Summary
Kezia was a little girl, who lived with her mother, her father and her grandmother. She was afraid of her father and used to avoid him. She used to feel relieved on seeing her father go to his office. Kezia was so afraid of her father that she stuttered in front of him. He appeared to her as harsh, rude and critical. Her grandmother wanted her to understand her parents better and would ask her to go to the drawing room to chat with her parents. But she found them indifferent towards her.
One day grandmother suggested that she should prepare a pin cushion for her father’s birthday.
Kezia stitched the three sides of the pin cushion casing. Now she wanted to stuff it with something. In her mother’s room on the bed table she found many sheets of fine paper. She tore them off into small pieces and filled the pin cushion and stitched the fourth side. By mistake she had used the very papers which contained her father’s very important speech for the Port Authority. Though she accepted her mistake and tried to explain the reasons behind it, her father was too angry to listen to anything and punished her with a ruler on her palms. She failed to understand the punishment met out to her when she had already accepted her mistake. Bitterly she said,” What did God make fathers for ?”
One evening she saw Mr. McDonalds, playing with his 5 children, laughing and enjoying with them. This convinced Kezia that all fathers are not alike. Some are loving and caring like. Mr. McDonald and some are cruel like her father.
But soon her attitude towards her father also changed. One day, her mother had to be taken to the hospital and her grandmother accompanied her. Kezia was left alone in the house with the cook. The day was fine. But night was a different issue. She Woke up in the middle of the night screaming as she had a horrible nightmare. She was weeping out of fear. When she opened her eyes, she saw her father beside her bed. He carried her to his bedroom, and made her warm and comfortable on his bed. Father told him to rub her feet with his legs and set them warm. She felt very safe and comfortable with him.
It was now she realized that her father was not all that of a-giant. That he loved and cared for her in his own way. That he had to work the whole day to provide for his family and was too tired by that evening to play with her.
Thinking about the text
(Page 38)
I. Given below are some emotions that Kezia felt. Match the emotions in Column A with the items in Column B.
A B
1. fear or terror
2. glad sense of relief
3. a‘funny’ feeling, perhaps of understanding (i) father comes into her room to give her a goodbye kiss
(ii) noise of the carriage grows fainter
(iii) father comes home
(iv) speaking to father
(v) going to bed when alone at home
(vi) father comforts her and falls asleep
(vii) father stretched out on the sofa, snoring
Answers:
1. — (iii)
2. — (ii)
3. — (vi)
II. Answer the following questions in one or two sentences:
Question 1.
Why was Kezia afraid of her father?
Answer:
Kezia was afraid of her father because he used to talk to her harshly. He was in a habit of finding out her mistakes.
Question 2.
Who were the people in Kezia’s family?
Answer:
Kezia’s family had her grandmother, mother and father.
Question 3.
What was Kezia’s father’s routine(I)
before going to his office(ii)
after coming back from his office(iii)
on Sundays?
Answer:
He used to kiss Kezia casually before going to his office.
He would ask for the newspaper and tea after coming back from his office.
On Sundays, he would take rest. He would enjoy sound sleep on the sofa.
Question 4.
In what ways did Kezia’s grandmother encourage her to get to know her father better?
Answer:
Kezia’s grandmother sent her to her father’s room to have a nice talk with him. Besides, she asked her to make a gift of a pin-cushion on her father’s birthday.
III. Discuss these questions in class with your teacher and then write down your answers in two or three paragraphs each.
Question 1.
Kezia’s efforts to please her father resulted in displeasing him very much. How did this happen?
Answer:
Kezia used to be afraid of her father because her father talked to her harshly. One day her grandmother told her to make a pin-cushion to gift him on his birthday which was approaching. Kezia took it an opportunity to please him. So, she stitched cotton cloth three sides and looked for the things that could be stuffed into the stitched cloth. Soon she found out many sheets of paper. Actually they contained her father’s speech for the Port Authority. She tore them into pieces and stuffed her case.
One day when her father looked for the papers, he did not find them. After some time, he came to know that Kezia had torn them into pieces to make a pin-cushion. He got infuriated and beat her with a ruler. Thus, her efforts to please her father resulted in displeasing him very much.
Question 2.
Kezia decides that there are “different kinds of fathers”. What kind of father was Mr Macdonald, and how was he different from Kezia’s father?
Answer:
In Kezia’s opinion, her father was very harsh. He did not talk to her affectionately but rather he used to speak to her stringently. So she avoided him. She did not want to be in front of him because she was afraid of him. Moreover, her father never spent time with her.
Macdonald family lived next door to her house. One evening she saw him playing tag with his children. A baby was on his shoulders and two little girls were hanging on to his coat pockets. They were laughing. Also, she saw some boys turn the hose on Macdonald and he tried to catch them laughing all the time. She found them feel friendly with their father. So, she wished if her father were like them.
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