Lesson 2: Uruka Adventure
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1. Let’s see how much you have understood the story. Answer the questions:
(a) Who was the leader of the boys in their adventure on uruka night?
Answer: Mahendra, lovingly called Mahen by his friends, was the leader of the boys.
(b) What were the names of Mahen’s friends?
Answer: Mahen’s friends were Sanju, Nantu, Rinku and Rumon.
c) What did Mahen and his friends propose to do on uruka night?
Answer: They proposed to have an ‘uruka adventure’. Specifically, they would spend the night in their bhelaghar (feasting house), and when everyone was asleep, they would go and pick vegetables to have another feast the next day.
(d) What was the age old custom that Mahen was referring to?
Answer: The age-old custom Mahen was referring to was the nocturnal adventure of picking vegetables from someone’s garden on uruka night, the eve of Magh Bihu.
e) What was Mahen’s reaction to their proposal?
Answer: Mahen jumped up excitedly and responded gleefully, saying, “Oh yes! It is our age old custom. We must honour it”.
(f) What did the boys do after the feast?
Answer: After the grand uruka feast was over, the mischievous five stayed behind, huddling around the big fire. Past midnight, Mahen commanded them to follow him in their nocturnal adventure.
(g) Who was Shantiram?
Answer: Shantiram was a retired army man who lived at the end of the lane and whose hobby was farming.
(h) Why was Shantiram’s garden full of cabbages, brinjals, carrots and other seasonal vegetables?
Answer: Shantiram’s garden was full of various vegetables because farming was his hobby.
(i) What was the black heap that Mahen noticed? Where was Shantiram sitting?
Answer: The black heap that Mahen noticed was Shantiram, who had been sitting like a black heap wrapped in a black blanket, right in the middle of the rows of vegetables.
(j) What made the night appear more haunting?
Answer: The screeching of the nightjar (a small species of owl) eerily at regular intervals made the atmosphere all the more haunting.
(k) Why did the boys run away from the garden?
Answer: The boys ran away because the black heap suddenly jerked up and dashed towards them, and they were scared, thinking it was a ghost.
(l) What happened when the boys were about to pick the vegetables?
Answer: Just as the boys stretched their hands to pick the vegetables, the black heap suddenly jerked up and dashed towards them at great speed.
(m) Who did the boys think had chased them?
Answer: The boys thought a ghost had chased them.
2. Here are some of the events that happened on the uruka night, but they are not arranged in the proper order. Arrange the sentences in the proper sequence and then read the lesson to check your answer.
| Order | Sentence |
| 1 | c) Sanju, Nantu, Rinku, Rumon and Mahen planned an adventure on uruka night. |
| 2 | e) Just past midnight, the five boys headed towards Shantiram’s vegetable garden. |
| 3 | (a) Mahen saw something like a black heap of garbage in the middle of the garden. |
| 4 | (b) Shantiram ran towards the boys when the boys were about to pick the vegetables. |
| 5 | (d) The boys ran frantically out of the garden, scared that the ghost was after them. |
3. Look at the words in the two boxes below. One contains the names and the other contains their descriptions. Match the words to their descriptions and write them in your notebooks.
| Word/Name | Description |
| (a) Uruka | (vi) the annual feast ahead of Magh Bihu |
| (b) Shantiram | (iv) a retired army man who was interested in farming |
| c) Sanju, Nantu, Rinku and Rumon | (i) friends of Mahendra |
| (d) Mahendra | (iii) the leader of the adventure on uruka night |
| e) The nightjar | (ii) a small species of owl |
| (f) Nongola | (v) a bamboo gate |
4. Here are some words from the lesson. Match the words with their meaning under your understanding.
| Word | Meaning |
| restless | unable to stay still |
| custom | an accepted way of behaving or of doing things in society |
| feast | a large or special meal, especially for a lot of people |
| frantically | done quickly and with a lot of activity, but in a way that is not very well organized |
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5. Read the lesson once again and write in the box the name(s) of the person/ people who said the lines given below. In which paragraph does each sentence occur?
| Sentence | Speaker | Paragraph No. |
| (i) “Oh yes! It is our age old custom.” | Mahen | 2 (starts: Soon the grand uruka feast…) |
| (ii) “We will spend the night in our bhelaghar.” | Sanju | 1 (starts: Sanju, the eldest among them…) |
| (iii) “What will we carry the vegetables in?” | Mahen | 4 (starts: They walked quietly…) |
| (iv) “Never mind. We’ll carry as much as possible in each hand.” | The friends (Sanju, Nantu, Rinku, Rumon) | 4 (starts: They walked quietly…) |
6. Let’s learn some grammar:
(a) Now rewrite the following sentences using the short form of will.
(i) Mahen said, “We will make a bhelaghar.”
Answer: Mahen said, “We’ll make a bhelaghar.”
(ii) They will spend the night in the bhelaghar.
Answer: They’ll spend the night in the bhelaghar.
(iii) Sanju thought, “When everyone is asleep, I will pick vegetables.”
Answer: Sanju thought, “When everyone is asleep, I’ll pick vegetables.”
(iv) Mahen said, “We will help each other to cook the food.”
Answer: Mahen said, “We’ll help each other to cook the food.”
(v) They will have an uruka adventure.
Answer: They’ll have an uruka adventure.
(b) Note the following: We use words like will and shall to talk about something that is going to happen in the future.
(Information/Instruction)
c) Note the difference in meaning between the first two sentences and the third:
(i) We will spend the night in the bhelaghar. (Future time)
(ii) We shall go and pick vegetables. (Future time)
(iii) We spent the night in the bhelaghar. (Past time)
(Information/Instruction)
(d) Note the forms of negative sentences:
(i) We will not spend the night in the bhelaghar.
(ii) We did not spend the night in the bhelaghar.
We use will not or won’t and did not or didn’t to express a negative meaning.
(Information/Instruction)
Now check your grammar. Rewrite these sentences by changing the underlined verbs to express future time.
(i) Mahen called his friends to his house.
Answer: Mahen will call his friends to his house. (or: Mahen shall call his friends to his house.)
(ii) Mahen jumped up in joy.
Answer: Mahen will jump up in joy. (or: Mahen shall jump up in joy.)
(iii) They decided to celebrate Uruka together.
Answer: They will decide to celebrate Uruka together.
(iv) They planned to hold the feast in Mahen’s house.
Answer: They will plan to hold the feast in Mahen’s house.
(v) We went to pick vegetables from Shantiram’s garden.
Answer: We will go to pick vegetables from Shantiram’s garden. (or: We shall go to pick vegetables from Shantiram’s garden.)
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7. Read the story and write down the words ending with -ly. One is done for you.
(a) excitedly
(b) lovingly
c) quietly
(d) eerily
e)suddenly
(f) frantically
The task then asks you to look up the meanings and use them in your own sentences. This is a writing activity.
8. (a) Read the paragraphs given below carefully. They describe what the friends did on uruka night… Then, using verbs in similar forms, tell the group how you celebrated one of your festivals this year.
* This is a reading comprehension and speaking activity, focusing on the use of past tense verbs. It does not require a written answer here.
(b) Name a festival that all Indians celebrate in the month of January. Discuss with your partner and write a few lines on it.
Answer: The festival celebrated by all Indians in the month of January is Makar Sankranti or one of the harvest festivals it is associated with, such as Magh Bihu in Assam. It marks the sun’s northward journey (Uttaraayan) and is celebrated with various names and customs across India, often involving special food and kite flying.
9. Read the verbs in column A and write their past forms in column B, as shown in the example:
| A | B |
| buy | bought |
| catch | caught |
| teach | taught |
| bring | brought |
| fight | fought |
10. What did you notice about the words in column B above?
Answer: I noticed that all the words in column B end with the letters ‘ght’.
Notice that the ‘ght’ in all the past forms is pronounced as the ‘t’ is pronounced in ‘cot’.
(Information/Instruction)
Can you think of more words ending with ‘ght’? Work with a friend. Practise saying aloud the words you have listed.
Answer: More words ending with ‘ght’ include: right, night, light, thought, might, sight, tight, high.
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11. Look at the pictures in box A and read the dialogue in the bubble. Now choose the correct response from those in box B to fill up the bubble C.
| A (Picture with Boy Running and Falling) | C (Empty Bubble) |
| Let’s run! (Boy running) Are you OK? (Boy falling) | (ii) Don’t worry. I am OK. You carry on. I’ll join you in a while. (Most appropriate for a minor fall during a chase) |
Now, practise the dialogue with your partner.
* This is a speaking activity.
12. Read the following words. Some of them are related to adventure. Find out the meanings of those words and make sentences with them:
| Word | Meaning |
| plan | A detailed proposal for doing or achieving something. |
| thrill | A sudden feeling of excitement and pleasure. |
| excitement | The state of being excited; a state of agitation or arousal. |
| enjoyment | The state or process of taking pleasure in something. |
| feast | A large meal, typically a celebratory one. |
| cooperation | The process of working together to the same end. |
| custom | A traditional and widely accepted way of behaving or doing something. |
| experiment | A scientific procedure undertaken to make a discovery, test a hypothesis, or demonstrate a known fact. |
| night | The period of darkness in each twenty-four hours. |
| voice | The sound produced in a person’s larynx and uttered through the mouth, as speech or song. |
The task also requires writing sentences for each word, which is a writing activity.
A