Telangana SCERT TS 8th Class English Study Material Pdf Unit 7A Bonsai Life Part 1 Textbook Questions and Answers.
TS 8th Class English Guide Unit 7A Bonsai Life Part 1
PRE-READING (Motivation/Picture Interaction):
Observe the pictures and discuss the questions that follow.
Question 1.
Who are these people? What do you know about them?
Answer:
These are famous Indian women who excelled in their respective professions. We also see some girls in different get-ups. In the first row we see Savitribai Phule, Sarojini Naidu and Mother Teresa, Savitribai Phule was the first woman teacher in India, Saroiini Naidu is known as ‘The Nightingale of India’. She was a poet and an Indian independence activist. Mother Teresa is hailed as ‘Saint of the Slums’. She founded the Missionaries of Charity and served the needy.
In the second row, we see Sania Mirza, Sunita Williams and Latha Mangeshkar. Sania Mirza is a famous tennis player. Sunita Williams is an American astronaut. Her parental ancestry originates in Gujarat in India. Latha Mangeshkar is a famous singer. In the third row, we see some girls with different get-ups such as child doctor, child teacher, karate girl and child lawyer.
Question 2.
What makes the woman to become empower?
Answer:
Qualities such as education, self-confidence, determination, dedication and strong will power, courage, etc. make the woman to become empower.
ORAL DISCOURSE:
Question.
Debate – “Education leads to empowerment of women.”
Answer:
Pupil 1 : In my opinion Education will empower women to come forward and continue towards the development and prosperity of the nation. Educating a girl child provides her with essential qualification to fulfill certain economic, political and cultural functions and improves her socio-economic status.
Pupil 2 : I don’t agree with my learned friend. Education doesn’t help women. There are so many literate women in the present society. Think about them. They can’t take any important decisions at home. They don’t do anything for the welfare of their fellow women. Education won’t empower them. In fact, an educated wife becomes a financial burden for her husband.
Pupil 1 : I personally feel if all the girl children get educated, the problems such as female infanticide, dowry, female suicide, domestic violence, child marriages, etc. will get disappeared from the society.
Pupil 2 : It may be your opinion but I don’t think, so. Though there are so many literate women at present, still all the above problems occurring very often. In fact, an educated woman offers more dowry than an uneducated one.
Pupil 1 : I’m sorry to differ with you. An educated girl understands her duties well. An uneducated girl can’t bring socio-economic changes. She won’t get qny financial indepen-dence. She has to depend on others for everything.
Pupil 2 : That’s purely your idea but the reality is different. Even an educated woman enjoys no financial independence. A working woman gives all her salary to her husband and she too depends on him to meet her needs.
Pupil 1 : I think an educated girl understands her duties well. She can manage her home more efficiently. She can maintain family budget and expenses. She is obedient and faithful. Pupil 2 : I totally disagree with you. An educated girl is not always obedient and faithful. She always tries to dominate her husband. She doesn’t care for likes and dislikes of her husband.
Bonsai Life (Part – 1) Summary in English
The narrator lives in New Delhi. She is educated enough to work in an office.
The narrator returns home from work. She finds some letters waiting for her on the door step. Immediately the tiredness disappears and her heart grows light. It is a letter from her Akkayya.
In the letter Akkayya writes that Baavagaru and she are to coming to the narrator’s place. For a while, they have been planning to visit Kasi and Haridwar. But till now it was not possible as Akkayya and Baavagaru live in a village and Baavagaru is busy with his agriculture. So far they have not visited the narrator’s place after her marriage. The narrator is very happy with this.
Akkayya does not have much education. She finished her Class Five. Her Nannagaru believed that girls don’t need too much of education. It was enough if they could settle washer-man’s accounts.
Ten years later, the narrator was born. Times changed and with them Nannagaru also has changed. He sent the narrator to college. After marriage, the narrator wanted to put her education to some use. So, she started working in an office, while discharging her duties as a housewife.
Akkayya was not much educated, she was married to a man from a village. Though Baavagaru was educated, he chose agriculture as his profession. He settled down in the village. And so did Akkayya.
Akkayya brought so many things from village – cucumber, gongura. drumstics, appadams, vadiams and coconuts. The narrates feels happy as she is unable to make appadams and vadiams. She doesn’t find time to make them. Even if she has a little time, she is a bit lazy too.
From her experience, the narrator feels that it is a difficult job for woman to balance her domestic responsibilities and office work. She expresses her feelings to Akkayya. Akkayya says that she is fortunate enough as she has studied and is working. She is able to earn some money. So she doesn’t need to depend on her husband even for buying Karivepaku.
Akkayya says that their daughter is in school. They want to send her to College if she clears the school exams. From her experience, Akkayya firmly believed that these days a woman needs education otherwise, she has to live under her husband’s thumb, like a scorpion under a slipper.
About the Author:
Abburi Chayadevi is a well known feminist writer bom in 1933. She has written many short stories and essays. She was awarded by the Central Sahitya Akademi in 2005. In her works, she elucidates women life and their feelings.
Glossary:
contain (v) : control
excitement (n) : feeling very happy
exhaustion (n) : extreme tiredness
vanish (v) : disappear
mutter (v) : complain about something privately
savour (v) : enjoy eating
accustomed (adj) : get used to
sumptuous (adj) : grand
wretched (adj) : miserable, very unhappy
touchwood : said in order to avoid bad luck
uphill task (n) : difficult work
the grass is greener on the other side [of the fence] (idm) : equivalent to Telugu idiom ‘Poruginti Pullakura ruchi’. dignified (adj) : deserving respect
elated (adj) : very happy; excited