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NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 4 The Cherry Tree (Ruskin Bond) — Let us do these activities before we read

Book page 155 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
Have you ever used a seed or a sapling to grow a plant?
Answer

This is about your own experience, so your answer will be your own. Say what you planted, where you planted it, and whether you began from a seed or from a sapling — those three details turn a one-word answer into a real one.

Sample answer: Yes. Last monsoon I pushed four coriander seeds into an old paint bucket of soil on our balcony. My cousin, who lives in a village near Nashik, started differently — he brought home a guava sapling from a nursery, because a sapling already has roots and gives fruit years sooner than a seed does.
Why it matters here: Rakesh does not set out to grow a tree at all. He is simply told, 'Nothing is lucky if you put it away.' The whole story grows out of that one careless push of a thumb — which is exactly why the book asks you to remember your own first seed before you read it.
Q2.
What kind of care did the plant need? Who helped you with it?
Answer

Name the actual care the plant needed and the actual person who helped. A plant needs four things regularly, and one thing occasionally:

  • Water — enough, but not too much. Rakesh comes running with a whole bucket and Grandfather warns, 'Don't drown it!'
  • Sunlight — the right amount for that plant. Grandfather chooses a shady corner for the cherry seed.
  • Good soil — soft and yielding, so the roots can push through.
  • Protection — from goats, from caterpillars, from being trampled. Rakesh circles his tree with pebbles 'for privacy'.
  • And occasionally, patience — a plant will not grow faster because you are watching it.
Sample answer: My coriander needed watering every evening and about three hours of morning sun. My grandmother helped — she showed me that the soil should feel damp, not wet, and that the pot needed a hole at the bottom so the extra water could run out.
Q3.
How did you feel when you saw the plant grow?
Answer

Give the feeling and the reason for it — that is what makes this a Class 8 answer rather than a one-word one.

Sample answer: I felt proud, and a little surprised. Proud, because those green shoots existed only because I had bothered to water them; surprised, because I had done so little and the plant had done so much. After that I checked the bucket every single morning before school.
Link to the story: Ruskin Bond gives Rakesh the same mixture. Rakesh 'stopped looking at it except quickly, out of the corner of his eye' — because watching made the waiting harder. And when the first pink blossom appears, he and Grandfather gaze at the tree 'as though it had performed a miracle'.
Q4.
What kind of trees do people plant in their homes? Why is it important to plant trees?
Answer

People usually plant trees in their homes for one of three reasons — food, shade, or custom and beauty.

ReasonTrees commonly planted in Indian homes
Fruitmango, guava, papaya, lemon, curry leaf, drumstick, jamun, coconut
Shade and airneem, peepal, gulmohar, ashoka, banyan (in larger compounds)
Custom, scent, beautytulsi, parijat, champa, mogra, bel

Why planting trees matters:

  • Trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, so they clean the air we breathe and slow down the warming of the planet.
  • Their roots hold the soil together and stop it from being washed away — the story itself notes that on the Himalayan foothills 'the soil was stony, and the dry cold winds stunted the growth of most plants'.
  • They cool the ground around them. Grandfather chooses his cane chair under the cherry tree because 'there's just the right amount of shade here'.
  • They feed and shelter other living things. The cherry tree draws bees, a praying-mantis, a caterpillar, bulbuls and scarlet minivets — a whole small world grew out of one seed.
Q5.
Name some fruit trees that grow in your region. What type of conditions help these fruit trees to grow?
Answer

Answer for your region — the point of the question is that fruit trees are picky about climate, and a tree that thrives in Himachal will die in Chennai.

RegionFruit treesConditions they need
Himalayan foothills (the story's setting)cherry, apple, plum, apricot, peach, walnutcool winters, deep loose soil, sheltered slopes away from the dry cold wind
Northern plainsmango, guava, litchi, ber, papayahot summers, alluvial soil, plenty of water in the growing season
Coastal and southern Indiacoconut, banana, jackfruit, chikoo, cashewhigh humidity, warm temperature all year, heavy rain, sandy or lateritic soil
Dry western Indiadate palm, pomegranate, ber, custard applelittle water, sandy soil, tolerance of long dry spells
Why it happens: A cherry tree in Mussoorie is not an accident of luck. Cherries need a real winter — a spell of genuine cold — before they will blossom in spring. That is why the cherries Rakesh buys in the bazaar 'had come all the way from the Kashmir Valley', and why Grandfather is astonished that a seed spat out on a Mussoorie hillside actually took root.
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