Summary: Little Girls are Wiser
Two little girls, Malasha and Akulya, have been dressed up by their parents for
Easter. They have just come from church. They meet and start to play with one
another. Soon, Akulya warns Malasha to step into a puddle carefully so that her dress
will not get dirty. But Malasha splashes dirty water on Akulya’s dress, as she cannot
help stamping her foot down into the water. Akulya's mother comes out and asks
the child how she got so dirty. Akulya tells her that it was Malasha's fault. The
mother grabs Malasha and hits her on the back of the neck. Malasha starts to howl,
and that brings out her mother who demands to know why her daughter is being
beaten. The two women start arguing and then the men come out. It almost comes
to blows when Akulya’s grandmother comes out and asks them why they are
fighting.
The old woman tries to stop them from fighting. However, they will not listen to her
and continue their fight.
Meanwhile, Akulya takes a stone and begins scraping away at the earth in front of
the puddle. She wants to make a channel through which the water could run out into
the street. Malasha joins her and helps her dig the channel with a small wooden
stick. The water from the little girls’ channel runs down into the street towards the
very place where the old woman is trying to pacify the crowd. The girls follow it—one
running on each side of the little stream—they are trying to catch the stick that is
floating down the stream and they shout to each other in delight as they run.
The adults then see the little girls running along the channel with each other.
Akulya’s grandmother reminds them of their foolishness and says they could learn
from the way the little girls have resolved their quarrel. Ashamed of their behaviour,
the crowd of people stop fighting and go home.
This is a story that is told simply. But it has an important message. Sometimes, even
elders can sometimes learn important things from those who are younger. We can all
learn from each other.
UNIT 2 LITTLE GIRLS ARE WISER
Warm Up
Free Response
Embedded Questions 1
● Free Response
● Suggested answer (Accept any logical answer). It looks like a problem might occur because of the
two girls playing in the muddy puddle.
Embedded Questions 2
● The men came out and a crowd collected in the street. Everyone was shouting but no one was
listening. Then one woman gave the other a push and the fight nearly became physical.
Embedded Questions 3
● No, they did not. They had made up after their fight and had forgotten all about. They had gone
back to playing happily.
● Suggested answer (Accept any logical answer). It was a little surprising that they did not get angry
with Akulya’s grandmother. Some people could get angry if they told that their behavior was
worse than that of small children.
Comprehension
A. 1. The little girls meet in a lane between two houses. The dirty water from the farms had run down
the lane and collected to form a large puddle.
2. When the men came out of their homes, they began quarrelling amongst themselves. Everyone
soon began shouting and no one bothered to listen to the other. One woman almost pushed the
other and this nearly led to a full-blown physical fight.
3. Once the fight was over, the people who had gathered were ashamed. They looked at the two
girls who had made up after the fight and so they laughed at themselves and the way they had
behaved and then went home.
B. 1. a. Malasha’s mother said this to Akulya’s mother.
b. Malasha’s mother scolded her neighbour and soon both of them had an argument over the
matter.
2. a. Akulya’s grandmother said this to the people who had gathered on the streets and were
fighting amongst themselves.
b. It was the day of Easter. For Christians, Easter marks the day of Christ’s resurrection following his
crucifixion. It is a day when Christians all over the world rejoice and it is generally observed on a
Sunday.
C. 1. The girls are friends. They meet one another and show each other the finery they had on for Easter.
The elder girl advised the younger one and the younger one looks to the elder one when she
is afraid. They work together in order to make a channel and let the water drain away. All these
things show us that the two girls were friends.
2. Malasha’s mother was angry with Akulya and her mother because Akulya’s mother had hit Malasha
on the back of her neck. Malasha howled so loudly that he could be heard all down the street. Her
mother came out and got very angry when she realised what had happened.
3. Akulya had taken a stone and had begun scraping away at the earth in front of the puddle.
She wanted to make a channel through which the water could run out into the street. Malasha
joined her and helped her dig the channel with a small wooden The water from the little girls’
channel ran down into the street towards the very place where the old woman was trying to
pacify the crowd. The girls followed it—one running on each side of the little stream—they
were trying to catch stick that was floating down the stream and they shouted to each other in
delight as they ran.
4. When the gathered crowd began fighting among themselves, the old woman tried to stop
and pacify them. However, they would not listen to her and continued their fight. After a
while, when they saw the little girls running along the channel with each other, Akulya’s
grandmother reminded them of their foolishness and said they could learn from the way the
little girls had resolved their quarrel. Ashamed of their behavior, the crowd of people stopped
fighting.
D. An Easter Lesson (Free Response)
E. Free Response
Grammar
A. 2. Have we met before?
3. What a pretty frock!
4. This is a wonderful view.
5. What noisy children!
6. It was a funny film.
B. 2. three diamond-shaped red kites
3. a favourite small plastic bottle
4. a stylish velvet Italian hat
5. a lovely old Hindi song
Vocabulary
1. confused, confusing 2. satisfying, satisfied 3. amusing, amused
4. annoyed, annoying 5. disappointing, disappointed
Listening
Listening Text
Once upon a time, Nasreddin Hodja was walking toward the border—a line that separated his
country from another. He led a donkey by a rope and the donkey was carrying large bales of straw.
When the border inspector saw Hodja, he smiled. “Ah, this man is a trickster. Surely he is taking
something illegally across the border. Watch this,” he whispered to his fellow inspectors. “I shall find
his smuggled goods.”
The inspector stopped Hodja. “Sir, you must allow me to search your donkey. I am certain you are
smuggling valuable goods across the border into Persia.” Hodja nodded. “Search away,” he said, “but
I’m afraid you’ll find nothing but straw.”
The inspector began his search. He pulled at the bundles of straw, scattering straw here, there and
everywhere. But he found nothing. So the inspector had to let Hodja go.
The next week, the same thing happened and the same thing again the week after that. Years went
by and still the inspector found nothing.
And then one day Hodja simply stopped crossing the border. But the inspector could not stop
thinking of him. He decided to visit Hodja in his hometown of Aksehir, for he wanted to know the
truth!
He found Hodja sitting in the marketplace, enjoying some coffee. “Sir,” said the inspector, “excuse me,
but I have to know. All those years when you crossed the border and we searched you…were you
smuggling something?”
Hodja looked at the inspector and smiled his sweetest smile. “Yes. I’ll tell you now,” he said. “I was
smuggling donkeys.”
Answers:
1. The story begins with Nasreddin Hodja walking toward the border
2. The narrator adds to the tension of the story when he describes the interactions between the
inspector and Hodja. The inspector was certain that Hodja was smuggling something across the
border. When he decided to catch him red-handed, he searched the pile of straw and yet could
find almost nothing. He continued his search again and again week after week and yet could find
nothing.
3. The inspector could not stop thinking about Hodja because he wanted to know the truth—he
wanted to know how Hodja had tricked him for so long.
4. Hodja seems to be a very clever and cunning man. He seems to have enjoyed the challenge of
outwitting the inspector and is able to keep calm even in very stressful situations.
5. Yes, the ending was surprising for two reasons. Firstly, it was unexpected that Hodja confessed to
the smuggling after all those years. Secondly, he had done it by hiding the smuggled item, the
donkey, in plain sight!
Writing
Suggested answer (Accept any logical answer).
This is a story based on a real life incident that happened early one morning in a small Ladakhi
village called Ang. It was the morning of Buddhapurnima, a day of great religious importance for the
Buddhists of Ladakh. Sixteen-year-old Rigzin had woken up earlier than usual. After gulping down a
steaming hot cup of tea that his mother had made, he picked up his towel to wash in the stream that
flowed by near his house. While he was bathing, his friend Jigmet came and told him that there was a
big leopard in Tashi’s shed. Once the boys got to the shed, they discovered that a calf was still alive in
the shed.
Rigzin climbed onto the roof of the shed and looked through a hole at the centre. He could see the
baby calf lying still. It was the only animal in the shed to have been spared. At least until now. The
leopard was fairly close to the calf, but its attention was on the hole in the roof around which a crowd
had now gathered.
“How can we save the calf?” sobbed Chorol, Tashi’s wife.
Not wasting another moment, Rigzin ran down to the door of the shed. “Keep calm,” he told himself.
He took a deep breath and opened the door. Then he tip-toed quickly up to the calf and picked it up.
As he stepped back, he saw the leopard turn around. The leopard had spotted him!
Rigzin bolted towards the door. As he quickly shut it, he saw a flash of grey. The snow leopard had
missed him by a fraction of a second! But he and the calf were now safe.
Spelling
1. crutch 2. torch 3. peach 4. couch 5. dispatch 6. watch 7. branch
8. French 9. sketch
LITTLE GIRLS ARE WISER
A. Answer in brief.
1. What did Akulya tell Malasha when they began to play?
Ans: Akulya asked Malasha not to step into the puddle with her shoes and all. She told her that
her mother may not like to see her in soiled stockings and shoes and asked her to remove them
before stepping into the puddle.
2. Why was Akulya annoyed with Malasha?
Ans: Malasha and Akulya both dressed in beautiful frocks ventured into the dirty puddle of water.
As they entered the water, even before Akulya could warn her, Malasha put down her foot so hard
in the dirty water that the water splashed and soiled Akulya’s new frock. Akulya got really angry
with Malasha and accused her of having done that deliberately.
B. Answer in detail.
1. What started the fight among the adults in the neighbourhood?
Ans: Akulya in her anger complained to her mother that Malasha had deliberately spoiled her
frock by stamping on the dirty water. That made Akulya’s mother strike Malasha on the back of
her neck who started crying aloud. On seeing this, Malasha’s mother was livid with anger and then
started the blame game. One word led to another and soon even the men came out and started
quarrelling. They all went on and on and everyone started hitting each other. Sadly a simple
argument soon became a nasty fight in the neighbourhood.
2. How did the little girls teach the adults a lesson?
Ans: While the adults were busy arguing and engaging themselves in fights, the little girls
thought of running away from the melee. Akulya wiped the mud off her frock and went back to
the puddle. Soon Malasha joined her and helped her dig a channel with a small wooden stick.
The crowd was totally unaware that the little girls had become friends again. It was only after
the old woman drew the crowd’s attention and showed them how the little girls were playing
together that they felt ashamed of themselves and laughed at their own foolishness and
dispersed.
C. Read the lines and answer the questions.
1. “Malasha did it on purpose,” replied the girl.
a. Who is the girl? Who is she speaking to?
b. What did Malasha do?
c. How did the person spoken to, react to the statement?
Ans: a. The girl is Akulya. She is speaking to her mother.
b. Malasha had unintentionally splashed muddy water on Akulya’s new frock, as well as her
eyes and nose.
c. Her mother grabbed Malasha and struck on the back of her neck.
2. The men and women looked at the little girls, and were ashamed.
a. Why were the men and women ashamed?
b. What happened next?
Ans: a. The men and the women were ashamed because they were fighting with each other
while the little girls because of whom they were fighting, had forgotten their differences
and were playing together.
b. The men and women laughed at themselves, stopped fighting and went back to their
own homes.
D. Answer in brief. (Think and answer)
1. Do you think it was right on the part of Akulya’s mother to have spanked Malasha?
[Free response] Suggested answer: Akulya’s mother was wrong in striking Malasha. She should
have asked both the girls about what had happened and then advised the children. If at all there
was any truth in what Akulya said, her mother could have just called and warned Malasha instead
of raising her hands on her.
2. How could the adults have avoided the quarrel from becoming nasty fist fight?
[Free response] Suggested answer: The adults were very foolish and immature. Most of them
would not have even known what the fight was about. They could have at least listened to the
old woman or checked with the children or the mothers of the children before reacting in the
manner they did.
E. Answer in detail. (Think and answer)
It is important that adults have to be role models for children. But many a time adults need to learn a
lot from children. Elaborate with examples from the text.
[Free response] Suggested answer: Our elders teach us good values and we learn to face different
challenges with their guidance. But, in the text we see the adults behave impulsively. They should not
have interfered in the fight between little children. If Akulya as a child had complained, her mother
should not have believed her blindly and hit another young child. We have fights with our friends but
we forget the fight soon and become friends. Similarly, Akulya and Malasha soon forgot their anger
and started playing as if nothing had happened. Seeing them the men and women felt so ashamed
and laughed at their own foolishness.
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