FIRST PUC ENGLISH SUMMARIES

THE GENTLEMEN OF THE JUNGLE

Once, an elephant made friendship with a man. The man had built a hut to live. One day a thunderstorm
broke out. The elephant requested the man to allow it to keep its trunk inside the hut. The man agreed.
The elephant put its trunk inside the hut and slowly occupied the hut and pushed the man out. The man
and elephant started a quarrel for the hut. Lion the king of the jungle came to solve the problem and
appointed a commission of inquiry. Fox was the president and leopard was the secretary. The
commission of enquiry gave the report in favour of elephant because the elephant said that it occupied
the hut to save it from the hurricane. The man built another hut but rhinoceros occupied it. All the huts
built by man were occupied by other animals. At last, the man built a big hut. Many animals occupied
that big hut and the man set fire to that hut.

The School Boy

In this poem, William Blake throws light on the demerits of formal education system. The speaker in the
poem is a school boy. He loves to wake up early in summer. It’s a lively time because birds are singing in
trees. He sings with the skylark. It’s a sweet company. But the boy feels sad to go to school because he
has to sit under the cruel eye of a teacher for the whole day. He spends his time in anxiety. He doesn’t
enjoy reading books. It’s a boring experience. The poet compares the boy to a caged bird which cannot
sing. The cage has weakened its wings. It cannot enjoy the spring time. The poet asks the parents how
flowers can grow in a plant if they cut them early. He says the children cannot get back the happy days
of their childhood after griefs have destroyed those moments. Such plants will never give fruits.
Therefore, it’s necessary to make schooling a happy experience for the children.

Around a Medicinal Creeper

This story is written by Poorna Chandra Tejaswi. One day Tejaswi and Mara were erecting a bamboo
frame. Sanna brought some creepers to tie the bamboo frame. There was a medicinal creeper in the
bundle. All of them went to see the creeper and Mara tied the creeper to a nearby plant so that it could
be found when needed. Mara said that every inch of it is useful. Tejaswi came to know about the uses of
that creeper after twenty years from Krishna. Once Krishna, a farm hand, was suffering piles. Krishna
had approached a Malayali Godman for the cure of piles. Tejaswi and Krishna searched for that creeper,
dug out its tubor, ground it and took it with milk for five days. He was cured of piles.
Oru Manushyan

Oru Manushyan is a story by V M Basheer about humanity. The narrator in the story travels some
thousand five hundred miles away and reaches a city. The people here are cruel and commit many
crimes for money. To earn a living he teaches English to migrant labourers. He had saved fourteen
rupees from his earnings. One day he got up in the evening and went to a restaurant. He ate chapatti
and meat curry and drank tea. But he could not pay the bill of eleven Annas because someone had
picked his wallet. But the owner of the restaurant did not believe him. He asked him to to take off his
clothes one by one. But the narrator could not take off his trousers because he had nothing on
underneath. At this critical moment a man with red turban came to help him. He paid the bill, took the
narrator to a bridge outside the town and returned his wallet. He was the thief.

Money Madness

Money madness is a poem written by D H Lawrence. In this poem, the author speaks about the effect of
money on people. The people are mad about money. They are not ready to give money to anyone. They
may give one pound but they are not ready to give ten pound to others. We are not afraid of money but
we are afraid of money madness. People want to exploit others. If someone has no money they give him
a little food and make him work like a slave. The author is afraid of exploitation by others. The author
wants food, shelter and fire to be free. He says that the money mad people may kill each other in future.

Babar Ali

Babar is the first person in his family to get a formal education. And the heartwarming story is that it
(the learning) didn't end with him, it was the beginning. At the tender age of nine, Babar Ali had the
heart, the vision and the dedication to bring education to hundreds of children in his village. Babar Ali
was a person from Murshidabad, West Bengal. He is known as the "youngest headmaster of the world".
He was given this title by BBC, in the year 2009. Babar Ali was still a student when he started teaching.
He initially began teaching as a time pass, just for fun.

If I Was a Tree

This poem has been written by Mudnakudu Chinnaswamy. In this poem he is speaking on behalf of the
untouchables. He loves the life of a tree instead of being an untouchable because a tree is acceptable to
society but an untouchable is not acceptable to society. If he becomes a tree, a bird may build its nest
on the tree without thinking of the tree as untouchable. Sun light would not discriminate him as
untouchable tree. An untouchable's shadow is considered unclean but a tree's shadow is not
untouchable. Rain would have fallen on it without discrimination. A cow is considered very sacred but it
would come and touch the tree. At last, the dry broken wood of the tree may be used for the funeral of
good people. Through this poem, the author condemns the blind belief called untouchability.
The Farmer’s Wife

The farmer's wife is a poem written by Volga. In this poem the poet has spoken on behalf of a farmer's
wife. The farmer's wife is sad and sorrowful because he had committed suicide. He has died because he
had borrowed money for his crop from money lenders. But he was unable to repay the loan. He had
grown cotton crop. But there was no yield from the fields. Cotton pods were eaten by worms. So, he
could not repay the loan. He took poison. But he forgot his responsibility as a husband and as a father.
Now she has to answer the money lenders. She has to look after the children. She has to feed the
children. She has to educate the children. She has to do all this alone and so she is sadly thinking about
future.

An Old Woman

An Old Woman by Arun Kolatkar speaks about the condition of old and helpless people in our society.
Here, an old woman is forced to beg because she has nobody in her life to protect her. Due to her self-
esteem, she works as a tourist guide and earn money. She wants tourists to take to temples and
demands money in return. The tourist wants to get rid of her but she tags along. She asks what a lonely,
old helpless woman could do, if not beg from people. He looks into the sunken eyes which look like
bullet holes. His pride collapses in front of her helplessness. He feels guilty for not being able to help her
in any substantial manner. She is shatterproof, having faced such tourists and being asked such
questions every day. There is nothing more in life to surprise or excite her. He just gives her some coins
& goes away. She goes back & is forced to enact the same behavior with another tourist.