THE LAST LESSON (by Alphonse Daudet)
Summary (Important Points)
• In 1870, during the France-Prussian War, Prussia (Germany, Poland, and parts of Austria) conquered
two French districts, Alsace and Lorraine. After the conquer, Berlin ordered the French districts to
stop teaching French in all the schools across the districts and hire new teachers who could teach
German, instead of French.
• Franz, as usual, is late for the class and on the way notices Prussian soldiers drilling, people hanging
on the bulletin board to check the updates of the war, and a solemn classroom. He notices that the
area around the school is very silent.
• M Hamel, the teacher in a school of the Prussia conquered states informs his students that this was
his last French lesson because of the orders from higher authorities. M Hamel does not scold Franz
that day for being late to the class and for not learning his lessons. Instead, he starts recalling
memories when he used to scold students for doing the same and how all of them behaved in a
manner that they had sufficient time to learn French. He further talks about French being a beautiful
language. M Hamel wears his special suit, the one he carries on Sunday morning and on special
occasions only.
• After entering the class, Franz notices that the last benches that were usually empty were that day
filled by the villagers. On hearing about the orders from Berlin, he realized that all of them were
there to applaud M Hamel for his dedicated forty years of faithful service, and to feel sorry for not
taking French classes and not going to school.
• That day all of them did their class work and listened to M Hamel with full attention, dedication, and
devotion since they were aware of the fact that they were never going to learn French again and M
Hamel was never going to teach them again.
• As the clock struck twelve and noises of Prussian soldiers were audible to them, M Hamel with a
very heavy hard wanted to bid goodbye to his classroom, his students, his French lessons. But the
tears in his eyes and heaviness in his heart choke him and force him to not say a word.
• He takes the chalk in his hand and writes on the blackboard ‘Vive La France’, which means Long
Live France’. With utter anger and grief, he asked the students to go and said that the class was
dismissed.
Important Lines from the Text with Their Meanings
1. “Don’t go so fast, bub; you’ll get to your school in plenty of time!”
Answer. The watchman says this to Franz as he sees him running for the class. The watchman through these
words wishes to inform Franz with sadness that now there’s a lot of time for him to reach the school to learn
French lessons and that he does not have to hurry for the lessons, since they would now not be taught in the
school.
2. When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they have the key to
their prison.
Answer. By this sentence, M Hamel wishes to tell the students that they must hold onto their language and
guard it/protect it so that it can never be forgotten. The line says that when a country is enslaved by some
other countrymen, they leave the impact of their language and culture all over the place since language is a
matter of pride.
3. “Will they make them sing in German, even the pigeons?”
Answer. By this line, Franz wants to express the fear of being under German possession. He wishes to say
that will the oppression from the Germans be so engraved in their roots that the birds (pigeons) will also
start speaking German. Birds are free animals who have their own language and persona. Will Germany be
so influential on Alsace and Lorraine, and will they steal away the essence of France so much that the
pigeons will also start speaking their language?
, LOST SPRING (by Anees Jung)
Summary (Important Points)
• The author meets a young boy, Saheb-e-Alam who lives in Seemapuri. Seemapuri is the locality of
refugees from Dhaka, who have shifted here in search of daily bread and butter. The community of
Seemapuri people is into the profession of ragpicking.
• Saheb says that rag-picking is their source of daily income. They sometimes come across a 10 rupee
note in the garbage, and thus consider their garbage bag as ‘gold’.
• Along with his friends, Saheb roams around the streets of Seemapuri and neighboring cities in search
of gold in their garbage bags. But, all of them walk barefoot. On asking why were they not wearing
slippers, the group of boys gave various reasons such as they didn’t have one, or their mother did not
keep them off the shelf. The author here tries to reflect on the condition of the kids that they don’t
even have a pair of shoes to wear. One of the boys from the group says that he has never owned a
pair of shoes in his entire lifetime, while the one who was wearing two different shoes replies that
someone gave them to him.
• The author describes Seemapuri in the chapter. She says, “In structures of mud, with roofs of tin and
tarpaulin, devoid of sewage, drainage or running water, live 10,000 ragpickers”.
• For the elders of Seemapuri, ragpicking is a way of survival. On the other hand, for children, it is
wrapped in wonder, since they might end up finding some extra bucks.
• Saheb likes to play tennis but given the difference of class in two sections of our society, he can’t do
so. During the night, when no one is around, Saheb sneaks in to play the game and the watchman
allows him to do so for some time. By this stanza, you can understand that since the watchman
belongs to the same community and can understand his feelings, he lets him play on the tennis court
for some time.
• Then, Saheb starts working at a tea shop. He said that he gets 800 rupees in a month and all his
meals. He has to carry the canister of milk which he feels is heavier than his plastic bag, since he was
his own master when he used to do rag picking but now he works for someone else.
• Another story in the chapter is from Firozabad, a city that indulges in the art of bangle-making.
• Mukesh, a young boy from the city wants to be a motor mechanic. This makes him different and
brave from the rest of the people since he has dreamt of doing something completely out of the box,
than his family and town.
• In Firozabad, children work in glass furnaces to produce bangles of different shapes and sizes,
unaware of the fact that it is illegal for children to work at such a young age, especially in these
dangerous locations.
• The author then describes the area and house where Mukesh resides. “We walk down stinking lanes
choked with garbage, past homes that remain hovels with crumbling walls, wobbly doors, no
windows, crowded with families of humans and animals coexisting in a primeval state”. The house is
described in such a manner, “bangs a wobbly iron door with his foot, and pushes it open. We enter a
half-built shack. In one part of it, thatched with dead grass, is a firewood stove over which sits a
large vessel of sizzling spinach leaves. On the ground, in large aluminum platters, are more chopped
vegetables”.
• The story then talks about Indian customs prevalent in every house in India, despite the race, class,
and community of people. The lines from the text that describe it are, “Not much older in years, she
has begun to command respect as the bahu, the daughter-in-law of the house, already in charge of
three men — her husband, Mukesh, and their father. When the older man enters, she gently
withdraws behind the broken wall and brings her veil closer to her face. As custom demands,
daughters-in-law must veil their faces before male elders”.
• Then the author talks about two different worlds where one family is caught under the web of poetry
while the other one consists of the vicious circle of middlemen, sahukar, policemen, and politicians.
• On being asked if he wants to fly an airplane someday, he answers ‘No’ with a sight of
embarrassment on his face. This shows that he is very practical about his dream since he understands
the difference between driving a car and flying an airplane. He understands that he needs a good
education to be able to fly an airplane.
, Important Lines from the Text with Their Meanings
1. Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away from it, metaphorically.
Answer. This line wishes to express the difference between the lifestyle of two places that are
geographically very close to each other but holds major difference in terms of the lifestyle people have there.
Here, Seemapuri is very close to Delhi geographically but if we talk about the actual development of
Seemapuri and the kind of lifestyle it has, years and years will pass for it to be able to be like Delhi.
Seemapuri is miles away from Delhi in comparison to the development, economic condition, and lifestyle of
people in the latter.
2. The young men echo the lament of their elders
Answer. The line simply states that the young men of a household are the exact replica of their parents and
wish to do the same as their elders. They speak the voice of their elder men and even indulge in the same
profession. Thus, it is said that the young men in Firozabad echo (speak) about the grief of their elderly men,
The grief of being a bangle maker, the grief of not being able to do something great out of their lives, the
grief of not being able to send their kids to school. Thus, the youngsters of Firozabad shout the same grief as
their parents as that is the only work they have learned their entire lives.
DEEP WATER (by William Douglas)
Summary (Important Points)
• When Douglas was 10 or 11 years old, he decided to learn how to swim. The Yakima river at his
place was quite treacherous and thus he opted for the YMCA Swimming pool to grab the
opportunity.
• He explains that his aversion towards water began when he was three years old and had gone to
California beach with his parents, for surfing. While doing the activity, he was knocked down by the
waves and buried in water which instilled the fear of water in his mind.
• As he began learning to swim at the YMCA pool, it brought back the memories of childhood thus
leaving him under-confident. But eventually, that changed and he was starting to get at ease with
water.
• One day he went to the pool and found out that no one was there. As he was observing the white tiles
of the swimming pool, a bruiser boy in his teens, came and ducked him inside the water. Douglas
landed in the sitting position.
• The boy threw him at the end of the swimming pool which was 9 feet deep. As he went down, he
prepared himself to jump up to the surface as soon as he touched the ground. Unfortunately, that
could not happen.
• In the next few paragraphs, he describes the next three attempts of jumping up to the surface in
detail.
• The first attempt was described in this manner. “Those nine feet were more like ninety, and before I
touched bottom my lungs were ready to burst. But when my feet hit bottom I summoned all my
strength and made what I thought was a great spring upwards. I imagined I would bob to the surface
like a cork. Instead, I came up slowly. I opened my eyes and saw nothing but water — water that had
a dirty yellow tinge to it. I grew panicky. I reached up as if to grab a rope and my hands clutched
only at water. I was suffocating. I tried to yell but no sound came out. Then my eyes and nose came
out of the water — but not my mouth”.
• The second attempt took place in this manner. “But the jump made no difference. The water was still
around me. I looked for ropes, ladders, and water wings. Nothing but water. A mass of yellow water
held me. Stark terror took an even deeper hold on me, like a great charge of electricity. I shook and
trembled with fright. My arms wouldn’t move. My legs wouldn’t I tried to call for help, to call for
mother. Nothing happened”.
• He remembers his mother at this moment since her mother is the symbol of comfort and peace. At
that moment, he wanted peace, he was looking for something that could get him some comfort, that
could help him and bring him back to the water. This line explains the human tendency to remember
someone so special at a moment of need, like a mother. Someone you have full faith and trust in,
someone you can rely on, someone who gives you peace, someone who brings you comfort. And
mother is the amalgamation of all of the above.
Summary (Important Points)
• In 1870, during the France-Prussian War, Prussia (Germany, Poland, and parts of Austria) conquered
two French districts, Alsace and Lorraine. After the conquer, Berlin ordered the French districts to
stop teaching French in all the schools across the districts and hire new teachers who could teach
German, instead of French.
• Franz, as usual, is late for the class and on the way notices Prussian soldiers drilling, people hanging
on the bulletin board to check the updates of the war, and a solemn classroom. He notices that the
area around the school is very silent.
• M Hamel, the teacher in a school of the Prussia conquered states informs his students that this was
his last French lesson because of the orders from higher authorities. M Hamel does not scold Franz
that day for being late to the class and for not learning his lessons. Instead, he starts recalling
memories when he used to scold students for doing the same and how all of them behaved in a
manner that they had sufficient time to learn French. He further talks about French being a beautiful
language. M Hamel wears his special suit, the one he carries on Sunday morning and on special
occasions only.
• After entering the class, Franz notices that the last benches that were usually empty were that day
filled by the villagers. On hearing about the orders from Berlin, he realized that all of them were
there to applaud M Hamel for his dedicated forty years of faithful service, and to feel sorry for not
taking French classes and not going to school.
• That day all of them did their class work and listened to M Hamel with full attention, dedication, and
devotion since they were aware of the fact that they were never going to learn French again and M
Hamel was never going to teach them again.
• As the clock struck twelve and noises of Prussian soldiers were audible to them, M Hamel with a
very heavy hard wanted to bid goodbye to his classroom, his students, his French lessons. But the
tears in his eyes and heaviness in his heart choke him and force him to not say a word.
• He takes the chalk in his hand and writes on the blackboard ‘Vive La France’, which means Long
Live France’. With utter anger and grief, he asked the students to go and said that the class was
dismissed.
Important Lines from the Text with Their Meanings
1. “Don’t go so fast, bub; you’ll get to your school in plenty of time!”
Answer. The watchman says this to Franz as he sees him running for the class. The watchman through these
words wishes to inform Franz with sadness that now there’s a lot of time for him to reach the school to learn
French lessons and that he does not have to hurry for the lessons, since they would now not be taught in the
school.
2. When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they have the key to
their prison.
Answer. By this sentence, M Hamel wishes to tell the students that they must hold onto their language and
guard it/protect it so that it can never be forgotten. The line says that when a country is enslaved by some
other countrymen, they leave the impact of their language and culture all over the place since language is a
matter of pride.
3. “Will they make them sing in German, even the pigeons?”
Answer. By this line, Franz wants to express the fear of being under German possession. He wishes to say
that will the oppression from the Germans be so engraved in their roots that the birds (pigeons) will also
start speaking German. Birds are free animals who have their own language and persona. Will Germany be
so influential on Alsace and Lorraine, and will they steal away the essence of France so much that the
pigeons will also start speaking their language?
, LOST SPRING (by Anees Jung)
Summary (Important Points)
• The author meets a young boy, Saheb-e-Alam who lives in Seemapuri. Seemapuri is the locality of
refugees from Dhaka, who have shifted here in search of daily bread and butter. The community of
Seemapuri people is into the profession of ragpicking.
• Saheb says that rag-picking is their source of daily income. They sometimes come across a 10 rupee
note in the garbage, and thus consider their garbage bag as ‘gold’.
• Along with his friends, Saheb roams around the streets of Seemapuri and neighboring cities in search
of gold in their garbage bags. But, all of them walk barefoot. On asking why were they not wearing
slippers, the group of boys gave various reasons such as they didn’t have one, or their mother did not
keep them off the shelf. The author here tries to reflect on the condition of the kids that they don’t
even have a pair of shoes to wear. One of the boys from the group says that he has never owned a
pair of shoes in his entire lifetime, while the one who was wearing two different shoes replies that
someone gave them to him.
• The author describes Seemapuri in the chapter. She says, “In structures of mud, with roofs of tin and
tarpaulin, devoid of sewage, drainage or running water, live 10,000 ragpickers”.
• For the elders of Seemapuri, ragpicking is a way of survival. On the other hand, for children, it is
wrapped in wonder, since they might end up finding some extra bucks.
• Saheb likes to play tennis but given the difference of class in two sections of our society, he can’t do
so. During the night, when no one is around, Saheb sneaks in to play the game and the watchman
allows him to do so for some time. By this stanza, you can understand that since the watchman
belongs to the same community and can understand his feelings, he lets him play on the tennis court
for some time.
• Then, Saheb starts working at a tea shop. He said that he gets 800 rupees in a month and all his
meals. He has to carry the canister of milk which he feels is heavier than his plastic bag, since he was
his own master when he used to do rag picking but now he works for someone else.
• Another story in the chapter is from Firozabad, a city that indulges in the art of bangle-making.
• Mukesh, a young boy from the city wants to be a motor mechanic. This makes him different and
brave from the rest of the people since he has dreamt of doing something completely out of the box,
than his family and town.
• In Firozabad, children work in glass furnaces to produce bangles of different shapes and sizes,
unaware of the fact that it is illegal for children to work at such a young age, especially in these
dangerous locations.
• The author then describes the area and house where Mukesh resides. “We walk down stinking lanes
choked with garbage, past homes that remain hovels with crumbling walls, wobbly doors, no
windows, crowded with families of humans and animals coexisting in a primeval state”. The house is
described in such a manner, “bangs a wobbly iron door with his foot, and pushes it open. We enter a
half-built shack. In one part of it, thatched with dead grass, is a firewood stove over which sits a
large vessel of sizzling spinach leaves. On the ground, in large aluminum platters, are more chopped
vegetables”.
• The story then talks about Indian customs prevalent in every house in India, despite the race, class,
and community of people. The lines from the text that describe it are, “Not much older in years, she
has begun to command respect as the bahu, the daughter-in-law of the house, already in charge of
three men — her husband, Mukesh, and their father. When the older man enters, she gently
withdraws behind the broken wall and brings her veil closer to her face. As custom demands,
daughters-in-law must veil their faces before male elders”.
• Then the author talks about two different worlds where one family is caught under the web of poetry
while the other one consists of the vicious circle of middlemen, sahukar, policemen, and politicians.
• On being asked if he wants to fly an airplane someday, he answers ‘No’ with a sight of
embarrassment on his face. This shows that he is very practical about his dream since he understands
the difference between driving a car and flying an airplane. He understands that he needs a good
education to be able to fly an airplane.
, Important Lines from the Text with Their Meanings
1. Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet miles away from it, metaphorically.
Answer. This line wishes to express the difference between the lifestyle of two places that are
geographically very close to each other but holds major difference in terms of the lifestyle people have there.
Here, Seemapuri is very close to Delhi geographically but if we talk about the actual development of
Seemapuri and the kind of lifestyle it has, years and years will pass for it to be able to be like Delhi.
Seemapuri is miles away from Delhi in comparison to the development, economic condition, and lifestyle of
people in the latter.
2. The young men echo the lament of their elders
Answer. The line simply states that the young men of a household are the exact replica of their parents and
wish to do the same as their elders. They speak the voice of their elder men and even indulge in the same
profession. Thus, it is said that the young men in Firozabad echo (speak) about the grief of their elderly men,
The grief of being a bangle maker, the grief of not being able to do something great out of their lives, the
grief of not being able to send their kids to school. Thus, the youngsters of Firozabad shout the same grief as
their parents as that is the only work they have learned their entire lives.
DEEP WATER (by William Douglas)
Summary (Important Points)
• When Douglas was 10 or 11 years old, he decided to learn how to swim. The Yakima river at his
place was quite treacherous and thus he opted for the YMCA Swimming pool to grab the
opportunity.
• He explains that his aversion towards water began when he was three years old and had gone to
California beach with his parents, for surfing. While doing the activity, he was knocked down by the
waves and buried in water which instilled the fear of water in his mind.
• As he began learning to swim at the YMCA pool, it brought back the memories of childhood thus
leaving him under-confident. But eventually, that changed and he was starting to get at ease with
water.
• One day he went to the pool and found out that no one was there. As he was observing the white tiles
of the swimming pool, a bruiser boy in his teens, came and ducked him inside the water. Douglas
landed in the sitting position.
• The boy threw him at the end of the swimming pool which was 9 feet deep. As he went down, he
prepared himself to jump up to the surface as soon as he touched the ground. Unfortunately, that
could not happen.
• In the next few paragraphs, he describes the next three attempts of jumping up to the surface in
detail.
• The first attempt was described in this manner. “Those nine feet were more like ninety, and before I
touched bottom my lungs were ready to burst. But when my feet hit bottom I summoned all my
strength and made what I thought was a great spring upwards. I imagined I would bob to the surface
like a cork. Instead, I came up slowly. I opened my eyes and saw nothing but water — water that had
a dirty yellow tinge to it. I grew panicky. I reached up as if to grab a rope and my hands clutched
only at water. I was suffocating. I tried to yell but no sound came out. Then my eyes and nose came
out of the water — but not my mouth”.
• The second attempt took place in this manner. “But the jump made no difference. The water was still
around me. I looked for ropes, ladders, and water wings. Nothing but water. A mass of yellow water
held me. Stark terror took an even deeper hold on me, like a great charge of electricity. I shook and
trembled with fright. My arms wouldn’t move. My legs wouldn’t I tried to call for help, to call for
mother. Nothing happened”.
• He remembers his mother at this moment since her mother is the symbol of comfort and peace. At
that moment, he wanted peace, he was looking for something that could get him some comfort, that
could help him and bring him back to the water. This line explains the human tendency to remember
someone so special at a moment of need, like a mother. Someone you have full faith and trust in,
someone you can rely on, someone who gives you peace, someone who brings you comfort. And
mother is the amalgamation of all of the above.
