NCERT Solutions
Working with the Poem
(NCERT Page 70)
- Discuss these questions in small groups before you answer them.
(i) When is a grown-up likely to say this?
Don’t talk with your mouth full.
Ans. The grown-ups are likely to tell the children not to talk while their mouth is full of food.
(ii) When are you likely to be told this?
Say thank you.
Ans. The children are likely to be reminded to say thank you when they receive a gift or a favour from someone.
(iii) When do you think an adult would say this?
No one thinks you are funny.
Ans. Adults are likely to tell children, ‘no one thinks you are funny’ when the children are too shy to speak or perform before the others.
- The last two lines of the poem are not prohibitions or instructions. What is the adult now asking the child to do? Do you think the poet is suggesting that this is unreasonable? Why?
Ans. The adult is now asking the child to think independently. The poet finds this entirely unreasonable because the young child has not been trained to use his mind. He has only been trained to follow the instructions given by the adults.
- Why do you think grown-ups say the kind of things mentioned in the poem? Is it important that they teach children good manners, and how to behave in public?
Ans. The adults constantly give instructions to their children for various reasons. They try to train them to behave in a decent, well-mannered and sophisticated way. This, however, robs away their childlike innocence.
- If you had to make some rules for grown-ups to follow, what would you say? Make at least five such rules. Arrange the lines as in a poem.
Ans. Don’t dictate and impose your rules. Your ways and thinking is different from ours and so are the times. Don’t talk over the phone while eating. Please spend some time with us.