NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 1 –8The Wit that Won Hearts (prose) — Let us think and reflect (I)
Book page 7 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
1. Read the extract and answer the questions that follow.
“... The king thought I was disrespecting his poem and stormed off. Since then, he has not spoken to me. If I had known this would happen I would have chosen another day. Help me, please, Rama. Only you can help the king understand.”
Rama nodded thoughtfully. “If you like, I will try my best to resolve this matter, Your Highness. But this needs a well-planned approach and I may need time to find the right strategy.”
(i) Why does the queen believe that only Tenali Rama can help the king understand?
Answer
Because Rama is the one person in the empire who can correct the king without wounding him.
The queen has already exhausted the ordinary routes: she “tried her best to resolve the issue but failed”, and the ministers had run from the poem rather than speak honestly about it. Anyone who now tells the king plainly that he has overreacted will be arguing with a proud man about his own poetry — which is why nobody has tried.
Rama is different because of the reputation the text has already established: his “clever solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems made him a beloved figure”, and he holds his place in court “as both a poet and a witty advisor”. He can reach the king sideways, through laughter, where a direct appeal would only harden him. The queen is not hoping for a favour; she is choosing the only method that can work.
Q2.
(ii) What does the queen’s statement, “If I had known this would happen, I would have chosen another day”, suggest about her feelings?
A. She is angry at the king for overreacting.
B. She regrets the unintended misunderstanding.
C. She believes the poem was not worth listening to.
D. She is worried that the king might punish her.
Answer
B. She regrets the unintended misunderstanding.
How the grammar proves it: The sentence is a third conditional — If + past perfect (had known) followed by would have + past participle (would have chosen). This form is used only for a past that can no longer be changed. So the queen is not accusing anyone; she is turning the blame on her own timing and wishing she had picked a different evening. Her voice is “trembling”, not raised.
The other options fail on the evidence: she never criticises the poem (so C is out), she is “distraught and upset” rather than angry (A), and she fears the silence, not punishment (D).
Q3.
(iii) How does Tenali Rama’s response reflect his wisdom and problem-solving skills?
Answer
Three things in a two-sentence reply show a mind already at work.
He promises effort, not a miracle. “I will try my best to resolve this matter” — an honest limit, set to a desperate person who would have believed a bigger promise.
He identifies the real difficulty. Saying the matter “needs a well-planned approach” means he has already seen that the obstacle is not the yawn but the king’s pride, and that pride cannot be argued with directly.
He asks for time. “I may need time to find the right strategy.” He refuses to act until he has a method. A lesser adviser would have gone straight to the king that night and made things worse.
Check it yourself: Compare his words with what he finally does. He never mentions the queen, never defends her, never asks the king for anything. Every promise he makes here is kept exactly — and by a route nobody in the room could have predicted.
Q4.
(iv) Fill in the blank by choosing the correct option from those given in the brackets.
The king’s reaction shows that he is sensitive and _________ (has a lot of faith/takes great pride) in his poetry.
Answer
The king’s reaction shows that he is sensitive and takes great pride in his poetry.
Why not “has a lot of faith”: Faith in his poetry would have made him calm — he would have shrugged off a yawn. What he actually does is store up the insult for weeks and stop visiting the queen. That is wounded pride, and the king himself names it later: “I let my pride blind me.” The text also backs the word choice: he was “a gifted poet” whose works “are acclaimed even today”, so his poetry was genuinely something to be proud of.
Q5.
2. Read the extract and answer the questions that follow.
That evening, the king approached the queen with a softened expression. “Thirumalambal”, he began, his voice gentle, “I have been foolish. I see now that I overreacted. I let my pride blind me. I’m so sorry.”
The queen, who had longed for this moment, smiled and replied, “If you like, we can leave this quarrel behind us. I would very much like to listen to your poem.”
(i) Complete the following with a suitable explanation.
When the king said, “I let my pride blind me”, he means that ____.
Answer
When the king said, “I let my pride blind me”, he means that his concern for his own dignity stopped him from seeing the plain, ordinary explanation in front of him — that a tired person yawns, and that his queen’s yawn had nothing to do with his poem at all.
The word blind is doing real work here. The evidence was never hidden: the queen had been through “a tiring day”, and it was “late evening”. Pride did not create new facts; it simply prevented him from reading the ones he had. He read a yawn as a verdict on his poetry because his poetry was all he was thinking about.
Tip: This is a metaphor. Pride is spoken of as though it were a cloth tied over the eyes. Naming it that way is itself a sign that he can now see clearly — you cannot describe your own blindness while you are still blind.
Q6.
(ii) Why does the queen say, “If you like, we can leave this quarrel behind us”?
Answer
Because she wants the quarrel ended, not won.
Notice how much the small phrase “If you like” achieves. It hands the decision back to the king, so that accepting peace does not become one more thing he has to concede. She does not say “I forgive you” — which would remind him that he was the one at fault — and she does not defend herself or explain the yawn, though she easily could. She simply offers a door and lets him walk through it.
Her second sentence completes the repair: “I would very much like to listen to your poem.” The poem was the wound; asking to hear it is her way of showing that nothing between them is damaged. She restores his confidence in the same breath in which she accepts his apology.
Q7.
(iii) Fill in the blank by choosing the correct option from those given in the brackets.
The king acknowledges that his pride clouded his judgement, which shows _________. (intelligence and courage/maturity and self-awareness)
Answer
… which shows maturity and self-awareness.
Why this pair and not the other: Intelligence would have shown itself in not making the mistake. What the king displays here is something later and rarer — the ability to look back at his own behaviour, name the feeling that caused it (“pride”), and say so aloud to the person he wronged. That is self-awareness. Doing it without excuses, and going to her himself rather than sending word, is the maturity.
Q8.
(iv) State any one characteristic that the queen’s response to the king’s apology shows about her.
Answer
She is gracious and forgiving. After weeks of silence she does not reproach him even once — no “you should have asked me”, no reminder of how long she waited. She smiles, sets the quarrel aside, and asks for the poem.
Also defensible:tactful — she frames the peace as his choice (“If you like”); or warm-hearted — she is more interested in his poem than in her own vindication. Any of these is a good answer provided you quote her words as proof.