This MCQ module is based on: Reading Comprehension — Text I: How Can We Control Anger?
TOPIC 9 OF 9
Reading Comprehension — Text I: How Can We Control Anger?
🎓 Class 10
English
CBSE
Theory
Ch 9 — Unit 9 — Grammar and Writing Revision
⏱ ~34 min
🌐 Language: [gtranslate]
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Pre-Reading Warm-Up — Unit 9: The Proposal
Anton Chekhov's one-act farce 'The Proposal' shows three quarrelsome characters who argue about a piece of land and the superiority of their dogs — all while trying to arrange a marriage. This unit pairs the play with passages on anger management and violence, and the poignant story of Vanka Zhukov's letter to his grandfather. Central questions: How do we manage anger? What is violence? What does a child most need from those who love him?
Recall: In 'The Proposal', Lomov and Natalya quarrel over Oxen Meadows. Do you think property and pride should come before love and marriage?
Think: "Anger is nothing but absence of peace with oneself." Do you agree? Can anger ever be healthy or productive?
Preview: Vanka Zhukov is a nine-year-old who writes a letter to his grandfather. He addresses it "To Grandfather in the Village." Do you think it will reach him?
Idiom: "Bury the hatchet" means to end a conflict and make peace. Can you think of a situation in 'The Proposal' where the characters should have buried the hatchet sooner?
On anger: Anger is a natural emotion — the passage argues it is healthy when managed, harmful when uncontrolled. The characters in 'The Proposal' allow their anger to completely override their own interests (Lomov wants to propose; he ends up fighting instead).
On Vanka's letter: The incomplete address — "To Grandfather in the Village / Konstantin Makarich" — means the letter will never arrive. This makes the ending heartbreaking. Vanka falls asleep with hope while the reader knows his hope is misplaced. Irony
On Vanka's letter: The incomplete address — "To Grandfather in the Village / Konstantin Makarich" — means the letter will never arrive. This makes the ending heartbreaking. Vanka falls asleep with hope while the reader knows his hope is misplaced. Irony
Reading Comprehension — Text I: How Can We Control Anger?
1Anger is a normal and healthy emotion — but only when we know how to respond to it. Uncontrolled anger can harm us directly or indirectly, whether we realise it or not. At its core, anger is nothing but the absence of peace with oneself, with people, or with situations around us. We express it either by being assertive or aggressive.
2To manage anger, take a few moments to calm down first — breathe deeply five times, count to ten, drink water, or simply change your place. Getting physically active also reduces stress: a walk, funny dances, clapping, making faces at the mirror. Personification Once calm, view the situation from multiple perspectives. Try to have a few solutions ready before re-entering the same situation.
3Avoid holding a grudge against people. Learn when to seek help. Realising your own shortcomings can become one of your greatest strengths of character over time. We can never fully control circumstances, people, or situations. The only thing we can control is our response. We must increase our capacity to tolerate, our ability to understand, and our nurturing of love for others.
Adapted from an article on anger management, Class X curriculum
Look Up and Understand — Anger Passage Vocabulary
assertiveAdjective
Confidently expressing one's needs and views without aggression or passivity
"Being assertive means standing up for yourself calmly and respectfully."
aggressiveAdjective
Ready to attack or confront; forceful in a hostile or intimidating way
"Aggressive anger harms both the person expressing it and those around them."
uncontrolledAdjective
Not regulated or restrained; allowed to run without limit or direction
"Uncontrolled anger often leads to words and actions we later deeply regret."
grudgeNoun
A persistent feeling of resentment or ill will towards someone who has harmed you
"Holding a grudge poisons your own peace of mind more than it affects the other person."
consequencesNoun (pl.)
The results or effects of an action, especially negative or unwanted ones
"We often regret the consequences of our anger only after the damage is done."
distressNoun / Verb
Extreme anxiety, unhappiness, or pain; or to cause such feelings
"We cannot control situations that distress us, but we can control our response."
Questions — Anger Management
Q.1 What do you understand by the word 'anger' as described in the passage?
According to the passage, anger is a normal and healthy emotion — not inherently bad. It is defined as "nothing but the absence of peace with oneself, people, or situations around us." It becomes problematic only when it is uncontrolled, leading to harmful actions or words. The passage distinguishes between assertive anger (expressing yourself firmly but respectfully) and aggressive anger (hostile, attacking), suggesting only uncontrolled, aggressive anger causes harm.
Q.2 List any four strategies to manage anger.
Four strategies from the passage:
1. Pause and breathe — take five deep breaths, count to ten, drink water, or change your physical location before responding.
2. Get physically active — a walk, clapping, funny dances, or making faces in a mirror help release tension and reduce stress.
3. Gain perspective — once calm, examine the situation from multiple angles and prepare possible solutions before re-engaging.
4. Let go and seek help — avoid holding grudges; recognise your own shortcomings; know when to ask for support from others.
1. Pause and breathe — take five deep breaths, count to ten, drink water, or change your physical location before responding.
2. Get physically active — a walk, clapping, funny dances, or making faces in a mirror help release tension and reduce stress.
3. Gain perspective — once calm, examine the situation from multiple angles and prepare possible solutions before re-engaging.
4. Let go and seek help — avoid holding grudges; recognise your own shortcomings; know when to ask for support from others.
Q.3 How can you develop strengths of character as described in the passage?
The passage says that "realising your own shortcomings can become one of your greatest strengths of character over the years to come." Self-awareness — honestly recognising where you lose control, where you react rather than respond — is the first step to growth. Combined with increasing your tolerance, deepening your understanding of others, and consciously nurturing love and empathy, this self-knowledge becomes the foundation of strong, compassionate character over time.
Q.4 Anger management helps you in — (Tick the correct answer)
The passage explicitly states: "The only thing we can control is our response." Anger management does not promise permanent happiness (a), does not eliminate stress entirely (c), and character development is a secondary benefit (b). The core skill that anger management develops is choosing a wise, controlled response rather than a reactive one — making (d) the most precise answer.
Q.5 What is under our control? How can we make it a positive one?
According to the passage, only our response is under our control — not circumstances, not other people, not situations, which are "constantly changing." We make our response positive by: (1) waiting until calm before responding (pause strategies); (2) viewing the situation from multiple perspectives; (3) entering difficult situations with prepared solutions; (4) choosing tolerance and understanding over reaction; (5) nurturing love for others — which transforms even a difficult response into a compassionate one.
Reading Comprehension — Text II: On Violence (J. Krishnamurti)
1There is a great deal of violence in the world. Physical violence means killing or hurting others deliberately — but inward violence means disliking, hating, criticising people inside ourselves. Inwardly, we are always quarrelling — not only with others but with ourselves. We want to force others to our way of thinking. Imagery
2The ultimate violence is war — killing for ideas, for religious principles, for nationalities, to protect a small piece of land. In this, man will kill, destroy, maim, and be killed. There is also the violence of the rich keeping people poor, and the poor hating the rich in return. You, growing up in society, will be caught in all of this unless you choose differently.
3Violence — antagonism, hate, cruelty, ugly criticism, anger — is inherent in every human being. Education is supposed to help you go beyond all that — not merely to pass examinations and get jobs, but to become a genuinely beautiful, healthy, sane, and rational human being. Not a brutal person with a clever brain who can argue and defend their own brutality.
4A new culture is necessary. The old culture is dead — burnt, exploded, and vaporised. The older generation has built a world based on violence and aggressiveness. It is you — the young — who must create a new culture, based not on violence but on compassion, understanding, and truth. If you simply follow the crowd, your children will pay for it.
Adapted from: 'On Violence', On Education by J. Krishnamurti
Look Up and Understand — Krishnamurti Passage
deliberatelyAdverb
Intentionally and consciously; done by choice, not by accident
"Physical violence means hurting others deliberately — with full awareness of what you are doing."
maimVerb
To injure someone severely, causing permanent disability or disfigurement
"In war, man will kill, destroy, and maim — inflicting permanent harm on countless lives."
antagonismNoun
Active hostility or opposition between people or groups
"Krishnamurti lists antagonism among the forms of inward violence we carry within us."
aggressivenessNoun
The quality of being ready and willing to attack or confront; hostile behaviour
"The older generation built society on aggressiveness — a foundation that produces endless conflict."
vaporisedVerb (past)
Converted into vapour; completely destroyed without a trace
"The old culture is dead — vaporised by the violence it was built upon."
brutalityNoun
Savage physical or mental cruelty; extreme violence without compassion
"A clever brain that defends its own brutality is not an educated person."
Questions — On Violence
Q.1 What is the physical violence that Krishnamurti is talking about?
Physical violence, according to Krishnamurti, includes: killing another person; hurting people consciously, deliberately, or even without thought; and saying cruel things full of antagonism and hate. He includes verbal cruelty as a form of physical (outward) violence — meaning it doesn't require physical contact to be violent. Any deliberate act that causes suffering to another person's body, dignity, or spirit counts as physical violence in his framework.
Q.2 What is the violence that cannot be expressed (inward violence)?
Inward (unexpressed) violence is the violence that happens inside us: disliking people, hating people, criticising them internally, quarrelling with ourselves and others in our minds. It includes the desire to impose our way of thinking on others, the resentment we carry, and the constant internal battle between what we are and what we wish we were. This inward violence is harder to detect than physical violence because it leaves no visible marks, yet Krishnamurti argues it is the seed from which all outward violence grows.
Q.3 War, the ultimate violence, could be due to — (Tick all correct options)
The passage states war is "killing for ideas, for so-called religious principles, for nationalities, the killing to preserve a little piece of land." All four specific causes are listed. Therefore (e) "all of the above" is the most comprehensive correct answer. Krishnamurti's point is that every justification humans give for war is ultimately just a rationalisation for violence born of fear and ego.
Q.4 How has Krishnamurti described the feelings of the rich and the poor in the passage?
Krishnamurti describes a cycle of economic violence: the rich want to keep people poor (to maintain their power and privilege), while the poor want to become rich and in the process come to hate the rich. Both sides are trapped in a violent dynamic — one that involves structural oppression (rich keeping poor) and reactive hatred (poor hating rich). Neither side, Krishnamurti implies, is free from violence; both are caught in a system that perpetuates conflict through economic inequality.
Q.5 What is the role of education in a human being's life according to Krishnamurti?
Krishnamurti argues that education's true purpose is to help human beings go beyond violence — not merely to pass examinations or get jobs. Genuine education should produce "a really beautiful, healthy, sane, rational human being" — not a person with a clever brain who uses intelligence to justify cruelty. Education should address both the intellectual and the inward dimensions of a person, developing the capacity for compassion, self-awareness, and the courage to create a better world.
Q.6 How, as a student, will you create a new world?
A sample response: Krishnamurti challenges me not to simply follow the crowd — "seek success and position" — but to actively question and challenge the values of a society built on violence. As a student, I can begin by addressing inward violence: managing my own anger, letting go of prejudice, refusing to participate in bullying or cruelty even in small everyday forms. I can choose education as transformation — using what I learn not just to get ahead, but to understand, to question, and to contribute to a culture based on compassion and truth rather than competition and aggression. The new world Krishnamurti envisions begins in individual choices, made daily, in classrooms and homes.
Vocabulary — Word Forms: Verb / Noun / Adverb
Complete the table with the correct noun and adverb forms of each verb. Click 'Show Answers' to check.
| Verb | Noun Form | Adverb Form |
|---|---|---|
| encourage | encouragement — the act of giving support or confidence |
encouragingly — in a way that gives hope or confidence |
| excite | excitement — a feeling of great enthusiasm and eagerness |
excitedly — in a manner showing enthusiasm and eagerness |
| trouble | trouble / troublesomeness — difficulty, problems; or the quality of causing disturbance |
troublesomely — in a way that causes problems or annoyance |
| beautify | beauty / beautification — the quality of being beautiful; or the process of making something beautiful |
beautifully — in an attractive, pleasing manner |
| tremble | trembling / tremor — an involuntary shaking; or (tremor) a slight vibration or quake |
tremblingly — in a shaking, quivering manner |
Grammar — Reported Speech: said, told, or asked?
The Difference: said / told / asked
said — no indirect object required: "He said that..." / "She said she was tired."told — always needs an indirect object (who was spoken to): "He told me that..." / "She told her friend that..."
asked — for questions and requests; can have optional indirect object: "She asked if..." / "He asked me whether..."
Memory tip: "TOLD always has a listener." You cannot say "He told that it was hot" — you must say "He told someone that it was hot."
Exercise — Fill in said, told, or asked
(a) The scientist ___ that dinosaurs lived 230 million years ago.
said — "The scientist said that dinosaurs lived 230 million years ago." No specific listener is mentioned, so "said" (no indirect object) is correct. "Told" would need: "told the audience / told reporters / told us."
(b) The teacher ___ the students that she was going to conduct a new experiment.
told — "The teacher told the students that she was going to conduct a new experiment." "The students" is the indirect object — you must use "told" when there is a named listener.
(c) Could you please ___ me where the new bookshop is located?
tell — "Could you please tell me where the new bookshop is located?" This is a polite request for information with an indirect object ("me") — use "tell."
(d) The student ___ (the teacher) if it was possible.
asked — "The student asked (the teacher) if it was possible." A yes/no question uses "asked" + "if/whether." The indirect object "the teacher" is optional with "asked."
(e) It is requested that he should ___ the truth.
tell — "It is requested that he should tell the truth." "Tell the truth" is a fixed collocation. Note: you cannot "say the truth" in standard English — you "tell" the truth.
(f) Father ___ (his son) whether he had paid his fees or not.
asked — "Father asked (his son) whether he had paid his fees or not." A yes/no question in reported speech uses "asked" + "whether/if." The indirect object "his son" is optional with "asked."
Listening / Reading Text — Vanka Zhukov (Anton Chekhov)
Read the story of Vanka Zhukov carefully, then answer the questions that follow.
Vanka Zhukov, a nine-year-old boy, was sent as an assistant to Alyakhin the shoemaker. On Christmas Eve, when everyone had gone to church, he took out a crumpled sheet of paper and began to write: "Dear Grandfather Konstantin, I'm writing a letter to you. I wish you a Merry Christmas and all good things from the Lord God. I've no father and mother, and you are all I have left."
In his imagination, Vanka pictured his grandfather Konstantin — a small, thin, lively old man of sixty-five, whose face was always crinkling with laughter. A night watchman on a rich estate, he cracked jokes with the cooks by day and made his rounds blowing his whistle at night, followed by his two dogs, Brownie and Eel. Eel was remarkable — respectful and endearing, yet trusted by no one. He would creep behind someone and bite their leg, or run off with a chicken.
"Yesterday I was given a beating," Vanka continued, "because I was rocking the baby in the cradle and unfortunately fell asleep. Another time the mistress asked me to clean the fish. I didn't know how, so she rubbed the fish all over my face. There's nothing to eat — in the morning, bread; porridge for dinner; bread again in the evening. The master and mistress eat all the good things themselves. I sleep in the corridor and when the baby cries I don't get any sleep at all. Dear grandfather, please take me away from here. It's more than I can bear."
Vanka promised to grind snuff, pray for his grandfather, and work as a shepherd if taken away. He remembered the Christmas trees they had collected from the forest together, the young mistress Olga who had been his favourite, his mother who had once worked there and shared sweets with him.
"Come to me, dear grandfather. Please, have pity on me, a poor orphan. They are always beating me. I'm terribly hungry and so miserable that I'm always crying. I remain your grandson, Ivan Zhukov. Dear grandfather, please come soon."
Vanka folded the letter and put it in an envelope. He thought for a while, then wrote the address: To Grandfather in the Village. Konstantin Makarich. He ran to the nearest post box and dropped it in. An hour later, lulled by sweetest hopes, he was fast asleep — dreaming of his grandfather reading the letter aloud to the cooks, with Eel the dog walking round the stove, wagging his tail.
— Anton Chekhov (adapted)
Questions — Vanka Zhukov
(a) Vanka went to bed early on Christmas Eve as ___
Vanka did NOT go to bed early — he stayed up to write his letter while everyone else went to church. He waited until the shop was empty so he could write undisturbed. He went to sleep only after posting his letter, an hour later.
(b) Why, of all people, did he write a letter to his grandfather?
Vanka explains: "I've no father and mother, and you are all I have left." His grandfather Konstantin is his only surviving family member and the person he loves and trusts most in the world. The letter is addressed to the one person who could save him — and the one person whose face and warmth he misses above all others.
(c) How was his grandfather a very lovable person?
Konstantin is described as small, thin, and lively — with a face "always crinkling with laughter." He cracked jokes with the cooks, shared snuff with the women, and took Vanka with him to collect Christmas trees from the forest — giving the boy some of his happiest memories. His warmth and playfulness made him the emotional centre of Vanka's world.
(d) Vanka was beaten ___ times. (e) Vanka was beaten because ___
(d) Vanka mentions being beaten at least twice in the letter: once for falling asleep while rocking the baby, and implicitly other times as well (he says "they are always beating me").
(e) He was beaten (first incident) because he fell asleep while rocking the baby in the cradle. The second incident — fish rubbed on his face — was not a beating but humiliation. The beatings are a pattern of cruelty, not isolated events.
(e) He was beaten (first incident) because he fell asleep while rocking the baby in the cradle. The second incident — fish rubbed on his face — was not a beating but humiliation. The beatings are a pattern of cruelty, not isolated events.
(f) What was Vanka prepared to do for grandfather if taken away from the shoemaker?
Vanka offered to: grind Grandfather's snuff for him; pray to God for his health; accept beatings if he misbehaved; work as a shepherd boy; and when he grew up, feed his grandfather and pray for his soul after death. These selfless offers from a starving, beaten nine-year-old reveal the depth of his love and desperation.
(g) He was sent to Alyakhin, the shoemaker, to ___
He was sent to Alyakhin to work as a shoemaker's apprentice — to learn the trade and earn his keep after his mother died. The story implies this was arranged by the household he had been living with, following the death of his mother who worked there as a maid.
(h) Who does Vanka remember most at Christmas, next to his grandfather?
Vanka remembers the young mistress Olga most warmly next to his grandfather. She had been his favourite person in the household — she always gave him sweets and played with him. His mother had worked as Olga's maid, and Olga had been kind to Vanka while his mother was alive.
(i) How did he address the letter?
Vanka addressed the envelope: "To Grandfather in the Village. Konstantin Makarich." This is a tragically incomplete address — there is no village name, no district, no post code. The letter will never reach its destination. This is the story's central heartbreak: Vanka's hope is real but the address is useless, and Chekhov leaves this unstated, trusting the reader to understand.
(j) Did he sleep well after posting the letter? What did he dream?
Yes — "lulled by sweetest hopes," Vanka slept soundly after posting the letter. He dreamed of his grandfather sitting beside the warm stove, reading the letter aloud to the cooks, with Eel the dog walking around the stove wagging his tail. The dream is a vision of everything Vanka longs for: warmth, love, belonging, and his grandfather's presence. The poignancy is that only in his dream can this reunion happen — the letter will never arrive.
Editing — Join the Jumbled Parts to Form Meaningful Sentences
| # | Jumbled Parts | Correct Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| (a) | by giving ultimate / individual can transform everything / expression to / the inner determination of an / the infinite potential of human being | An individual can transform everything by giving ultimate expression to the inner determination and the infinite potential of a human being. |
| (b) | down many a time / but keep rising / that you may go / the Sun teaches us | The Sun teaches us that you may go down many a time, but keep rising. |
| (c) | but how much love / much we give / we put into giving / it's not how | It's not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving. (Based on Mother Teresa's quote) |
| (d) | fit for human habitation / would mould the world / the citizens of tomorrow / into a globe | The citizens of tomorrow would mould the world into a globe fit for human habitation. |
| (e) | you must hear / to be a great leader / and pains of people / the unspoken joys | To be a great leader, you must hear the unspoken joys and pains of people. |
CBQ Practice
CBSE COMPETENCY-BASED QUESTION
"Vanka folded the sheet of paper and then put it in an envelope... He thought for a while, then wrote the address: To Grandfather in the Village. He added the words: Konstantin Makarich. He was happy that no one had disturbed him while he was writing his letter. He ran out to the street to post it... An hour later, lulled by sweetest hopes, he was fast asleep."
Q1 Why is the phrase "lulled by sweetest hopes" particularly heartbreaking for the reader, even though Vanka himself is happy? L4 Analyse
The reader knows something Vanka does not: his address — "To Grandfather in the Village, Konstantin Makarich" — is hopelessly incomplete. No postman could deliver a letter with no village name, no district, and no street. While Vanka sleeps peacefully, full of hope that his grandfather will soon come for him, the reader understands with painful clarity that his letter will never arrive, his grandfather will never know, and Vanka will wake up still a prisoner in the shoemaker's shop. Chekhov uses dramatic irony — the gap between what the character believes and what the reader knows — to create one of the most moving endings in short fiction. Irony
Q2 Both Vanka Zhukov and Lencho (A Letter to God, Unit 1) wrote letters asking for help. Compare their situations and the faith they place in their letter-writing. L5 Evaluate
Both Vanka and Lencho are in desperate situations and turn to letter-writing as an act of faith and hope. Lencho writes to God — an act of extraordinary, almost innocent belief that the divine will respond to a written request. Vanka writes to his grandfather — a more humanly grounded faith, but equally innocent in its assumption that the address is sufficient. Both letters are examples of what might be called "helpless hope" — the courage of the powerless to ask for rescue. Yet there is an ironic difference: Lencho's letter reaches the post office and is acted upon by sympathetic humans; Vanka's letter will reach no one. Chekhov's story is bleaker than the Indian tale: in 'A Letter to God,' human kindness compensates for the impossible; in 'Vanka,' there is no such redemption — only a sleeping boy and an undeliverable letter.
Q3 Krishnamurti says education should help us "go beyond violence." How might Vanka's experience illustrate what happens when society fails this educational ideal? L6 Create
Vanka's world is saturated with Krishnamurti's "inward and outward violence." He is beaten by the shoemaker, humiliated by the mistress, underfed, sleep-deprived, and completely isolated — all forms of casual, institutionalised violence against a child. The adults around him have received no education of compassion; their intelligence serves only their own comfort. Krishnamurti's warning — "a brutal man with a very clever brain who can argue and defend his brutality" — could describe the shoemaker and mistress perfectly: they are not stupid, but their cleverness has not been educated towards compassion. Vanka represents every child abandoned by a society that values labour over humanity and convenience over care. His story asks the same question as Krishnamurti: what kind of new world can we build if we continue to brutalise our children? The answer begins with education of the heart — not merely the examination hall.
Writing Tasks
Writing Task 1 — Email to Grandfather
Imagine you are writing an email to your grandfather describing your life — your school, your friends, your joys and small frustrations. Have you ever felt as isolated as Vanka? What do you do to feel happy again? Write 150–200 words.
Email Format (CBSE Standard)
To: grandfather@email.com
Subject: Thinking of you / News from school / Greetings from [your city]
Salutation: Dear Dadu / Thatha / Nana,
Body Para 1: How you are, what's happening in school (3–4 sentences)
Body Para 2: Something that has been on your mind — a challenge, a memory, a feeling (3–4 sentences)
Closing: Love and wishes — mention something you miss about being with grandfather
Sign-off: With love, [Your name]
To: nana.krishnamurthy@gmail.com
Subject: Thinking of you this winter — news from Chennai
Dear Nana,
I hope you are keeping warm in Coimbatore! It has been a long term here — our half-yearly examinations just finished and I think I did reasonably well in English and Science, though Mathematics was its usual self! My friend Priya and I have started a small reading group after school on Tuesdays, which I really look forward to.
Honestly, this week I felt a little the way Vanka Zhukov must have felt in the Chekhov story we read — far from home, a bit lost, wishing someone familiar would just appear. Of course my situation is nothing like his — I have Amma and Appa here, and school is fine. But I think I understand that particular kind of missing someone. I feel it most when it gets cold in the evenings and I think of sitting with you listening to the radio.
What would make everything perfect is if you could visit during the Pongal holidays. Please say yes!
With all my love,
Ananya
Writing Task 2 — Dialogue: Vanka Meets Lencho
Suppose Vanka and Lencho (from 'A Letter to God', Unit 1) meet. What would they say to each other? What encouraged each of them to write their letters? Write a dialogue of 8–10 exchanges.
Dialogue Writing Tips
Each exchange: Speaker name + colon + what they say
Use adverbs to indicate tone: quietly, hopefully, sadly, with surprise
Show contrast: Lencho's faith in God vs. Vanka's trust in family
End with something that connects them — both had unanswered hopes
Sample — Vanka and Lencho Meet
Lencho:Hello, Vanka. You look tired. Have you been working?
Vanka:(quietly) Always. I am a shoemaker's boy. My hands hurt. But tonight I wrote a letter — to my grandfather.
Lencho:(nodding) I also wrote a letter once. To God. My crops were destroyed by a hailstorm and my family had nothing to eat.
Vanka:(with surprise) To God? Did He reply?
Lencho:(smiling slowly) In a way, yes. Money arrived at the post office. I believe it was God's hand — even if men delivered it.
Vanka:(wistfully) I wish I had thought to write to God. I only wrote to my grandfather. He lives in a village somewhere. I put "To Grandfather in the Village" on the envelope.
Lencho:(gently) That is not enough of an address, Vanka. The post office needs a full village name.
Vanka:(going still) …I did not know that. Do you think it will still reach him?
Lencho:(after a pause) Letters don't always reach the ones we write to, Vanka. But the love inside them does not disappear. Perhaps that is why we write — not to send a letter, but to hold on to someone we love.
Vanka:(softly) I will write again tomorrow. And I will find out the name of his village. I will not give up.
Writing Task 3 — Letter Addressing Then and Now
Vanka's letter was written in the era of horse-drawn mail coaches. Write a short paragraph: How are letters carried today? What are the correct components of a modern postal address? What is the difference between a post and an email?
Sample — Letters: Then and Now
In Vanka's time, letters were carried by horse-drawn mail coaches — a slow, uncertain journey that could take days or weeks, dependent on weather and roads. Today, postal systems are far more sophisticated: letters are sorted by automated machines using PIN codes and delivered within days, while documents can be emailed anywhere in the world in seconds.A correct modern postal address in India includes: the recipient's name, house/flat number and street, locality or area, city/town, state, and 6-digit PIN code. Without the PIN code — just as without a village name in Vanka's time — a letter may not reach its destination.
The key difference between a post letter and an email: a physical letter is tangible and personal — it can be held, kept, and re-read over years; it carries the writer's handwriting, which carries emotional weight. An email is instant, economical, and searchable — but lacks that physical intimacy. Both remain valid forms of connection; both, when written honestly and with love, carry the same essential human longing that Vanka's letter contained.
FAQ
What is Unit 9 – The Proposal about?
Unit 9 – The Proposal is a lesson from the NCERT English textbook covering important literary and language concepts with vocabulary, literary devices, and exercises.
What vocabulary is in Unit 9 – The Proposal?
Key vocabulary words from Unit 9 – The Proposal are highlighted with contextual meanings and usage examples throughout the lesson.
What literary devices are in Unit 9 – The Proposal?
Unit 9 – The Proposal uses various literary devices including imagery, symbolism, and figurative language identified with coloured tags.
What exercises are in Unit 9 – The Proposal?
Exercises include extract-based comprehension questions, grammar workshops, vocabulary activities, and writing tasks with model answers.
How does Unit 9 – The Proposal help exam prep?
Unit 9 – The Proposal includes CBSE-format questions and model answers following Bloom's Taxonomy levels L1-L6.
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