Important Question and Answers
Q. What was the name of the wrestler?
Ans. The name of the wrestler was Vijay Singh.
Q. What did he ask the people in market place?
Ans. He asked why people were afraid of ghost. He wished to have a fight with one.
Q. Where was haunted desert situated?
Ans. It was ten miles to the west on the road to Jaisalmer.
Q. What was the land-mark of the haunted desert?
Ans. The land-mark was an ugly black rock that looked like head of a camel.
Q. What did the ghost say?
Ans. The ghost said that he was his friend Natwar.
Q. What did Vijay Singh reply?
Ans. Vijay Singh replied that appearance might be deceptive and if he wished he could demonstrate his strength.
Q. What did Vijay Singh do with an egg?
Ans. Vijay Singh pressed an egg and broke it. The crackling sound gave the impression of rock being broken and yellow of an egg oozed from around his fingers.
Q. What did Vijay Singh do with lump of stone?
Ans. He let the stone fell down and crumbled the lump of salt and ordered the ghost to taste the powder.
Q. What did Vijay Singh say before accepting the ghost’s offer?
Ans. Vijay Singh said that he could accept his offer only on the condition that the next day he had to accompany him to his village as a token of victory.
Q. What did Vijay Singh do in the night?
Ans. Vijay Singh laid awake the whole night listening to the snores of the ghost.
Q. What did he do to befool the ghost?
Ans. He slipped off his bed and placed bolsters instead in the centre of the bed and covered with coverlet to make it look exactly like a sleeping man.
Q. What did Vijay Singh do with the property?
Ans. Vijay Singh carried all the property on the camel’s back. He returned much of it to the rightful owner.
Q. Where was the haunted desert?
Ans. The Haunted Desert was ten miles to the west on the road to Jaisalmer. The landmark was an ugly black rock in the shape of a camel’s head. Beyond that began the Haunted Desert.
Q. Why was the ghost ‘taken aback’ and ‘speechless’?
Ans. Vijay Singh declared the ghost as a plain, liar, ‘worthless’ ghost. The ghost was not used to insults and so he was ‘taken aback’. The ghost was ‘speechless’ because Vijay Singh said that he wanted to fight a ghost as he was tired of wrestling with men.
Q. Why was the ghost beginning to doubt his ghostly powers?
Ans. Vijay Singh took another piece of rock and gave it to the ghost saying that it contained salt. He challenged him to crush it. The ghost tried hard but failed again. The ghost now doubted his ghostly powers.
Q. Why did Vijay Singh want to take the ghost as a prisoner to his village?
Ans. Vijay Singh wanted to take the ghost as a prisoner to his village because he wanted to show the people that he has returned victorious after capturing the ghost.
Q. How did Vijay Singh dupe the ghost in his cave and save his life?
Ans. When the ghost was fast asleep, Vijay Singh placed a bolster in the bed and covered it and he himself quietly sat in a corner. Just before dawn the ghost got up and struck the bolster hard with a mace thinking it to be Vijay Singh. Thus, Vijay Singh saved himself with his wit and wisdom.
Q. Write a character sketch of Vijay Singh. Do you think he defeated the ghost with his intelligence?
Ans. Vijay Singh was a strong wrestler with massive shoulders and muscular arms. He could beat all other wrestlers in the world. But he was fond of boasting of himself, which often landed him in trouble. He used to boast his strength from time to time. He was intelligent enough and defeated the ghost with his cleverness. He used the gift given by an old lady to befool the ghost. The ghost could not crush pieces of rocks but Vijay Singh, taking advantage of the darkness crushed an egg and the lump of salt. But the ghost was confused and thought he had crushed rocks. Vijay Singh was not a greedy person at all, so he returned much of the acquired wealth to the rightful owners. He married the old woman’s grand-daughter to reward the old lady and thanked her for the invaluable gift. Vijay Singh was not only strong and tall man, but wise as well.
Q. Vijay Singh learnt a lot from the incident of meeting a ghost. How?
Ans. Vijay Singh was a strong and righteous man. He became more careful about boasting himself after he landed in a big trouble to encounter a ghost in the Haunted Desert. Undoubtedly, he managed to defeat the ghost through various tricks but he understood that he should speak carefully and avoid boasting. He also learnt not to trust anyone blindly after he saw that the ghost had plans to kill him. He believed the ghost and came to his cave but the ghost tried to cheat him. It was his cleverness that he not only- survived but defeated the ghost. He also came to know the reason behind the old woman’s weird gift. She actually helped Vijay Singh to defeat the ghost as she wished. He thanked her after returning to her home, for her kindness.