Haroun and the Sea of Stories Salman Rushdie
Short Questions and Answers (Marks: 02) or (Marks: 05)
1. Who was Rashid Khalifa? Discuss the reasons for his reputation.
Answer: Rashid Khalifa was a professional storyteller. He had a wonderful quality of telling short interesting stories. He could tell them with great skill. He moved from place to place for telling his interesting stories. He was very popular among the poor children and people. Rashid's stories were brimming with a wide range of beautiful and charming characters. He knew the art of entertaining people and his tales were full of heroes, villains, princess and gangsters. Whenever he started to tell his tales everyone including cows and monkeys would stop to listen to him.
2. Who was Mr Sengupta? How did he deal with Soraya and Haroun?
Answer: Mr Sengupta was a clerk at the office of corporation. Mr Sewngupta and his wife Oneeta lived upstairs in the same building, whereas Rashid’s family lived on the first floor. Mr Sengupta wanted to get Soraya. So he was always talking lovingly to her. She showed great sympathy to her. He turned her cleverly against her husband Rashid. But he ignored Haroun and avoided him.
3. How did Mr Sengupta behave with Haroun?
Answer: Soraya and Mr Sengupta had no issues. She was obese. However, she was kind and generous. She loved Haroun very much. She gave him sweets, wrapped in his hair and hugged him. But Haroun did not like the touch of her loose flesh.
4. What were the three questions that Haroun asked to his father?
Answer: Haroun asked his father the following three questions-
(i) Where did all his stories come from?
(ii) Why did his parents not have more children?
(iii) What is the purpose of the stories that are not even true?
5. What did Rashid Khalifa tell Haroun about the source of his stories?
Answer: Many times, Haroun would ask his father about the source of his stories. Rashid’s tales were a mixture of tales and fictions, princess, wicked uncles, ruffians, heroes and hunting tunes but Rashid never gave a straight or satisfactory reply. He would only say that he got his tales from the great story-sea. The stories flowed from an invisible tap set up by the water-spirit.
6. How does the writer describe the city where Rashid Khalifa lived?
Answer: Rashid Khalifa was a citizen of Alifbay. He lived in a sad city of that country. The city was so sad that it did not remember even its names. It was situated by a sad sea which was full of Plentimaw fishes and these fishes were not eatables. In north there were many factories. Those factories additionally made bitterness as dim smoke.
7. What were the two nicknames of Rashid Khalifa? Who had given those names to him?
Answer: The two nicknames of Rashid Khalifa were ‘ocean of nations’ and ‘Shah of blah’. Those people who admired his interesting stories called him the ‘ocean of nations’ and those who were jealous of his stories called him ‘Shah of blah’.
8. What reply did Haroun received when he asked his parents why they did not have many children?
Answer: Haroun was the only child of his parents. Other parents in the sad city had many children. So he asked his parents why they had no many children. His father gave a very confusing answer to his question. He told him that he (Haroun) was a special child and they had used their full quota of child stuff just in making him (Haroun). So, Haroun was equal to four or five kiddies. But Haroun’s mother, Soraya gave a simpler reply. She admitted sadly that they did try to get more children but failed.
9. Why did Soraya runaway with Mr Sengupta?
Answer: Soraya runaway with Mr Sengupta because Rashid had no time for her. She starved for emotional support. But Rashid was not a practical man. He was so much busy in making up stories and telling them to crowd of people. In this way, he neglected his wife. He never tried to understand her sentiments. On the other hand, Sengupta was a practical man. She found him (Mr Sengupta) a suitable person to live with. So, she ran away with him (Mr Sengupta).
10. How did Soraya manage to give a slip to her husband and run away with Mr Sengupta?
Answer: Soraya was very clever. At 11:00 a.m. she sent Rashid into Haroun’s room asking him to look for some missing socks. While he was busy looking for the socks she quietly slipped into a car with Mr Sengupta and left for some unknown place.
11. How did Rashid react to his wife running off?
Answer: Rashid picked up a hammer and smashed the clock to bits. Then he broke away every other clock in the house. But after this, Rashid was looking so pathetic. He wept. Haroun also accused him of wasting his time and energy in telling untrue stories. This charge of Haroun hurt Rashid badly that he had totally given up telling stories.
12. What message did Soraya leave for Rashid Khalifa?
Answer: While running away with Mr Sengupta, Soraya left behind a note for her husband. She was complaining that Rashid always told imaginary stories but life is not a story book or joke shop. Besides this she said that Mr Sengupta was a practical man. So she liked him. At the end she wrote that she loved her son, Haroun.
*****
Read also:
👉 Haroun and the Sea of Stories | as a political allegory
👉 Chotti Munda and His Arrow | is the voice of tribal consciousness
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