VANISHING LUNCHBOXES

A. 1. The narrator described his father’s cooking as not even remotely close to being good. Even
though the speaker’s father was proud of his culinary prowess, the truth was that he could not
cook. No, he did not enjoy what his father cooked for him. For him, meal times were nothing
less than nightmares. He had to endure runny dal and burnt chapattis, potatoes as hard as
stones, spinach as soft as mush and onions as dark as charcoal.

2. Class 5 B was in a furore because lunchboxes had been vanishing from the school bags of
students regularly. Moreover, the next day the lunch boxes reappeared with tasty snacks filled
inside. None of the students had been able to make out the mystery behind these thefts.

3. The class monitor, Jatin Kochar decided that every one of them would have to keep a watch
in class whenever it was empty. All of them would have to take turns in doing that. He
therefore asked the narrator to keep a watch that week.

4. When the narrator’s mother returned home, she felt very sorry for her son as he had to
endure his father’s unpalatable cooking. She was very angry when she learned about their
cook’s disloyalty. She also turned yellow when she tasted the food cooked by her husband. She
became extra affectionate towards her son and cooked his favourite dishes. Plus, she convinced
her husband to take a break from his kitchen duties and concentrate on his office work.

5. The narrator at present is a father of a ten-year-old boy and his preparing his lunch which
comprises a vegetable burger and homemade potato chips. He proudly says that unlike his
father, he learned how to cook as he did not want his son to be a lunchbox thief like him.

B. 1. a. Jatin Kochar, the class monitor of 5 B said this to his fellow classmates. b. Everyone in
class expressed concern about the entire situation where lunchboxes were regularly going
missing from students bags. Moreover, the next day they were being returned filled with
delicious snacks. The speaker decided that in order to keep a check on these lunchbox thefts,
all of them in class would have to take turns and keep watch in class whenever it was empty.
Even if that meant missing out on time during the games period and lunch time, they would
have to keep a watch in order to solve this mystery.

2. a. The speaker said these words when his mother returned from Rampur.
b. The speaker said these words because the arrival of his mother meant his father would no
longer prepare his lunch. He wouldn’t have to undergo the unpleasant and uneatable food
prepared by his father.
c. Yes, the contents of his lunchbox made him feel miserable every day. In order to avoid the
food cooked by the father, he had to resort to stealing the lunch of his classmates.

FONDNESS FOR CHEESE

1. I remembered a friend of mine, buying a couple of cheeses at Liverpool.

2. I took my ticket, and marched proudly up the platform with my cheeses, the people falling
back respectfully on either side.
3. A few moments passed, and then the old gentleman began to fidget. “Very close in here,” he
said. “Quite oppressive,” said the man next to him. And then they both began sniffing, and, at
the third sniff, they caught it right on the chest, and rose up without another word and went
out. And then a lady got up, and said it was disgraceful that a respectable married woman
should be harried about in this way and gathered up a bag and eight parcels and went. The
remaining four passengers sat on for a while, until a solemn-looking man in the corner, who,
from his dress and general appearance, seemed to be an undertaker, said the odour put him in
mind of a dead body. The other three passengers rushed to get out of the door at the same
time and hurt themselves.
4. He laughed pleasantly and said that some people made fuss over the littlest of things. But
even he grew strangely depressed after we had started, and so, when we reached Crewe he
went off quietly and got into another carriage.
5. “You think he would be upset,” she asked, “if I gave a man a sovereign to take them away
and bury them?”I answered that I thought he would never smile again.
6. My friend got rid of them, at last, by taking them down to a sea-side town and burying them
on the beach. It gained the place quite a reputation. Visitors said they had never noticed before
how strong the air was, and weak-chested and consumptive people used to gather there for
years afterwards.

B. 1. a. The old gentleman began to fidget inside the railway compartment which the narrator
had boarded with his packet of cheeses.
b. The old gentleman was fidgeting because he was feeling very uncomfortable due to the
strong smell of the cheeses.
c. No, this did not affect the speaker in any way. This can be understood from the fact that he
seemed unaware by the people getting uncomfortable around him. The fact that all of them left
the compartment one by one did not bother him at all.
2. a. The speaker’s friend Tom got rid of the strong smelling cheeses which he had purchased
from Liverpool.
b. He had to get rid of them because they smelled so strong and powerful that they became
very overwhelming and uncomfortable for all the people around him; including his wife and
children who had to move into a hotel in order to save themselves from its foul smell.
c. He got rid of them by taking them down to a sea-side town and burying them on the beach.
The place eventually gained a reputation and became a gathering place for weak and
consumptive people who went there to feel its strong air.

CANDYMAN
A. 1. The candy man can create wonders with candies and sweets. He can take dew sprinkled
sunrise; cover it with chocolate and a dash of miracles. He can also take a rainbow, wrap it in
something as unhappy as a sigh, soak it in the cheerful sun and make a strawberry lemon-pie
out of it.
2. a. The poet is talking about the marvels which the candy man can make. One of it is taking a
rainbow, covering it in sigh, soaking it in the cheerful sun and creating a strawberry lemon-pie
from it.
b. The candy man creates these out of love as he wants the world taste good.
3. Willy Wonka makes bakes everything satisfying and delicious because he bakes with love. He
bakes everything in such a way that one can forget all the sorrows and savour the joys of life.
4. Everything baked by Willy Wonka becomes as delicious as the dearest of childhood wishes,
so much so one can even eat the dishes. He can do that by taking tomorrow and dipping it in
the sweetest of dreams.