Summary: The Blue Light
The speaker in the story is a writer who has rented an old house on the outskirts of a
small town in Kerala. The house has no electricity and is not well looked after, but
the speaker finds it a perfect place to write his next novel. After he moves in, the
locals warn him that the house is haunted by a ghost named Bhargavi. The speaker
does not take the warning very seriously.
A few months later, one night, the speaker was writing an emotional story. All his
attention was on writing it and he did not want to get distracted by getting up to
refill the lamp. Soon, the lamp went out and he had no oil to light it again. So, he
thought that he would ask his friends who worked at the bank for some.
The speaker walked to his friend’s lodgings. It is a misty night and the sky was
overcast, so he walked fast. At his friend’s lodgings, his friend jokes about Bhargavi’s
ghost while getting some kerosene for him. It had started to rain by then and the
speaker had to play cards with his friends till one o’ clock. But the speaker’s mind
was still on the story he was writing and he wanted to go back and finish it.
Once the rain stopped, the speaker hurried back home. He said that he felt a strange
sadness when he entered the house. He opened the door and went in. The room had
been dark when he had left. And then it had rained for quite a while. It was more
than three hours since he had left the house. But now, he could see a light inside the
room. He could see it through the chinks in the bedroom door.
He took out a key and unlocked the door to the bedroom. His entire body jerked at
what was happening. He stood there, stunned.
The entire room was illuminated with a blue light. The light came from the lamp—
from two inches of blue flame! The speaker did not how the lamp had been lit or
who had lit it.
The setting of the story is eerie in itself. It is set in the outskirts of a town where
there are very few people around, especially after it gets dark. The speaker lives in a
haunted house. The place does not have electricity. The speaker has to manage with
an oil lamp and the whole place is engulfed in darkness as evening sets in. Misty
moonlight and grey clouds cover the sky on the evening of the incident. The speaker
also feels particularly sad and troubled on that day. This also makes the atmosphere
dark and gloomy.
UNIT 4 THE BLUE LIGHT
Warm Up
Free Response
Embedded Questions 1
● The lamp had gone out and there was no kerosene. So he thought that he would ask his friends
who worked at the bank for some.
Embedded Questions 2
● No, he did not. But it was raining heavily and he didn’t have an umbrella. So he had no choice but
to stay back till the rain stopped.
● His mind was still on the story he was writing and he wanted to go back and finish it.
Embedded Questions 3
● The entire room was illuminated with a blue light. The light came from the lamp—from two inches
of blue flame.
● Yes. The pure shock that the speaker is experiencing tells us that this was the first time it had
happened.
Comprehension
A. 1. he was writing an emotional story. All his attention was on writing it and he did not want to get
distracted by getting up to refill the lamp.
2. it had started raining by the time he finished collecting the kerosene. He had to wait at his friends’
house for the rain to stop.
3. his mind was full of a strange sadness for no reason at all.
4. he wanted to open the door and get in. The lock gleamed and it seemed as though the lock smiled
at him.
5. the lamp was not supposed to be glowing. When he had left his house, the lamp had no kerosene
left in it and the flame had already gone out.
B. 1. a. The speaker did not say anything because he was not as dismissive about the ghost of Bhargavi
as he was before.
b. Yes, he did. The speaker might have joked about Bhargavi to his friends before and therefore his
friend that this time too he would find the joke funny.
2. a. The speaker must have felt amazed at finding the lamp glowing. He must also have been
shocked as his entire body jerked at what he saw.
b. The story takes a mysterious turn at this point. It is spine-chilling and full of horror.
c. The mystery does make the story more chilling. Generally, people find things that they cannot
explain or do not have an answer for more troubling or in cases like this, more frightening.
C. 1. The story is set on the outskirts of a small town in Kerala. It is evident that it takes place at a time
when electricity had not reached the small towns of India. The speaker in the story has to light a
lamp in the evening in order to write.
2. The speaker goes to collect some kerosene at his friend’s lodgings. His friend jokes about
Bhargavi’s ghost while getting some kerosene for him. It had started to rain by then and the
speaker had to play cards with his friends till one o’ clock.
3. The speaker tells us that there was misty moonlight outside and the sky was overcast. He does
this to set the mood of the story. The rain and the darkness add to the mystery and bring about a
feeling of something unknown waiting in the darkness. It makes the reader await the arrival of the
ghost of Bhargavi.
4. The speaker tells us that he felt a strange sadness when he entered the house. This makes the
setting of the story gloomy. It also tells us that something has changed in the house since the
beginning of the story and so prepares the reader for the next unexpected turn. It creates a sense
of unease and tension in the reader.
5. Suggested answer (Accept any logical answer). What the speaker saw must have been real. He had
felt a strange presence in his house but that could be dismissed as superstitious fear. At the same
time he could not have been mistaken about the blue light that he sees in his room. The lamp too
was glowing with a two-inch-high flame. This scene was not an imaginary one.
D. 1. The setting of the story is eerie in itself. It is set in the outskirts of a town where there are very few
people around, especially after it gets dark. The speaker lives in a haunted house. The place does
not have electricity. The speaker has to manage with an oil lamp and the whole place is engulfed
in darkness as evening sets in. Misty moonlight and grey clouds cover the sky on the evening of
the incident. The speaker also feels particularly sad and troubled on that day. This also makes the
atmosphere dark and gloomy.
2. Suggested answer (Accept any logical answer). The speaker enters the room. He encounters the
figure of a lady sitting at his writing desk. It is the ghost of Bhargavi. The speaker is a fearless man
and he is not afraid of her presence. Bhargavi says that she has been longing to tell her story to a
human being and therefore she continued haunting the house. She felt that the speaker was the
right person, as he was a writer and could understand her emotions. Bhargavi goes on to narrate
the story of her life and how she met her death. The speaker took notes and went on to write a
novel about her life—this novel would turn out to be his masterpiece.
Grammar
A. 2. and 3. or 4. yet 5. but 6. yet
B. 2. This is a difficult sum but we will work out the solution if we keep trying.
3. She reached the park but her friends had already left by then.
4. You could wear jeans and a T-shirt or you could wear a dress.
5. The play was long yet interesting.
6. Kabir went to his room and tidied it up.
Vocabulary
1. picked up 2. picked out 3. picked on 4. picked over 5. picked off
6. picking at
Listening
Listening Text
1. I feel that the best part was the beginning when the heroine and her friends met the old man in
the forest.
2. The film was first released in 1992.
3. Don’t you think that the ending of the film was disappointing?
4. The main actress in the film went on to win an Oscar five years later.
5. The creature from the swamp was pure computer graphics according to the director!
6. On the other hand, I did think that all the actors were excellent.
Answers:
1. opinion 2. fact 3. opinion 4. fact 5. fact 6. opinion
Speaking
Suggested answer (Accept any logical answer).
1. Speaker 1: Have you heard that some students of the 11th standard have been suspended for a
week? They were carrying mobile phones.
Speaker 2: I feel this should not have been the case. Students should be allowed to carry mobile
phones to school.
Speaker 1: But don’t you think it would distract them? Young people nowadays are addicted to
surfing the net. They would not pay attention to what is being taught in class.
Speaker 2: I agree. But on the other hand, most of them belong to nuclear families with working
parents. The parents are always eager to know whether their child has reached home
safely.
Speaker 1: In that case, the school has to arrange for locker facilities for students carrying
mobile phones. Then they can only be allowed access to the phones for making
emergency calls.
2. Speaker 1: I could not enjoy the film that I went for yesterday. A group of friends sitting in the
front row were continuously talking and disturbing others.
Speaker 2: People don’t have manners, these days. They do not consider the fact that they
shouldn’t speak loudly in a cinema hall.
Speaker 1: I agree. And I’m sure you’ll agree that people shouting in public places is also
unnecessarily. This creates a chaotic atmosphere.
Speaker 2: Absolutely!
3. Speaker 1: I read about a road accident today in the newspaper. Two friends riding a motorcycle
met with an accident. The one wearing a helmet is seriously injured. But the one
without it died instantly due to a fatal wound on his head.
Speaker 2: Oh dear! People should always wear their helmets while on a motorcycle. This means
even the passenger!
Speaker 2: I think this is very important too. New laws have been passed by the government
regarding this. The traffic police have been instructed to fine all those not
wearing a helmet. More awareness is to be created among people through
advertisements. Everyone should be urged to participate in traffic safety week
programmes.
Writing
Suggested answer (Accept any logical answer).
Address
04 June 2018
Dear Stella,
Hope you are doing well. I am eager to meet you. I will be travelling to Mumbai during my winter
vacations. I hope to meet you then. I turned 12 last week. I had called over Sohini and Neena to
my house on my birthday. After discussing what to watch after lunch, we decided to watch The
Mummy.
The Mummy is a 1999 horror film directed by Stephen Sommers. The film is set in both the past
and the present. It shows a time in the New Kingdom in Egypt, when the priest Imhotep and
Anck-Su-Namun murder the pharaoh after he comes to know about their relationship. Anck kills
herself, waiting to be resurrected by the priest. Imhotep along with other priests carry her body
to Hamunaptra. Before they can complete the resurrection ritual, the other priests are killed by
the pharaoh’s guards . Imhotep is buried alive and his body is kept under watch, so that he cannot
return. The film moves to the twentieth century, when a group of excavators, Evelyn, Rick and Beni,
arouse Imhotep’s spirit while hunting for treasure in Hamunaptra. Imhotep follows them to Cairo.
Imhotep wants Evelyn’s body to complete his resurrection ritual and bring back Anck-Su-Namun.
The rest of the film revolves around how they escape Imhotep’s wrath and send him into the River
of Death. The part where Imhotep attacks Rick and Evelyn along with his band of mummified priests,
scared us the most.
I think you should watch the film. It was a thrilling experience. The setting is very interesting and
despite it being a horror film, it is very funny too! Let me know if you get a chance to watch it or
maybe we can watch it together when I travel to Mumbai.
With love,
Neha
THE BLUE LIGHT
A. Answer in brief.
1. Why did the speaker not stop writing despite the light going dimmer and dimmer?
Ans: The speaker was a writer who had chosen that house to write a novel. He was engrossed
in writing a particular part of the novel. It was a highly emotional piece. He did not want to
get distracted by anything. He might have thought he would quickly complete it and then fill
kerosene in the lamp.
2. How did the speaker’s staying back late in his friends’ room add to the eeriness of the night?
Ans: When the speaker was about to leave after collecting the kerosene from his friends, it started
raining. As he didn’t have an umbrella, he had to stay back. By the time the rain stopped, it was
one o’clock in the night. The speaker had to walk back alone in the deserted road by the light of
his torch which was a scary situation.
B. Answer in detail.
What was the speaker’s experience as he entered his house?
Ans: As the speaker opened the door and entered his house, a strange emotion engulfed him. He
was unable to explain why he felt so sad that he wanted to weep. Further, as he entered the room, he
saw something unusual. When he left the room the lamp which he had left had gone out completely
because of no oil in it and the room had been dark. But now he could see light in his room. Even the
lock of the room shone like silver as if it was smiling at him. The moment he opened the door, he
was amazed to see the whole room illuminated with a blue light. He could not explain the feeling he
experienced at that moment as it was the strangest experience of his.
C. Read the lines and answer the questions.
1. When I reached the front of the bank building, I called out to my friends.
a. Why did the speaker call out to his friends?
b. What time of the day was it?
c. What were the friends doing? Were they of any help?
Ans: a. The speaker had run out of kerosene for his lamp. So he had to call out to them to open
the door.
b. It was around 10 o’clock in the night.
c. The friends were busy playing cards. Yes, they were of help as one of them poured out
the kerosene from their stove.
2. My entire body jerked at what was happening.
a. Why did the speaker react so?
b. What do you understand by this?
c. What genre does this story fall into?
Ans: a. He was totally amazed at what he saw in his room. The room which he had left totally
dark was resplendent with blue light.
b. This could mean that either someone had entered the room and lit it or as it was
believed the ghost of Bhargavi had lit the lamp.
c. Ghost-story / Mystery.
D. Answer in brief. (Think and answer)
Why did the speaker choose a house which apparently was haunted and had no electricity?
Free response. Suggested answer: A fiction writer is very imaginative and requires a perfect mood
and atmosphere to ignite his creativity. Each writer chooses a different setting or place according to
his preference. The speaker too was writing a novel. Perhaps, that unattended, haunted house without
electricity provided him with the perfect atmosphere he required to write the novel.
E. Answer in detail. (Think and answer)
Justify the title of the story. Would you like to suggest an alternate title? Give reasons.
[Free response] Suggested answer: The Blue Light, seems to have given the speaker a unique
experience of his life. He was taken aback to see his house, which he had left in total darkness,
illuminated with the blue light when he returned. The blue light also seemed to fill him with the
warmth which he had never felt before. At the end he was left wondering who had lit the lamp which
had no kerosene in it or where the blue light came from. He had till then laughed about the ghost of
Bhargavi but now had to rethink the whole ghost-tale. It is this occurrence that highlights the turn of
events in the narration. The Blue Light is indeed an apt title for the story.
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