A Letter to God

1. You have read about Lencho in ‘A Letter to God’, First Flight, textbook in English for Class X. How has the story of Lencho moved you? What do you think about Lencho’s faith in God and his attitude towards the officials in the post office? Do you think he is right in asking God for support and then blaming the people at the post office? Discuss his actions with your friends. Why does he do so?

(Model Answer) The story moves the reader by highlighting the immense power of innocent faith. Lencho's faith in God is absolute and unwavering; he believes God is a living entity who can send him money directly. His attitude towards the post office officials is ironic—they are the ones who helped him, yet he views them as "crooks" because the amount was short. While he is not "right" in blaming the helpful officials, his actions stem from his naivety rather than malice. He cannot conceive that God would send less than asked, so the only logical explanation for him is that humans stole the difference.

2. The summary of the story of Lencho is given below. The sequence of the story is jumbled up. Read the story again and rearrange the jumbled sentences to make a coherent story. Write the correct order in numbers in the column below.

Jumbled sentences:
1. But it rained heavily and hailstorm thrashed his corn field and all the corn was destroyed.
2. He wrote ‘To God’ on the envelope and posted it.
3. Lencho predicted it will rain and it did. He and his wife were happy.
4. Lencho felt desperate but believed that God would help him.
5. Their corn field was longing for water.
6. The postman and the postmaster laughed at Lencho's letter but were surprised by the faith of the man.
7. He opened the letter and was happy to find the money. He counted and found it was only seventy pesos.
8. The postmaster collected about 70 pesos from his colleagues and sent it to Lencho.
9. When the postmaster opened the letter, it said “Oh! Thanks for sending the money. But I have received only seventy pesos. Next time you please send the money directly to me. The people at the post office are a bunch of crooks. They have taken the thirty pesos.”
10. Lencho, his wife, and their children lived in a lonely house in a valley.

1. 10. Lencho, his wife, and their children lived in a lonely house in a valley.
2. 5. Their corn field was longing for water.
3. 3. Lencho predicted it will rain and it did. He and his wife were happy.
4. 1. But it rained heavily and hailstorm thrashed his corn field and all the corn was destroyed.
5. 4. Lencho felt desperate but believed that God would help him.
6. 2. He wrote ‘To God’ on the envelope and posted it.
7. 6. The postman and the postmaster laughed at Lencho's letter but were surprised by the faith of the man.
8. 8. The postmaster collected about 70 pesos from his colleagues and sent it to Lencho.
9. 7. He opened the letter and was happy to find the money. He counted and found it was only seventy pesos.
10. 9. When the postmaster opened the letter, it said “Oh! Thanks for sending the money... The people at the post office are a bunch of crooks...”

Text I

Did you enjoy the story of ‘The Trader and the Tailor’? The story is summarised below. Read the story again with your friend and complete the paragraph using short sentences with the given hints.

Once there was a tailor who was known for cheating and thievery (cheat and thievery). He could cheat anyone with his cunning way of deceiving people. A trader challenged that the tailor would not be able to cheat him. He went (go) to the tailor with a piece of satin cloth (satin). The tailor welcomed him warmly (welcome). The trader was pleased (please) by the tailor’s praise. He told the tailor to make a coat for him. The tailor praised (praise) the trader to the maximum (maximum). The trader was drunk with joy (joy). The tailor recounted (recount) funny tales and the trader forgot about the bet (bet). The tailor started snipping away at the satin and hid the pieces under his thighs (hide). Eyes of the trader were closed with tears of joy (tears and joy) and yet the trader kept on asking for more stories (stories). At last, the tailor told the trader that the coat was too tight (tight) and he would weep tears of blood (weep-blood).

1. In this story you have come across a word “light-fingered” which means inclined to steal things. Some such words are given below. Use appropriate words and fill in the blanks.
light-headed, light year, light-hearted, light sleeper, light-duty

(a) The light year is a unit of distance used to measure distance in space.
(b) The farmer bought a light-duty truck to transport their produce, as it uses less diesel.
(c) We had a fairly light-hearted discussion with our colleagues.
(d) Rita felt dizzy and light-headed after skydiving.
(e) He is a light sleeper, a slightest noise wakes him.

1. You have come across Relative Clauses in the lesson ‘A Letter to God’. Read about the relative clauses again. Complete the sentences given below in the table by adding the most suitable clause from the box and make it a relative clause.

Box options: [contains meaning of words, stitches clothes, tell lies, won the best actor award this year, hit a century, is faithful, need to fill in the application, is a crook, help themselves, won the nobel prize, believe in hard work]

(a) A tailor is a person who stitches clothes.

(b) A dictionary is a book which contains meaning of words.

(c) The book is about a scientist who won the nobel prize.

(d) What is the name of the player who hit a century?

(e) I don’t like people who tell lies.

(f) What is the name of the actor who won the best actor award this year?

(g) Students who need to fill in the application should meet the principal in her office.

(h) Friends of the trader thought the tailor who is a crook can cheat anyone.

(i) Lencho who is faithful thought God would help him.

(j) Those who believe in hard work will succeed.

(k) God helps those who help themselves.

1. Suppose Lencho gets a hundred pesos in his envelope. He writes a letter to God expressing his gratitude. However, he has missed a word in each line. Help him with those words so that his letter is complete.

Dear God!
Thank for -> Thank you for
(a) sending a hundred pesos help. -> sending a hundred pesos to help.
(b) I am very for this kind gesture. -> I am very grateful for this kind gesture.
(c) You were my only and your -> You were my only hope and your
(d) help has my faith in you. -> help has saved my faith in you.
(e) This money will help me until the crop -> This money will help me until the crop comes
(f) and I promise to hard in the future. -> and I promise to work hard in the future.
Sincerely yours,
Lencho

1. Here is an interesting story. The story has been told in two ways. Story A has all the odd sentences (1,3,5,...) and story B has the even sentences (2,4,6,...). Working in pairs... complete the whole story.

1. Every evening the animals of the Machlipatti used to sit under the banyan tree.
2. One day Kho-Kho, the rabbit, was feeling bored.
3. He said, “Let’s run a race!” “Who will run a race with you?
4. No one can run faster than you,” said Bhalu, the bear, eating a mango.
5. Choo-Choo, the rat, shouted, “No, he’s not the fastest runner.
6. I can run faster than him.”
7. Everyone laughed at him.
8. Then it was decided to have a race between Kho-Kho and Choo-Choo.
9. The starting point was the peepul tree and the finishing point was the neem tree.
10. Coocku, the cock, crowed to start the race.
11. Kho-Kho and Choo-Choo started running.
12. After running half the distance, Kho-Kho looked back but Choo-Choo was nowhere to be seen.
13. “He must be far behind.”
14. When he was near the finishing point, Choo-Choo jumped over Kho-Kho’s shoulder and touched the neem tree first.
15. He shouted, “I’ve won the race! I’ve won the race!”
16. Everyone cheered for Choo-Choo.

1. The tailor here is a cheat, but Lencho in the story, ‘A Letter to God’, is naive and simple. He has immense faith in God. How do you distinguish between Lencho and the tailor? What makes them different? Working in pairs, list the actions and qualities of Lencho and the tailor and draw their character sketches.

Lencho
Action: Writes a letter to God asking for money.
What quality it reveals? Simplicity and blind faith.
How does he manage the situation? He seeks divine intervention rather than solving it himself.
Does he harm anyone by his action? No.
How do others think of him? The postmaster finds his faith amusing but inspiring.
What is your judgement of him? He is naive, innocent, and ungrateful to the humans who helped him.
He received 70 pesos and he thought 30 pesos had been stolen.
He called the post office employees "crooks" despite their help.

The Tailor
Action: Steals cloth from customers by distracting them with stories.
What quality it reveals? Cunningness, deceit, and greed.
How does he manage the situation? He uses his storytelling skills to manipulate his victims.
Does he harm anyone by his action? Yes, he causes financial loss to the trader.
How do others think of him? He is known for being light-fingered and a thief.
What is your judgement of him? He is intelligent but dishonest and manipulative.

Character Sketch of Lencho:
Lencho is a simple, hardworking farmer who is very innocent. He has firm faith in God, believing that God sees everything and will help him in distress. However, he is also naive and lacks worldly wisdom, which makes him suspect the very people who helped him.

Character Sketch of the Tailor:
The tailor is a sharp-witted but dishonest man. He is a smooth talker who uses humor and stories to distract people and rob them. Unlike Lencho, he relies on his own cunning nature to survive, but his actions are malicious and harmful to others.

2. Writing a portrait or description of a person. Now, write a description of any one of the above [Raavi or Mohini] based on the details given.

Portrait of Raavi
Raavi is a handsome young man who works as an engineer in a manufacturing firm. He is typically seen wearing full-sleeved shirts. By nature, he is very practical and enjoys making, fixing, and repairing things. He is a congenial and supportive person. Although he does not like to play sports, he maintains his health by going for a morning walk every day. In his leisure time, he loves watching television and visits the movie theatre about three times a month.