NCERT Solutions for Class 8 English Supplementary Chapter 7 Jalebis

He did not pay the school fees on the day he brought money to school because the teacher responsible for collecting the fees was on leave, and so it was to be collected the next day.

Question:
(i) What were the coins ‘saying’ to him?
(ii) Do you think they were misguiding him?
Answer:
(i) The coins were asking him to buy the jalebis.
(ii) Yes, they were misguiding him. The money which he had with him was for the paying the fees but they lured him to spend them all on jalebis.

Comprehension Check
Question:
(i) Why didn’t he eat all the jalebis he had bought?
(ii) What did he do with the remaining jalebis?
Answer:
(i) He did not eat all the jalebis he had bought because he had already eaten so many of them and if anybody would have pressed his stomach a little, the jalebis would have come out of his ears and nostrils.
(ii) He distributed the left over jalebis to the children who had gathered in the gali where he was eating the jalebis.

He did not take the coins’ advice because:
→ He was a sincere boy.
→ He was diligent and had a good image in the school which he did not want to spoil.
→ He did not want to get caught doing anything wrong.

What did the oldest coin tell him?
The oldest coin told him that they were telling him something for his good. It also told him that as he would get the scholarship money the next day, he could pay his fees with it. So, he could very easily buy the jalebis for him with the fees money.

Did he follow his advice? If not, why not?
No, he did not follow its advice. Even though the very thought of buying jalebis filled his mouth with water, but then he realized that he was one of the most talented student of the school. In class fourth exams, he had won a scholarship of four rupees a month. Also, he came from quiet a affluent family which had a huge reputation. He had never got any beating in the school. Rather his teacher made him beat the other boys. He thought that being such a child he would not look nice standing in the middle of the market and eating jalebis. Thinking all this, he returned home.

He reached home with the coins in his pocket. What happened then?
When he reached home, the coins started speaking again. During the lunch time, they began screaming. He was so painstakingly fed up that he hurried out of the house barefoot and started running towards the market. Although he was horrified, he asked for a whole rupee worth of jalebis. The halwai opened up the entire newspaper and put a mound of jalebis on it.

The fear that he would be caughtby his parents and they would find out that he had eaten so many jalebis. He was burping with every breath. And with every burp, there was a danger of jalebis popping. This fear was killing him.

“Children’s stomachs are like digestion machines.” What do you understand by that? Do you agree?
This means that children have a strong digestion power. They can digest more than their usual diet. Yes, I do agree with this because children are always involved in different physical activities so are able to digest more than their usual diet.

How did he plan to pay the fees the next day?
He planned to pay his fees the next day with the previous month’s scholarship that he would be getting the next day.

When it was time to pay the fees, he tucked his bag under his arm and left the school. He kept on walking, and prayed to the god expecting some miracle to happen that would save him. He reached the Kambelpur railway station.
He had disobeyed his elders who had warned him not to cross the railway tracks. They had also warned him not to eat sweets with one’s fees money.

Comprehension Check
Question:
What was the consequence of buying jalebis with the fees money?
Answer:
The consequence of buying jalebis with the fees money was that for the first time in his life he did not attend the school and was absent from his school. He also disobeyed his elders for the first time in his life.

His prayer to God is like a lawyer’s defence of a bad case. Does he argue his case well? What are the points he makes?
He did not argue well. He tried his level best to impress God and made promises to him. He said that he had learnt the entire namaaz. He even knew the last ten surats of the Quran by heart. He said that he was a dedicated servant of God and was badly in need of money which was supposed to be paid as his fee. He realized his mistake, but to avoid getting scolded by his parents he still said that he had not eaten all the jalebis.
He said that shared them with other children. He promised that he would not eat sweets next time from the fees money and if he did it again, he should be punished the way a thief is punished. He said that there was no shortage of anything in God’s treasury. Even the chaprasi used to get a lot of money for his work. He also said that he was the nephew of a big officer and so, God should give him the money as he was asking for four rupees only.