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NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 2 A Funny Man — Let us explore

Book page 67 to 69 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
In ancient Indian literature and mythology, there are several humorous or funny characters who play important roles in the stories. These characters often represent wit, humour and mischief while conveying deeper moral lessons. Here are a few well-known funny characters: Tenali Rama, Birbal, Mullah Nasruddin, King Vikramaditya and Betal. Take any story to read and share it with your classmates and the teacher.
Answer
CharacterWhere he belongsWhat his humour is like
Tenali RamaCourt of Krishnadevaraya, VijayanagaraPractical jokes that expose greed and false learning
BirbalCourt of Emperor AkbarQuick, clever answers to impossible questions
Mullah NasruddinFolk tales across Persia, Turkey, Central Asia and IndiaWisdom disguised as foolishness
Vikramaditya and BetalBetal Pachisi (Vetala Panchavimshati)Riddle-stories with a sharp moral sting at the end
Gopal BharCourt of Krishnachandra of BengalVillage wit turned against pompous courtiers
Sample retelling — Tenali Rama and the Cat
The king was troubled by rats in the palace, so he gave every courtier a cat and a pot of milk, ordering them to feed the cats well. Tenali Rama's cat refused to touch its milk and stayed thin, while all the other cats grew round and lazy. When the king asked why, Tenali Rama admitted that on the very first day he had offered the cat boiling hot milk. The cat burnt its tongue and would never go near milk again — so it had spent every night hunting rats instead. The lesson: a well-fed hunter stops hunting. The king laughed, and the other courtiers stopped over-feeding their cats.
How to present it in class: Tell the story in about a minute, then ask your classmates one question — “What was the courtier's mistake?” A story shared with a question is remembered; a story simply read out is not.
Q2.
We can identify the acts of the funny man with certain modern-day activities that have playfulness, or unconventional behaviour. For example: Street Performers or Clowns; Performance Art or Abstract Theatre; Children's Entertainment and Comedy Shows. In these examples, the common theme is humour, imagination, and defying logic or expectation, which is exactly what the funny man in the poem represents.
Answer

Match each act of the funny man to the modern activity it resembles:

What the funny man doesModern-day parallelThe shared idea
Wears a shoe on his head and hats on his feetCircus clowns; fancy-dress performersCostume that deliberately breaks the rules
Raises his shoe and greets a stranger politelyStreet performers and mime artistsSerious manner, absurd action
Offers a currant bun and calls it a roseComedy sketches and improv theatreSaying one thing while doing another
Sings a song and sits down on the groundBuskers; flash mobs in a mall or metro stationPerforming wherever you happen to be
Hops home on his headPerformance art and abstract theatre; acrobatsDoing the physically ridiculous to make people think and laugh
The common theme: humour, imagination, and defying logic or expectation. In every case somebody chooses, on purpose, to do the ordinary thing in an extraordinary way — and the audience is invited to enjoy it rather than correct it.
Indian examples to add: the vidushaka (the jester) of Sanskrit drama, the behrupiya of north Indian fairs, Chhau and Pulikali masked performers, and the clowns of the Great Bombay Circus.
Q3.
Sukumar Ray, an Indian poet and illustrator, wrote poems in a similar style in his book Abol Tabol. You may also share a similar poem from your native language with your classmates and the teacher.
Answer

About Sukumar Ray (1887–1923): A Bengali poet, illustrator and printer — father of the film-maker Satyajit Ray. His book Abol Tabol (1923) is the best-loved nonsense verse in any Indian language. It gives us creatures like the Hnash-jaru (duck-porcupine) and the Hnukomukho Hyangla, and poems such as Katukutu Buro and Ramgorurer Chhana — the bird-child who is forbidden to laugh.

How to do this activity

  1. Ask a grandparent or your language teacher for a funny or nonsense poem in your own language.
  2. Copy it out neatly, and write a two-line meaning in English underneath.
  3. Read it aloud to the class — nonsense verse must be heard, because half its fun is in the sound.
  4. Say what the poem turns upside down: an animal, a person, a rule, or the language itself.
LanguageNonsense or comic verse you could bring
BengaliSukumar Ray, Abol Tabol
HindiSarveshwar Dayal Saxena's children's poems; Prayag Shukla's rhymes; the ‘Akkad Bakkad' street rhymes
MarathiVinda Karandikar's Ete Pute and other children's verse
MalayalamKunjunni Mash's short, witty poems
TamilAzha. Valliappa's children's songs
EnglishEdward Lear's limericks and ‘The Owl and the Pussycat'; Lewis Carroll's ‘Jabberwocky'
Sample answer: I would bring Ramgorurer Chhana by Sukumar Ray. It is about a young bird who lives in a land where laughing is forbidden — it is terrified that a smile might escape it. The poem is funny and a little sad at once, and it makes exactly the point that ‘A Funny Man' makes from the other direction: a world with no room for silliness is a miserable place to live in.
Q4.
Read and enjoy the poem. My Lost Pencil — Oh pencil, dear pencil, where have you gone? / I just had you here a minute at dawn! / You were sharp and perfect, ready to write, / Now you're missing—gone from sight! / Did you roll off my desk? Did you fall to the floor? / Did someone swipe you for sure? / It's always the same, I've lost fifty this year, / By the end of the month, they just disappear! / Next time, I'll tie you with tape or a string, / Because losing my pencils is a real thing.
Answer

This poem is printed for enjoyment, not for questions — but here is what to notice while you read it aloud.

FeatureWhere you can see it
Rhyme schemeRhyming couplets — gone/dawn, write/sight, floor/sure, year/disappear, string/thing (AABB)
Apostrophe (talking to a thing)“Oh pencil, dear pencil, where have you gone?” — the poet addresses the pencil as if it could answer
PersonificationThe pencil is asked whether it rolled off and fell, as though it moved on its own
Hyperbole (exaggeration)“I've lost fifty this year” — an enormous number, used for comic effect
Rhetorical questionsFour questions in a row that nobody is expected to answer
Everyday humourThe joke works because the mystery of the vanishing pencil happens in every classroom in the country
Link to the unit: ‘A Funny Man' finds humour in the impossible; ‘My Lost Pencil' finds it in the completely ordinary. Both are wit and humour — that is the range this unit is showing you.
Try this: Write your own eight-line poem in rhyming couplets addressed to something you always lose — a sock, an eraser, a water bottle, a hair band. Exaggerate wildly, and end with a plan that will obviously never work.
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