Question

NCERT Solutions Class 12, English, Flamingo, Prose, Chapter- 3, Deep Water

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Answer 1

NCERT Solutions Class 12, English, Flamingo, Prose, Chapter- 3, Deep Water

Notice these words and expressions in the text. Infer their meaning from the context.

• treacherous
• subdued my prid
• flailed at the surface
• fishing for landlocked salmon
• misadventure
• bob to the surface like a cork
• curtain of life fell
• back and forth across the pool

Solution:

treacherous: unpredictable danger; not dependable or trustworthy

subdued my prid: to lower or restrain the intensity of self-respect and confidence

flailed at the surface: to strike or lash out vigorously at the surface of the water in trying to come out

fishing for landlocked salmon: to go fishing for a specific variety of salmon available in certain lakes

misadventure: an incident that turns out to be a disaster

bob to the surface like a cork: to float or show the characteristics of buoyancy as a cork in water

curtain of life fell: to indicate that life has ended or a near-death experience

back and forth across the pool: to swim across the swimming pool from one side to the other

Think As you Read

1. What is the “misadventure” that William Douglas speaks about?

Solution:

The author William Douglas was sitting on the side of the pool. As there was no one else there, he was waiting for others to come so that he could start swimming. Then an eighteen-year-old well-built boy picked him up and tossed him into the deep end of the pool.

2. What were the series of emotions and fears that Douglas experienced when he was thrown into the pool? What plans did he make to come to the surface?

Solution:

William Douglas was thrown into the deep waters of the pool by a big boy. He was frightened but not frightened enough to stop thinking. All the time, despite having fear of drowning, he kept himself mentally alert. He planned that when his feet hit the bottom, he would make a big jump, come to the surface, lie flat on it and paddle to the edge of the pool. His strategy helped him save his life.

3. How did this experience affect him?

Solution:

This experience of the author about to face death, made him bold and strong. This experience wiped out fear and wiped out terror from the author’s mind. He felt that there was no more panic and it was all quiet and peaceful. He felt that there was nothing to be afraid of.

Think As you Read

1. Why was Douglas determined to get over his fear of water?

Solution:

Douglas regretted being deprived of enjoying water activities like canoeing, boating, swimming, fishing, etc. The wish to enjoy them and the craving to regain his lost confidence, while being in water, made him try every possible way to get rid of his fear. He was finally able to overcome this mental handicap by getting himself a swimming instructor and further ensuring that no residual fear was left.

2. How did the instructor “build a swimmer” out of Douglas?

Solution:

The instructor built a swimmer out of Douglas piece by piece. For three months he held him high on a rope attached to his belt. He went back and forth across the pool. Panic seized the author every time. The instructor taught Douglas to put his face under water and exhale and to raise his nose and inhale. Then Douglas had to kick with his legs for many weeks till these relaxed. After seven months the instructor told him to swim the length of the pool.

3. How did Douglas make sure that he conquered the old terror?

Solution:

Even after the swimming training was over, Douglas wasn't confident about his swimming or that he had overcome the fear. He was determined to completely get rid of it forever. He swam alone in the pool. He went to Lake Wentworth to dive. There, he tried every possible stroke he had learnt. He fought back the tiny vestiges of terror that gripped him in middle of the lake. Finally, in his diving expedition in the Warm Lake, he realised that he had truly conquered his old terror.

Understanding the text

1. How does Douglas make clear to the reader the sense of panic that gripped him as he almost drowned? Describe the details that have made the description vivid.

Solution:

Once William Douglas went to the Y.M.C.A. swimming pool when no one else was there. He was fearful about swimming in the pool alone. So he sat on the side of the pool to wait for others. He had not been there long when a big boy, probably eighteen-year-old, picked him up and threw him into the deep end of the pool.

He went at once to the bottom. He was frightened, but not yet frightened out of his wits. So, on the way down he planned that when his feet hit the bottom, he would make a big jump, come to the surface, lie flat on it, and paddle to the edge of the pool.

Douglas did this until he could possibly hit the bottom and try to paddle to the edge. But he went down, down, endlessly. He was gripped with a sense of panic as he tells us : “And then sheer, stark terror seized me, terror that knows no understanding, terror that knows no control, terror that no one can understand who has not experienced it.” He was shrieking under water. He was paralysed under water — stiff, rigid with fear. Even the screams in his heart were frozen. Only his heart, and the pounding in his head, said that he was still alive. This is how Douglas makes clear to the reader the sense of panic that gripped him as he almost drowned.

2. How did Douglas overcome his fear of water?

Solution:

William Douglas for a long period remained fearful of water. This handicap deprived him of the joy of canoeing, boating, and swimming. He used every way he knew to overcome his fear of water, but it overpowered him. Finally, one October, he decided to get an instructor and learn to swim.

He went to a pool and practised five days a week, an hour each day. The instructor first put a belt around Douglas. A rope attached to the belt went through a pulley that ran on an overhead cable. The instructor held on to the end of the rope, and they went back and forth. Then the instructor taught Douglas to put his face under water and exhale, and to raise his nose and inhale. Then he taught Douglas how to kick in water with his legs. This is how Douglas learnt swimming step by step.

However to ensure that he has conquered his fear of water, Douglas went to Lake Wentworth in New Hampshire and dived off a dock at Triggs Island. He swam two miles across the lake to Stamp Act Island. He swam the crawl, breast stroke, side stroke, and back stroke.

Only once the terror returned to some extent when he was in the middle of the lake. But he overcame it. Yet to clear his doubt, he went up the Tietan to Canrad Meadows, and camped in the high meadov by the side of Warm Lake. The next morning he dived into the lake and swam across to the other shore and back. He shouted with joy as he had conquered his fear of water.

3. Why does Douglas as an adult recount a childhood experience of terror and his conquering of it? What larger meaning does he draw from this experience?

Solution:

Douglas had two childhood experiences of terror. One at the California beach when the waves knocked him down and swept over him. He was terror stricken. At the other occasion he was thrown into the deep end of the Y.M.C.A pool by a big bruiser of a boy. A stark terror overpowered and gripped him. It followed and haunted him wherever he went. He realised that his joys of fishing, canoeing, boating and swimming had ruined. Keeping in view its severe consequences, he engaged an instructor who trained him in swimming and Douglas was able to conquer his fear.

This experience had a deeper meaning for Douglas. Because he had experienced both the sensation of dying and the terror that the fear of it can produce, he learnt the will to live in great intensity. This experience can only be realised by those who had faced to conquer it. This exactly happened with Douglas. He knew: In death, there is peace., there is terror only in the fear of death.’’ Thus one can estimate what matters is the will to live. As Roosevelt said ‘‘All we have to fear is fear itself.’’ So will to live is great and it can take man to touch the highest peaks of life.

Answer 2

Talking about the text

1. “All we have to fear is fear itself”. Have you ever had a fear that you have now overcome? Share your experience with your partner.

Solution:

It is a fact that all we need to fear is fear itself. The only way to conquer fear is to constantly do the things of which we are afraid. We should not stop doing such things until we completely overcome the fear of those things. I too had cricket phobia till last year. It all started when I was in fourth standard. I was playing cricket with my friends in the ground of our colony one Sunday afternoon.

I was batting when the cricket ball hit me on my head. I fell unconscious on the ground. It was only after a fortnight that I recovered completely. I stopped playing cricket afterwards. On the insistence and encouragement of my friends I started playing cricket again last year. I batted while wearing a helmet. I was afraid while trying to catch the ball also while fielding. But during my spare time, I played cricket only. In this way, gradually, I was able to overcome my fear of playing cricket.

2. Find and narrate other stories about conquest of fear and what people have said about courage. For example, you can recall Nelson Mandela’s struggle for freedom, his perseverance to achieve his mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor as depicted in his autobiography. The story We’re Not Afraid To Die, which you have read in Class XI, is an apt example of how courage and optimism helped a family survive under the direst stress.

Solution:

The history of human beings is full of stories of courage and conquest of fear. Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela fought courageously and struggled strenously to see, their countries free from British empire and to attain independence.

Nelson Mandela remained in jail for a very long time without having any fear of oppression. Maharani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi fought bravely with the Mughal empire and sacrificed her life, Bhagat Singh, Chandershekhar Azad, Sukhdev and Rajgurh kissed death willingly and happily for the sake of freedom of their nation. All these people and many many more had conquered fear with courage.

Maharana Pratap, another hero of Indian history, waged tireless war against Mughal supermacy. He fought many heroic battles against the Mughal army. All through the changing fortunes of the war Udaipur, Maharana’s seat of government, held its head high and refused to acknowledge supermacy of Akbar.

Udaipur remained unconquered. The story “We’re Not Afraid To Die” is the story of courage and optimism about the voyage of the author alongwith his family on their boat. ‘Wavewalker’. They faced the alarmingly high sea waves that broke over the ship, injured him and his daughter Sue. But none of them lost courage. His small ^ children also showed exemplary courage and conviction. Despite extremely odd circumstances, they were able to save themselves.

Thinking about language

If someone else had narrated Douglas’s experience, how would it have differed from this account? Write out a sample paragraph or paragraphs from this text from the point of view of a third person or observer, to find out which style of narration would you consider to be more effective? Why?

Solution:

If a third person had narrated Douglas’ experience, the impact of the story would have lost the reader’s deep connection with the main protagonist and his fear of water. The narrator then would be passively telling the story from the perspective of an observer. The incident of drowning in water could never have successfully communicated the feeling of the “stark terror” that Douglas underwent.

In third person narrative, the 8th and 9th paragraph of the story would be as follows:

“He flailed at the surface of the water, swallowed and choked. He tried to bring his legs up but they hung as dead weights, paralyzed and rigid. A great force was pulling him under. He screamed, but only the water heard him. He had started on the long journey back to the bottom of the pool.”

“He struck at the water as he went down; expending his strength as one in a nightmare, fights an irresistible force. He had lost all his breath. His lungs ached. His head throbbed. He was getting dizzy. But he remembered the strategy – he would spring from the bottom of the pool and come like a cork to the surface. He would lie flat on the water, strike out with his arms, and thrash with his legs. Then he would get to the edge of the pool and be safe.”

So, it is only the first person narrative that keeps the reader gripped to the story. It makes the experience more relevant and tangible for the reader. It engages him by making him go through the experience along with the protagonist. The desperation and helplessness of being in water, which has almost become fatal, the mental and physical agony of trying to survive the crisis, the long struggle of overcoming the fear bit-by-bit and the jubilation of conquering it at the end; all make the reader feel part of the experience. The first person narrative makes the story a fast-paced and urgent reading for the readers. All this would have been lost had it been a third person narrative or from the point of view of an observer.

Answer 3

Writing

1. Doing well in any activity, for example a sport, music, dance or painting, riding a motorcycle or a car, involves a great deal of struggle. Most of us are very nervous to begin with until gradually we overcome our fears and perform well.

Write an essay of about five paragraphs recounting such an experience. Try to recollect minute details of what caused the fear, your feelings, the encouragement you got from others or the criticism.

You could begin with the last sentence of the essay you have just read — “At last I felt released — free to walk the trails and climb the peaks and to brush aside fear.”

Solution:

“At last I felt released free to walk the trails and climb into peaks and to brush aside fear.” Of course, it turned out to be a terrible experience in the beginning, but in the end it was a thrilling joyous experience. Learning to drive a car was such an experience for me. On my persistent requests, my uncle agreed to help me learn how to drive a car. One day, we went to outskirts of the city where there was very less traffic.

First of all, my uncle told me about the major components of the car like clutch, brake and steering wheel etc. Then he told me how to start a car. Everytime I tried to start the car, I failed. As soon as I would start it, it would i nnatically stop. After an hour of practice when still I was not able to start, my uncle encraged me by saying that in the beginning it takes time to learn.

Next day, I managed to start the car as I was determined to learn driving it. My practice was going on in an encouraging manner and under the assistance of my uncle, I had a full round of the circular road. Now every day I would accompany my uncle or rather eagerly awaited for him so that I would continue with my practice. On that day, I saw a truck at some distance. I got confused and instead of applying brakes, I pressed the cluch. It would have surely been a fatal accident had my uncle not promptly pressed the brake with full force. The truck driver also did the same. And luckily we had a narrow escape.

But this mishappening had a terrible effect on my mind. I was extremely fond of learning how to drive a car. But now I shuddered even while sitting in a car. My uncle tried his best to convince me that it happened because I got confused. He persuaded me to continue my driving lessons and practical. But somehow I could not muster enough courage to do so. I was absolutely scared of learning to drive a car.

Then after about six months, one of my fast friends and his father encouraged me to restart learning to drive a car. He advised me to join some good driving school. With reluctance, I agreed to join a driving school. The instructor of the driving school, who was guiding me, proved too good. Step by step, he guided me brilliantly. He put much more emphasis on practice than on theory.

He taught me that the skillful jobs like driving could only be learn while driving to the maximum extent. He taught me that one could learn driving while practising to the maximum extent without any fear but while taking all the precautions. In this way I was able to overcome my fear of driving a car. Now I feel immense joy when my driving skill is appreciated.

2. Write a short letter to someone you know about your having learnt to do something new.

Solution:

52, J.N. Colony
New Delhi-110 054.
August 25, 20xx

My dear Ramesh,

Perhaps it will be a surprise to you to know that I have learnt something new, that is, playing the game of chess. But you will be more surprised to know that I am now champion of chess in my state. When you come to know about it and especially if you happen to know about it while watching T.V., I would like to explain you that it is my recent passion.
Ramesh! I break the news to you first of all! Your friend who never played chess till you know him, is now a state champion! For that, my dear friend, you should rejoice because I started playing chess when you went to Udaipur after the transfer of your father. It is not only a new thing to know for you, but it is also a new achievement for me, because whatever I did, the credit for it goes to you.

Yours sincerely,
Piyush Malhotra.