NEB Grade XI Compulsory English Note | Language Development | Unit- 10 The Tattered Blanket (Comprehension + Critical thinking) Part 2

Unit:10

The Tattered Blanket

Comprehension

Answer the following questions.

a. Why didn't the mother recognise her son Gopi?

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Answer:
The mother didn’t recognize her son Gopi because she was eighty and lost her memory.

b. Why is the sister living with her mother?

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Answer:
The sister is living with her mother because she is a widow and there is nobody to take care of her mother.

c. What is the sister’s attitude towards her brother?

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Answer:
She is critical of her brother’s behavior.

d. Does the son love his mother very much? How do you know that?

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Answer:
Yes, he does. He shows his love bending down and bringing his face close to her wrinkled cheeks.

e. What does the mother actually need: a blanket or the warmth of her son’s love?

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Answer:
The mother actually needs the warmth of her son’s love. The blanket symbolizes love and care.

f. What does the phrase 'the tattered blanket’ mean? Is it only the blanket that is tattered?

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Answer:
The phrase 'the tattered blanket’ means hurt the feelings of the mother/the weakened family relation.

g. The son says, ‘Amma can't remember who I am’. Do you think that he remembered his mother? Why didn’t he answer when his sister asked, ‘Do you remember your Amma?’

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Answer:
No, I don’t. He didn’t answer her question because it had been a year since he wrote to his mother and more than five years since he saw her.

Critical thinking

a. What can be the expectations of the parents from their offspring at the old age?

People become weak both physically and mentally in old age. It’s true that the most ageing parents are unhappy with their children and complain for the lack of understanding. The children don’t even know what their parents actually want from them. There must be some expectations the parents have from their children and our work is to understand and fulfill them.

The parents basically expect love, affection and care from their children. Healthy food, suitable clothes, comfortable bed and regular health check-ups are the basic things they long for. Besides these, they want their children to listen to and talk to them. They are not as strong or quick as they once were. The children should meet their pace with them and support emotionally in need.

The elderly people love to share their life experience with their children for their betterment. They have some excellent life and career related advice for the children. But most of the children seem to neglect the genuine experience of their parents have. The children should permit them to be a part of their life, respecting their suggestions.

Our elderly parents do not have high expectations which are impossible. They just want to be cared, respected and be with their children.

b. Some children who live in a distance tend to be indifferent to the feelings of their parents. Why do you think they are like that? Discuss.

Grown-up children leave their family and home for several reasons. Some of them do so to continue their study and others are in search of jobs or start business. For achieving their goal, they completely invest their time and efforts. They think that achieving success doesn’t happen overnight, but takes the time. Finally, there is created a gap or distance between parents and their children.

For the adult children, money and success are more important than the parents’ feelings. They do hard work for saving their prestige and social position, but not making the parents happy. They fully lose themselves in the materialistic world. Visiting parents, spending time with them and listening to their real experience become the disgusting idea for the children.

Some of the adults begin a new life with their family far from home. Their wife and children become the matter of priority more than the elderly parents. They think that their world is their new home. That is why they have no time to visit their parents, write to them or call them.

This indifference not only degrades the relationship between the parents and their children but also makes the parents live a lonely and miserable life.

c. A mother's love is everlasting and indispensable. Justify.

A mother is the symbol of love, tolerance, patience and forgiveness. No condition is applied to the love of a mother. Any age and status are priceless when they come to about mother's love. The word ‘love’ is used to describe the emotional feelings of someone with others in many ways. Mothers’ love is unconditional, everlasting and indispensable.

A child finds his mother as a best friend, mentor, teacher and caretaker. She plays with him along with extra care and nourishment, and is never tired of fulfilling all his demands without thinking of her. Mothers’ love is about both nourishing her child and teaching her child the moral and cultural values.

Mothers are the emotional foundation of the family. They support and respect everyone’s feeling in a family. A member in a family can share almost any secret with his/her mother. This is because mothers have a huge level of faith in their family. Additionally, mothers possess an exceptionally forgiving nature.

Mother’s love for her child undoubtedly cannot be compared with anything. She is the most imperative person in everyone’s life.

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