Lesson : 2

The Riddle

Let's Start : 🚀

Akbar was one of the greatest emperors of India. He belonged to the Mughal dynasty. He had in his court the “Nine Gems", his nine advisors. One of these gems was Birbal, known for his wit and wisdom.

Let's share : 🗣️

• Can you name any other famous emperor of India?
• Why would a person be called a 'gem'?
• Can you name any other 'gem' of Akbar's court other than Birbal?

Let's read: 📖

The king of Kings, Emperor Akbar, who ruled over India was a great lover of arts, sciences, literature and music. One day, on a fine morning, he was walking in his vast garden. His garden was lined with trees that produced the tastiest and juiciest fruits in the whole kingdom. There were flowers of all shapes and sizes in his garden. He had his most trusted and favourite minister Birbal with him.

But the great Emperor Akbar did not have peace of mind, the quality without which no one, not even the king of kings, can appreciate beauty.

Wise Birbal, noticing this, asked Akbar, ‘O great and powerful King, what is troubling you? You do not seem to be your usual self, for my king never fails to enjoy the beauty of the greatest kingdom this earth has ever seen.'

Akbar replied, ‘Birbal, my dearest friend, you are right. There is indeed a riddle that has been troubling me. An idle thought, which came to me in passing, is now my cause of worry. I am troubled because I cannot find an answer to a simple question- what is the fastest thing on this planet?'

Birbal said, 'Is that all, your Majesty? Call your courtiers together. Let us see if one of them can answer. If not, then I am certain I can tell you of the fastest thing on the planet.'

At the King's court, many heard the question that was troubling Akbar. Most were puzzled. Some said, 'bullock carts', others said, 'horses'. But Birbal just smiled at them.

After everyone had failed to satisfy Emperor Akbar, Birbal offered to answer his question. He said, 'Your Majesty, it is the human mind!' To prove it, he said, 'Let the people of our kingdom present a problem to me. I shall show you how fast I can solve it using the powers of my mind alone.'

A man came forward from the audience. He claimed that his neighbour had sold him his well. Now, when he wanted to draw water from the well, his neighbour wanted to charge him money for it. After being summoned to the court, his neighbour argued that he had just sold him the well, not the water in it.

Akbar listened to this argument carefully and asked Birbal to settle the dispute. Birbal smiled at the man and said, ‘I think the solution is rather simple. It is your well now, your neighbour should be paying you rent for keeping water in your well. If he wants you to pay for his water, he must pay for using your well.'

The neighbour realised that he was outwitted and withdrew his claim immediately.

All around, people were amazed at the wisdom of Birbal and the speed of the human mind that has the ability to solve a problem instantly. Truly, there was nothing faster than it.

Word Nest 📚

appreciate: to understand the worth of something; riddle: a verbal puzzle; courtiers: a person who is part of the court of a king or a queen; summoned : called for; outwitted: defeated by logic

Let's do: ✍️

Activity 1

Choose the correct answers from the given alternatives :

(a) Emperor Akbar was walking (i) in his palace (ii) in the royal garden (iii) in the house of Birbal. (b) Birbal was Akbar's (i) most trusted and faithful minister (ii) greedy and unfaithful minister (iii) rival (c) The emperor was (i) happy (ii) calm (iii) worried (d) The fastest thing on earth is (i) the human mind (ii) bullock cart (iii) horse (e) The neighbour was outwitted by (i) Akbar (ii) Birbal (iii) the neighbour's friend

Activity 2

Identify which of the following statements are True and which are False. Give a supporting statement for each of your answers.

(a) Emperor Akbar was very worried when he was roaming in his garden. (b) There were no flowers and fruits in the garden of Akbar. (c) Birbal was indifferent to Akbar's troubles. (d) Birbal succeeded in answering to Akbar's query. (e) The people of Akbar's court admired the wisdom of Birbal.

Activity 3

What kind of a text is this?

It is a

(i) play (ii) essay (iii) story.

Activity 4

Give another title to the story. Give reasons for your answer.

Activity 5

Complete the sentences meaningfully :

(a) Akbar asked Birbal ............................................................................ (b) Most people of the court of Akbar were puzzled .................................... ................................................... (c) ..............................................................withdrew his claim immediately. (d) ........................................................ the fastest thing on earth.

Activity 6

Fill in the chart with information from the text:

Cause	Effect
	1. Akbar was troubled
2. Emperor Akbar asked Birbal to solve a riddle
	3. The neighbour wanted to charge money for drawing water from the well

Activity 7

Answer the following questions :

(a) What were the things that the great Emperor Akbar loved? (b) Why did Akbar not have peace of mind? (c) What was the problem presented by the man from the audience? (d) How did Birbal solve the problem?

Activity 8

Identify the words from the text which are the synonyms of the following words:

(a) confused (b) demand (c) argument (d) surprised

Let's learn: 💡

Look at the sentences from the text :

• Emperor Akbar, who ruled over India was a great lover of arts, sciences, literature and music
• My king never fails to enjoy the beauty of the greatest kingdom this earth has ever seen.

The word great in sentence 1 is an adjective. It is said to be in the positive degree. The word greatest in sentence 2 is also an adjective. It is said to be in the superlative degree. Superlative degree is formed by adding 'est' or 'most/least' to the positive adjective.

Look at the sentence:

• Emperor Akbar is greater than many other kings.

Here the word greater is in comparative degree

The comparative degree is formed by adding 'er' or 'more/lesser' to the adjective

Study the following chart:

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
clever	cleverer	cleverest
big	bigger	biggest
rare	rarer	rarest
happy	happier	happiest
beautiful	more beautiful	most beautiful
good	better	best

There are certain rules for forming adjectives of different degrees.

• We can form comparative by adding 'er' and superlative by adding ‘est', such as strong-stronger-strongest.

• In some of the adjectives, however, the last letter is repeated while adding 'er' and 'est'. This usually happens in case of small words which has single consonant at the end with a single vowel in between. Such words are fat-fatter-fattest.

• Some words which end in 'e' add 'r' and 'st' as the 'e' is already present in the adjective itself. Such words are large-larger-largest.

• Some words which have more than two syllables form their comparatives by adding 'more' and 'most', such as wonderful-more wonderful-most wonderful.

• Some words that end in 'y' add 'er' and 'est', but the ‘y' changes to 'i' and then 'er' and 'est' are added, such as funny-funnier-funniest.

• There are some adjectives which are irregular in their comparative and superlative forms. They do not follow any rules, such as bad-worse-worst.

Let's do: ✍️

Activity 9

Complete the following sentences with the proper degree of adjectives:

(a) Shiela has the .................................... (long) hair in the class. (b) Mr.Ghosal is .................................... (busy) than Mr.Patnaik. (c) We should be .................................... (careful) in our speech. (d) Shenawaz is as .................................... (thin) as Pralay. (e) The owl is considered as the .................................... (wise) of all. (f) His house is .................................... (far) away from my house than Sanjeev's.

Let's learn: 🧠

Look at the following sentence:

• What is troubling you?

In the above sentence, we find that the action is in progress. When we express a present, ongoing action, we use Present Continuous Tense. The form that is used for this tense is is/am/are + verb + ing.

Look at the sentences from the text you have read:

• On a fine morning, Emperor Akbar was walking in his vast garden.

• At the King's court, many heard the question that was troubling Akbar. The coloured words indicate actions that were continuing at a time in the past. Such words which denote an action that was happening in the past is known as Past Continuous Tense. The form that is used for this tense is was/were + verb + ing.

Let's do: ✍️

Activity 10

Fill in the blanks with either Present Continuous Tense or Past Continuous Tense:

(a) It .................................... (rain) now. (b) Dr.Manmohan Singh .................................... (visit) Kolkata today. (c) Hari .................................... (study) at 9pm yesterday. (d) The boys .................................... (play) in the field now. (e) Rahim .................................... (talk) to his friend when his mother called him.

Let's learn : 🗣️

How do we write a dialogue?

• In case of dialogue writing, we usually write exactly those words that are actually spoken.
• Abbreviations can be used in dialogues.
• Contracted forms are also used.
• It should be in a conversational style.

The form is like this:

Sita : Hello! How are you? Reshma : I'm fine. How are you? Sita : Meeting you after a long time! Where were you, by the way? Reshma : I was held up with my exams. Sita : I see! And how was your exam? Reshma : Well, not bad really! But now I'm getting a bit nervous about the result. Sita : Oh, come on! I'm sure you'll do well. Reshma : Thanks, Sita. Sita : Bye then! Take care. Reshma : Bye.

Let's do : ✍️

Activity 11

Suppose your friend asks you to solve a riddle and you don't know the answer to it. Write a dialogue in about seventy words based on the conversation that you had with your friend.

Begin like this:

Sunil : Hello Rohit! What's going on? You : Nothing serious. Just having a crack at this crossword. Sunil : Good to see that you like puzzles. Well, here's a riddle for you. You : What's the riddle? Sunil : Well,..........................

Activity 12

Try to write a story that you may have heard before using the following points (in about seventy words):

A crow---finds meat---flies to a tree---a clever fox---sees---says to crow---sing---crow sings---meat falls---fox takes---crow sad---flies away.

Begin like this:

A crow was flying for a long time. He became very hungry .......................................................................... Now complete the rest of the story taking cues from above.

Let's work together:: 🤝

Enact a play 🎭

• Read the story again.
• Write dialogues for Akbar, Birbal and the neighbour.
• Play the roles of Akbar, Birbal and the neighbour.
• There should be a director who will guide the characters.
• Some of your friends will prompt.