

ii. What did he do with the remaining jalebis?
Answer:
He distributed the remaining jalebis among the neighbourhood children.

Question 2.
“The fear was killing me. ” What was the fear?
Answer:
The fear of his family discovering that he had spent the fees money on jalebis was killing him. He was scared that since he was unable to digest them, they would sooner or later make him ill. Then, his family would call a doctor and he would tell what he had done to his parents.

Question 3.
“Children s stomachs are like digestion machines. ” What do you understand by that? Do you agree?
Answer:
This means that children can digest almost anything edible. This is because their internal systems work well.
This statement is partially true because children eat with their heart instead of head, and so, their stomachs are conditioned to digest almost all types of food.

Question 4.
How did he plan to pay the fees the next day?
Answer:
He planned to pay the fees the next day with the previous month’s scholarship money.

Question 5.
When it is time to pay the fees, what does he do? How is he disobeying the elders by doing so?
Answer:
When it is time to pay the fees, the boy tucks his bag under his arm, and keeps walking till he reaches the railway station. Over there, he crosses the railway tracks, which his elders had told him never to do. Also, his elders had told him never to spend his fees money on sweets, but he disobeys them on both accounts.

Jalebis Comprehension check – III

Question 1.
What was the consequence of buying jalebis with the fees money?
Answer:
The consequence of buy mg jalebis with the fees money was that the boy was full of remorse and regret. He did not go to school for two days and spent that time at the railway station all alone.

Question 2.
His prayer to God is like a lawyer’s defence of a bad case. Does he argue his case well? What are the points he makes?
Answer:
Yes, he argues his case very well. He says to God that he has always been a very religious boy and has memorized the entire Quraan. He says that he could recite entire ayat-al-kursi for Him. He wants nothing more than the four rupees that he spent on jalebis. Admitting his mistake, he pleads to God to put four rupees in his bag.

He promises to God that if he ever ate sweets with his fees money again, then he would willingly accept a thief’s punishment. He says that his parents pay a lot of money to the chaprasi, and he was after all the nephew of a big officer, and deserved money on that account. He wanted nothing more than four rupees from God’s immense treasury.

Question 3.
He offers to play a game with Allah Miyan. What is the game?
Answer:
The game that he offers to play with Allah Miyan is that he would run up to the signal and He would secretly place four rupees under the big rock. Then he would touch the signal and come back. He would pick up the rock, and discover the money under the rock.

Question 4.
Did he get four rupees by playing the game? What did he get to see under the rock?
Answer:
No, he did not get four rupees by playing the game. When he lifted the rock, he saw a big hairy worm get up, and wriggle towards him.

Question 5.
If God had granted his wish that day, what harm would it have caused him in later life?
Answer:
If God had granted his wish that day, he would have depended on God for the rest of his life for everything. He would have stopped working hard to get what he needed. He wouldn’t have been able to get past any obstacles in life, as he would have prayed and prayed to God to do everything for him. And he would have struck bargains with God to make his wishes come true. Probably, he would have ended up an over-religious, superstitious and complacent individual.

Jalebis Exercise Question and Answer

Work in small groups.

Encourage the students to work in small groups to complete the given exercises.

Question 1.
Select and read sentences that show
That the boy is tempted to eat jalebis:
Answer:
“Those fresh, hot jalebis coming out of the kadhai in the shop over there, they’re not coming out for nothing. Jalebis are meant to be eaten and only those with money in their pocket can eat them, And money isn’t for nothing. Money is meant to be spent and only they spend it, who like jalebis.”
“Tell me honestly now, don’t you feel like eating those hot, hot jalebis
“But then, these jalebis are no common sort of jalebis either. They’re crisp, fresh and full of sweet syrup.”
That he is feeling guilty:
“With every breath came a burp, and with every burp, the danger of bringing out a jalebi or two — the fear was killing me.”
“.. .if the doctor, after feeling my pulse, had declared, Munna has devoured a mound of jalebis, I would simply die.”
“I sat under it and wondered whether there could possibly be a more unfortunate child than me in this world!”
“Now for the crime of eating a few jalebis, for the first time in my life I was absent from school, and crouching in the shade of a tree in a deserted comer of the railway station.
Sitting there under the tree, at first I felt like crying.”
That he is justifying a wrong deed:
“So all right, I admit I made a mistake. I didn’t eat them all by myself, though I fed them to a whole lot of children too, but yes, it was a mistake.”
“If I’d known the scholarship money would be given next month, I would neither have eaten them nor fed them to the others.”

Question 2.
Discuss the following points.
Encourage the students to use their creativity and formulate their own answers.

(i) Is the boy intelligent? If so, what is the evidence for it?
Answer:
Yes, the boy is intelligent. He receives a scholarship, and is loved and appreciated by his teachers. He is a promising student, and had never been caned until that point. Besides, he explains his temptation to buy jalebis by making us believe that it was the coins that tempted him, and the mistake wasn’t his at all.

(ii) Does his outlook on the jalebis episode change after class VIII? Does he see that episode in a new light?
Answer:
Yes, his outlook on the jalebis episode changes after Class 8. He realizes that if God had given him what he wanted back then, he would never have worked hard to achieve anything in life.

(iii) Why are coins made to talk in the story? What purpose does it serve?
Answer:
The coins are made to talk to show us how children imagine being tempted. They may not understand that the source of all temptation is their head. So, they put this blame on something outside them.