NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 2 Verghese Kurien — Let us think and reflect

Book page 86 to 88 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

Read the given extract and answer the question that follows. “In today's fast-paced world we have become so addicted to instant communication that we prefer to use a telephone. But speaking on the telephone only gives us an immediate but fleeting joy. Writing is different. Writing—even if it is a letter—not only conveys our present concerns and views of the events taking place around us but it becomes a possession that can be treasured and re-read over the years, with great, abiding pleasure.” — Fill in the blank given below by selecting the correct option from the brackets. When the writer refers to a ‘fast-paced world’, he is speaking of a world where _________________. (communication happens quickly but lacks depth/people have more time to write and reflect)

Answer

communication happens quickly but lacks depth

Why: read the extract's own vocabulary. “Fast-paced”, “addicted”, “instant”, “immediate” all describe speed; “fleeting” describes what that speed costs — the joy does not last. The second option says the opposite of the extract: a fast-paced world is precisely one in which people have less time to write and reflect.

Note the word “addicted”. He does not say we choose instant communication; he says we cannot do without it. That is a much stronger claim, and it is what makes “lacks depth” the right reading.

Q2.

Select the option that applies correctly to both Assertion (A) and Reason (R). (A): Writing letters can be treasured and re-read over the years. (R): Speaking on the telephone provides long lasting joy. A. Both (A) and (R) are true, and (R) is the correct explanation of (A). B. Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A). C. (A) is true, but (R) is false. D. Both (A) and (R) are false.

Answer

C. (A) is true, but (R) is false.

Why: (A) is taken almost word for word from the extract — a letter “becomes a possession that can be treasured and re-read over the years”. (R) reverses the extract: Dr. Kurien writes that the telephone gives “an immediate but fleeting joy”, and fleeting is the opposite of long-lasting. Since (A) is true and (R) is false, the answer is C.

Method for assertion–reason questions: judge (A) and (R) separately against the text first, and only then ask whether (R) explains (A). Deciding both at once is how mistakes are made.

Q3.

Identify whether the statement given below is true or false. The writer feels that letter-writing is a class apart from other kinds of writing.

Answer

False.

Why — and the whole answer sits in three words. Dr. Kurien writes “Writing—even if it is a letter—not only conveys…”. The phrase “even if” concedes something: it means a letter may seem a humble, ordinary kind of writing, and yet it too does this. So far from placing letters in a class of their own, he is treating a letter as the least impressive form of writing and saying that even that form outlasts a phone call.

What he is actually contrasting. The comparison in the extract is between writing and speaking, not between letters and other writing. Reading the contrast correctly is the whole point of the question.

Tip: small linking phrases — even if, although, at least, only — carry a great deal of meaning. When a true/false question looks obvious, check whether one of them is quietly doing the work.

Q4.

Which of the following is the most appropriate title for the given extract? A. The Rise of Instant Communication B. The Fleeting Delight of Phone Calls C. The Lasting Joy of Written Words D. Living in a Fast-paced World

Answer

C. The Lasting Joy of Written Words

Why: a title must name the main idea, not a supporting one. The extract's structure is: a fast world (background) → the telephone's fleeting joy (contrast) → writing is different, and it lasts (the point). Options A, B and D each name a step on the way, but only C names the destination. Notice too that the extract's longest and most detailed sentence is the one about writing — length is a clue to importance.

Tip: when choosing a title, ask which option the last sentence of the passage supports. Writers usually put their point where the reader will leave it.

Q5.

Read the given extract and answer the question that follows. “Your grandmother too made an important choice. She knew, in those early days, life in Anand could not offer even the simple comforts that we take for granted today. However, she ardently supported my choice to live and work in Anand. That choice of your grandmother to stand by me has given me an everlasting strength, always ensuring that I shouldered my responsibilities with poise.” — How can we say that the grandmother shared her husband's dedication to a greater cause?

Answer

Because she made the same sacrifice knowingly, and the extract is careful to say so in that order.

She knew what it would cost. “She knew, in those early days, life in Anand could not offer even the simple comforts that we take for granted today.” Her support was not innocence; she understood exactly what she was giving up.
She supported him anyway, and warmly. The word is “ardently” — with strong feeling. She did not merely permit his choice or put up with it; she backed it.
Her choice is called a choice. The extract opens “Your grandmother too made an important choice.” The word too places her decision beside his own, as an equal act, not as a consequence of it.
Her support made his work possible. It gave him “an everlasting strength”, which meant he could shoulder his responsibilities “with poise”. The dairy cooperative at Anand had two people behind it, not one.

The point the extract quietly makes: the visible half of a life's work is usually supported by an invisible half. Dr. Kurien could have written a sentence praising his wife's patience. He wrote instead that she made a choice — which is a far greater compliment, because it credits her with the same judgement he claims for himself.

Q6.

Complete the following with the correct option from the two given in brackets. The fact that the writer (grandfather) praises his wife tells us that he _____________________ (truly values/quietly accepts) her role in his life.

Answer

truly values

Why: “quietly accepts” would mean taking her support for granted and saying nothing — but he says a great deal, and he says it to his grandson, in writing, where it will last. His words are strong ones: “an everlasting strength”. A man who merely accepts does not describe a debt in those terms.

Notice the placement too. He mentions her choice immediately after describing his own, in the same paragraph and with the word “too”. Where a writer puts a person tells you what he thinks of them.

Q7.

Complete the following sentence with the correct option from those given below. Based on the information in the extract, we can infer that the grandmother had all of the following traits EXCEPT ____________. A. encouraging B. understanding C. comforting D. thoughtful

Answer

C. comforting

Why the other three are supported:

Encouraging — she “ardently supported” his choice.
Understanding — she “knew” what life in Anand would be like and accepted it with open eyes.
Thoughtful — she weighed a hard decision and chose to stand by him; this was a considered choice, not an impulse.

Why “comforting” is the odd one out: the only place the word comfort appears in the extract is in “could not offer even the simple comforts” — and there it names what Anand lacked. What she gave him is named exactly: “strength”, not comfort. Comforting means soothing someone in distress; giving strength means enabling them to carry a weight. The extract chooses the second word deliberately.

How to attack an EXCEPT question: find the evidence for each option one by one and tick it off. The one left without a line of the text behind it is your answer. Never pick by feel — three of these four words describe a good wife, and feel will not separate them.

Q8.

Select the phrase that conveys— ‘showed grace under pressure and carried out my duties with dignity and confidence’.

Answer

The phrase is “shouldered my responsibilities with poise”.

In the question	In the extract
carried out my duties	shouldered my responsibilities
with dignity and confidence / grace under pressure	with poise

Why the two verbs are not quite the same, and why his is better. To “carry out” a duty is simply to do it. To “shoulder” a responsibility is to take its weight — the image is of a load placed on the shoulders. Set beside “poise”, which means balanced, unhurried self-possession, the phrase gives you a picture: a man carrying something heavy and walking steadily under it. That is far more exact than “doing his duties well”.

Word note: poise also means physical balance (a dancer's poise). Both senses are alive in this phrase, which is why it works.

Q9.

Answer the following questions. 1. What event does Dr. Kurien refer to when he mentions receiving the Padma Vibhushan?

Answer

He refers to the ceremony in Delhi in 1999 at which the President of India conferred the Padma Vibhushan on him — and, more particularly, to what his grandson did there.

In the letter he reminds Siddharth: “With great pride, you slipped the medal around your neck, looked at it in awe and asked me very innocently if you could keep it.” The answer he and his wife gave is the reason he tells the story at all:

“…of course, this medal was yours as much as it was mine, but
you should not be satisfied in merely keeping my award — the
challenge before you was to earn your own reward for the
work that you did in your lifetime.”

Why this memory and not another. Dr. Kurien could have described the ceremony, the President, the applause. He describes instead a small boy putting on a medal he had not earned — because that gives him a way of saying, without lecturing, that honours cannot be inherited. The whole letter is written to a grandson who must earn his own.

Fact check: the Padma Vibhushan is India's second-highest civilian award. Dr. Verghese Kurien also received the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan, the Ramon Magsaysay Award and the World Food Prize.

Q10.

2. How did Dr. Kurien's decision to join the cooperative in Anand affect his life?

Answer

It redirected the whole of it — and he is unusually clear-eyed about what that meant.

It closed other doors, and he knew it. “Choosing to lead one kind of life means putting aside the desire to pursue other options.” He names the options he set aside: he could have “pursued a career in metallurgy and become the chief executive of a large company”, “opted for a commission in the Indian Army and maybe retired as a general”, or “left for the US and gone on to become a highly successful NRI”.
It lasted fifty years. “This transformation took place within me fifty years ago, when I agreed to work for a small cooperative of dairy farmers who were trying to gain control over their lives.” A decision he expected to be temporary became his life's work.
It meant giving up comfort. Anand “could not offer even the simple comforts that we take for granted today”, and his wife had to accept that too.
It gave him his values and his mentors. It is at Anand that he found Tribhuvandas Patel, whose values he says he inherited alongside his parents'.
It brought recognition he was careful to redirect. Whenever he was honoured, he “always emphasised that it is a recognition of the achievements of many people”.

The sentence worth remembering: “a series of events swept me along and put me in a certain time with a choice that would transform my life.” He does not claim he planned it. He claims only that when the choice arrived, he made it — which is an honest account of how most lives actually turn.

Q11.

3. Dr. Kurien's decision to work in Anand reveals his values and sense of duty. Explain.

Answer

It reveals four things, and each can be tied to a line of the letter.

He measured a career by contribution, not by reward. He turned down three careers that offered money, rank or comfort because “deep down, I knew I could make a more meaningful contribution by working here in Anand, Gujarat.”
He believed the noblest work of his generation was nation-building. “The noblest task in those days was to contribute in whatever way we could towards building an India of our dreams — a nation where our people would not only hold their heads high in freedom but would be free from hunger and poverty.” He joined a dairy cooperative because hunger was the problem in front of him.
He put integrity first. “I have often spoken of integrity as the most important of these values, realising that integrity — and personal integrity, at that — is being honest to yourself. If you are always honest to yourself, it does not take much effort in always being honest with others.”
He worked for people's independence, not their gratitude. The farmers he joined “were trying to gain control over their lives”. He did not go to Anand to give charity; he went to help people run their own affairs, which is what a cooperative is.

Notice how he defines duty. Not as obedience to an order, but as “accepting responsibility for yourself, always using your talents to the best of your ability and contributing somehow to the common good”. By that definition, duty is something you assign yourself — which is exactly why his choice at Anand counts as one.

Q12.

4. Why did Dr. Kurien write the letter to his grandson?

Answer

He gives his reasons himself, and there are four of them.

Because writing lasts and speech does not. A letter “becomes a possession that can be treasured and re-read over the years, with great, abiding pleasure”, whereas a telephone call gives “an immediate but fleeting joy”.
Because Siddharth will need it later, not now. “You may not wish to read it all right away but, perhaps, a couple of decades or more from now, you will pick up these jottings of mine again and they will give you a deeper understanding of what I have done, and the reasons I pursued a life of service to our nation's farmers.” The letter is written to a grown man who does not yet exist.
Because it is a record of a vanished world. He wants it to be “a valuable reminder of the days just before the world entered the twenty-first century” — something Siddharth might share with his own generation “to provide a glimpse of the world your grandparents lived in and knew”.
Because it is meant for more than one boy. “I would like to dedicate these musings to you, Siddharth, and to the millions of other children of your generation in our country.” The letter is private in form and public in purpose.

What the form itself is arguing. A man who spent his life persuading farmers could have written an essay or given an interview. He chose the slowest medium available and addressed it to one child — because the point he wants to make is that things which last are made carefully, by hand, for a particular person.

Q13.

5. According to Dr. Kurien “life is a privilege and it is wrong to waste it”. What is your opinion on this?

Answer

Take a position and defend it. Here is one, argued fully; you may disagree, provided you argue as carefully.

A position: he is right, but only because of how he defines “waste”. His definition is unusually generous, and that is what makes the statement fair rather than harsh.

He does not measure waste by success. He writes that “failure is not about not succeeding. Rather, it is about not putting in your best effort and not contributing, however modestly, to the common good.” By that test, a person who tries hard and fails has not wasted anything.
“However modestly” is the crucial phrase. He is not demanding that everyone found a cooperative or win a Padma Vibhushan. He is asking for a contribution proportionate to what you have.
The word “privilege” explains the “wrong”. A privilege is something you receive without earning it. If life is a gift, then throwing it away is not merely unfortunate; it is ungrateful. That is the moral logic of his sentence.

Where you might push back: not everyone is free to “use their talents to the best of their ability”. Poverty, illness and responsibility at home narrow what many people can choose. A fair version of his claim would be: waste is failing to use the freedom you actually have — which is a smaller amount for some people than for others.

Sample answer: I agree with Dr. Kurien, but I would add a condition. He judges a life by effort and contribution rather than by achievement, and that seems right to me — my grandmother taught in a village school for thirty years and never became famous, and no one would call her life wasted. But I would remember that not everyone has the same room to choose. A boy who leaves school at fourteen to support his family has not wasted his life; the circumstances wasted his opportunity. The idea is a good measure for what I do with my own chances, and a poor one for judging other people's.

What makes this a Class 8 answer rather than a Class 6 one: it does not simply agree. It states the position, tests it against the writer's own definitions, and then names the case the statement handles badly. Agreeing with a reservation, honestly explained, is stronger than agreeing completely.

Q14.

6. What message does Dr. Kurien want to convey about selfless service and its long-term impact on the society?

Answer

His message has four parts, and they build on one another.

Service is a choice made once and kept for a long time. Fifty years in a small town in Gujarat is the whole argument. He does not describe a heroic moment; he describes a career.
Its results belong to many people, not to one. “Whenever I have received any recognition… I always emphasised that it is a recognition of the achievements of many people with whom I had a privilege to be associated.” Selfless service, by definition, cannot end with a single name on a medal.
The opportunity is always at hand. “That common good will present itself to you in many forms every day. If you look around you, you will find there is a lot waiting to be done: your friend may need some help, your teacher could be looking for a volunteer, or the community you live in will need you to make a contribution.” Service is not something you postpone until you are important.
The real reward is not the recognition. “Remember, rewards that come to you then are the only true rewards for a life well-spent.” The reward is the state of having spent your life well — everything else is a by-product.

And the closing test he offers: “if we are brave enough to love, strong enough to rejoice in another's happiness and wise enough to know that there is enough to go around for all, then we would have lived our lives to the fullest.” Look at the three qualities he attaches: bravery to love, strength to be glad at someone else's good fortune, wisdom to believe there is enough for everyone. Each pairing is surprising — and each says that generosity is hard, not soft.

The long-term impact, in one line: the cooperative he joined outlived him, and the farmers it belonged to are still running it. That is what selfless service leaves behind — not a monument, but an institution that other people own.

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