THE BLUE BEAD (KEY WORDS AND PHRASES)

Key Words and Phrases

Q1. From where did the crocodile come and where he hunts?

A1. From deep water, into the frill of gold shallows.

Q2. How tall is it? How is Sibia compared to it?

A2. Twice the length of a tall man. Crocodile around 12 feet and Sibia 12
years old.

Q3. Why does he swallow stones?

A3. To aid digestion.

Q4. How does the timber gets dislodged?

A4. By flood jostling them or someone came to dislodge.

Q5. Where does he rest?

A5. In the glassy shallows among logs.

Q6. How is the crocodile presented as a intimidating opponent by the
author?

A6. 1. Antediluvian saurian,

2. Prehistoric juggernaut.

3. Ferocious and formidable.

4. Vast force under water.

5. Propelled by the unimaginable and irresistible power of a huge tail.

Q7. How has he described him as a wicked animal?

A7. Evil bony eyes. smile

Q8. How do you know that a crocodile is a born fighter like Sibia is born to
toil?

A8. Ready to snap at anything.

Q9. How does the crocodile survive?

A9. Brainless craft and ferocity.

Q10. How did the crocodile grew so tall?

A10. Tepid water to live in and plenty of rotted food to eat.

Q11. How can he survive the bullet wound?

A11. Inch –thick armoured hide.

Q12. Which was the weakest part of the crocodile?

A12. Only the eyes and the soft underarms offered a place.

Q13. What was his staple diet?

A13. Fed mostly on fish, also on deer and monkeys, perhaps a duck or two,
fed on a pi-dog full of parasites or a skeleton cow. Sometimes half-burned
bodies of Indians cast into the stream.

Q14. Where did the blue bead glimmer?

A14. Beside him in the shoals.

Q15. What was the blue bead? Why was it unique?

A15. The neck of a bottle perhaps? – a blue bead. It was unique as it was
perforated right through. sand worn glass
Q16. How was Sibia dressed?

A16. Earth –coloured rag, She had torn the rag in two to make skirt and sari.

Q17. What and how was she having her meal?

A17. 1. Chupatti wrapped round a smear of green chili and rancid butter;

2. she divided this also, to make it seem more.

Q18. Why was Sibia fascinated with town bazaar?

A18. The town bazaar was situated at the railhead where along with milling
people, unwanted co pedestrians, and bell clonking bulls through the dust
and hubbub Sibia would reach with her parents and brothers.

The market would present sweetmeat stall, brilliant honey confections

sweets green and magenta, abuzz with dust and flies. There was somewhere
cloth stall, stacked with the clothes, stacked with great rolls of new cotton
cloth Tiger brand smelling wonderful as if coming straight from mills.

There was shop selling satin sewn with real silver threads, tin trays from
Birmingham, and a sari which had got chips of looking glass embroidered into
the border.

Then there was Kashmiri travelling merchant flaunting dawn-coloured silks

that poured like cream, and he had got a little locked chest with turquoises
and opals in it. Best of all, a box which, when you pressed it, a bell tinkled
and a yellow woolen chicken jumped out.

Indeed there was no end to the wonders of the world.

Q19. What did the Kashmiri merchant show to the crowd that had gathered
around him?

A19. Then there was Kashmiri travelling merchant flaunting dawn-coloured

silks that poured like cream, and he had got a little locked chest with
turquoises and opals in it.
Q20. Where did Sibia and the women get paper grass from? How would they
take it down to the rail head? How are the toiling women contrasted with the
agent?

A20. 1. From the cliffs above the river.

2. when you had enough of it, you could take it down by bullock cart to
the railhead.

3. The women often toiled all day at this work, and the agent sat on silk
cushions, smoking

a hookah

Q21. Where were Lal-lal-beeges to be found? What jewellery did the women
make out of them? How would they drill holes in them? scarelet seeds
A21. 1. They grew everywhere in the jungle.

2. Necklaces.

3. They had to be drilled with a red – hot needles.

Q28. What kind of work was Sibia supposed to do since she could toddle?

A28. Husked corn, gathered sticks, put dung to dry, cooked and weeded,
fetched water and cut grass for fodder.

Q29. What was the main profession of Sibia’s family?

A29. They cut paper grass from the cliffs above the river.
Q30. What tools did Sibia carry with her?

A30. Sickle and homemade hayfork.

Q31. The necklaces of the tribal women were made up of?

A31. Lal-lal-beeges.

Q32. Why was Sibia unable to make her own necklace?

A32. Each seed (lal –lal- beeges). Were as hard as stone, and had to be drilled
with a red-hot needle, and the family needle was snapped, so she must wait
till they could buy another one.

Q33. When would the Gujars (nomadic graziers) leave from their makeshift
grass huts? Or

, when would the nomadic Gujar’s move to another place?

A33. 1. Their animals had perhaps finished all the easy grazing within reach.

2. They were not able to sell enough of their white butter and white
milk in the district.

3. There was no one to buy the young buffaloes for tiger bait.

4. Or perhaps a cattle – killing tiger was making a nuisance of himself.

Q34. What was the attire of the Gujar women?

A34. 1. Wore trousers, tight and wrinkled at the ankles.

2. in their ears large silver rings made out of melted rupees.

Q34. Of what metal was the gurrahs made?

A34. Brass.

Q35. How was the existence of Gujars described by the writer?

A35. They were Man in the wandering Pastoral Age, not Stone Age
Hunters, and yet cultivators.

Q36. Why were the women bickering and laughing aloud?

A36. Noise frightens crocodiles.

Q37. Which kind of wild life would be found in the broad river downside?

a. Kingfishers.

b. Great Turtle.

c. Mahseer.

d. Crocodiles.

Q38. What colours would Sibia use to paint her clay toys?

A38. Marigolds and elephants.

Q39. Why did Sibia dawdle( stop ) a bit?

A39. To see if the little clay cups were still there in the cave, waiting to be
painted and used.
Q40. Why did the Gujar woman walked on the stepping-stones?

A40. In order to get the clear water.

Q41. What was the most disappointing part of the crocodile attack as per
Sibia?

A41. The two good brass vessel bob away in the current.

Q42. What did the Gujar woman do to save herself?

A42. She clutched one of the timber logs.

Q43. How did the Sibia leap to save the Gujar woman?

A43. She leaped like a rock goat. She came on wings.

Q44. Phrase used by the writer to describe the heroism of Sibia.

A44. In the daily heroism of the jungle, as common as thorn tree, Sibia did
not hesitate.

Q45. Where did Sibia attack the Crocodile?

A45. She aimed at the reptile’s Eyes.

Q46. Where did the hay fork hit?

A46. One prong went in – right in- while its pair scratched past on the horny
cheek.

Q47. When will the death of the crocodile be known?

A47. Till his stomach, blown with gas, floated him, he would be found upside
down among the logs at the timber boom,with pus in his eye.

Q48. How did Sibia help the Gujar woman?

A48. She stopped her wounds with sand, bound them with rag, and helped
her home to the Gujar encampment where the men made a litter to carry
her to someone for treatment.

Q49. What was the colour of the blue-bead?

A49. No colour white-blue.

Q50. Phrase used for showing happiness of Sibia on finding the blue bead.

A50. All her heart went up in flames of joy.

Q51. The track on which Sibia was traveling was much used by.

a. Deadly snakes.
b. Singing malaria mosquitoes.
c. Morose old makna elephants – the Tuskless one.
d. All of the above.