How does Toto take a bath? Where has he learnt to do this? How does Toto almost boil himself alive?
Toto takes bath in a tub of warm water by putting legs in the water one by one and applies soap as well. As monkeys are good at replicating others, Toto has learnt the proper steps of bathing by watching the narrator. Toto is fond of bathing with the warm water by checking the temperature. Being an animal he is not much intelligent or enough to understand the risk of boiling water so he keeps popping his head up and down in the kettle. Toto kept on doing this until the grandmother sees him and pulled him out in the proper time.
Why does the author say, “Toto was not the sort of pet we could keep for long”?
How does Toto come to grandfather’s private zoo?
“Toto was a pretty monkey.” In what sense is Toto pretty?
Why does grandfather take Toto to Saharanpur and how? Why does the ticket collector insist on calling Toto a dog?
What are the things the child sees on his way to the fair? Why does he lag behind?
In what way is Iswaran an asset to Mahendra?
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?
Why does the disciple decide to stay in the Kingdom of Fools? Is it a good idea?
Can you think of some other ending for the story?
Is Lushkoff a willing worker? Why, then, does he agree to chop wood for Sergei?
What are the Guru’s words of wisdom? When does the disciple remember them?
When does he realise that he has lost his way? How have his anxiety and insecurity been described?
What does the swallow see when it flies over the city?
Why does the lost child lose interest in the things that he had wanted earlier?
How does he narrate the story of the tusker? Does it appear to be plausible?
What are the precious things mentioned in the story? Why are they precious?
Why do you think Bill Bryson’s wife says to the children, “Take the lids off the food for Daddy”?