How old is the crocodile in the blue bead

Answer : On returning to collect her sickle and hayfork, Sibia finds a gleaming blue glass bead near the river. It was the blue bead. It did not look blue anymore but was nonetheless beautiful.

She went up with joy as she wanted a bead to make her necklace and now she could make her own necklace. Question 5 : What was the greatest triumph of Sibia that day?

Why did she ignore her herosim? However, seeing Sibia and the kind of life she lived, it seemed an ordinary event to her. For Sibia, her greatest triumph that day was finding the blue bead; a bead for her necklace, that too the one that did not need piercing. This made her immensely happy. Question 1 : Describe the glory with which the crocodile has been described in the story. Answer : The mugger crocodile was blackish brown in colour and had a yellowish underside.

The narrative describes him as the most ancient creature ever, for hundred years ago it hatched from its shell under the sun. The crocodile is described in all its glory, larger than life and twice as large as the tallest man. The description of the crocodile is awe-inspiring, the narrative tat some power propels him.

Answer : The crocodile lived in the lukewarm water that travelled between cliffs and forested hills. A jungle track came out of scrubs from either sides. He rested in the grassy shallows, among logs and rippled sand. The place was quite suitable for him. The sun dried the clay on him quite white and from here he could pop off into the water immediately if a danger appeared.

What were the things that filled her with wonder? Answer : Sibia had a great experience at the Bazaar. The things that filled her with wonder were the fineries that were sold in the bazaar.

They were the glass bangles, the silk and the cotton cloth, the sweets and other confectioneries , satin sewn with real silver thread and tin rays from Birmingham. Answer : The blue bead was not a bead, nor was it a gen not a semi-precious stone. The blue bead was basically a piece of glass that had broken off a bottle.

Running through the river, it had been worn out by the sand. By chance, it had been pierced right through its centre. Lying in the water, it glimmered like a blue bead. Question 5 : Why did Sibia not go back home with the other women?

What stopped her? In the cliffs she had hidden little bowls moulded of clay. She would stay back to rest on the stepping stones near the water and to examine her clay bowls.

She thought if she could never find something to paint them with, they would look extremely beautiful. Question 6 : What did Sibia do to injure the crocodile? Was the crocodile killed? Answer : Sibia injured the crocodile by push in her hayfork into the eyes of the crocodile.

The corcodile leaped up and down in pain and crashed back, exploding the water with his tail, and went back into the depths of the water, now turned bloody. He did not die at the stop but sooner or later he would meet his end due to pus in his eyes.

Answer : The crocodile mentioned in the story is quite large. He is twice as large as a tall man scaling over twelve feet. His mouth is running almost the whole length of his head. He has a long powerful tail that helps him to sail faster and drive off unwanted little dangers.

How He Survives : When he came out of his egg by breaking his shell, he was a tiny creature that could be hunted by a bird, by the great carnivorous fish that eat baby crocodiles. But he escaped their sight and fend of himself. He ate whatever he could get by catching fish and devouring leftover by the other big fellows until he himself learned to hunt. Now he hunts everything that comes within his reach from fish to monkeys and dogs.

Sometimes at the ford he gets to eat a pi-god full of parasites and a skeleton cow. Sometimes, his hunger force him to go down the burning ghats and find the half burnt bodies of Indian cast into the stream. With no threat of scarcity of food, he is prospering well. His Surrounding : The river where the crocodile resides is an ideal location for him with plenty of food and secure place to have sunlight to warm his body. Adjacent to the river, there is a forest. The timber logs come down from the forest and struck around the stones.

The crocodile comes to rest in the place where water is not deep and enjoys sunny air. He lays on a place where rocks and sandbanks are warm with sunlight and from where he may go in to the water as soon as he realises that a danger is approaching.

His Vulnerability : The crocodile is full of grown size. His armoured hide is so thick that even a bullet shot cannot penetrate it, so attacking him on upper side is vain. His weakest area are his eyes and underarms.

If one becomes successful hitting him on these places, one may have a stand against him. Answer : Sibia was born in a poor family. Her parents are extremely poor and they have other children too. Her house is located near the river far from the civilization where children are pampered. On the name of clothes she possesses a rag.

She seems to be very well aware of her parents condition hence has no problem with poverty. No Requirement of Money : Sibia does not require money to buy anything so she does not value money.

She is quite young and does not have to deal anything in money. She is happy whatever she has or has not, she does not wish anything more. She has been living in the jungle so whatever she needs the jungle provides her free of cost. Thus, she does not need money so knows no poverty. Stays Busy : Sibia has been performing all the household work from husking corn to cut grass for fodder since the day she started toddling regardless of her age and size.

Her work keeps her busy without allowing her to think of playing and recreation. She eats whatever and whenever she is given and again works. Thus, she has no time to think about anything but her work. Belongs to a Poor Community : Sibia belongs to a poor community. In her village , houses are made of mud. Her surroundings is full with the people of the same condition as of her family. She sees no one getting better facility than her so finds everybody of same status.

Thus, she sees no role of poverty in her life. Answer : Sibia is going to fetch grass from the cliffs above the river. On the way, she notices an encampment of Gujar people who have made the place their temporary home. The women carry water in earthen pitchers and look after animals, the men and the boys go to market to sell their products.

She has two gurrahs to be filled with clean water. She seems to be in hurry as she walks on the stepping-stones where the danger of aquatic brutes looms constantly.

The Attack : The great crocodile is hiding in the water. He cannot be spotted easily as the sun is going down and it is getting dark. The waves of the river cannot be seen properly. So the crocodile, finding the woman within his reach; lungs at her and grabs her leg with his mighty jaws yawning and all his teeth flashing as he slashes at her leg. With amazing speed Sibia drives her hayfork at his eyes and the prong goes right into the eyes.

In utter pain the crocodile releases the woman and swims away into the water. Sibia takes the Woman Home : After the crocodile disappears. Sibia gets her arms round the fainting woman and drags her out from the water. She dresses her legs with sand and rag. She helps her to reach home and leaves her with her people.

Question 4 : Describe how Sibia rescued the Gujar woman from the crocodile. What did Sibia regard as the highlight of that fateful day? What does this tell us about Sibia?

Answer : When Sibia saw the Gujar woman being attacked by the crocodile, she leapt forward from boulder to boulder. She threw her hayfork at the crocodile and it wedged right in its eyes.

Groaning in agony, the crocodile lets go to the woman. Then Sibia dragged the woman from the water by putting her arms around her. She stopped the blood coming out of her wounds by putting sand on them and tied them with a rag.

After that Sibia helped the woman to reach her home. Sibia regarded the finding of the blue bead by her as the highlight of the fateful day. This tells us that Sibia was a humble and brave girl who was delighted to find the blue bead. She considered it worthy as she was a poor girl who could not afford buying it. Extract Based Questions. This vivid description, full of life and visual details marks the appearance of the huge animal that can fill us with awe and trepidation.

The description of the beast, "Twice the length of a tall man", "Fed mostly on fish but also on deer and monkeys that came to drink perhaps a duck or two and half-burned bodies of Indians" conceives a physical image of sheer viciousness. Apart from this, it is referred to as a prehistoric juggernaut, ferocious and formidable, a vast force in the water, propelled by the power of his huge tail. The survival instinct showed by the animal also portrays its brainless craft by which he has lived for a hundred years.

The whole description is to create an awesome image in the reader's mind, so that Sibia, the young girl who fights with the crocodile rises to a heroic proportion. How does the author bring out the simplicity of the girl? Answer Sibia lived in a mud house above a ford in which dangerous creatures like crocodiles lived. She is described as a starveling child dressed in rags. She had ebony hair and great eyes and her skin was creamy brown.

A child of twelve years old, she was born to toil. In all her life, she had never owned anything but a rag. She did not even have a pi to buy even a single glass bead which she admired in the market. She would often pause before the sweetmeat stall, gazing longingly at the display. Yes, she sometimes tasted wild honey or sugar cane at home but never the green and magenta sweets. There were other wonders like soft silk fabrics and stones like turquoises and opals but these wonders of the world were not for a forest girl like her.

She was marked for work, husking corn, putting dung to dry, gathering dry sticks and fetching water. Her only adornment could be the black and red jungle beads, but that too was denied to her as the needle to thread them was broken.

What is the dramatic irony at the end of the story? Answer Sibia was walking along with the stepping stones when she saw a Gujar woman approaching to fill her earthen pots. It was at that time when the crocodile lunged at her and slashed at her leg with his sharp teeth.

The huge animal tried to drag her away. Sibia sprang into action. From boulder to boulder, she came leaping like a rock goat. She seemed to come on wings, choosing her footing instinctively, without thinking about it. In a moment, she was beside the screaming woman. Seeing the girl, the crocodile struck, throwing the water twenty feet high. Sibia did not hesitate. She aimed at the animal's eyes.

With all the force of her body, she drove her hayfork into one of its eyes. The crocodile reared up in convulsion, crashed back and disappeared into the bloody water. It would die in a few days. But Sibia did not think about its fate. She put her arms around the woman, dragged her from water, stopped her wounds with sand and bound them with a rag and helped her home. The dramatic irony is that Sibia was not aware of the heroic deed she had done. She went through an adventurous battle with a ferocious creature and arrived home to her worried mother.

Instead of stating her courageous and adventurous rescue act, she simply said: "I found a blue bead for my necklace, look! Answer The huge crocodile lived in the deep black water.

It was twice the length of a tall man. It did not have to hide. It came to rest in the glassy shallows, among logs with its eyes and nostrils raised above the water to breathe the clean sunny air.