Important Question and Answers
Q. What terrible thing happened in the village?
Ans. Some temple or mosque was burnt and people started fighting with each other.
Q. How did the narrator manage to run away?
Ans. He picked up some clothes, coins and a little statue of Ganesh and ran away.
Q. What did he see when he came to himself?
Ans. He found an old man with white beard and white hair looking after him.
Q. Why did he want to tell the story?
Ans. He wanted to tell the story so that it could heal the wound of the villagers.
Q. What are reptiles?
Ans. Reptiles are crawling animals.
Q. Who chaired the meeting?
Ans. The biggest and powerful crocodile called Makar chaired the meeting.
Q. How did the reptiles feel when Makar asked why they didn’t like the tortoises?
Ans. The reptiles looked this way and that way. They felt very uncomfortable.
Q. Why did Makara held his nose with big claws?
Ans. Because there was foul smell all around. Therefore big Makara clasped his nose with big claws.
Q. Why, according to Makara he did not like tortoises?
Ans. According to Makara, tortoises were very slow and carried their houses on their back.
Q. Why did Makara want tortoises to leave forest?
Ans. If tortoises leave the forest, others will have more food, more water and more space.
Q. Why did he ask the snakes to leave the forest in one day?
Ans. The snakes were fast moving. Therefore, they were asked to leave the forest in one day.
Q. Why was the time terrible for crocodiles?
Ans. Because rats, frogs and insects were increasing in the forest and there was no animal to control them.
Q. What happened in two months?
Ans. In two months, the forest was back to normal. The rats disappeared, and the insects, and the smell, and the world finally went back to its familiar old self.
Q. What did Prem answer when grandfather asked him about the story?
Ans. Prem shook his head and told him that he was just thinking whether he could tell the story to his villagers.
Q. What did Grandfather advise Prem?
Ans. Grandfather advised him to keep it and to tell these stories to more and more people.
Q. What sort of animals inhabited Pambupatti long-long ago?
Ans. Only reptiles like snakes, crocodiles, turtles, lizards and insets, rats and frogs inhabited at Pambupatti. There were no tigers, panthers, or elephants at that time.
Q. Why had the fighting started in Prem’s village?
Ans. Very far away from Prem’s village, a temple or a mosque had been burnt down. The people had neither seen that place or ever been there, but still they went mad and a communal fight started.
Q. Who looked after Prem when he fainted and how?
Ans. An old man, with white hair, white beard and shining black eyes looked after Prem when he regained consciousness. He fed him with his own hands, brought cool sweet water from the stream and also rubbed his feet to relieve him of the pain.
Q. How did all the creatures return to Pambupatti?
Ans. The crocodiles realized that their happiness lay in their fellow creatures, happiness and homecoming, until they come back, they will not be able to make merry. So they sent an urgent message all over the place for the tortoises, snakes and lizards to come back to the Pambupatti forest. Thus, it became possible for the creatures to come back to Pambupatti.
Q. Name all the reptiles that were ordered to leave the forest one by one.
Ans. First of all the tortoises left the forest followed by the snakes and lizards, of the forest.
Q. Who were the first reptiles ordered by Makara to leave the forest. Why did he not like them?
Ans. The tortoises were the first ones to be ordered to leave the forest. Makara said that he did not like them because they were slow and stupid because they carried their houses on their backs.
Q. Rats had a wonderful time How?
Ans. Yes, the rats had a wonderful time because they grew in number as there were no snakes in the forest to eat them up. Now they were free to eat up the eggs of the lizards and crocodiles. The rats also destroyed Makara’s nest, containing his eggs. Thus, they had a wonderful time.
Q. What does the old man advice Prem to do if the people of his village don’t listen to him? What moral do we get from this story?
Ans. The old man advises Prem that if the people of his village do not listen to him, he must not give up but tell the story of the reptiles again and again to as many people as he can. Some of the people might make fun of him, while some may not believe them at all, but still he should try to make them understand. This story teaches us that however small or useless a thing or person may appear but everything has a place and importance in this world. God has created everything with a purpose.
Q. Do you think Makara harassed other reptiles in the forest? How?
Ans. Yes, it is true that all the animals in the forest were scared of Makara because it was powerful and strong enough to harass other creatures. The animals followed what Makara ordered to them and nobody had the guts to oppose him. That’s why nobody objected when Makara sent a letter to tortoises not to come in the meeting and leave the forest. Afterwards the Makara wrote a letter to the snakes to leave the forest in a day. All the animals were aware that it was injustice, but nobody could oppose him for he was strong enough and the snakes left the forest in one day. Makara being strong never realised his mistake and shouted when somebody tried to intervene. Makara even told the lizards to leave the forest on short notice. Thus, Makara used to harass all other reptiles in the forest.
Q. What is the message conveyed in the story ‘What happened to the reptiles’?
Ans. The message is a lesson for humanity. Prem ran away from his village after a communal violence broke out in his village. There was blood shed and people fought with one another and burnt temples and mosques. Prem reached Pambupatti. An old man took care of him. Prem realized that people in Pambupatti were generous and friendly. Neighbors as well as strangers came to see him. The old man told him a story to make him realize the importance of love and happiness. Prem realized that one can be happy if others are happy. Happiness cant be celebrated all alone. It does not lie in violence and hatred. This is the message that each and every one should learn.