THE BLUE BEAD Norah Burke

Norah Aileen Burke was most famous for

her style of description of life in India
during the early 20th century. “The Blue
Bead” is based on the simple, innocent
wish of Sibia who is the main character of
the story.
The story is set up in a typical Indian
village of the 20th-century. The
description about the situations is on
point; realistic, simple but yet effective in
grabbing the reader’s attention. The
author takes her time to describe the
surrounding where the story takes place;
starting from the crocodile and river. The
description builds an anticipation in the
reader’s mind about what’s going to
happen next.
The writing style is quite elegant with a
touch of Indian colloquialism. Though
there are several characters, utmost
importance and most scenes are given to
Sibia’s character and to the description of
the place. Sibia’s character is quite simple,
innocent yet brave; a girl with a small wish
to have a new necklace.
The plot is quite simple but has its own
powerful message to convey – if you want
something badly enough and have
patience to wait and work for it then
you’re bound to get it.
It also shows the real rueful situations of
old Indian village families; how they
have to struggle every day for their
living, how they find happiness in even
tiny little things and celebrate it in
grandeur, their simple and innocent
wishes and the critical surroundings.
The pure emotions of Sibia, which are
portrayed quite beautifully, are bound to
tug at your heart.Overall, ‘The Blue Bead’
is a beautiful and simple story which will
leave an imprint on you forever.

The story “The Blue Bead” is a perfect

specimen of a short story where the
underlying moral message runs parallel to
the main thematic concern. The writer
artistically projects the proverbial lesson
“where there’s a will, there’s a way” through
the character of Sibia. She is presented here
as an embodiment of translator of dream
through constant effort and single-minded
focus.
The entire story may best be interpreted as
Sibia’s coming-of-age story that rounds off
with her sudden discovery of a blue bead to
translate her dream of making a necklace
into reality. Such functional appeal of the
story is conveyed to us for bettering up our
morale.
Sibia’s story enkindles within us vibrant
energy to nurture and cultivate our
innermost dream towards the path of
accomplishment. Every precious moment in
Sibia’s life is devoted to boundless
adventurism and her very life is an example
of indomitable courage. Her existential
struggle to carve for a bare living and her
fervent dream get integrated through the
writer’s unerring artistic fusion. Sibia’s daily
routine is closely maintained with singleness
of purpose from which she never deviates.
Every moment she shows her unyielding
spirit not to succumb to utter failure.
But now she came on wings, choosing her
footing in mid-air without even thinking
about it.
Her down-to-earth existence was not devoid
of romantic inclination – she was thinking of
wearing a necklace of her own making that
ceaselessly induced her to toil hard. This is
the unsung glory of Sibia’s will power by
which she one day got a blue bead for her
necklace. Her selfless saviour-like help to the
woman at the risk of her life is, no doubt,
another example of the triumph of her will
power. And its sweet fruits she tasted and
enlighteningly uttered the words –
Ai! Ai! What a day!
Our close study of such story leaves a
lingering after-image “what a girl this is!”
And this is how we can assess the writer’s
emphasis on the moral subtext inherent in
the story.
EXTRACT I
From deep water came the crocodile.
Q1. From where did the crocodile come and
where did it finally come to rest? How did it
position itself here and why? How big was
the creature and what was inside him?
A1. The crocodile came out of the deep
river water (black water), curved with
whirlpools. It moved into the shallow water
by the stepping-stones and came to rest in
the glassy shallows, among logs which were
lying stuck around the stepping-stones.
Note: ‘black water’ in the dictionary means
‘waste water and sewage from toilets’.
However, I feel in this story it means from
deep water the croc came to shallow water.
 Since the stepping-stones and logs
offered the crocodile sufficient cover, the
animal had no need to hide itself. It balanced
itself on tiptoe on the rippled sand, with just
its eyes raised out of the water, and raised
its nostrils to breathe in the clean sunny air.
It had come here in search of prey and to
breathe in clean sunny air.
Q2. Why did the mugger raise its eyes and
nostrils out of the water?
A2. The mugger had its eyes and nostrils
raised out of the water, as it was patiently
waiting to catch its prey while it breathed in
the clean sunny air.
The black mugger crocodile was
twice the length of a tall man. Inside him,
along with the stones which he had
swallowed to aid digestion, rolled a silver
bracelet.
Q3. Why was timber floating down the
river? What are sleepers? How were they
released and made to move on?
A3. People were driving/floatinglogs of
wood/sawn tree trunks down the great river
from forests further up to sawmills and pulp
mills, using the current of the river. This is
the cheapest means of moving timber from
forests uphill to industries downstream.
Sleepers are those logs which get
snagged/stuck between rocks and stones
while floating downstream.
These sleepers remained stuck, until
someone came to dislodge/forcefully
removethem and send them on their way, or
until floods raised them and jostled
them/sent them bumping along.
Q4. How was the spot chosen by the
crocodile advantageous to it?
A4. The broad sparkling river flowed
between cliffs and grass and forested hills. A
jungle track came out of scrub on each side,
down to the sun-whitened stepping-stones.
These shallows by the stepping-stones, in
which the crocodile lay concealed, was used
as a ford/crossing point by the villagers and
by the village women who came down here
with ‘gurrahs’ to collect good clear water for
use/consumption in their homes. The
unsuspecting villagers would be easy prey
for the crocodile.
Q5. Describe the crocodile.
A5. The mugger crocodile, was twice the
length of a tall man. It was blackish brown
above and yellow white under. It could lie
motionless, patiently waiting for prey to
feed on. This enormous and powerful
antediluvian saurian/ancient large reptile
was a formidable and huge/massive force in
water, propelled by the unimaginable and
irresistible power of its huge rippled tail, its
throat pulsating/throbbing steadily. Its
mouth, running almost the whole length of
its head, was closed and fixed in that bony
smile, and the area where the mouth met
the yellow underside, was tinged in green.
Its inch-thick blackish brown hide couldn’t be
pierced by anything. Even rifle bullets shot at
it, would harmlessly bounce off.
Q6. How had the crocodile lived since it had
hatched?
A6. From the day, perhaps a hundred
years ago, when the sun had hatched him in
a sandbank, and he had broken his shell to
pop his head out and look around, the
crocodile was alert and active, ready to snap
at anything before he was even fully
hatched.From that day when he had
immediately headed for the safety of the
water, ready to fend for himself, he had lived
by his brainless craft/cunning and ferocity.
Escaping the birds of prey and great
carnivorous fishes that prey on baby
crocodiles, he had prospered, catching all the
food he needed, and storing it till putrid, in
holes in the bank. The
tepid/lukewarmwater he lived in and plenty
of rotted food had grown him to his great
length/monstrous size.
He lived well in the river, sun bathing
himself sometimes with the other crocodiles
– muggers, as well as the long-snouted fish-
eating gharials – on warm rocks and
sandbanks where the sun dried the clay on
them quite white and where they could plop
off into the water at a moment if alarmed.
Q7. Why couldn’t anything pierce the hide
of the crocodile? Which parts of its body
were most vulnerable/easily hurt?
A7. Nothing could pierce the hide of a
crocodile because with time its skin became
tougher and tougher till it developed inch-
thick armoured hide, which nothing could
pierce. Even rifle bullets ricocheted/bounced
off its inch-thick hide, harmlessly.
Only the eyes and the soft
underarms of the crocodile were
unprotected and could be attacked.
Q8. What did the big crocodile normally
feed on?
A8. The big crocodile mostly fed on fish,
but also on deer and monkeys that came to
drink the river water and perhaps a duck or
two. Occasionally at the ford, he fed on a
flea infested pi-dog or a skeleton cow.
Sometimes, he went down to the burning
ghats and devoured the half-burned bodies
of Indians/people cast into the river.
Q9.What is a mugger crocodile? Give the
meaning of a) antediluvian saurian b)
prehistoric juggernaut.
A9. A mugger crocodile is freshwater
crocodile, which inhabits the Indian
subcontinent.
The meaning of antediluvian saurian
is an ancient large reptile.
The meaning of prehistoric
juggernaut is ancient/antediluvian enormous
and powerful creature.
Q10. What are shoals? What lay beside the
crocodile? Describe this.
A10. Shoals are areas of shallow water.
Beside the crocodile, in the shoals, as he lay
patiently waiting for prey, glimmered a blue
gem.
 It wasn’t a real gem. It was sand-
worn glass that had been rolling about in the
river for a long time. By chance/coincidence it
was perforated right through. It could have
either been the neck of a bottle or a blue
bead.
Q11. How can one conclude that the
crocodile was a strong and dangerous
animal?
A11. The crocodile is described as a
prehistoric juggernaut, ferocious and
formidable. It was a very powerful
entity/creature in water, propelled by the
unimaginable and irresistible power of its
huge rippled tail, its heart palpitating wildly
with excitement. This description vividly
makes one conclude that the crocodile is
indeed a strong and formidable creature.
Q12. How did the crocodile rest in the
shallows?
A12. The crocodile balanced itself on
tiptoe on the rippled sand of the shoal, with
just its eyes and nostrils raised out of the
water, to search out prey and to breathe in
the clean sunny air.
Q13. What is meant by ‘brainless craft and
ferocity’?
A13. These words imply that the crocodile
was a creature guided by raw instinct and not
its brains. It was likely to react or behave in a
particular way, guided by natural instinct and
not by brains. Its reaction or behaviour was
nothing else but savage and ferocious.
Q14. What dangers did the young crocodile
face?
A14. Birds of prey it had to escape from
and the great carnivorous fishes that preyed
on baby crocodiles.
EXTRACT – II
In the shrill noisy village above the
ford, out of a mud house the same colour as
the ground came a little girl, ………..
Q1. Describe the strange object found near
the crocodile just before this extract.
A1. Beside the crocodile, in the shoals, as
he lay patiently waiting for prey, glimmered a
blue gem.
It wasn’t a real gem. It was sand-worn glass
that had been rolling about in the river for a
long time. By chance/coincidence it was
perforated right through. It could have either
been the neck of a bottle or a blue bead.
Q2. From where did the ‘little girl’ come?
What did she wear? What was she eating?
A2. The little girl came out of a mud house
in the shrill noisy village above the ford.
Sibia was a thin
starveling/undernourished/emaciated child
dressed in an earth/a mud coloured rag. She
had torn the rag in two to fashion skirt and
sari.
She was eating the last of her meal,
chappati wrapped round a smear of green
chili and rancid butter.
Q3. Describe the physical appearance of
Sibia.
A3. The little girl, Sibia, was a thin
emaciated child, dressed in an earth-coloured
rag. She had torn the rag in two to fashion
skirt and sari. She had straight white teeth,
ebony hair, big eyes and brown, oily skin. She
was a happy immature child – woman about
twelve years old.
Q4. Give evidence to prove that Sibia was
from a poor household/family.
A4. We read that Sibia was a little thin
emaciated child of twelve years. She clothed
herself in rags. She went about bare footed,
even in the cold of winter and developed
goose bumps due to the cold. Food was
scarce/inadequate for her and she divided
her chappati to make it appear more. In all
her life she had owned nothing but a rag. She
had never possessed even one anna – not a
pice, not a pi, even to buy a handful of glass
beads or one of the thin glass bangles from
the stalls/vendors in the bazaar. All this tells
us that she was from an extremely poor
household.
Q5. Why is Sibia described as a ‘child-
woman’ and ‘born to toil’?
A5 Sibia is described as a ‘child-woman’
because she was a mere twelve-year old girl,
working hard to support her poor family. The
hard work she did, deprived her of her
childhood. She was thus a ‘child-woman’,
bereft of the joys of childhood. She had been
‘born to toil’. From birth to death, she had
been marked to work.
EXTRACT III
In all her life, she had never owned anything
but a rag. She had never owned even one
anna - not a pice, not a pi, even to buy, say,
a…………….
Q1. What would Sibia have bought if she
possessed a little money?
A1. If Sibia had an anna, a pice or a pie,
she would have bought a handful of blown
glass beads from a stall in the bazaar where
they were piled like stars, or one of the thin
glass bangles that the vendor kept on a stick,
and you could choose the colour you wished.
Q2. Where was the bazaar? How did Sibia
know about it and what did she learn from
her visit?
A2. The bazaar was in the little town at
the railhead.
Sibia knew about this bazaar because she had
accompanied her parents and brothers all
through the jungle to the little town at the
railhead where the bazaar was.
Her visit to the bazaar taught/showed her
what finery was.
Q3. Mention what Sibia had seen and heard
while passing through the bazaar.
A3. While going/walking through the
bazaar, Sibia had seen crowds of people
milling around, dogs and monkeys covered in
fleas, and men spitting betel juice. She had
heard the idling, gossiping, bargaining
humanity and the bell of a sacred cow
clonking as he lumped (moved with difficulty)
along through the dust and hubbub of the
bazaar.
Q4. What did Sibia do before the sweetmeat
stall? What sweet items did she sometimes
taste at home?
A4. Sibia had paused, amazed, before
the sweetmeat stall, to gaze at the brilliant
green and magenta honey confections,
covered with dust and flies. Their wonderful
smell exceeded the smell of drains, crowds
and cheap cigarettes.
At home, Sibia sometimes
tasted wild honey, or crunched the syrup out
of a stalk of sugarcane.
Q5. What did Sibia see at the cloth shop?
Why did she like this stall?
A5. At the cloth stall, Sibia saw stacks
of great rolls of new cotton cloth, stamped at
the edge with the maker’s sign of a tiger’s
head.
Sibia liked this stall because she found the
smell of the material, straight from the mills,
so wonderful that she could have stood by
the stall all day.
Q6. Mention the other wonders Sibia saw in
the bazaar. What did the Kashmiri merchant
sell?
A6. Three other wonders seen by Sibia
in the bazaar, were satin, sewn with real
silver thread, tins from Birmingham, and a
sari, with chips of looking-glass, embroidered
into the border.
The Kashmiri travelling merchant,
on his way to the bungalows, sold dawn-
coloured (blue) silks that
streamed/cascaded/poured/flowed like
cream and stone jewellery such as turquoises
and opals, all locked up in a little chest.
Best of all, was a box, which when
pressed open, a bell would tinkle and a yellow
woollen chicken would jump/spring out.
Q7. Why couldn’t Sibia enjoy any of these
wonders/luxuries?
A7. Sibia couldn’t enjoy any of these
wonders, because throughout her life, from
birth to death, she had been marked for work.
Since she was a toddler, she had husked corn,
gathered sticks for fuel, put dung to dry,
cooked, weeded, fetched water and cut grass
for fodder. Utter poverty would always
deprive her from the basic pleasures of life.
Q8. What can we assume about Sibia’s family
status/position?
A8. We realize that Sibia was from a
very poor family. As a result of this her life
was ‘marked for work’ and she was ‘born to
toil’. From early childhood, she had been
engaged in the work of an adult woman to
help her family survive the curse of poverty.
They were so poor that she dressed in rags
and food was scarce.
EXTRACT – IV
Such thoughts did not trouble Sibia,
however, as she skipped along with her sickle
and homemade hayfork beside her mother.
Q1. Where was Sibia going and why? What
thoughts did not trouble her?
A1. Sibia, holding her sickle and
homemade pitchfork, went skipping along
with her mother and some other women to
get paper grass from the cliffs above the river.
 When they had collected
enough of it, they would take it down by
bullock cart to the railhead and sell it to the
agent, who would then dispatch it to the
paper mills.
Sibia was not troubled by the thoughts that
they had toiled all day to collect the paper
grass for which they were paid hardly
anything, whereas the agent sat on silk
cushions, smoking a hookah.
Q2. Why didn’t Sibia skip during her return
Journey?
A2. On her return journey, Sibia’s
back ached with tiredness after bending and
cutting the paper grass. Moreover, she
carried a great load of the paper grass she had
harvested on her back.
Q3. What type of necklaces did the village
women wear? Why did they wear several
necklaces instead of just one?
A3. The women wore necklaces made
out of lal-lal-beeges, the shiny scarlet seeds,
black one end, that grew everywhere in the
jungle. They chose to wear new necklaces
each year, instead of the previous year’s
faded ones.
They wore several necklaces instead of just
one because lots of necklaces made a
rattling swish round their necks as they went
about their daily chores/work.
Q4. What was Sibia making? Why? What
was it that had delayed its completion?
A4. Sibia was making a necklace for
herself.
She wanted a necklace of her
own as she felt it would be very nice to hear
the rattling swish round her neck as she
froushed along wearing lots of necklaces.
Sibia had not been able to complete making
her necklace because each of the seeds,
which were as hard as stone, had to be
bored/drilled with a red-hot needle, and the
family needle had snapped. She had to wait
till they could buy a new one.
Q6. What type of ornaments did Sibia long
to wear?
A6. Sibia longed to decorate all her
little golden body with pretty anklets,
earrings, nose-rings and bangles made of the
gorgeous dazzling glass and beads she had
seen in the bazaar.
EXTRACT – V
Chattering as they went, the women
followed the dusty track towards the river.
On their way, they passed a Gujar
encampment of grass huts where these
nomadic graziers would live for a time………
Q1. Why were the ‘women’ going to the
river? Who are nomadic graziers? How long
did these people remain at one place?
A1. The women were going to the
river to collect paper grass from the cliffs
above the river to sell at the railhead to the
agent of a paper mill.
Nomadic graziers are
nomadic people who graze cattle for their
living.
These people would live in
grass huts at a particular location until their
animals had finished all the easy grazing
within reach, or they were not able to sell
enough of their white butter or white milk in
the district, or there was no one to buy the
young male buffaloes for tiger-bait, or
perhaps a cattle-killing tiger was causing
them problems. They would then move on to
another location to set up camp.
Q2. What did Sibia see on her way to get
paper grass from the cliffs? Describe the
women she saw there.
A2. Sibia saw a Gujar encampment of grass
huts as she and the other women were on
their way to get paper grass from the cliffs
above the river.
Gujjar women dressed in
trousers, tight and wrinkled at the ankles,
and in their ears they wore large silver rings
made out of melted silver rupees.
Q3. What was one of the Gujar women
doing? Where were the male inhabitants of
this camp and what animals did she notice
there?
A3. One of the Gujar women was
clinking a stick against the big brass gurrahs
in which they fetched water from the river
for the camp to see which ones were empty.
The men and boys were out of
the camp at that moment with their herd or
gone to the bazaar to sell their produce.
Sibia noticed one or two buffaloes standing
about in the encampment. They were
creatures with great wet noses and moving
jaws and gaunt/skeletal black bones.
Q4. Why are the Gujars called ‘Man in the
wandering Pastoral Age’?
A4. The Gujars were nomadic
graziers. They were junglis, as Sibia was too,
born and bred in the jungle.
They would set up camp for a
time until their animals had perhaps
exhausted all the easy grazing within reach,
or they were unable to sell enough of their
white butter or white milk in the district or
there was no one to buy their young male
buffaloes for tiger-bait. They had refused to
change their way of living with time. For
countless centuries, their
forebears/ancestors had lived the same
way, getting their living from animals, from
grass and trees, as they scratched/scraped
their food together, and invested their
substance/money in large herds and silver
jewelry.Thus the author describes these
jungle folk as ‘Man in the wandering Pastoral
Age’, not Stone Age Hunters, and not yet
Cultivators.
Q5. How did Sibia and the women approach
the river? What did they do on arriving
there? Why did they manage to cross the
river safely?
A5. The women, a noisy crowd,
approached the river, laughing aloud and
bickering with each other.
On arriving at the river, the
women made for the stepping stones, girded
up their skirts to enable them jump from
stone to stone and clanked their sticks and
forks together over their shoulders for ease
of movement. They also shouted their
quarrels over the gush of water.
On hearing the noise made by the women,
the concealed mugger did not move because
crocodiles are frightened by noise. This
enabled the women to safely cross over to
the other bank.
Q6. What did the women do after crossing
the river? Describe the sight down below
them.
A6. Having crossed the river, the
group of women climbed a still hillside to
reach the paper grass. Here they fell to work
with a will, and sliced away at it, wherever
there was a foothold to be had.
Down below where the women
worked, the broad river flowed, running
powerfully from its deep narrow pools
among the cold cliffs and shadows,
spreading into warm shallows, lit by
kingfishers. Great turtles lived there, and
mahseer, weighing more than a hundred
pounds. Crocodiles also inhabited this
portion of the river. Sometimes they could
be seen sunbathing on slabs of clay.
However, there were none to be seen at that
moment.
EXTRACT – VI
Where Sibia was working, wind coming
across hundreds of miles of trees………
Q1. Where was Sibia working and what work
was she doing? What made her work more
comfortable? To what is she now compared
and why? Where did her imagination now
take her?
A1. Sibia was working on a still hillside
above the river. She was cutting and
gathering paper grass, wherever she could
get a foothold.
A wind coming across hundreds of
miles of trees cooled her sweating body,
making her work a little more comfortable.
Sibia at this point of the story is now
compared to a bird because of her sharp and
long vision.
As she worked, her imagination took
her in swooping flight over the bright water
and golden air to the banks of the river,
where she had played as a child.
Q2. What had Sibia stored in the caves and
why had she done so?
A2. In one of the caves, above the high-
water mark of the highest flood, Sibia had
stored some little bowls moulded of clay to
harden. She had done this because she
intended/planned to use them for colouring.
They would look good painted with
marigolds and elephants.
Q3. Why was Sibia’s mother annoyed with
her? How did she react to this?
A3. Sibia’s mother glared at her and
angrily addressed her as ‘child’ because
instead of working, she seemed to be lost in
thoughts of her own.
On hearing her mother sharply
reprimand her, Sibia, immediately went back
to work cutting and gathering the paper
grass.
Q4. When did the women stop their work
and where did they go?
A4. When it was time to return to see to
their animals and cook the evening meal, the
women loaded themselves with the grass
they had cut and set out to cross the river
again to return to their village.
Q5. What did Sibia do after the women had
set out on their return journey? How did the
tired women return to their village?
A5. Sibia decided to hang back. She would
dawdle/slow down a bit and then hurry to
the cave and see if the little clay cups were
still there, waiting to be painted and used.
Although the women were now tired
and burdened with loads of grass, they still
conversed with each other. Those in front
yelled to those behind. They crossed the
river safely and disappeared up the track
into the trees on the other side. Their voices
soon died away.
(note: the noise the women made while
recrossing the river kept the crocodile away)
EXTRACT VII
Sibia stepped onto the first stone.
She was heavily weighed, her
muscles………
Q1. Where was Sibia going? Who was with
her and why? Describe her condition at this
moment.
A1. Sibia was at the stepping stones, about
to recross the river and return to her village.
She was all by herself because she had
dawdled/slowed down a bit to hurry to the
cave and see if the little clay cups were still
there, waiting to be painted and used. Her
mother and the other village women had
continued to the village without noticing her
absence.
Exhausted by the day’s work and
heavily weighted/burdened, Sibia’s muscles
stretched and ached. The hayfork squeaked
in the packed dry grass and dug into her
collarbone so close under the skin, in spite of
the sari bunched up to make a pad.
Q2. Describe the scene when Sibia came
down to the stepping stones.
A2. When Sibia finally arrived at the
stepping- stones to recross the river and
return to her village, the evening was silent.
The light of the evening was lighting up the
gorge, turning pink into ultraviolet shadows.
Since the sun no longer lit up the gorge, the
river poured almost invisible among the
stepping-stones, with no
reflection/indication to show where it
began.
Gorge – a narrow valley between hills or
mountains, typically with rocky walls and a
stream running through it. syn – ravine,
canyon, gully, pass, deep narrow valley
Q3. What did Sibia do when she was
halfway across the river? What happened at
that very moment?
A3. When Sibia was halfway over the river,
she put down her load of dry grass on a big
boulder to rest; and leaned, breathing, on
her fork.
At that same moment, a Gujar woman
came down with two gurrahs to the river on
the other side. In order to get the good clear
water, which would quickly fill both gurrahs
to the brim without sand, she walked onto
the stepping stones.
Q4. When did the crocodile attack the Gujar
woman? How did the woman react to this
attack? Describe the struggle that followed.
A4. Hardly had the Gujar woman walked
onto the stepping-stones, when the large
crocodile, which was within a yard of the
woman, lunged at her out of the dark water,
his livid jaws yawning and all his teeth
flashing and slashed at her leg.
The Gujar woman screamed, dropped
both brass pots/gurrahs which fell with a
clatter on a boulder and then bounced to the
water to bob away in the current.
(Sibia was sad to see the two brass vessels
bob away downstream)
The Gujar woman recoiled/jumped
back from the great reptile, but its jaws
closed down on her leg, making her slip and
fall on the bone-breaking stones. She
clutched at one of the timber logs jammed
between two boulders. While the woman
screamed in horror, the crocodile pulled on
her leg, threshing his huge tail to and fro in
great smacking flails as it attempted to drag
her free and carry her off down into the
deep water. Blood spread everywhere on
the water’s surface.
Q5. How did Sibia react on seeing the
woman being attacked by the crocodile? /
How did Sibia rescue the Gujar woman from
the crocodile?
A5. Sibia sprang to the woman’s rescue.
She leaped from boulder to boulder like a
surefooted goat, ignoring the large gaps in
the middle of the
river. Moving, as if on wings, she was beside
the shrieking woman in a moment. Seeing
the crocodile, with his jaws closed on the
woman’s leg, frantically trying to drag her
into deeper water to drown her, Sibia, who
was on her way back home, rushed to the
aid of the woman. Casting aside fear, she
drove her hayfork at the creature’s eyes,
piercing one of its eyes with one prong and
scratching its horny cheek with a pair. The
crocodile convulsed and retreated.

Q6. Write about the theme of conflict

between human beings and wild nature as
depicted/shown in this story.
A6. Though man and nature are
interdependent, they are constantly at
odds/in conflict with each other.Moreover,
nature can at times savagely turn upon man,
inflicting grievous harm. Both these aspects
are vividly portrayed in Norah Burke’s story,
the ‘Blue Bead’.
The poor village people live in the lap
of nature, enjoying its benefits. Since they
inhabit the edge of a forest, they are always
vulnerable to the hidden dangers of the wild.
They live far from urbanization, exposed to
disease and often threatened by wild
animals.
As bridges are nonexistent, Sibia and
the village women are compelled to cross
the shallows of the river, jumping from stone
to stone. This exposes them to the mighty
mugger, lying concealed in the shallows, by
the stepping-stones. The Gujar woman, who
had come to fetch water from this river, is
attacked by the mugger, which got hold of
her leg and frantically tried to drag her into
deeper water, to drown her.
 It was at this moment that Sibia, who
was on her way back home, rushed to the
aid of the woman. Casting aside fear, she
drove her hayfork at the creature’s eyes,
piercing one of its eyes with one prong and
scratching its horny cheek with a pair. The
crocodile convulsed and retreated.
Such acts of heroism had become a part
of the lives of these simple jungle folks, who
lived amidst nature. Acts of heroism in the
jungle were as common as a thorn tree. In
the solitude of nature, they had learnt to live
with both, the blessings and dangers, which
they confronted in their daily lives.
EXTRACT - VIII
The crocodile reared up in convulsion,
till half….
Q1. How did the mugger react on seeing
Sibia’s presence?
A1. One slap of the mugger’s tail could kill
Sibia. When its eyes rolled on to/saw Sibia, it
ferociously struck out at her. Its tail missed
Sibia and hit the water, sending water
shooting up twenty feet and then falling
back like a silver chain. Its second strike at
Sibia also missed and landed on a rock,
making it jump.
Q2. How did Sibia attack the crocodile? How
did the mugger react?
A2. Sibia aimed at the reptile’s eyes and
with all the force her little body could
muster, drove her hayfork at its eyes. One
prong of the hayfork deeply pierced one of
its eyes and a pair scratched past its horny
cheek.
The mugger reared up in convulsion, till
half its body was out of the water, its tail
and nose nearly meeting over his hard/stony
back.It then crashed back, exploding the
water, and in an uproar of bloody foam, it
disappeared.
Q3. What would be the fate of the
crocodile?
A3. The crocodile would not die
immediately, but presently/shortly it would.
His death would only be revealed when its
bloated stomach had blown up and it was
discovered floating upside down between
the logs at the timber boom, with pus in its
eye.
Q4. How did Sibia attend to the Gujar
woman?
A4.Getting her arms around the fainting
Gujar woman, Sibia somehow dragged her
from the water. To check/stop the flow of
blood from her wounds, Sibia used sand. She
then bound the wounds with rag and helped
back to the Gujar encampment where the
men made a litter to carry her off for
treatment.
Q5. What did Sibia do after helping the
wounded woman back home? What object
did she find there?
A5. Immediately after Sibia had helped the
wounded Gujar woman back home, Sibia
returned to the stepping-stones for her grass
and sickle and hayfork.
Sibia found her hayfork still lying in the river,
not borne/carried away, luckily, by the
stream. As she bent to pick it up out of the
water, she saw/found the blue bead, which
initially did not seem blue, but a no-colour
white-blue, with the sun nearly gone. It
seemed to be wobbling in the movement of
the stream.
Q6. How did Sibia take possession of the
blue bead?Describe the blue bead. How did
she feel on obtaining it?
A6. Sibia reached her arm down into a
yard of the cold silk water to collect the blue
bead. Her first attempt failed due to
refraction. However, on her second attempt
she obtained it.
The blue bead lying in her wet palm
was perfect. It was even pierced and ready
for use. The light of the sunset appeared to
shuffle about inside it like gold-dust.
Sibia was delighted and all her heart lit up
with burning joy.
Q7. What did Sibia do with the blue bead?
Where did she then go? How would you
describe that day of hers?
A7. Sibia twisted the blue bead into the
top of her skirt against her tummy so that
she would know if it burst out of the worn
cloth and fell.
She then picked up her hayfork and
sickle and the heavy load of grass and set off
home.
That day had been a most hectic day,
full of surprises for Sibia. Her happiest
moment had been when she discovered the
blue bead in the river for her necklace.
Q8. What dangers was Sibia oblivious to as
she trudged home from the river?
A8. As Sibia trudged home, she was
oblivious to/unaware of the dangers posed
to her by snakes, malaria mosquitoes and a
morose, tuskless elephant that frequented
that path at night.
Q9. On the way back home why was Sibia
scolded? What explanation did she give?
A9. On the way back home, Sibia met her
mother, who scolded her for not returning
home with the rest of the group.Fearing that
something had happened to her daughter,
she had returned in search of her.
Sibia, unable to restrain her joy, cried out
that something did happen and that she had
found a blue bead for her necklace.
Q10. Why was Sibia not excited at saving
the Gujar woman but thrilled at finding the
blue bead?
A10. Poverty, a major theme of ‘The Blue
Bead’, is well depicted through the life of
Sibia, a ‘thin starving child dressed in an
earth-coloured rag’. About twelve years old,
she had always longed to have a bead
necklace round her neck and hear it swish as
she moved. Her poverty, however,
prevented her from owning a decent bead
necklace. The battle she fought with the
mugger to save the Gujar woman’s life does
not excite her as such acts of heroism were
part of daily jungle life. The glittering blue
bead was of much greater worth in her
poverty-stricken life. It is rather ironical that
after having risked her life to save the Gujar
woman from the jaws of death, she
mentions nothing of this incident to her
mother but joyously proclaims that she had
found a blue bead for her necklace. Thus
finding the blue bead was more thrilling than
saving the Gujar woman.