Class 10 English Footprints without Feet Chapter 8 Bholi Notes in English

1The Author and the Opening Note

The story ends with the name K.A. ABBAS. The book prints no note on his life. As general knowledge: Khwaja Ahmad Abbas was an Indian writer, journalist and film-maker who often wrote about ordinary people and social problems.

The short note at the top of the chapter raises three questions for the reader: Bholi was neglected at home from early childhood; why did her teacher take a special interest in her; and did Bholi finally live up to what the teacher hoped for her? The story answers all three.

2The Story, Step by Step

2.1 Sulekha Becomes “Bholi”

Her real name was Sulekha, but from childhood everyone called her Bholi, which the book explains as “the simpleton”. She was the fourth daughter of Numberdar Ramlal.

2.2 A Prosperous Family, One Worried Father

Ramlal had seven children: three sons and four daughters, and Bholi was the youngest. His was a prosperous farmer’s household with plenty of food. Every child except Bholi was healthy and strong.

2.3 Why Bholi Was Sent to School

Bholi was seven when Mangla got married. In the same year a primary school for girls opened in the village, and the Tehsildar sahib came to open it. He told Ramlal that, as a revenue official, he stood for the government in the village, so he had to set an example and send his daughters to school.

2.4 Getting Ready: Fear, Then a Small Hope

The next morning Ramlal took her by the hand to lead her to school. Bholi panicked. She had no idea what a school was, and she remembered how, only a few days before, the family’s old cow, Lakshmi, had been driven out of the house and sold. She feared the same fate. She screamed “N-n-n-n NO, no-no-no” and pulled her hand free. Ramlal called her a fool and told his wife to dress her decently, so that the teachers and girls would not think badly of the family.

Nobody had fussed over her like this before. Only then did she start to trust that the place she was going to would be kinder than her own home.

2.5 The First Day at School

Ramlal handed her to the headmistress and left. Alone, Bholi looked around with frightened eyes. In every room girls sat on mats, reading books or writing on slates. She was given a place in a corner of a classroom. She was happy to see so many girls of about her age, and hoped one of them might become her friend.

She could not follow what the lady teacher was saying, so she studied the pictures on the wall. The colours delighted her because each one matched something she knew:

Suddenly the teacher was beside her, smiling, asking her name. Bholi got no further than “Bh-Bho-Bho-” and burst into tears. She kept her head down, sure the girls were laughing. When the bell rang and the others hurried out, she stayed in her corner, still crying.

Bholi’s joy is shown through two pictures: it felt as if all the bells in the village temple were ringing, and the trees outside the school had burst into big red flowers. Her heart beat with “a new hope and a new life”.

2.6 Years Pass

Time moved on and the village changed with it:

• The village grew into a small town.
• The primary school grew into a high school.
• A cinema under a tin shed and a cotton ginning mill came up.
• The mail train began to stop at the station.

2.7 The Marriage Proposal

One night after dinner Ramlal asked his wife whether he should accept Bishamber’s proposal for Bholi. They weighed it up like this:

The mother brushed off the question of Bholi’s wishes: “What will that witless one say? She is like a dumb cow.” Across the courtyard, Bholi lay awake on her cot and heard every whisper.

2.8 The Wedding Day

Bishamber Nath, a well-to-do grocer, arrived with a large party. A brass-band playing a popular film tune led the procession, and he rode a decorated horse. Ramlal was overjoyed by the show; he had never dreamt his fourth daughter would have such a grand wedding. Bholi’s elder sisters, there for the occasion, envied her luck.

2.9 Bholi Speaks

When the veil was lifted again, Bholi’s eyes were no longer lowered. She looked straight at the man, with neither anger nor hate in her eyes, only “cold contempt”. As he raised the garland, her hand shot out like a streak of lightning and threw it into the fire. She stood up and cast off the veil.

Bishamber left with his party. The puzzled band, thinking the ceremony was over, played a closing song. Ramlal stood frozen, head bent with sorrow and shame, as the sacred fire burnt out.

2.10 Sulekha’s Answer

When everyone had gone, Ramlal asked what would become of her, since nobody would marry her now. Here the book calls her Sulekha again. Calm and steady, she told him not to worry: she would look after him and Mother in their old age and teach in the same school where she had learnt so much. She turned to her teacher: “Isn’t that right, Ma’am?”

The teacher had been standing in a corner, watching it all. “Yes, Bholi, of course,” she said. Her smiling eyes held the deep satisfaction an artist feels on finishing her masterpiece. Bholi is that masterpiece.

3Characters

4Themes and Message

4.1 The Big Ideas

4.2 Key Lines and What They Mean

5Answers to the Book’s Questions

5.1 Read and Find Out

• Why is Bholi’s father worried about her? Unlike her healthy, good-looking sisters, she is scarred by small-pox, slow and stammering, so he fears no one will marry her.
• For what unusual reasons is she sent to school? The Tehsildar wanted Ramlal’s daughters in school; her mother thought school spoils a girl’s marriage chances, and Bholi had none anyway, so she alone was sent.
• Does she enjoy her first day? She starts in fear and tears, but the pictures, the hope of a friend and the teacher’s kindness end the day in joy.
• Is the teacher different from people at home? Yes. Home gave her neglect and scorn; the teacher gives a soft voice, praise and a book of her own.
• Why do her parents accept Bishamber? He is rich, wants no dowry, lives elsewhere and does not know of her looks, and they fear she may never marry otherwise.
• Why does the marriage not take place? At the ceremony Bishamber demands five thousand rupees after seeing her pock-marks; Bholi refuses to marry such a greedy coward.

5.2 Think About It

• Q1. What made her feel school was better than home? Her family, who had never bothered about her looks, suddenly worried about how she would appear to strangers. Being cleaned up and dressed with care was so new that she guessed the school must be a happier place than home.
• Q2. The teacher’s role. She removed Bholi’s fear, praised each small effort, taught her to read and gave her a goal. That confidence later let Bholi refuse Bishamber and plan a teaching career.
• Q3. Why agree, why reject, what it shows. She said yes because refusing would have shamed Ramlal; she said no once Bishamber bargained over her face and took her father’s money. She is dutiful but self-respecting, brave and clear about right and wrong.
• Q4. Why “Sulekha” near the end? “Bholi” stood for the simpleton everyone saw. Speaking calmly, planning her own life, she has grown into her real name; the change of name marks the change in her.
• Q5. The poster on Beti Bachao Beti Padhao. A group activity: show that girls deserve equal care, schooling and respect, with a slogan and simple pictures.

5.3 Talk About It

• Q1. How can you help change such attitudes? Refuse to give or take dowry, treat sisters and brothers alike, never mock someone’s looks or speech, and support girls’ schooling.
• Q2. Girls’ rights. Yes, girls should know their rights and use them. Boys and girls deserve the same rights, duties and privileges. Society still differs in schooling, freedom and spending; human rights are the same for both.
• Q3. Which language? Not English. Names like Ramlal, Sulekha, Radha and Bishamber and words such as Numberdar, Tehsildar sahib, izzat and Pitaji show they were speaking Hindi or a local dialect of it.

6Words to Know

Suggested reading in the book: ‘The Brass Gong’ by Qazi Abdul Sattar, ‘Old Man at the Bridge’ by Earnest Hemingway and ‘Gandhiji the Teacher’ by Rajkumari Amrit Kaur.