The Treasure Within Summary & Notes - CBSE Class 8 English It So Happened

Summary of The Treasure Within

Chapter 4 of Class 8 English Supplementary Reader – It So Happened, consists of prose – The Treasure Within, which is an excerpt from an interview between Ms Bela Raja and Mr Hafeez Contractor. Read the prose summary of CBSE Class 8 English Prose Notes – The Treasure Within in CBSE English Notes Class 8 format here to get to know about their conversation in detail. We hope this summary will help students to understand the chapter thoroughly and gear up for their English exam accordingly.

Students can also improve their writing section for the English exam by practising essays on various topics.

CBSE Class 8 English The Treasure Within Summary

The Treasure Within is an extract from a discussion between Ms Bela Raja, the editor of a newsletter called Sparsh from the Resource Centre at The Valley School in Bangalore and Mr Hafeez Contractor, who is one of India’s most eminent architects. As a child, Mr. Hafeez Contractor was not so fond of going to school. He detested bookish knowledge or machine learning. He stated that he used to get nightmares, particularly about the Mathematics examination. He often dreamt that he didn’t know anything about the subject. However, he was more inclined towards sports and playing pranks on others. He was a fabulous sportsman and had been the senior champion and cricket captain for many years in school.

Further, he admitted that he would clear most of his exams normally by copying and cheating from others. However, while he was in the eleventh standard, the school Principal advised that he should focus on his studies as he was a good student, just that he hardly paid heed to his books. The Principal also told him that all this while, he had taken care of Hafeez, now the youngster should learn to take care of himself and urged him to focus on his studies. Those words brought a change in young Hafeez as he followed the Principal’s advice. Thereafter, he would simply go to offer his prayers, eat and study all the time. He scored 50 percent in his SSC exams. He participated in a lot of other activities.

Later, Ms Bela asked if he was ever punished by his teachers in school. To this, Mr Hafeez replied that he was mostly interested in playing and would receive a caning every week. Besides being the gang leader, he would get involved in group fights. He also remembered that one day in school, he was least interested in studying in class, so he created a distraction in class, and everyone played ‘chor police’ for one full hour.

Furthermore, Mr Hafeez mentioned that he wanted to join the army after school. But his family were not in favour of him joining even the police force. His mother told him to complete his graduation first. Although he had studied French for a few years, he was weak in it. So he decided to learn German, but soon his teacher passed away. So, he took admission to the Jai Hind College by influence. He learnt French with the help of his cousin, who was an architect’s wife. Eventually, he started going to her husband’s office to brush up on his French language skills.

One fine day in the architect’s office, he saw an advanced drawing of a window detail made by an employee of the office. Looking at the design, Mr Hafeez told him that there was an error in the sketch as the window drawn might not open. He was indeed right. When his cousin’s husband saw this, he was surprised at his knowledge, so he asked him to draw a few things. He did so immediately. His cousin’s husband was highly impressed by his skill and suggested that he start studying architecture.

Soon, they went to the Principal of the college for architecture, who said that he would allow Hafeez to sit for the entrance exam, but he wouldn’t grant him admission if he didn’t do well in the exam. He scored an ‘A+’ grade in the entrance exam, and thereafter, he always scored well throughout his course. He also mentioned to Ms Bela one of his friends, Behram Divecha. They would design different things every time and often had a competition among themselves, particularly for designing forts, guns and ammunition.

Later, when Mr Hafeez became an architect, he went to visit Mrs. Gupta, his teacher who would often appreciate his sketches in school. She always advised him that he should become an architect when he grew up. Thus, Mr Hafeez admits that his school life was not that great as he passed with average grades. He said he learnt from personal experiences more than academic knowledge. After becoming an architect, now he observes his clients closely to understand their tastes, and then he designs a sketch spontaneously on the spot, as per their requirements. According to Mr Hafeez, he feels that his sketches are like Mathematics problems for him. Thus, the subject that he once despised, he now loves dealing with it.

Conclusion of The Treasure Within

The chapter – The Treasure Within teaches us that every child is born with special interests and expertise in a particular domain. They should be encouraged to pursue their interests so that they can enjoy what they do. Here’s the CBSE Class 8 English It So Happened Prose Summary of The Treasure Within that must have helped 8th standard students to have a detailed understanding of the chapter.

Besides, BYJU’S offers a vast collection of resources such as CBSE Notes and CBSE study materials. They can download BYJU’S: The Learning App and explore CBSE sample papers and question papers of previous years.