How I Taught My Grandmother to Read
Short Questions
1. Where did the narrator live as a young girl?
Answer: The narrator lived in a village in north Karnataka with her grandparents.
2. Why did the newspaper come late in the village?
Answer: The transport system was not good so the morning paper came only in the afternoon and weekly magazines came one day late.
3. Who was Triveni?
Answer: Triveni was a very popular and wonderful writer in the Kannada language.
4. What was the name of the serial the grandmother loved?
Answer: The name of the serial was Kashi Yatre which appeared in the Kannada weekly Karmaveera.
5. What does the word “Avva” mean?
Answer: Avva means mother in the Kannada language spoken in north Karnataka.
6. What is Kashi Yatre about?
Answer: It is about an old lady who wants to go to Kashi but gives away all her savings to help a poor orphan girl get married.
7. Why could the grandmother not read the magazine herself?
Answer: Grandmother could not read because she never went to school.
8. Why was the narrator shocked when she returned from the wedding?
Answer: The narrator was shocked because she saw her grandmother crying and she had never seen her cry before even in the most difficult situations.
9. What deadline did grandmother set for learning to read?
Answer: Grandmother set Saraswati Puja day during Dassara festival as her deadline to read a novel on her own.
10. What did grandmother say about age and learning?
Answer: Grandmother said for learning there is no age bar and with determination one can overcome any obstacle.
11. How did grandmother feel when the narrator was away at the wedding?
Answer: Grandmother felt very helpless and embarrassed because she could not read the magazine and was too embarrassed to ask anyone in the village.
12. What surprising thing did grandmother do on Dassara day?
Answer: Grandmother touched the narrator’s feet as a mark of respect for her as a teacher.
13. What gift did the narrator give her grandmother on Dassara?
Answer: The narrator secretly bought the novel Kashi Yatre by Triveni and gave it to her grandmother as a gift.
14. What gift did grandmother give the narrator on Dassara?
Answer: Grandmother gave the narrator a gift of frock material on Dassara day.
15. What did the narrator become when she grew up?
Answer: The narrator became a teacher in Computer Science and taught hundreds of students.
Long Questions
1. Why did everyone wait for the bus in the village?
Answer: The transport was very poor so newspapers came only in the afternoon and weekly magazines came one day late. Everyone waited eagerly for the bus that brought papers, magazines and post from outside.
2. Why did grandmother like Kashi Yatre so much?
Answer: Just like the old lady in the story, grandmother had also never gone to Kashi. She felt connected to the main character of the story and always wanted to know what would happen next.
3. How did grandmother listen to the story every Wednesday?
Answer: Every Wednesday the narrator would read the new episode of Kashi Yatre to her grandmother. Grandmother would stop all her work, sit quietly, listen very carefully and could even repeat the whole text from memory later.
4. How did grandmother feel when the narrator went to the wedding?
Answer: When the magazine arrived, grandmother could not read it herself. She felt very helpless and embarrassed to ask anyone in the village. She felt that money is useless if you cannot be independent.
5. Why did grandmother want to learn reading?
Answer: Grandmother felt very helpless and dependent on others for reading. She wanted to become independent so that she could read any book or magazine on her own without needing help from anyone.
6. Why did the narrator laugh at her grandmother?
Answer: The narrator was only twelve years old and thought it was funny that a sixty two year old woman with grey hair wrinkled hands and spectacles wanted to learn the alphabet. She did not understand her grandmother’s strong will.
7. How did grandmother reply when the narrator made fun of her?
Answer: Grandmother did not get angry. She just smiled calmly and said that if you are determined for a good cause you can overcome any obstacle and that there is no age limit for learning.
8. How was grandmother a good student?
Answer: Grandmother worked very hard every day. She would read, write, repeat and recite regularly. The amount of homework she did every day surprised even the narrator who was her teacher.
9. Why did grandmother touch the narrator’s feet?
Answer: Grandmother touched the narrator’s feet not as her granddaughter but as her teacher. She said that our scriptures tell us that a teacher must always be respected no matter what their age or gender is.
10. How did the narrator know that grandmother had learned to read properly?
Answer: On Dassara day the narrator gave grandmother the novel Kashi Yatre as a gift. Grandmother immediately opened it and read the title and publisher’s name clearly and correctly. The narrator then knew that her first student had truly passed with flying colours.
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