ADVENTURES IN A BANYAN TREE
‘Nature is not a place to visit. It’s home.’ Discuss.
Nature is really a resemblance of heaven. It is for all living beings. Man should live in harmony with nature. But we go to tourist places of natural beauty and destroy the places by littering. We should keep these places neat and tidy as if they are our homes. Being one with nature is always mesmerizing. Have you ever got a chance to spend your leisure time with nature?
Let’s read how a boy experienced and blended with the essence of nature.
Characters
Grandfather - a sixty five year old man.
The boy - a lover of nature.
Grandmother - wise old lady.
Myna - a clever bird.
Squirrel - friendly.
Red Bottomed bulbul - cheerful and greedy.
Rosy Pastors - gossiping.
Cobra - skilful and experienced fighter.
Mongoose - clever and aggressive.
White Rat - was bought from the bazar.
Main Events
The boy’s friendship with the squirrel.
The fight between a mongoose and a cobra.
The interference of a myna and a crow in the battle.
Friendship between the gray squirrel and the white rat.
Birth of three white squirrels.
Settings
The house and grounds of Ruskin Bond’s home at
Dehradun in India.
The magnificent old banyan tree.
The small platform built on the banyan tree.
Activity 1
Friendly Letter
The boy in the story ‘Adventures in a Banyan Tree’ was very much thrilled of his acquaintance with the squirrel. He writes a letter to his friend telling him about his new
friend. Help him to complete his letter.
Ivy Cottage
Landour Cantt
Dehradun
28 April 1997
Dear Sravan,
How are you? Hope you are fine and enjoying your vacation there. I am doing the same here, at grandpa’s house. I have got a new friend here. It is a small squirrel. At first it was indifferent to me. When it found that I was not harmful, it slowly became friendly with me. It became familiar enough to take food from my hands. My dear, I am very excited now. I want to spend a lot of time with One afternoon the boy was sitting on the platform this little cute fellow.
Hope all of you are keeping fine there. With love and warm regards.
Your Lovingly
Sd/-
Ruskin Bond
Activity 2
Characteristics of animals as narrated by the boy
Watching the nature around us is really interesting. Each and every living being has its own characteristics. The boy in the story narrates certain features of a few animals.
List them out.
SQUIRREL
I have a new friend in the banyan tree. It is a grey squirrel. It was very cute when I first met it. It was very young. It was also very small and grey in colour. At first it was afraid of me. Later it found that I was not harmful.Then it became very friendly with me. It even trusts me to take food from my hands. I usually give it pieces of cake and biscuits. It developed an affair with the white rat which was brought by grandfather from the market. Three white
squirrels are born. The white rat must be the father.
SNAKE
One afternoon I was sitting in the banyan tree. I saw a snake and a mongoose fighting with each other. The snake was huge and black. It was a skilful and experienced fighter. It could move swiftly and strike with the speed of light. Its forked tongue darted in and out. It swayed slowly from side to side and tried to mesmerize the mongoose.
MONGOOSE
One afternoon I was sitting in the banyan tree. I saw a snake and a mongoose fighting with each other. The mongoose was grey in colour and three feet long. It was a superb fighter. It was clever and aggressive too. It refused to meet the glassy unwinking eyes of the snake.
It bushed his tail. It attacked the cobra on the back and fixed the point just below its hood. It made a feint to one side as the cobra dashed towards it.
How did the cobra and mongoose prepare themselves for battle?
The cobra raising half of his six feet body off the ground spread his spectacled hood. He swayed from one side to the other in order to mesmerize the mongoose. The mongoose on the other hand bushed his tail and raised the hair on his body, as he was well aware of the power of the glassy unwinking eyes of the cobra; he fixed his gaze below the hood of the cobra. He made a faint sudden move and moved swiftly towards the cobra. They collided in the middle air. It was a terrific fight between the two fighters.
The boy was thrilled at seeing the fight between the cobra and the mongoose.
You may also have the same feeling. Narrate the fight scene in your own
words.
The boy was sitting on the platform built half up the tree to spend his leisure time. When he looked down through the leaves, he saw a huge cobra gliding out of a clump of a cactus. At the same time a grey mongoose came out from the bushes. He knew that a terrific fight would take place between these two superb fighters. They came face to face beneath the tree. It was an incredible experience to see these ferocious animals. There were two spectators, myna and crow to witness the
fight. Both of them were eagerly watching and interfering in the fight. It was a clear indication of tight fight in store.
The cobra proved that he was clever and a strong fighter. The mongoose was faster and quicker in motion than the cobra. The mongoose opened the attack. The cobra hissed and darted his forked tongue in and out. It spread its spectacular hood to frighten the mongoose. The mongoose with its long thick hair and bushy tail faced the cobra. The cobra stood on the defensive way and swayed slowly from side to side and tried to mesmerize the mongoose to make a false move. The fight came to an end with the winning of mongoose. He proved its invincibility before the cobra. It was the end of the fight.
Activity 3
DIARY
The boy in the story ‘Adventures in a Banyan Tree’, was excited to see the thrilling fight between the snake and the mongoose. That night, he wrote his feelings in his diary. Prepare the likely diary entry.
11 June 2020 Friday 8 p.m.
Dear Diary,
An Exciting Day!
What an exciting day it was! This afternoon I was sitting on the platform half way up the banyan tree. I saw a small mongoose and a huge black cobra fighting to death. Both of them were skilful fighters. At first the cobra struck. But the mongoose avoided it and bit the snake on the back. In its turn the cobra darted away out of reach. The cobra struck again and missed the object. When the cobra was weakening, the mongoose vigorously took it by the
snout. The cobra writhed and lashed about in a frightening manner. It even coiled itself about the mongoose but all in vain. The mongoose hung grimly on, until the snake had ceased to struggle. It then smelt it and gripped around the hood and dragged it into the bushes. In between a myna and a crow tried to intervene in the fight. It led to the death of the crow. Seeing the death of the crow, the myna wisely refrained from interfering again
Activity 4
Profile
RUSKIN BOND
Ruskin Bond is an Indian author of British descent. He was born on 19 May 1934. His father was an officer at Royal Air Force. He wrote his first Novel ‘The Room on the Roof’, at the age of seventeen. It won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957. His first children’s book was “The Angry River”. In 1992, he received the Sahitya Academy Award for his short story collection, ‘Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra’. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 for his contributions to children’s literature. He got the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ in 2017. He now lives with his adopted family in Landour, near Mussoorie.
Activity 5
CONVERSATION
After watching the deadly fight between the mongoose and the cobra, the boy ran to his grandfather and started a conversation. Write the conversation between the boy and his grandfather.
Grandfather : Why do you look so excited?
Boy : Grandad, I have seen something very exciting.
Grandfather : What have you seen?
Boy : I have seen a mongoose and a cobra fighting with each other in the garden.
Grandfather : Where were you then?
Boy : I was in the banyan tree.
Grandfather : I think you were not frightened, were you?
Boy : No, I wasn’t frightened.
Grandfather : Who did win the battle?
Boy : The mongoose won the battle.
Grandfather : The mongoose is a useful animal. You had better don’t disturb it.
Boy : Yes. I won’t disturb it anymore.
