Last Monday, the students of standard-IX had their Weekly
Test in English. I set the paper. As Mr.Tshering Dorji is dealing with all
sections of standard-IX but one, I tried to make it as easy for him as I could. Correcting some 130 papers within a limited period of time is never easy. I told him that we would ask them 4 questions from the first 5 chapters of the
novel each carrying 5 marks. The questions were:-
1.
How did Dawa lose his family?
Ans:- One day his mother took them to the
garbage dump behind the restaurant. To their good fortune, there was a chunk of
port lying there. As they were hungry, they started devouring the meat without
much consideration for the youngest and weakest member of the family. Dawa was
too weak to get on to the top of the heap and compete with his other siblings
for the port. He waited restlessly down. He was very surprised therefore, to
find his siblings along with his mother dropping down the heap like a rock
falling of the cliff, with their mouths foaming and frothing. Then they lay
still. Dawa waited for long for them to be awake. Then he realized that they
were not going to wake up. Some wretched human had lacerated the port with
poison. That is how Dawa lost his family.
2.
Briefly write what you know about Dampa or
Moley.
Ans:- Dawa met Dampa, a small dog, for the
first time when he was resting outside a tent during a party in Thimphu. This
unusual looking dog with its muddy-coloured body and white neck caught Dawa’s
notice with the swiftness with which he moved around and darted in and out of
the tent meant for the VIPs with a mouthful. He had a heart shaped face with
large eyes. Dampa also had spindly legs. Later on Dawa and Dampa became good
friends. It was Dampa who asked to take his Dzongkha seriously as he had
leadership aspirations. He also asked Dawa to learn the honorific terms from
humans.
OR
Moley was one of the most ancient and wise
dogs in Paro. Despite her age, she with her rheumy eyes, was beautiful as her
name suggests – Beautiful Female. More than half of the dog population in Paro
was claimed to have originated from her. It was Moley who directed Dawa to
Thimphu. She liked Dawa a lot compared to the other dogs in town, as Dawa asked
intelligent questions. Moley also requested Dawa to enlighten her with the
stories of his travels beyond Paro, on his return.
3.
What story did Dawa invent about his lineage?
Ans:- Dawa began to wonder about his
lineage after his rejection by Singyemo, the coquettish bitch, who left Dawa
for Katu. After sometime, he made up the story that his great grandfather was a
damchi from an aristocratic family in Lhasa. The day he was born, he was stolen
by a vulture who took him up to his nest on a rock face. Bred as his great
grandpa was on bird food, he did not grow in size. A sheepherder found him
later on and presented him to the lady of the aristocratic family. The lady was
so charmed with the small dog that the sheepherder was immediately made the
chamberlain of the household as a reward. She would keep Dawa’s great grandpa
in her sleeve for the warmth and fed him with a daily dose of barley flour mixed
with a little amount of butter tea. Initially, Dawa did not like to tell this
story about his lineage, but with the passage of time, the more he narrated
this story, the more he began to believe it himself.
4.
Who is an underdog? What happened when someone
became an underdog?
Ans:- A fallen, disgraced leader became an
underdog. The former Leader of Warnings and Signals was one such underdog.
Once a leader became an underdog, life was
miserable for him. The underdog had no dog rights and completely defenceless.
Every dog in that area could abuse and attack him either verbally or physically.
They could taunt or tease him and the poor underdog could not even fight back
in self-defence. Even puppies and females could attack him in any way they
liked. It was really pathetic to see the underdog, the former Leader of
Warnings and Signals moving around, keeping a safe distance from the other dogs
with fear and terror writ large on his face.
Despite my best attempts, the students of IX E have disappointed
me in the Test. We discussed all these questions earlier in the class. I even wrote
some of the points on the green board for them. I rebuked them today by saying
that if they do not practise answering questions seriously; most of them are
not going to do well in the Mid-Year Examination. After the distribution of the
test papers, we spent sometime discussing the answers again. Thakur Singh,
the class captain, was a bit upset as despite having written some eight points
about Dampa (Q.NO. 2), he did not get more than 4 out of 5. I pacified him by telling
that in standard-IX, they are supposed to write their answers in paragraphs
rather than writing them point wise. As he is good, I asked him not to worry
about the marks he secured in the Test.
Finally, I asked the class to try to write down the answer
of any 1 of the 4 questions. They were given some 10 minutes for that. I also
asked them to try to write the answers to the other questions at home/hostel. The
last 10 minutes were spent in listening to their answers and providing
feedback.
No comments:
Post a Comment