The Price of Flowers

Question 1.
Why was the narrator’s attention drawn to the English girl?
Answer:
The narrator’s attention was drawn to the English girl because she had been
watching him with interested surprise. But she turned her eyes away as soon as he
looked at her. She was 13 or 14 years old. From her clothes one could guess she
was a poor girl. She had large eyes which had a sad expression.

Question 2.
What is your impression of the girl?
Answer:
She is a teenager from a poor family. She had large eyes with a sorrowful
expression. When she saw the narrator, some ideas came to her mind and that is
why she watches him so closely. Something about Indians has got into her mind and
she is trying to clarify her doubts. She is a polite girl who thanks people even when
some small service is given to her.

Question 3.
How do you know that the girl was interested in knowing the identity of the narrator?
Answer:
The girl was interested in knowing the identity of the narrator from the fact that she
watched him with interested surprise. Later she asks the cashier whether the
narrator was an Indian and whether he comes to the restaurant every day.

Question 4.
What do you understand about the probable financial condition of the girl?
Answer:
The girl is from a poor family and that we can guess from the dress she is wearing.
The waitress says that she comes to the restaurant only on Saturdays for her lunch
because Saturday is the pay day. On the other days she does not take lunch
because she has no money.

Question 5.
Why was the narrator curious about the girl? What did he do to meet her?
Answer:
The narrator was curious about the girl because he found she was curious about
him. She asked the cashier if he was an Indian and if he came to the restaurant
every day. To meet her he looked into the shops on the streets near St. Martin’s
Lane and the shops on the Strand. But he could not trace her.

Question 6.
Why did the narrator go to the restaurant again ?
Answer:
The narrator went to the restaurant again in the hope of meeting the young English
girl. He was told by the waitress that the girl came to the restaurant on Saturdays for
lunch.
Question 7.
What impression did the girl have about India?
Answer:
The girl thought that India was a dangerous country full of tigers, snake and fevers.
This is the impression she got from people.

Question 8.
Was Maggie satisfied with her job? If not why?
Answer:
Maggie was not satisfied with her job. It was a mechanical job. She wanted to have a
job that made use of her head, her brain; something like the work of a secretary.

Question 9.
What do you understand by ‘brain work’?
Answer:
By ‘brain work’ we mean those types of works which need some thinking. In India
people often call ‘brain work’ as white collar jobs.

Question 10.
Why did Maggie ask the narrator whether he was a vegetarian?
Answer:
Maggie asked the narrator whether he was a vegetarian to find out if he was a yogi.
She had heard that yogis do not eat meat and they have occult (magical) powers.

Question 11.
Why did Mr Gupta go to Maggie’s house?
Answer:
Mr. Gupta went to Maggie’s house because she wanted to introduce him to her
mother, who wanted to meet an Indian to find out the truth about the stories she had
heard about India.

Question 12.
What do you understand about the living conditions of Maggie and her mother?
Answer:
The living conditions of Maggie and her mother were very poor. They lived in a small
house in the Lambeth area where poor peopled lived. Maggie’s mother baked cakes
and sold them for a living.

Question 13.
Why is Saturday special to Maggie and her mother?
Answer:
It is Maggie’s pay day. Saturday night is a time of festivity in poor neighbourhoods
like Lambeth. Maggie’s mother bakes cakes and sells them on Saturdays and that is
how they make a living. So Saturday is special to both of them.

Question 14.
How did Mr. Gupta describe India to Mrs. Clifford?
Answer:
Mr. Gupta said that India was a beautiful country. It was not cold like England, but
was somewhat hot. Of course there were tigers and snakes in India but they lived in
the jungles. If they came into the places where people lived they got killed. There
were fevers in some places in India. But they differred with the places and seasons.

Question 15.
Who is Francis? What do you know about him?
Answer:
Francis or Frank is the brother of Maggie and son of Mrs. Clifford. He is a soldier in
Punjab. He loves his mother and sister. He has sent her sister a book of pictures of
Simla and the surrounding mountain country on her birthday. He also sent her a
crystal ring saying that it was a magical ring.

Question 16.
What is your opinion about superstitions? Do you believe in any?
Answer:
Superstitions are bad. But they are rampant in the society. Superstitions are often
connected with religious beliefs and some unscrupulous people exploit the believers
by feeding them with superstitions. Some people believe that if a black cat crosses
your way, the work for which you are going will not be done. It is stupid to believe in
superstitions. I don’t believe in any. I believe in God but not in the superstitions
traded in his name.

Question 17.
Describe the incident that touched the narrator deeply.
Answer:
Maggie had a violin and she learned to play some songs with her own efforts. She
could not go to any teacher to learn violin because of the lack of money. Her mother
knew that Maggie had talent for playing violin. She told the narrator that if ever their
circumstances improved she would send Maggie to have violin lessons. This incident
deeply touched the narrator’s heart.

Question 18.
Why was Maggie unable to go to work?
Answer:
Maggie was unable to go to work because her mother was seriously sick. Since
there was nobody in the house to look after her sick mother, she could not go for
work.

Question 19.
Why did Mr. Gupta take some money with him when he went to see Mrs. Clifford?
Answer:
In the letter Maggie wrote to him she had mentioned that her mother was very ill and
she was not able to go to work for a week. His hostess told him that since Maggie
had not gone for work for a week and had not received any pay, it was possible they
were in financial trouble. So he took some money with him when he went to see Mrs.
Clifford.

Question 20.
Why did Mr. Gupta and Maggie tiptoe into the sitting room?
Answer:
Mr Gupta and Maggie tiptoed into the sitting room because Maggie wanted to talk to
him in private. They did not want to disturb the sick woman with their talk.

Question 21.
What request did Maggie make to Mr. Gupta?
Answer:
Maggie wanted Mr. Gupta to gaze into the crystal and tell her mother that Frank was
alive and well even if he did not see anything in the crystal. Her mother was seriously
sick and her sickness was aggravated by her worries about Frank. If Mr. Gupta told
her that Frank was alive and well, it would help her to recover.

Question 22.
Why was the crystal ring so special to Mrs. Clifford?
Answer:
The crystal ring was so special to Mrs. Clifford because it was sent by her son Frank
from India. Frank had written that the crystal ring was a magical one. If somebody
looked into the crystal thinking of a person who was even far away, he could see the
person and what he was doing. Mrs Clifford believed her son’s words.

Question 23.
What made Mrs. Clifford recover?
Answer:
Mrs. Clifford’s illness was aggravated by her worries about Frank. She did not know
if he was alive and well. Maggie requested Mr. Gupta to look into the crystal ring and
tell her mother that Frank was alive and well even if he did not see anything in the
crystal ring. Gupta did accordingly and this made Mrs. Clifford recover from her
illness.

Question 24.
Why was Mr Gupta ashamed to face Mrs. Clifford?
Answer:
Mr. Gupta was ashamed to face Mrs. Clifford because Frank had been dead some
days when he told her that he was alive and well. Since he had told her a lie, he was
ashamed to face her.

Question 25.
What was the promise given to Maggie?
Answer:
The promise given to Maggie was that Mr. Gupta would visit the grave of her brother
at Fort Monroe, near Dera-Ghazi-Khan when he went to India.

Question 26.
Why did Maggie give a shilling to Mr.Gupta?
Answer:
Maggie gave a shilling to Mr. Gupta to buy flowers and place them on her brother’s
grave.
Question 27.
Explain the reason why Mr. Gupta accepted the shilling?
Answer:
Initially Mr. Gupta wanted to give back the Shilling to Maggie telling her that there
were plenty of flowers in India and he could get some flowers free to place them on
her brother’s grave. But this would deprive the girl of the joy of sacrifice she was
making for her dead brother.The grief in her heart would be eased a little with the
sacrifice she was making. So Mr. Gupta accepted the shilling.

Activity -1 (Read and respond)

Question 1.
’It is neither the same everywhere nor the same all the year round in India. ’ Why?
Answer:
India is a vast country with different climate zones and it is not the same everywhere
nor is it the same all the year-round.

Question 2.
Why did the narrator decide to take the shilling given by Maggie?
Answer:
The narrator decided to take the shilling from Maggie just to make her happy. She
sacrificed a lot to give him the shilling to buy flowers for her brother’s grave. She
would feel consoled that she was able to do at least this for her brother.

Question 3
What is the role of faith in the story?
Answer:
Faith plays an important role in the story. Mrs Clifford believes that Indians can see
things in a crystal. When the narrator tells her that he can see her son alive and well
in the crystal she recovers from her illness.

Activity – II (Discussion)

Question 4.
Discuss the significance of the title ‘The Price of Flowers’.
Answer:
The story is aptly titled ‘The Price of Flowers’. A young girl, impoverished and
miserable, sacrifices a shilling for flowers to place on her brother’s grave. The
narrator does not want to destroy the kind gesture that the girl makes for he knows it
brings her a lot of consolation.

Activity – III (Character Sketch)

Sketch the character of Maggie.
Answer:
Maggie’s full name is Alice Margaret Clifford. She is a young English girl. She is 13
or 14 years of age. When we see her first she is wearing poor clothes showing she is
very poor. Her hair hung in a heavy stream down her back. She has large eyes with
a sad expression. She works in a shop close to the restaurant where she meets the
writer. She goes to the restaurant only on Saturdays because Saturday is pay day.
Maggie is a hardworking girl. She lives with her old mother in a small house. Her
only brother Francis is in the army and he is in India. She loves her brother very
much and he too loves her.

She loves her mother. She nurses her when she is sick. When her mother is in a
critical condition she even asks Mr. Gupta to tell her mother a lie about her brother
so that the mother feels better by hearing that her son is alive and well in India. She
is superstitious. That is why she believes in the story told by her brother that by
looking into the crystal ring one could see people who are far. She is very
disciplined. She has polite manners and this is clearly shown in her behaviour.

Maggie is ambitious and she is not happy with her work in the shop. She says it is a
mechanical job. She wants to do a job where her brain can be used. When she gets
a better job she wishes to rent a better house and take her mother there. Maggie is a
very fine girl.

She wants Mr. Gupta to go to the grave of her brother who is buried in India and
gives one shilling to him. A shilling is a lot of money for a poor girl like her. To get
that, she has to work hard for many days. Her action shows how much she loved her
brother. Her sacrifice brings tears to the eyes of Mr. Gupta and we too are moved to
tears when we see such selfless love of a teenage girl for her dead brother. Maggie
is a model for girls of her age.

Question 8.
‘I want work that will make me use my head, brain work.’
How far can you relate this statement to your life? What kind of profession do you
like? Why? Prepare a write-up.
Answer:
I also want work that will make me use my head. I want to do work that needs my
brain, my thinking powers.

I like to be a teacher as teaching is supposed to be the noblest profession. A teacher

always makes impressions on the minds of hundreds of students. He/ She has to be
intelligent and understanding so as to help the students learn. As students have
different abilities the teacher uses a variety of skills to constantly invent and make
the classroom an interesting place so as to encourage learning. Teachers are role
models and many of them make a lasting impression on the lives of students.

Teachers have to be smart as well as intuitive so as to understand the needs of their

students. Teachers mould the minds of the students. Therefore nation-building is
ultimately in the hands of the teachers. Dr. Abdul Kalam said that no nation can rise
above its teachers. The quality of a nation depends on the quality of its teachers. So
I want to be a teacher and use my brain to develop the brains of my students.

Activity – VI (Letter)

Question 9.
“When I go to that part of the country, I shall visit your brother’s grave and write to
you. ’ A few weeks after the narrator’s departure, Maggie receives a letter from him.
What might be the content of the letter? Draft the letter, assuming that you are the
narrator?
Answer:
Fort Monroe
Dera-Ghazi-Khan
Noth-west Frontier
India, PIN 600-002
2 January 1946

Dear Maggie,
I’m sorry that I could not write to you earlier because I was busy with the Civil
Service training and the formalities connected with it. I hope you and your mother are
fine. I am okay here. I am trying to cope with my new responsibilities.

I went to Fort Monroe, near Dera-Ghazi-Khan to visit your brother’s grave. As

desired by you, I placed some beautiful rose flowers on his grave. When I was
standing there I thought of you and your mother and imagined how you must have
felt when you heard about Franks’ untimely death. I met two soldiers from the
Regiment to which Frank belonged and they told me what a fine lad Frank was. They
also told me that he often talked to them about you and your mother. In fact he had
bought some Indian clothes to give both of you when he returned home.

But destiny sometimes plays cruel jokes. I feel extremely sorry that you lost such a
fine brother and your mother such a marvelous son. I pray for his soul. May his soul
rest in peace!

Please greet your mother on my behalf. The cake she gave me was delicious.

I keep remembering you and I speak about you to my friends. When I visit England
next time, I will definitely come and see you people.

With lots of love,

Yours lovingly,

(Gupta Narain)

Activity – VIII (Review)

Question 11.
Attempt a critical review of the story.
Answer:
The Price of Flowers’ is an excellent story by Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay. The
main theme of the story is the love of a girl for her dead brother. There are also other
themes like the hardships of the poor people, the dangers of war, unfulfilled desires
and dreams of ordinary people and superstitions.

The style of narration has been very simple. The story moves forward through the
dialogues among the three main characters of the story – Maggie, her mother and
Mr. Gupta. The language used is lucid and easy to understand. The words and
expressions used make a fine impact on our minds. The story takes place in London.
Characterization has been superb.

The character of Maggie is drawn in an exemplary manner. The poor girl of 13 or 14

with her large, sad eyes, her hair streaming down her neck, wearing shabby clothes,
living in an uncomfortable house with her old mother and working in a shop for small
wages is portrayed exquisitely. She is so poor that she eats her lunch only on
Saturday, the payday.

Her inquisitive nature, her ideas about India, her superstition, her love for her brother
and mother, etc. are powerfully pictured. The dialogues are short and sweet. There
are no lengthy and boring dialogues. The story moves forward through apt
dialogues. There is fine imagery in the story. No person with a compassionate heart
can end reading the story without shedding a tear. Mukhopadhyay through his ‘Price
of Flowers’ has proved that he is a fine story teller.