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If we just stick to our own homes, we will be like the frog in the pond, which thought its small pond was the whole world. This is not advisable in the world of today. To be happy and successful, we must be broad-minded and unbiased. We must see what the world and other cultures have to offer. We must try to imbibe the best from other cultures and places.

C. build a railway station.

Addis Ababa is the capital of Ethiopia, Africa. The sentence means that the driver of the cab outside the White House was probably an African American, may be originally from Africa.

A hide is a camouflaged shelter used to get a close view of wildlife. It is a place built to look like its surrounding. The writer was observing birds and noting their behaviour. If he was visible, the birds would not come near him or act in a natural manner. Hence, he had to build a hide, conceal himself in it and then observe birds unnoticed.

The Pundits of Vijaynagar were frightened and nervous when their knowledge was challenged. They were insecure and did not have confidence in themselves.

The punishment that the Emperor threatened the Pundits with was that they would be exiled from Vijaynagar.

No, English was not their language. If it had been so, they would not have misinterpreted the nursery rhymes. They could be speaking some Martian language.

Pundit Shahane visited Vijaynagar to challenge the knowledge of all the Pundits in the kingdom.

This means that all the wonders and emotions are within us, and if we wish to, we can tap these forces. Everything is within our own hearts and imagination. Everything is internal. Whatever we find outside has first to be inside us for us to experience it. There is no necessity for any separate outside happenings for us to feel anything.

In the twentieth century the books taught people ‘how to’ when to’, where to’ and ‘why to’. They illustrated, educated, punctuated and even decorated.

बीसवीं शताब्दी में पुस्तकों ने लोगों को कब’, ‘कहाँ’, ‘कैसे’ आदि के विषय में बताया। उन्होंने लोगों को सोदाहरण समझाया, शिक्षित किया, समयनिष्ठ बनाया तथा यहाँ तक कि अलंकृत भी किया।

1. upheaval – uproar; disturbance. 

2. predator – an animal that preys on other animals. 

3. hovering – fluttering in the air. 

4. antelope – deer-like animal with hollow horns.

a. Pundit Shahane proved to be not as witty as Tenali Raman.

b. Pundit Shahane wishes to challenge all the Pundits in our Kingdom, so he has come here.

c. I cannot discuss its merits.

d. I am unaware of that scripture.

e. No other reward is as great as your words of praise.

f. I have pride in you.

g. The Emperor asked Ra man what great work he had referred to.

h. Tenali Raman was a poet, scholar, and jester in Vijaynagar, in Krishnadevaraya’s court.

i. “Mantriji,” said Maharaj, “Pundit Shahane’s visit to our court is an open challenge.”

The theme of the skit is the challenge to see whether Tenali Raman could outwit the proud Pundit Shahane. This was the ‘battle’. The way to win this battle was to ‘baffle’ (confuse) the Pundit. Hence, the title ‘A Battle to Baffle’ is apt.

St. Jude school 

Dr. Ambedkar Road 

Thane 400 601 

15 October 2018 

Sub: Invitation to grace our Children’s Day function as Chief Guest. 

Sir, It was with great pleasure that we learned about your appointment as the Collector of our district. The Principal, teachers, and students of our school congratulate you on this wonderful achievement. We are all so proud that a student from our school has attained this high post!

We intend to have a special function on November 14, Children’s Day. We cordially invite you to grace this function as the Chief Guest and share with us the story of your success. You are an inspiration for our students and your presence will motivate them greatly. The function begins at 10 a.m. and will end at 1 p.m. with lunch. In addition to the talk from you, there will be a short cultural program of dance and music.

It will be an honor for us to have you here and we hope you will accept this invitation. 

Thanking you, 

Yours faithfully, 

Suman Kini (Cultural Secretary, St. Jude school).

Characters: Krishnadevaraya, Mantrji, Tenali Raman,

Pundit Shahane, 8-10 other

courtiers/ministers/scholars.

Background Scene: Krishnadevaraya’s Courtroom. 

The Emperor is seated on his throne.

Courtiers/ministers/scholars are seated in two rows facing one another and discussing softly.

Crisis: A great scholarly Pundit Pundit Shahane, has challenged the knowledge of the Pundits of Vijaynagar. The Pundits of Vijaynagar are not ready to face this challenge.

Steps taken to resolve the crisis: Tenali Raman is sent for to find a solution to the predicament and to pull them out of the tight corner.

Climax: Tenali Raman, with his sheer wit manages to outwit the renowned Pundit Shahane. and make him concede defeat.

The end: Pundit Shahane concedes defeat and leaves. Tenali Raman is praised by the Emperor for saving the reputation and honour of the great empire. Everyone is relieved and happy that the crisis has ended.

1. a very great scholarly Pundit, called Pundit Shahane, was visiting the court to challenge the knowledge of all the Pundits in the kingdom

2. they send for Tenali Raman to find a solution to their predicament

3. he had mastered all the scriptures

4. challenge the knowledge of all the Pundits in the kingdom

5. that they would be exiled from Vijaynagar

Pride goes on horseback but returns on foot: 

“I am very beautiful. I am also very clever. Everyone loves me.” How will you react if you hear someone say these words? You will be surprised at such arrogance. You will say that the person is very proud’. To be ‘proud’ here means to have a very high opinion of oneself, one’s looks, abilities, possessions, etc. Pride makes a person think that he/she is superior to others. Would you like such a person? No, no one likes a person who is proud. If you’re too conceited or self-important, someday something will happen to make you look foolish. And when a proud man meets with a bad end, others will have no sympathy for him. History is full of examples of powerful kings who were ruined because of their proud nature. That is the meaning of the quotation:

Those who are proud will finally suffer defeat or meet with a shameful end.

1. You have been recommended (by them) to outwit the challenger.

2. Bring them forth at once.

1. sesame 

2. stick 

3. buffalo

4. rope

1. False

2. False

3. True

4. False

The Emperor was annoyed and ‘ asked if not one of them could face the Pundit. He added that he was ashamed of all of them and would debar them from his court.

1. small, shall (stall)

2. challenger: challenge, change, charge, large

3. honoured, honourable

1. The Chief Guest at our annual function was a man of great renown. 

2. In an act of defiance, the little girl threw away the expensive toy. 

3. The Prince was exiled by his stepmother for 10 years. 

4. The king turned to his minister to get him out of the predicament. 

5. The new teacher was so diffident that she could not control the students. 

6. The lioness had a benign look on her face as she watched her cubs playing.

Tenali Raman had pretended that the bundle contained scriptures called ‘tila-kashta-mahishabandhana’, and he wanted to discuss its merits. However, the bundle only contained some til (sesame), kashta (sticks or stems of sesame plants) and rope. Hence, tila-kashta meant the stems of sesame plants. The rope the bundle contained was used to tie up buffaloes. Mahisha meant buffalo and bandhana is the rope to tie up something. So that was ( the ‘tila-kashta-mahisha-bandhana’ he had mentioned.

1. Let me assure you that I shall not let you down.

2. verb – has come 

tense – present 

aspect – perfect

a. So this is the ‘tila-kashta-mahisha-bandhana’

b. Let us begin by discussing the merits of ‘tilakashtamahisha-bandhana’ .

c. I have one small request.

d. Your words of praise are my greatest reward, your Highness.

to stay put: 

Meaning: remain somewhere without moving. 

Sentence: My mother told me to stay put near the entrance when she went to buy the train ticket.

1. a. Here, a historian is telling his students how the Earth have been invaded by the Martian invasion of 2040.

2. b. The book of nursery rhymes stopped the invasion.

3. b. The chapter The Book that Saved the Earth.

4. c. The author is Claire Boiko.

5. d. An encyclopedia is a book giving information about various subjects and their aspects, arranged alphabetically.

(a) I go to Iceland to visit the lunar spaces within me. 

(b) We have the opportunity of coming into contact with more essential parts of ourselves. 

(c) Romantic poets, being great apostles of open eyes, inaugurated an era of travel. 

(d) The travel spins us around, showing us the sights and values ordinarily ignored.

1. worthless × valuable 

2. public × private 

3. nearest × farthest 

4. familiar × unfamiliar 

5. outside × inside 

6. slow × quick

1. ikebana 

2. complacencies

1. The mother wanted to voice her fears but could not do so. 

2. Birbal could always manage to get himself out of a tight corner. 

3. Birbal could outwit all the ministers in the palace. 

4. The Captain had to concede defeat when his army began to turn back.

(i) The famous learned Pandit Gagabhatt was invited to conduct the coronation of Shivaji Maharaj.

(ii) Invitations were sent to learned Brahmans of all parts of India.

(iii) Shivaji visited the famous temples in Maharashtra and distributed clothes and other things among the Brahmans.

(iv) A gold plated steel/stool was prepared with precious ornaments was brought for Shivaji Maharaj.

(v) Holy water from seven sacred rivers Yamuna, Indus, Ganga, Godavari, Kaveri and Krishna was brought and kept in a gold vessel.

(vi) A special royal umbrella of cloth with gold fringes and pearls was prepared.

(vii) Special scarlet robes for Shivaji Maharaj was prepared.

One day, at sunset, Shaaz and his companions went round a blind turn and saw an old leopard, well past his prime. Close to him was another very young, good-looking male leopard who was soon to come into his prime. It was like looking at the past and the present. It was clear that there was going to be a fight. However, they had to leave as it was sunset.

The next day, when Shaaz went back to the spot, sitting on the high rock was Scarface, blood dripping from a gash across his face. He sat there like he was the king of the jungle, and Shaaz knew that he had taken over from the old leopard, and it was a new journey for both of them.

The Bison is an eco-friendly wildlife camp in South India. It offers some great opportunities for youngsters to learn about the area, people, the man-animal conflict, eco-tourism and hotel management.

The BCRTI is ‘Buffer Conflict Resolution Trust of India’. It’s an agency that educates villagers who live on the fringe of the forest on the importance of conservation. Under the BCRTI umbrella, Shaaz provides locals with vocational training, with the aim of educating them on the merits of conservation and to help them benefit from tourist currency. The visitors at the resort are welcome to volunteer to teach a skills training class of their choice. The acquired skills enable locals to find employment

Travel spins us round in two ways at once:

It shows us the sights and values and issues that we might ordinarily ignore. It also shows us all the parts of ourselves that might otherwise grow rusty. For in travelling to a truly foreign place, we inevitably travel to moods and states of mind that we’d otherwise ignore.

1. You must either tell me the whole story or at least the first part of it.

2. No sooner did the Minister begin speaking, than some rogues started shouting loudly.

Though the husband had a small smile on his lips, the wife looked sad.

But I want this to be tested.

Travel guides us towards a better balance of wisdom and compassion, of seeing the world clearly and truly. Travail means agony, or hard toil, which will be the result of laborious travelling and hardships.

I have gone to the Periyar National Park in Kerala. It is in the Western Ghats. This wildlife sanctuary is home to tigers and elephants. There are also deer, leopards and Indian bison. I have also been on a boat ride in the Periyar Lake. It was a wonderful experience to see tigers drinking at the watering holes. I really enjoyed the experience and will repeat it as soon as I can.

(i) After the coronation ceremony, Shivaji went to the South at Golconda.

(ii) He made friendship with Qutubshah.

(iii) He captured the forts like Bangalore, Hoskote, Jinji, Vellore, etc. and some territories of Adilshah.

(iv) He appointed Raghunath Narayan Hanamante the chief officer to look after these territories.

At the end of a tiring day, I pick up a nice book or watch a good film on TV or Netflix. This relaxes me completely. If I go to sleep j directly, I am too tired and do not get good sleep. But if I spend half an hour or so unwinding, I really feel relaxed and sleepy

1. When you go to a McDonald’s outlet in Kyoto, you will find Teriyaki McBurgers and Bacon Potato Pies. 

2. The placemats offer maps of the great temples of the city, and the posters all around broadcast the wonders of San Francisco. 

3. And-most crucial of all-the young people eating their Big Macs, with baseball caps worn backwards, and tight 501 jeans, are still utterly and inalienably Japanese in the way they move, they nod, they sip their Oolong teas – and never to be mistaken for the patrons of a McDonald’s outlet in Rio, Morocco or Managua. 

4. These days a whole new realm of exotica arises out of the way one culture colours and appropriates the products of another, 

5. The other factor complicating and exciting all of this is people, who are, more and more, themselves as many-tongued and mongrel as cities like Sydney or Toronto or Hong Kong. 

6. Besides, even those who don’t move around the world find the world moving more and more around them. Walk just six blocks, in Queens or Berkeley, and you’re travelling through several cultures in as many minutes; get into a cab outside the White House, and you’re often in a piece of Addis Ababa.

(i) The Treaty of Purandar meant a great loss of wealth and humiliation for the Marathas.

(ii) Shivaji Maharaj wanted to recapture the forts and territories given to the Mughals as per the Purandar treaty.

(iii) In order to earn the reputation, Shivaji Maharaj took an aggressive stand against the Mughals

1. undertake a parallel journey, matching the physical steps of a pilgrimage with the metaphysical steps of a questioning 

e.g. in Peter Matthiessen’s great “The Snow Leopard”. 

2. chronicle a trip to the farthest reaches of human strangeness 

e.g. Oliver Sacks’ “Island of the Color-Blind,” which features a journey not just to a remote atoll in the Pacific, but to a realm where people actually see light differently).