NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 1 –8The Day the River Spoke (Kamala Nair) — Let us think and reflect

The tone of the River in the given extract is assuring.

The phrase is: “when you have been coming here to see me every day, well, almost every day”.

The little correction — “well, almost every day” — makes it sound like someone who has actually been counting her visits, which is why the River knows her so well.

D. disbelief

The three qualities are affectionate, thoughtful and kind-hearted.

‘Forgiving' is wrong because Jahnavi has done nothing that needs forgiving, and ‘impatient' is wrong because the River gives her its time.

According to the River, there was no difference between girls and boys because little girls can do as much as little boys — the River had seen the girls of the village swim as fast as the boys, so ability does not depend on whether a child is a girl or a boy.

True.

The River does not offer to solve the problem for her. It says “it's up to you”, tells her that girls can do as much as boys, and gives her a step she can take by herself — “slip along one morning and sit there in the school”. All of this is meant to build her faith in her own ability.

C. quietly

It tells us how deep her fear and self-doubt are. She does not say it once and stop; she gasps it twice, and then adds two more frightened sentences — “They'd scare me! They'd chase me out.”

The repetition also shows that she is arguing with herself as much as with the River. She wants to go; she believes she cannot. Repetition is the writer's way of letting us hear that struggle instead of describing it.

The story opens with a kingfisher whose wings are “an arrow of blue in the sunlight”, a green lizard slithering down to bask, parrots shrieking, and a thicket of bamboo. The writer does this for four reasons.

• To build the setting: we are placed at a river bank in a coastal village before a single word of the plot begins.
• To make the talking River believable: if the lizard, the kingfisher and the parrots are all alive and busy on the page, a River that speaks does not feel impossible.
• To rule out the other voices: Jahnavi eliminates the lizard, the kingfisher and the parrots one by one — so the writer must first show us that they are there.
• To contrast with Jahnavi's sadness: the world is bright and busy while a “big bright tear” splashes down her nose.

Because Jahnavi had been coming to the same spot “every day, well, almost every day”, and the River had been watching and listening to her all that time.

A river also runs past everything in the village — the fields where her parents work, the bamboo clump where the snake lives, the bridge where the trains rattle past, and Chandu's catamaran. So it knows her family, her fears and her surroundings without being told.

About Jahnavi: she is nearly ten and has lost hope. She has been put off since she was five — “You are too small, baby. Maybe later”, then “Maybe next year” — and she has now turned that excuse against herself. She believes she has missed her chance for ever.

About the school: children in her village clearly join school young. Little Ramu, who was born when she was five, already goes; Ettan and Meena went. So a ten-year-old beginner would be the oldest in the class, and Jahnavi is ashamed of that.

Because the River knew that Jahnavi was not a frightened girl at all, and it found the contradiction funny.

It answers her at once: “You? Scared? … when you're not afraid of the green lizard, or of the snake in the bamboo clump, or the big trains rattling past that bridge.” A child who sits calmly beside a snake-filled bamboo clump can hardly be terrified of a classroom.

Because it is the only advice that can actually work for her.

• It is in her own hands. Asking her mother again has failed for five years; walking to the school does not need anyone's permission.
• It is small and possible. She is not told to demand admission — only to “sit there in the school and listen”.
• It puts her in front of the right person. Once the teacher sees her, the teacher can speak to her father — which is exactly what happens.
• It is based on truth. Girls can do as much as boys, and Jahnavi is brave, not timid.

And the story proves the advice right. She goes, she stays, the teacher walks up to their gate, and her mother says, “Girls should learn as much as they want.”

The conversation turns a sad situation into a warm, magical one.

• Personification: the River is given a sleepy, murmuring voice, a chuckle and a sense of humour, so a natural feature becomes a character we like.
• It lets Jahnavi speak her heart. She could never say all this to her parents. With the River she pours out five years of disappointment in a few lines.
• It carries information gently. We learn about her family, the school, ships and Chandu's catamaran through talk instead of description.
• It adds humour: “Stop! You make me breathless. So many whys!” and the River's fear that her feet would get wet.
• It keeps us curious: a river that must “hurry to reach the sea” but stops for a crying child is a picture the reader remembers.

The main message is that every child — a girl just as much as a boy — has the right to learn, and the first step towards it has to be taken by the child herself.

The River states the idea (“little girls can do as much as little boys”), Jahnavi acts on it (“I was scared, but I did it!”), and her mother completes it (“Girls should learn as much as they want”). The story ends with Jahnavi promising to become a teacher and bring other village girls to school — so the message is meant to spread beyond one child.