Question

Answer the following questions briefly in your own words.
(i) How was Chittru different from the other boys?
(ii) What was Bisnus' ambition?
(iii) What information did Sarru give Bisnu?
(iv) How did the information affect Bisnu?
(v) Why did the panther become a cattle-lifter?
(vi) What joke does Sarru make?

Answer 1

(i) While the other boys worked hard in the fields and helped their parents, Chittru idled and lazed around. He preferred fishing in the stream and breaking fruits off other people's trees. He squandered his time loafing here and there.
(ii) Bisnus ambition was to receive a good schooling. He went on his own accord to school, not forced by anyone, to read and write so that he could get well educated like other children in the big world.
(iii) Sarru, who came from a small village, three miles away from Bisnus' village, informed him about the sudden visit of a panther to his village, the previous night.
(iv) Bisnu, who was a cool-headed boy, found the information of Sarru to be interesting, about the visit of the panther to their village but nevertheless, he was not too excited to hear it. He knew that panthers were a common sight viewed on hills, and did not harm except in winters when food was scarce.
(v) The panther had become a cattle-lifter because once it was wounded by the shikaris, who had aimed a bullet in his leg. The panther had consequently become slow paced. Unable to hunt fast running barking deer, it started killing cattle.
(vi) Sarru jokingly told Bisnu, that his father told him, that six years back, a panther had become a man-eater and had killed around six people in their valley. Later it was reported that the panther had poisoned itself after eating the headman of the village since the headmen was a rouge i.e. a vicious person.