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Synopsis
This story is written by Norah Burke. Her father was a forest officer who served in
India, so she spent her childhood in India. She started writing from an early age. Her
observations and stories were related to her travel and sporting experiences. She was
an enthusiastic traveller.
‘The Blue Bead’ is a story about a brave young girl, Sibia, who has saved a woman’s
life. In the process of doing so, she acquires a blue bead, something she had been
desiring for quite earnestly. She is merely twelve years old, so she is very happy to get
the blue bead and is very humble even after the glory of saving someone’s life. Such a
young girl is not expected to do heroic deeds. This is very unusual and brave of her.
This story revolves around the moral that good things come through difficult
situations and the proverb ‘where there is a will, there is a way’.
The story begins with an elaborate description of the mugger crocodile who is well
grown and twice as large as a tall man. He has fully grown up and his skin has
developed into a solid wall of armoured hide which cannot be penetrated even with a
bullet shot. He has plenty available for his meals, and he ate almost everything. He fed
on fish, ducks, deer, monkeys and other animals which came to the river to drink
water. He also fed on a pi-dog full of parasites or a skeleton cow. If need be, he
sometimes went down the burning ghats and found the half-burnt bodies of Indians
cast into the stream. He passes his days lying on warm rocks and the sand bank where
the sun dries the clay. Beside the crocodile, as he lays waiting for his food or relaxing,
there was a blue bead shining brightly.
Sibia is a village girl dressed in an earth-coloured rag. She is 12 years old and was
eating her last chapatti. She had been living in a mud house located in the village near
the river where the great crocodile resided. Her life was hit by extreme poverty, yet
she has visited the local market with her parents and brothers. Witnessing everything
which came under her gaze, there seemed no rest in her life as she has been
performing all the household tasks from husking corn to cutting grass for fodder. In all
her life, she had never owned anything but a rag. She wished to make a bead necklace
for herself that would rattle around her neck. Due to poverty, Sibia was deprived of
everything. Making the necklace of beads was not an easy task as one needs a red hot
needle to drill across the beads, but she had to wait as the needle they had was broken.
She was accustomed to the toils of daily life. She is a happy child who finds happiness
in all situations of adversity.
It was Sibia’s regular routine to go to get paper grass from the cliff above the river
with her mother and other women of the community. They sell the grass to an agent
who arranges its dispatch to the paper mills. One day on their way back, they came
across camps of grass huts in which resided the Gujars. Sibia glanced at the Gujar
women as she went towards the cliff. The Gujars were a nomadic community who
made a place their home until their animals finish the grass within their reach or there
is no market for their milk or butter to be sold. While the men and boys went to the
market to sell their products, the Gujar women tried to get resources from the forest in
order to generate revenue. Just like Sibia, they were born and bred in the forests and
lived on forest resources.
Sibia was observing the attire of the women who brought water for animals in clay-
made pitchers termed ‘gurrahs’.Sibia had been cutting grass with her mother who kept
a watch on her so that she may not ignore working. Yet, she was thinking about the
moulded balls which she kept in the cave. She was dying to have a look at them. So,
as soon as the time of toiling was over, she went to see them while her mother moved
away with the loaded grass.
After Sibia’s mother had gone along with the other women, Sibia came down to the
stepping stones with a load of grass on her back. The load was heavy for her, and so, it
forced her to rest on a big boulder. This was the time when she noticed a Gujar
woman with two earthen pitchers going down to the river for filling them with fresh
water. This Gujar woman was ignorant of the fact that the crocodile was a yard away
from her. The crocodile, however, attacked her splashing at her legs with his mighty
jaws. He was trying to drive her into the river.Any other person might not have tried
to reach such a predator as the crocodile and might have ran away to call for help, but
Sibia, a girl of only twelve, did not know such things as fear. She reached the spot at
once and attacked the eyes of the crocodile with a hayfork. The animal being hurt in
his eyes lost his grip on the legs of the woman and swam away into the water.
The only parts of the crocodile which could be easily attacked were his eyes and soft
armpits. Sibia took a prompt and successful decision which saved the Gujar woman's
life.Sibia dragged the panting woman out of the water and helped her reach the
encampment safely.She came back for her grass sickle and fork. On reaching the site
where Sibia saved the woman, she picked up her instruments and pots, but she also
saw a blue bead just like the one that she desired. It was perfect and evenly pierced
which was ready to use. While returning home, she met her worried mother who asked
her if anything had happened to her. She replied in a very positive manner and showed
her mother the blue bead that she had found in the river. Finding the blue bead seemed
more important to her than saving a life. This highlights that such a deed of saving a
life was part of life for her. She was fascinated by colourful beads, and hence, she was
extremely happy on finding one.
4.What thoughts did not trouble Sibia? Which were the instruments that Sibia
carried with her?
Ans. Sibia did not care much about the work done by her since most women of her
community toiled in the same fashion. She also did not care much about the
disproportionate work done by the agent and the women because she was a happy
child. Although she desired fineries, she was content with the situation. She carried a
sickle and homemade hayfork with her as she went to work.
8.What happened when Sibia was working? What was she dreaming about?
Ans. Where Sibia was working, the wind coming across hundreds of miles of trees
cooled her sweating body, and she could look down over the river as if she was a bird.
Although she could not literally fly like a bird, her imagination took a swooping
flight over the bright water and golden air to the banks where she played as a
child. She had kept little bowls of moulded clay in cavelets above the watermark of
the highest flood. Sibia was distracted from her work and drifted into the land of
her imagination, but her mother was quick and alert enough to snap her back
into the world of reality.
9.How did Sibia react after she saw the Gujar woman being attacked by the
crocodile?
Ans. Sibia came into action and leaping like a rock goat, she jumped from boulder to
boulder. It was sometimes difficult to cross these stones, especially the big gap in the
middle. That is why she had to jump like a goat choosing her footing mid-air.
10.What did Sibia find when she returned to collect her instruments near the river?
Ans. When Sibia went to save the woman, she had left the grass, sickle and fork on
the boulder. She returned to the river to get them. She found the blue bead
wobbling in the movements of the stream. The blue bead was not looking blue as
the sun had set. It was looking white blue as it was worn by sand.
11.State the role of women in the village as described by Burke in this story.
Ans. Village women are not restricted to look after the household. Sibia, her mother
and the other women are seen going to the cliffs to get paper grass to be sold in the
market. The Gujar nomadic graziers have also set up their encampment of grass huts
near the river. They are seen carrying gurrahs to the river to fetch water, whereas the
men and boys go out to graze their cattle and to the market to sell the produce.
3.Describe Sibia.OR Write a short note on Sibia. OR Pen down a brief character
sketch about Sibia.
Ans. Sibia was a thin little girl who had white teeth, ebony hair and great eyes.
Her skin was the colour of oiled brown cream. She was a happy immature child-
woman about twelve years old. She was barefoot and often goosey-cold on a
winter morning and born to toil.
The little girl was marked for work since her childhood. Since she could toddle, she
husked corn, gathered sticks, put dung to dry, cooked, weeded, carried and fetched
water and cut grass for fodder. There was no end to her hardships and toil due to her
poverty. Yet, she was a happy child with no complaints.
She was interested in the natural jewellery made with seeds which rattled around
her neck. She appreciated little things in life like watching Kashmiri merchants
selling silks, the smell of the wonderful dressing of the cloth stall etc. She was
brave, laborious and extremely observant.
Sibia was a courageous and adventurous girl. Even after being the heroine of
such an adventurous and life-threatening battle with the crocodile, the only detail
that she considered important to tell her mother was that she found a blue bead
for her necklace.
4.Why was Sibia called a ‘child-woman’? What works were done by her?
Ans. Sibia belonged to a poor family. She started to work when she could toddle
in order to support her family. She husked corn, gathered sticks, put dung to dry,
cooked, weeded, fetched water and cut grass for fodder ever since when she could do
all of these. She went with her mother and some other women to get paper grass
from the cliffs above the river. The grass could then be sold to an agent, who
would give them some revenue. The women toiled the whole day to earn a living by
selling the paper grass to the agent.
There was a certain maturity in her even though she was just a twelve-year-old
girl. She would break her food into several parts to feel happy that she had a lot
of food to enjoy.
Therefore, we can conclude that though she possessed the innocence of a child, she
had the maturity of a grown-up woman.
9.Mention the visual imagery of the bazaar. (Pick any 4 complete points)
Ans. The bazaar was full of blown glass beads and thin glass bangles. It had a
sweetmeat stall of brilliant honey confections. The cloth stall was tagged with great
rolls of new cotton cloth. There were other wonders to see too like satin sewn with
real silver thread, tin trays from Birmingham and a saree which had chips of glass
embroidered into the border. A Kashmiri travelling merchant brought silks, a little
locked chest with turquoise and opals in it and a box from which a yellow woollen
chicken would jump out on pressing it.
11. Mention how poverty is one of the themes of the story. (Read it 3 times)
Ans. Poverty is one of the most important themes of the story. It is depicted through
the life lived by Sibia, the protagonist. She lives in the mud house in a noisy village.
She is introduced as a thin starving child dressed in an earth-coloured rag. She is 12
years old, but she has accepted the fact that she is born to toil. To make her chapatti
seem more, she divides it into several pieces. She stands amazed before the sweetmeat
stall but cannot have them. Satin sewn with silver thread and clothes with looking
glass embroidery seem wonderful to her eyes, but she has to collect paper grass from
the cliff along with her mother to provide for her daily needs. She imagines how nice
it would be to hear the rattling swish of a necklace around her neck, but she has to
wait till her family can afford another needle to drill the seed beads. The last scene of
the story is very touching, as Sibia exclaims to her mother that she has found a blue
bead for her necklace. The battle that she fought with the crocodile to save the Gujar
woman is sidelined by her because this daily heroism is a part of the jungle life. What
is of worth in Sibia’s poverty-stricken life is the glittering blue bead. These things
depict that poverty is one of the direct aspects highlighted in the story.
12.The story denotes the struggle for survival. Justify how. (Read it 3 times)
Ans. Life is a struggle, and we face new challenges every day. ‘The Blue Bead’ is a
story written by Norah Burke about a girl, Sibia, her family and people struggling for
their daily survival in a village close to a forest. Besides the life of these people
constantly threatened by wild animals, they have to strive very hard for basic
amenities. They live in mud houses, the roads are not proper, the people use sticks and
dung as fuel for the fire. Sibia who is a very young child belongs to a poor family and
is also undernourished. The women of the village have to climb a cliff to get paper
grass to sell in the market. They have to carry a great load back home since there are
no bridges to cross the rivers. The women need to jump from stone to stone and have
to shout and make noise to frighten the crocodiles. They have to come to the river to
fetch water for their daily needs, and hence, their lives are always at risk from wild
animals. These are the serious health hazards, lack of facilities and other hurdles
which subdue the invincible human spirit.