NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 3 Paper Boats — Let us explore

Book page 116 & 117 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

I Shiuli flowers often find a mention in Rabindranath Tagore's poems. These flowers are found in many parts of our country. Look at the pictures of shiuli flowers and recall what you call them in your language. 1. Find out names of some more trees or plants in your locality which have fragrant flowers. Write their names in your language and English language. Draw any two flowers and colour them.

Answer

Method. Walk round your street, your school compound and any nearby temple or park with a notebook. Note the plant, ask an elder for its name in your mother tongue, then look up the English or botanical name. Draw two of them from the real flower, not from memory — count the petals before you colour.

The shiuli itself is known by many Indian names: shiuli / shefali (Bengali), harsingar / parijat (Hindi), paarijaatham (Tamil and Malayalam), parijatha (Kannada), pagadamalle (Telugu), prajakta (Marathi) — in English, the night-flowering jasmine (Nyctanthes arbor-tristis). It opens after dark and drops its white, orange-stalked flowers at dawn, which is why Tagore calls them 'blooms of the dawn'.

Sample answer — fragrant flowering plants you are likely to find:

English name	Common Indian names	Where you will find it
Arabian jasmine	mogra, mallige, malli, juhi	Garden hedges; strung into garlands
Spanish jasmine	chameli, jaati	Climbing on courtyard walls
Frangipani / temple tree	champa, chafa, deva ganneru	Temple compounds and school grounds
Night-blooming jasmine	raat ki rani, paarijatham	Near windows; strongest scent after 8 p.m.
Indian medlar	bakul, maulsari, ranja	Avenue tree; tiny star-shaped cream flowers
Burflower tree	kadamb, kadamba	Riverbanks and village greens
Screwpine	kewda, ketaki, thazhampoo	Coastal and marshy areas; used in perfume
Rose	gulab, gulaab, rojaa	Home gardens everywhere

Try This: Note the time at which each flower opens and gives out its scent. You will find that most of the strongest-smelling ones — raat ki rani, shiuli, kewda — open at night, because they are pollinated by moths.

Q2.

II Solve the riddles given below. Share your answers with your classmates and the teacher. 1. 'I have water that you cannot drink, / People come to see how in me the Sun sinks. / I can be rough, I can be calm, / I hold within myself plenty of charm. / My depths tell a never-ending tale. / Who am I with dolphins and the whale?'

Answer

The sea (the ocean).

Clue in the riddle	What gives it away
'water that you cannot drink'	Sea water is salty
'People come to see how in me the Sun sinks'	Crowds gather on beaches for the sunset
'I can be rough, I can be calm'	Rough and calm seas
'dolphins and the whale'	Only the sea holds whales

Q3.

II 2. 'I sit in stillness, but move with the wind, / My surface mirrors the world you are in. / The trees around me live happily, / In me, you can take a dip daily. / Home to ducks, frogs, fish, and all, / Can you guess what I am, after all?'

Answer

A pond (a lake).

Why it happens: 'I sit in stillness' rules out a river or a stream — this water does not flow anywhere; it only ripples 'with the wind'. Still water acts as a mirror, and a village pond is exactly where people 'take a dip daily' and where ducks, frogs and fish live together. A lake fits every line too, so either answer is acceptable, but 'pond' matches the daily bathing best.

Q4.

II 3. 'I gently travel through valleys deep, / My soft murmur can make you sleep. / Little paper boats float on me in rain / The merry laughter of the kids I gain. / You may sit beside me without any fear, / Who am I who skips along, crystal clear?'

Answer

A stream (a brook).

Why it happens: Two words point straight back to this unit. 'Skips along' is the very phrase used of the stream in the pre-reading paragraph on page 109, and 'little paper boats float on me' is Tagore's poem itself. A stream is small enough to sit beside 'without any fear', shallow enough to be 'crystal clear', and its sound is a 'soft murmur' — a river would roar.

Q5.

II 4. 'I have a bed, but I do not sleep. / I have a bank, but no money I keep. / I carry stories, old and new, / High mountains to the oceans blue. / I journey far to meet the sea, / Can you guess, who I can be?'

Answer

A river.

Why it happens: The riddle turns on two puns. A river has a bed — the ground it flows over — and a bank — the land on either side. Neither has anything to do with sleeping or with money. The rest is plain geography: a river rises in 'high mountains', 'journeys far to meet the sea', and 'carries stories, old and new' because the great civilisations of the world, ours included, grew along riverbanks.

Try This: Write a fifth riddle of your own about a waterfall or a well, using the same trick of a pun in the second line.

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