Class Notes

Class: X Subject: English

Topic: A Letter to God
Prepared by: Uttam Kumar Dutta

Q1. What did Lencho hope for?

ANS. Lencho hoped for a shower for his crops.
Q2. Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like 'new coins'?
ANS. After the rain, everything was going as per Lencho's plan and he had
immense confidence that his harvest would yield substantial profits. Thus, he
referred to the droplets as "new coins, the larger ones being equivalent to ten
pesos and smaller ones, five pesos.
Q3. How did the rain change? What happened to Lencho's fields?
ANS. Soon after the rainfall had begun, the wind became strong leading to a
hailstorm. As a result of which, Lencho's field was withered, the plants had shed
their leaves and the flowers had fallen.
Q4. What were Lencho's feelings when the hail stopped?
ANS. Lencho was extremely disheartened and his soul was filled with immense
sadness. Initially he was numb and was not able to accept the reality. Then he
started despairing.
Q5. Who or what did Lencho have faith in? What did he do?
ANS. Lencho had unwavering faith in God. Thus, he decided to write a letter to
God conveying his grievances and asking for 100 pesos for survival and
rejuvenation of crops.
Q6. Who read the letter?
ANS. A postman who was also an employee of the post office read the letter.
Q7. What did the postmaster do then?
ANS. The postmaster was amazed at Lencho's unshakeable faith in the deity
and thus, to retain it, he decided to collect money for him from his friends and
colleagues.
Q8. Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?
ANS. Lencho was not at all surprised on seeing the letter because this is what he
was expecting. Instead, he was angry when he found that the amount was less
than what he had asked for.
Q9. What made him angry?
ANS. Lencho was displeased when he found that the money was less than what
he had asked for.

Q10. Who does Lencho have complete faith in? Which sentences in the
story tell you this?
ANS. Lencho has immense faith in God. These lines are evidence to this fact:
"Lencho showed not the slightest surprise on seeing the money; such was his
confidence - but he became angry when he counted the money. God could not
have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested."
Q11. Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign
the letter 'God'?
ANS. The postmaster did not want to shake the writer's faith in the almighty,
and thus, out of virtuous intentions, decided to collect money for "an act of
charity". He also signed the letter in the name of God to conceal his identity as
he wanted Lencho to think it was actually a reply from God.
Q12. Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why/Why
not?
ANS. No, Lencho did not try to find out the sender because he was very
optimistic about the existence of almighty and that, his letter is actually received
and replied to, by God. It was his unshakeable faith that made him not question
the identity of the sender.
Q13. Who does Lencho think has taken the rest of the money? What is the
irony in the situation? (Remember that the irony of a situation is an
unexpected aspect of it. An ironic situation is strange or amusing because it is
the opposite of what is expected.)
ANS. Lencho thought that it is the postmaster or the employees of the post-
office who had stolen his remaining amount, as is evident from his second letter
to God where he requests the deity not to send money by mail next time. The
irony here is that, it was actually the postmaster and the employees who had
collected the money out of their clean intent to keep Lencho's faith intact, but
are the ones who ended up getting blamed for stealing the missing amount.
Q 14. Are there people like Lencho in the real world? What kind of a
person would you say he is? You may select appropriate words from the
box to answer the question.

Greedy, naive, stupid, ungrateful,

Selfish, comical, unquestioning

ANS. No, it is hard to find people like Lencho in reality. Lencho is naïve and
unquestioning because of his lack of judgement about the actual physical
existence of God. He did not question receiving an actual reply from the
almighty. Also, he is ungrateful in some manner because on seeing 70 pesos, he
is not happy but instead, complained about the missing 30 pesos.
Q15. There are two kinds of conflict in the story: between humans and
nature, and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts
illustrated?
ANS. The story "A Letter to God" depicts two types of conflicts; one between
man and nature and the other among men themselves. At the beginning of the
story, the farmer hopes for a shower for the benefit of his corn field. On actually
receiving rain, he becomes overjoyed and starts thinking about all the profit that
would come in. Not much later, his joy is turned into sorrow when the wind
becomes strong leading to a hailstorm. This depicts the disagreement between
man and nature wherein humans want nature to act according to their
aspirations.
The second divergence arises when Lencho starts doubting the honesty of the
post-office employees who actually helped him with the money anonymously.
This is the conflict among men themselves, wherein, we are ready to trust in the
idea of God's existence but we are not ready to trust each other.

Sarvodaya:
EBQ:
“But suddenly a strong wind began to blow and along with the rain very large
hailstones began to fall. These truly did resemble new silver coins. The boys,
exposing themselves to the rain, ran out to collect the frozen pearls.”
1. Who is the writer of the story from which the extract is taken?
a) R.K.Narayan
 b) G..G.Marquez
c) G.L.Fuentes
d) None of these
e) Ans: c
2. Whose boys have been mentioned here?
a) Lencho’s
b) Rancho’s
c) Swaminathan’s
d) Postmaster’s
Ans: a
3. Why are the raindrops compared to silver coins?
a) Because they actually contained silver
b) Because they would bring money in the form of silver
c) Because they were heavy and large
d) Because they symbolised good luck
Ans: c
4. Which poetic device has been used in the last sentence of the extract: “The
boys, exposing themselves to the rain, ran out to collect the frozen pearls.”
a) Personification
b) Simile
c) Metaphor
d) Anaphora
Ans: b
Short Answer Type:
What was the attitude of the post office employees when they discovered the
letter of Lencho?
Ans: The postman discovered the letter and brought it to the postmaster. They
all laughed at the incident. Suddenly the postmaster became serious and
commended the writer for his faith. However, after the content of the letter was
revealed, they all sympathised with the writer of the letter; and they all collected
some part of the money demanded by Lencho. So the post office employees
show sympathy and a humanitarian attitude to the writer of the letter ,i.e.
Lencho.
Long Answer Type:
Lencho has been compared to an ox. Do you agree? Describe the other traits in
his character.
Ans: Lencho is the protagonist of the story ‘A letter to God’. He is a poor
farmer. He is hardworking; which is why he has been compared to an ox.. But
one year his crop is completely destroyed by hailstones. He is helpless and sad.
Lencho has firm faith in God. He believes that God would help him in misery.
He would not let him die in hunger.
Lencho is very simple and innocent. He writes a letter to God and candidly
asked for 100 pesos. He does not know that it was impossible. Moreover, he
was not surprised to have an envelope with money. He believes that it was from
God. He is ignorant of worldly events.
He condemns dishonesty and corruption. That is why in this second letter to
God he blatantly condemns the post office employees as bunch of crooks for
supposedly stealing his money. On the whole, Lencho is an interesting
character.