NCERT Class 10 English Madam Rides the Bus

Madam Rides the Bus

BEFORE YOU READ

In this sensitive story, an eight-year old girl’s first bus journey into the world outside her village is also her induction into the mystery of life and death. She sees the gap between our knowing that there is death, and our understanding of it.

THERE was a girl named Valliammai who was called Valli for short. She was eight years old and very curious about things. Her favourite pastime wasstanding in the front doorway of her house, watching what was happening in the street outside. There were no playmates of her own age on her street, and this was about all she had to do. But for Valli, standing at the front door was every bit as enjoyable as any of the elaborate games other children played. Watching the street gave her many new unusual experiences.

The most fascinating thing of all was the bus that travelled between her village and the nearest town. It passed through her street each hour, once going to the town and once coming back. The sight of the bus, filled each time with a new set of passengers, was a source of unending joy for Valli. Day after day she watched the bus, and gradually a tiny wish crept into her head and grew there: she wanted to ride on that bus, even if just once. This wish became stronger and stronger, until it was an overwhelming desire.

Valli would stare wistfully at the people who got on or off the bus when it stopped at the street corner. Their faces would kindle in her longings, dreams, and hopes. If one of her friends happened to ride the bus and tried to describe the sights of the town to her, Valli would be too jealous to listen and would shout, in English: “Proud! proud!” Neither she nor her friends really understood the meaning of the word, but they used it often as a slang expression of disapproval.

Over many days and months Valli listened carefully to conversations between her neighbours and people who regularly used the bus, and she also asked a few discreet questions here and there. This way she picked up various small details about the bus journey. The town was six miles from her village. 

The fare was thirty paise one way — “which is almost nothing at all,” she heard one well-dressed man say, but to Valli, who scarcely saw that much money from one month to the next, it seemed a fortune. The trip to the town took forty-five minutes. On reaching town, if she stayed in her seat and paid another thirty paise, she could return home on the same bus. This meant that she could take the one-o’clock afternoon bus, reach the town at one forty-five, and be back home by about two forty-five. On and on went her thoughts as she calculated and recalculated, planned and replanned.

Think about the text

1. What was Valli’s deepest desire? Find the words and phrases in the story that tell you this.

2. How did Valli plan her bus ride? What did she find out about the bus, and how did she save up the fare?

3. What kind of a person is Valli? To answer this question, pick out the following sentences from the text and fill in the blanks. The words you fill in are the clues to your answer.

(i) “Stop the bus! Stop the bus!” And a tiny hand was raised .

(ii) “Yes, I go to town,” said Valli, still standing outside the bus.

(iii) “There’s nobody here ,” she said haughtily. “I’ve paid my thirty paise like everyone else.”

4. Why does the conductor refer to Valli as ‘madam’?

5. Find the lines in the text which tell you that Valli was enjoying her ride on the bus.

6. Why does Valli refuse to look out of the window on her way back?

7. What does Valli mean when she says, “I was just agreeing with what you said about things happening without our knowledge.”

8. The author describes the things that Valli sees from an eight-year-old’s point of view. Can you find evidence from the text for this statement?

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 10 English Madam Rides the Bus