Can you think of some other ending for the story?
The story could have ended on the more positive note. Instead of resigning from his job, Mahendra could have shown more audacity and proved the ghost theory wrong. Another ending can be of both by showing Mahendra and Iswaran continuing their bond and leaving the place together .
How does Iswaran describe the uprooted tree on the highway? What effect does he want to create in his listeners?
In what way is Iswaran an asset to Mahendra?
How does he narrate the story of the tusker? Does it appear to be plausible?
Mahendra calls ghosts or spirits a figment of the imagination. What happens to him on a full-moon night?
Why does the author say that Iswaran seemed to more than make up for the absence of a TV in Mahendra’s living quarters?
What are the things the child sees on his way to the fair? Why does he lag behind?
How does Toto come to grandfather’s private zoo?
What are the two strange things the guru and his disciple find in the Kingdom of Fools?
Why do the courtiers call the prince ‘the Happy Prince’? Is he really happy? What does he see all around him?
What havoc has the super cyclone wreaked in the life of the people of Orissa?
What is Johnsy’s illness? What can cure her, the medicine or the willingness to live?
What does the author notice one Sunday afternoon? What is his mother’s reaction? What does she do?
Bill Bryson says, “I am, in short, easily confused.” What examples has he given to justify this?
Has Lushkoff become a beggar by circumstance or by choice?
In the fair he wants many things. What are they? Why does he move on without waiting for an answer?
What do you think happens in the end? Does the child find his parents?
Why does the disciple decide to stay in the Kingdom of Fools? Is it a good idea?
How does Bill Bryson end up in a “crash position” in the aircraft?
Is Lushkoff a willing worker? Why, then, does he agree to chop wood for Sergei?
What are the two strange things the guru and his disciple find in the Kingdom of Fools?
Why did the swallow not leave the prince and go to Egypt?
What is the meaning of “My cat was back and so was I”? Had the author gone anywhere? Why does he say that he is also back?
What actions of the schoolmates change the author’s understanding of life and people, and comfort him emotionally? How does his loneliness vanish and how does he start participating in life?
How does the guru manage to save his disciple’s life?
What does the swallow see when it flies over the city?