The Lost Child Explanation, Line by Line, Meaning of Difficult Words, English CBSE Class 9 NCERT Moments Chapter 1

The Lost Child Explanation, Line by Line, Meaning of Difficult Words, English CBSE Class 9 NCERT Moments Chapter 1

THE LOST CHILD

(Explanation, Meaning of difficult words)

Author – Mulk Raj Anand

Word	Meaning
Wintry	Of winter season, Cold, Chilly
Lanes	Narrow roads
Alleys	Narrow pathways
Emerged	Appeared
Gaily	Happily
Clad	Wearing, Attired
Humanity	Crowd

It was season of spring and a day of festival. The weather was cold. Several people were walking on roads and pathways. They all looked happy. They were wearing good clothes.

 

Word	Meaning
Brimming over	Full of, To exhibit, To a great extent

Some people were walking. Some were riding on horses. Some were being carried in platforms made by bamboos. Some were travelling in bullock carts. Author wants to say that almost everybody of the town had come out of their houses. A person was walking with his little son. Father was walking while the boy had to run to keep pace with his father. Height of the boy was less than the height of legs of his father. They boy looked very happy.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Lagged behind	Remained behind, Did not maintain pace
Fascinated	Impressed, Attracted
Shops that lined the way	Shops along the way

They boy was highly impressed and attracted to toys placed in the shops. His parents had to repeatedly ask him to move forward.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Hurried	Walked quickly
Lingering on	Remaining, Continued to see
Receding	Going behind

The boy obediently and quickly walked towards his parents. But he was still looking at the toys in a shop that had gone behind.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Suppress	Control
Stare	Gaze
Cold stare	Unemotional gaze

The boy came running to his parents. They had stopped for a while to wait for him. He could not control his desire to purchase that toy. Although he was aware that his parents will refuse to buy.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Pleaded	Requested earnestly
Familiar	Known, Normal
Tyrant	Dictator
Melted by	Became soft natured
Tender	Soft, Kind, Mild

The boy requested that he wanted to buy that toy. His father looked at him with his red eyes. Father normally behaved like a dictator. His mother was a bit soft because it was a day of festival. She was kind to him. She asked him to hold her finger and advised him to look ahead. She did not want him to look towards shops.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Swept across	Spread across
Even land	Plane land, Not uneven land

In the fields yellow flowers had grown on crop of mustard. It looked as if gold has been melted and poured on a large area. The area of field was fairly plane. It did not have much undulations or slope.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Dragon fly	Type of insect
Bustling about	Moving
Gaudy	Of dark colour
Intercepting	Crossing

A group of dragon-flies was moving around. Their wings were of dark purple colour. Many times they crossed the path of a bee or a butterfly. Bees and butterflies had come to the field in search of sweetness of flowers.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Fluttering	Sound produced by movement of wings
Flapping	Moving the wings

The child looked at dragon-flies while they were flying in air. He continued to follow these till one of them sat somewhere. Then he tried to catch it. But he could not catch any. These would again move into the air before being caught. Probably he moved on the road while trying to catch a dragonfly. So his mother advised him to walk on footpath only.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Abreast of	Ahead of
For a while	For a short time
Teeming out	Coming out in groups

He happily ran towards his parents. For a short period of time he walked ahead of them. But very soon he was once again behind them. This time he was attracted by insects and worms. These were coming out in large groups from their place of hiding. Probably they also wanted to enjoy the good sunshine of the day.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Grove	A small group of trees

His parents sat in the shade of a small group of trees. There was a well in the shade. They were sitting on the edge of a well. They called their son to come to them. He came running.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Young flowers	Small flowers, New flowers
Gather	Collect
Petals	Leaves of flowers

When the child came in the shade of grove, many small flowers fell on him. He forgot about presence of his parents. He started collecting petals falling from trees in his hands.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Cooing of dove	Voice of dove

Now he heard the voice of a dove. He was very excited to hear the voice. He ran towards his parent shouting ‘The Dove’. He forgot that he had collected petals in his hands. So all the petals fell on the ground.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Wild capers	Flowers growing in a jungle
Winding footpath	Footpath with many curves and bends

Now the child had gone behind a banyan tree. Several wild flowers had grown there. Parent called the child. Together they started walking on narrow curved footpath. That footpath was leading through the fields of mustard to the site of fair.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Neared	Came near
Throngs	Crowd
Converging	Meeting
Whirlpool	Huge movement
Repelled	Distracted, Afraid

When they reached closer to the village of the fair, the child saw many footpaths leading to the fair. Each footpath was full of crowd moving towards fair. It was huge movement of people. The child was afraid. He was also attracted towards such a big gathering of people. Because of the large crowd there could be many confusions in the fair.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Sweetmeat seller	One who sells sweets
Hawked	Shouted
A crowd pressed round his counter	Crowd gathered at his counter

A seller of sweets was shouting names of various sweets available at his shop. This shop was at the corner near the entrance of the fair. A big crowd had already gathered in front of his shop. He had nicely arranged sweets at his counter. These sweets were decorated with leaves of golden and silver colour.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Openeyed	Without closing eyelids
Murmured	Whispered, Spoke in low voice
Half knew	Almost sure
Plea	Request
Would not be heeded	Would not be accepted
Heed	To accept

The child looked at burfi without closing his eyelids. It was his favourite sweet. He slowly whispered that he wanted to eat burfi. But he was almost sure that his request will not be accepted. His parent would tell that he was greedy. So he did not wait for an answer from his parents. He kept on moving.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Irresistibly	Without any control
Drawn	Attracted
Well knew	Knew for sure
Cheap	Not good

A seller of flowers was shouting to sell gulmohur flowers and garlands made of these flowers. The child could not control himself and he was attracted to the shop. He went towards the basket where flowers were kept. He softly said that he wanted to buy that garland. He was sure that his parent would not buy it for him. They would say that it was not a good garland. He did not wait for any answer from his parents. He kept walking.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Carried away	Got attracted, Became happy,
Overwhelming	Immense, Huge,
Posses	To own

A man was holding a pole and standing near it. Balloons of various colours were tied on the pole. These looked like a rainbow. The child was fully attracted towards balloons. He had a huge desire to buy all the balloons.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Too old to play	Not of the age to play with balloons
Farther	Greater distance

But he was sure that his parent would not buy these for him. They would say that he was now a grown up child. He should not play with balloons. So he continued to walk away from balloons.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Snake charmer	Person who makes snake move on the music
Coiled	Bent in the shape of circle
Graceful	Stylish,
Swan	A bird with long neck
Stole into	Entered into
Invisible	That cannot be seen
Gentle	Soft, Moderate, Kind
Rippling	Movement of water in the pattern of wave

A snake charmer was playing a flute. In the basket a snake was sitting in shape of a circle. It had raised its head in the style of the neck of a swan. It appeared that the music was entering into its invisible ears. The music was like the sound of water in a waterfall.

 

 

 

Word	Meaning
Forbidden	Prohibited, Not permitted
Coarse	Harsh
Proceeded	Went

The child started moving towards the snake charmer. He was aware that his parents had not given the permission to hear such harsh music played by snake charmer. So he went ahead with his parents.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Roundabout	A swing that moves in circular motion
Whirling	Circular
Shrieked	Shouted loudly
Dizzy	Very high, Loud

There was a swing that was moving in circular fashion. Many kids, men and women were riding that swing. They moved in a fast circular motion. They shouted and laughed loudly.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Intently	Carefully
Bold	Courageous

The child carefully looked at them. Then he made a courageous request to his parents. He wanted to ride that roundabout.

 

 

Word	Meaning
No sign of them	They were not seen, They were not there

The child did not receive any reply from his parents. His parent were not ahead of him. He looked back and to his sides. He did not see his parents.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Rolled down	Started coming down
Fierce	Causing fear
Flushed	Became red
Convulsed	Distorted, Shaking

He was now afraid, his throat became dry. He started crying loudly. Suddenly he started running. He was crying because of fear. He was shouting for his mother and father. Hot tears started coming down from his eyes because of fear. His face became red. Since he was crying, his face looked distorted. It was also shaking.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Panic	Fear
Panic-stricken	Very afraid, Very frightened
Hither and thither	Here and there, In various directions
Wailed	Cried loudly
Muddy	Dirty

He was very afraid. he ran to one side. Then he started running in various directions. He did not know in which direction he should go. She started shouting for his parents. He cried loudly. His yellow turban opened. His clothes became dirty.

 

 

Word	Meaning
To and fro	Constantly moving forward and backward
Rage	Violent, Without any thoughts
Suppressed	Changed by force, Restricted
Sobs	Crying with sighs
Filmy	Covered with something

He run in all directions and every time he came back to his original position. He could not find his parents. He accepted his defeat. His cries now converted into sobs. At a small distance there was green grass on the ground. Through his eyes covered by tears, he saw that some men and women were talking to each other.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Patches	Shades
For the sake of	For the purpose of

He tried to carefully look at the patches of bright yellow clothes. He was trying to identify and locate his parents in the crowd. But he could not see his parents. Those people appeared to be laughing and talking for the only purpose of laughing and talking. Meaning that they were laughing without any reason.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Shrine	Place of worship
Crowding	Gathering
Congested	Over crowded
Lingering	Continued

He again quickly ran to a place of worship. Lot of people were there. Every space there was overcrowded with people. He ran between legs of people. His height was small. He was sobbing and continued to shout for his parents.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Crowd became very thick	Lot of overcrowding
Jostled	Pushed
Flashing	Shining
Murderous	Angry
Hefty	Strong, Big

Near entrance to the temple, there were so many people. It was really overcrowded. People pushed each other. They were really big people. Their eyes were shining and they looked angry. They were really strong people. Meaning that he found difficult to move through the crowd.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Poor child	Helpless child
Thrust	Push
Brutal	Violent, Cruel
Trampled	Crushed under feet
Highest pitch	Loudest voice, At top of voice

The helpless child was struggling to push himself through legs of people. But he fell down because of movement of people. People might have crushed him under their feet. But he shouted in loudest voice for his parents.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Surging	Increasing, Moving ahead
Stooping	Bending low

In the crowd that was increasing, a man heard cries of the child. With great difficulty, he bent low and lifted the child in his arms.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Steered	Moved
Mass	Crowd
Bitterly	At higher intensity

The man moved away from the crowd. The man asked him how he came there. Who are your parents? The child started crying more loudly. The only thing he said was that he wanted to meet his parents.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Soothe	Assure him, Give comfort
Shrill	Loud high pitched voice

The man tried to give him comfort by taking him to the roundabout. The man asked the child if he would like to have a ride on the horse of the roundabout. The child again started sobbing loudly. He shouted that he wanted to meet his parents.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Swaying	Moving sideways

The man now came to the place where snake charmer was sitting. He was still playing his flute and the cobra snake was moving sideways. The man requested the kid to listen to the music. The child shut his ears with his fingers. He shouted very loudly, almost twice high, that he wanted to meet his parents.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Distract	Divert
Quieten	To calm
Persuasively	Persuading, In requesting mode

The man took the child to the place where balloons were being sold. He thought that attractive colours of balloons would divert attention of the child. So he may become calm. But the child turned his eyes from balloons. He continued to cry and told that he wanted to meet his parents.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Bore him	Moved him, Took him
Reiterated	Once again

The man still wanted to make the child happy. He took the child to the gate where flowers were being sold. The man told him that smell of those flowers was nice. The man asked the child if he wanted to put a garland around his neck. The child turned away from the basket of flowers. He again started crying. He said that he wanted to meet his parents.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Humour	To make happy
Disconsolate	Unhappy

The man thought that a gift of sweets will make the unhappy child happy. So he took the child to the sweet shop. The man asked what sweets he would like to eat. The child did not look at sweets. He continued to sob. He told that he wanted to meet his parents.

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Author – Mulk Raj Anand