The Boy with a Catapult Questions & Answers - By Bhisham Sahni

-Watch this Video for detailed Explanation-
The Boy with a Catapult is taken from a rare collection of short stories, The Best Thirteen, published in 1983. The Thirteen stories are from Thirteen different languages of India. Some of the stories in the collection are The Special Prize (Assamese), The Hungry Septopus (Bengali), Adal-Badal : The Exchange (Gujarati) and The Boy with a Catapult (Hindi).

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- CHARACTERS -
# Bodh Raj :
  • He is a lonely boy who has no friends.
  • He always has a catapult in his hand and has an excellent shot.
  • He is vindictive and takes pleasure in hurting others.
  • He is highly insensitive and indifferent.
  • He is violent and cruel in manner.
  • He has a sound knowledge of birds.
  • He became a savior from an attacker.
# Narrator :
  • Bodh Raj's school mate.
  • He was sensitive in comparison to Bodh Raj.
# Narrator's Mother
  • She is against the friendship between Bodh Raj and her son.

- SHORT SUMMARY -
Bodh Raj, a vindictive and callous boy, is the oddest in his class. He was cruel to birds, animals and humans too. When the narrator's father got a promotion in his job and moved to a bungalow on the outskirts of a city, Bodh Raj found it a very good hunting place. The narrator’s mother suggested to the narrator that since Bodh Raj was good at destroying nests, he could clean their store room which the birds have made filthy. Although the narrator thought Bodh Raj would take the birds’ nest and break their eggs and in fact even kill them ,but  a change came over him. So at last he ended up rescuing them and providing them with water and seeds.


- EXPLANATION -
The narrator begins with the story from his school which had an odd collection of boys and he considered Bodh Raj the oddest boy in the school and everyone was afraid of him. According to narrator, he was an insensitive boy who would scare everyone with his weird actions. he could catch a wasp with his bare fingers, sometimes he would hold and crush a butterfly sitting on a flower and then pin it to his notebook. 

His blood was believed to be so full of venom that, even a snakebite would not harm him. He was known in the school not just because of his strange activities but also for his catapult in his hand. He loved hunting and his favourite targets were birds. His mother used to call him a Rakshasa.

When the narrator's father got promoted, his family shifted to a new house which was an old style bungalow located in the outskirts of the city. Due to its location, narrator's friends occasionally used to visit him. Only Bodh Raj liked his house as he found it a good hunting place for himself.

In the new house narrator needed company, but his mother didn't like his friendship with Bodh Raj. One day, narrator's mother suggested him to call Bodh Raj, who was good at destroying nests, to clean the storeroom which was full of bird's nest, dropping, eggs, etc.

The next day both the boys went to the room which was filthy. Bodh Raj brought his catapult to destroy the nests, he studied the position of mynah's nest. He told the narrator that the two tiny yellow beaks peeping out of the nest are Ganga Mynah. He raised his weapon and aimed at the iron roof, as a result cooing of the birds disappeared and stopped.


Bodh Raj missed his targets twice, but in the third attempt the pebble finally hit the side still it was not removed from his position. Later, when Bodh Raj lifted his catapult again, the large kite with its wings spread-out moved swiftly and started gazing down at them in a frightening way. Looking at the kite the mynah chicks began fluttering their wings.

Seeing this, Bodh Raj could easily make out that the kite had came here to attack the mynah chicks. They both realized that kite must have harmed the nest often, as  a result Bodh Raj raised his catapult and aimed at the Kite.

Bodh Raj raised his catapult and aimed at kite again but, regrettably he missed it again and kite spread its wings and eyed down at them. Seeing this narrator asked Bodh Raj to leave the store room as he was terrified. However, Bodh Raj did not want to leave the Mynah's chicks as he was quite sure that kite will eat up the little ones.


Then Bodh Raj gave the catapult and few pebbles to the narrator to hit the kite constantly. Meanwhile, Bodh Raj dragged a table right under the nest of the mynah chicks. He placed the chair on the table and climbed on it. After standing on the chair, Bodh Raj inaudibly lifted the nest, stepped down, both went to the garage where the kite could not enter and carefully placed the nest on a beam.

Afterwards, Bodh Raj looked at the chicks and instructed the narrator to get some water for them. He further asked him not to touch the chicks and they both decided to stay in the garage for prolonged time.

Finally, the next day Bodh Raj neither carried his weapon, nor pebbles to harm the nests or eggs, rather he carried a bag of seeds to feed the chicks.


- WORD MEANINGS -
  • Assortment - Mixed collection
  • Callouse - Insensitive
  • Catapult -  Device used to throw stones or pebbles.
  • Vindictive - With the desire to hurt.
  • Viciously - In a violent and cruel manner.
  • Outskirts - A region out side the city
  • Lair - The resting place of an animal.
  • Strutted - Walked in a very proud manner.
  • Dislodged - Removed
  • Menacingly - In a threatening way.
  • Rafter - A beam of a roof.
  • Bundle of Nerves - Very nervous.
  • Antics - Funny

- QUESTION /ANSWERS -
Q. What did Bodh Raj loved to do?
Q. Why was it believed that if a scorpion stung Bodh Raj, the scorpion would fall dead?
Q. What were the strange things that filled up Bodh Raj’s pocket?
Q. Why did Bodh Raj come to the narrator’s bungalow often?
Q. Why did the author take Bodh Raj to the godown?
Q. Where did the narrator’s father move with his family?
Q. What was the narrator worried about?
Q. How can you say that the kite had ravaged the nest often?
Q. What difference can you see in Bodh Raj's behaviour?


Q. What did Bodh Raj feed the chicks?
Q. What kind of a boy was Bodh Raj?
Q. Why did the narrator’s new home appeal to Bodh Raj?
Q. Why did the narrator’s mother tolerate his friendship with Bodh Raj?
Q. Why was the narrator afraid of taking Bodh Raj to the storeroom in his new house? Did his fears come true?
Q. What change did the narrator notice in Bodh raj while the latter was hunting the mynah chicks?
Q. How did Bodh Raj save mynah chicks?


Q. Answer these questions with reference to the Context

A. 
"Must have gone in search of food. They should be back soon."
Q. Who said these words and to whom?
Q. What aspect of the speaker’s character is reflected by these lines?
Q. Do you think the speaker knew a good deal about birds? 

B. 
"Don’t hit the kite. It will attack you."
Q. Who said these words and to whom?
Q. What do these lines tell you about the speaker?
Q. Did the Kite attack the speaker and his partner?

C. 
"Bring some water, the chicks are thirsty."
Q. Who said these words and to whom?
Q. Was the speaker really concerned about the chicks? 
Q. Was the speaker kind to the birds earlier? What made him have a change of heart?
- ANSWERS -


- Self Evaluation Test -

This is a quiz based test which is consist of 20 Multiple Choice Questions to test your Understanding about this Chapter...


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