A House Is Not A Home

8.
A House is not a Home

Textual question answers.
Q 1.What does the author notice one Sunday afternoon? What is his
mother’s reaction? What does she do?
Answer: The author, while doing his homework noticed the smoke
pouring in through the seams of the ceiling. The room was filled with
the smoke very quickly. The author and his mother ran outside to save
their life. His mother ran out of the house with a small metal box full of
important documents. She became so crazy that she rushed back to the
house just after dropping the box.
Q 2.Why does he break down in tears after the fire?
Answer: The author’s house was completely burned down. Five hours
later when the fire was finally put out, he realised at once that his cat
was nowhere. He had to face the loss of old school, his house and cat.
In such a state, he cried and broke down in tears.
Q 3.Why is the author deeply embarrassed the next day in school?

Which words show his fear and insecurity?
Answer: The author was full of remorse as he was left with nothing. He
didn’t have proper dress and study material. He had no backpack. He
had the feeling of insecurity. All things appeared strange to him. He was
shocked deeply and seemed frustrated. The words uttered by him “Was
I destined to be an outcast and a geek all my life? I didn’t want to grow
up, change or have to handle life, if it was to going to be this way. I just
wanted to curl up and die” reveal his fear and insecurity.
Q 4.The cat and the author are very fond of each other. How has this
been shown in the story? Where was the cat after the fire? Who brings it
back and how?
Answer: The author loved his cat very much. He never considered her
far from him. She kept sitting beside him when he did his homework and
other household work. When the author found his cat back, his
happiness was beyond the limits. He grabbed her quickly and felt
relieved. This proved that they were very fond of each other.
The cat ran over a mile away when the house was on fire. A stranger
lady brought it back as there was a phone number written on the collar
of the cat.
Q 5.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?
Answer: His schoolmates bought up school supplies, notebooks, all kinds

of different clothes for the author in order to help him. It was a matter
of surprise and too difficult to believe for him. He got emotional
satisfaction. People who had never spoken, introduced themselves one
by one. All things seemed new and created his interest in life. Now, he
had all the things whatever he used to have. He started enjoying his life
as usual.
Q 6. 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?
Answer: Here the author wants to point out that life without affection is
useless. He was depressed after a great loss in all fields. His old school
and teachers were always in his mind. The fire had reduced his house to
ashes. His cat was also not with him. In such circumstances he
considered himself dead and had no interest in life.
In the end as soon as the conditions took the turn he felt relieved. Now
he had all the things with him. The author had not gone anywhere. It
was his state of mind. He recovered from this gloomy state and started
enjoying life when he got his cat back.
Talk about it
Q 1. Have any of your classmates/schoolmates had an experience like

the one described in the story where they needed help? Describe how
they were helped.
Answer: Two years ago, my friend Raju visited the market to buy some
household things. It was a crowded market and a shop caught fire due
to short circuit. The panic-stricken people rushed here and there. My
friend too was trying to leave that place. He with three people got
himself locked in a nearby shop to escape from smoke. But the shop
was filled with smoke within a little span of time. They felt suffocated by
the fumes. They considered that their end was near. In the meantime, a
team of an NGO broke open the shutter and took them out of the shop.
They were hospitalised quickly. I could get my friend back because of
the team and the grace of God.
Questions and Answers
Q 1.Why did the writer feel awkward during her first year of high
school?
Answer: She felt awkward because it was a new school, much bigger
than her previous junior high school. It was strange starting as a
freshman after enjoying the benefits of being the senior-most class in
junior high. She also felt isolated as all her close friends had gone to
different high schools and she did not know anyone there.
Q 2. Why did she continue to visit her old school?
Answer:She missed her teachers so much that she continued to visit

them at her old school. Moreover, it was a familiar place where she had
spent many happy years. She felt isolated in her new school without her
friends.
Q 3.What advice did her junior high teachers give her?
Answer:They encouraged her to get involved with activities in her new

school so that she could meet new people. They were confident that she
would adjust in time and start loving the new school as well.
Q 4.What was the psychology behind the teachers’ advice?
Answer: The teachers wanted her to adjust to her new environment and
not keep thinking about the past. It was time for her to move on and
face the reality of her situation.
Q 5. How do we know that her cat was very playful?
Answer:We know this from the fact that she would swat at the writer’s
pen from time to time in a playful maimer while she tried to complete
her homework.
Q 6.Why was the cat so attached to the writer?
Answer:The writer had saved the cat when it had been a kitten and
somehow it knew that the writer was responsible for the good life that it
was presently enjoying.
Q 7.What happened one Sunday afternoon?
Answer:The writer’s house caught fire one Sunday, and it burnt down
completely.
Q 8.Why did the writer’s mother run back into the burning house?
Answer:The writer’s father had died when she had been very young. Her
mother ran back into the burning house to try to save her husband’s
pictures and letters, which were all she had to remember him by.
Q 9.Why was the writer held back by the fireman?
Answer: She was held back by the fireman to stop her from following
her mother into the burning house, as she could have lost her life.
Q 10.How was the writer’s mother rescued from the burning house?
Answer: The fire-fighters ran into the house and rescued the writer’s
mother. She was given an oxygen mask to help her breathe normally
again.
VALUE BASED QUESTIONS.
1. What actions of the writer’s schoolmates change her

understanding of life and people, and comfort her emotionally?
Answer: The fact that her schoolmates got together and collected
school supplies, notebooks, clothes like jeans, tops and sweatsuits for
her affected the writer deeply. She was touched and overwhelmed that
people who had never even spoken to her before came up and
introduced themselves. She got several invitations to their homes, and
their genuine outpouring of concern made her feel a little less lost and
sad. She felt more accepted and her loneliness vanished.
Q 2.What is the meaning of the sentence “My cat was back, and so was
I”? Had the writer gone somewhere? Why does she say that she is also
back?
Answer: The writer means to say that the return of her cat marked an
end to the period of loss and loneliness that she and her mother had
been experiencing since their house burnt down. In the fire, the writer
and her mother had lost all their possessions, and for a month they had
to survive on charity and donations from acquaintances and family
members like her grandparents and aunt.
However, by the time the cat was returned to her by a kind lady who
had rescued it and traced its family, the writer had made many friends
in her new school, and regained her self-worth. She was once aga9in in
control of her life and secure in the acceptance and love of the people
around her. With the return of her cat, it was as though her new life was
now complete again.
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8.

A House is not a Home

Q 2.Why does he break down in tears after the fire?

Q 3.Why is the author deeply embarrassed the next day in school?

Q 5.What actions of the schoolmates change the author’s understanding

Answer: His schoolmates bought up school supplies, notebooks, all kinds

Q 1. Have any of your classmates/schoolmates had an experience like

Questions and Answers

Q 2. Why did she continue to visit her old school?

Answer:She missed her teachers so much that she continued to visit

Q 3.What advice did her junior high teachers give her?

Answer:They encouraged her to get involved with activities in her new

Q 4.What was the psychology behind the teachers’ advice?

Q 6.Why was the cat so attached to the writer?

Q 7.What happened one Sunday afternoon?

Q 9.Why was the writer held back by the fireman?

VALUE BASED QUESTIONS.

1. What actions of the writer’s schoolmates change her

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