Around a Medicinal Creeper
K.P. Poornachandra Tejaswi
SUMMARY
This story is written by Poorna Chandra Tejaswi. One day
Tejaswi and Mara were erecting a bamboo frame. Sanna brought some creepers to
tie the bamboo frame. There was a medicinal creeper in the bundle. All of them
went to see the creeper and Mara tied the creeper to a nearby plant so that it
could be found when needed. Mara said that every inch of it is useful. Tejaswi
came to know about the uses of that creeper after twenty years from Krishna.
Once Krishna, a farm hand, was suffering piles. Krishna had approached a
Malayali Godman for the cure of piles. Tejaswi and Krishna searched for that
creeper, dug out its tubor, ground it and took it with milk for five days. He
was cured of piles.
I. Answer the following questions in a word or sentence
each.
1 What did Mara do when they found the creeper?
Ans: - Mara caught hold of the one of the tendrils and tied
it to the nearby tree.
2 Mention the curse about the plant.
Ans: - Medicinal plant has a curse that when someone needs
this plant, they shall not find it for dear life.
3 What surprised the white man?
Ans: - There was no blood, no wound- in fact no sign of any
wound having been there on Mara’s hand.
4 How did the mongoose and Cowcal cure themselves of
snakebite?
Ans: - Mongoose and Cowcal cured themselves of snake bite by
found the leaf and chew them.
5 Why had Mara lost his teeth on the right side?
Ans: - Because of brush his teeth nearby plant in the
forest.
6 What did Mara’s wife find on opening the packet of meat?
Ans: - Mara’s wife found wild buck instead of meat.
7 What happened when the milk was mixed with the juice of
the creeper’s leaves?
Ans: - It has been firm and rubbery.
8 When would the medicines lose their potency according to
the belief of native doctors?
Ans: - Native doctors believed that if they told others
about their medicines, they would lose their potency.
9 India `s native medicines systems are on the verge of
----------
Ans: - extinction
10 There are various types swelling that occur in the human
body and this panticuler plant may be effective on only--------
a) Same of them
b) All of them
c) A few of them
11 How has a coffee sweep bed to be protected from the sun?
Ans: - By putting up a shade over the coffee seed bed.
12 Who want sent to forest to get some exeepers?
Ans. Sanna
13 When did Mara scold Sanna?
Ans: - while Mara opened the bundle and sifting it Mara
scolded Sanna
14 What answer did Sanna give to mare about the creeper?
Ans: - There was plenty of that creeper in the forest.
15 Why did author go along with Mara and Sanna to the
forest?
Ans: - Out of sheer curiosity to know about that medicinal
creeper.
16 When Sanna showed the plant, Mara become Very -------
a) Active
b) dull
c) Hyperactive
d) angry
17 According to Mara, who did the creeper cursed by?
Ans: - Sage
18 Why did Mara tie that creeper immediately to the tree?
Ans: - When you want it and search for it, we won`t able to
find it. So that Mara tied that creeper immediately to the tree plant.
19 The creeper leaves resembling betel leaves and bears
fruits in a bunch like-----
Ans: - Grapes
20 When the creeper did come up flowers again?
Ans: - Only after rains quickly.
21 Why does Mara’s story are bizarre?
Ans: - Because one does not know which is true and which is
false.
22 The entire system of Indian medicine suffers from this
kind of -----
a) Mystification
b) Justification
c) Classification
23 From whom did the narrator wandering in the forest?
Ans: - Masti, Byra, Appanna, Mara and others.
24 While wandering the forest, what did the narrator
gleaned?
Ans: - Learnt about some plants and herbs.
25 Why did the people leaving us one by one?
Ans: - Because of forest were disappearing.
26 When did the doctor friends of the narrate annoy?
Ans: -While he tried to discuss the unique properties of
plants and herbs with them.
27 What did the narrator’s doctor friends call about the
narrator?
Ans: -Ignoramus
28 While Mara typing up the plant, how did Mara Praise that
plant to the skies?
Ans: - Every inch of the plant was medicinal.
29 Did Mara tell the narrator what exactly the medicinal
creeper cured?
Ans: - No, he did not tell anything about its medicinal
qualities.
30 How did Mara’s stories instead they were not true?
Ans: - His stories were marvelous.
31 When did Mara’s hands thrust?
Ans: -When Mara was cutting the shoot, accidently he cut his
hand.
32 Who brought some leaf and pressed against the wound of
Mara and bandaged it?
Ans: -Someone near with Mara.
33 For who did Mara went for proper dressing?
Ans: - Hulihindulu / a white man
34 How did Mara convince the white man?
Ans: -Mara convinced the white man by show all the blood on
his clothes.
35 What offer did Mara get from white man?
Ans: - If Mara was showed the plant to the Whiteman he would
give him his entire plantation.
36 Why did White man angry about Mara?
Ans: - The Whiteman was angry about Mara because he would
greedy and not satisfied.
37 What was the response of white man by pointing the gun to
Mara?
Ans: -“If you do not show it to me, I will shoot you
down”.
38 What did the author think about the stories of Mara?
Ans: -Stories of Mara are cock and bull stories and totally
fabricated.
39 Mara did not have any teeth on the ----- side of the
mouth
a) Left
b) right
c) both left and right
d) only front teeth
40 Why did Mara thank God?
Ans: - Mara thanked
god because he was saved his right side teeth by not to brushed all his teeth
by the creeper.
41 Long ago, Mara and a friend of his laid a trip and caught
---------
a) Buck
b) barking deer
c) Peacock
d) Rabbit
42 Why did the narrator speechless while the heard the story
of Mara?
Ans: - Narrator was speechless because of Mara’s inventive
genius.
43 Who did the narrator met with the creeper?
Ans: - Chandru
44 Who was Chandru?
Ans: - A Plant
pathologist.
45 What did the scientist friends told to the narrator?
Ans: - Scientist friend told to the narrator that they were
wasting a liter of milk be listening to all kind of cock and bull stories.
46 While the narrator inverted the vessel the whole thing
fell out like a ------
Ans: - Moulded cost
47 What disease Krishna earlier had?
Ans: -Piles
48 What was only allopathic treatment for piles? Ans:
-Surgery. 49 What had Malayali God man
treated?
Ans: -Krishna’s earlier disease of developing boils on his
body.
II. Answer the
following questions in a paragraph of 80-100 words.
1. How long did it take the narrator to learn the facts
about the medicinal creeper? What does it signify? The writer K.P Poornachandra
Tejaswi’s was with Mara and his friends for a long time to know more about the
medicinal herbs. It took almost twenty years for the author to learn about the
medicinal creeper, all because of the unwillingness of the local people to
share their knowledge regarding these medicinal plants. This signifies that there were a lot of myths
(legends) regarding this creeper. Nobody was sure of the type of disease that
it could cure, its availability, in what form it must be taken and so on.
2. What does the incident of Mara’s wife throwing the leaves
into the fire tell us about Indians in general?
Mara and his friend
had caught a
barking deer. They
skinned (painful) and
cleaned it and
divided the meat.
Mara covered his share of meat with certain leaves and
took it home. His wife prepared the masala with spices, put the water to boil
and opened the packet with the leaves. To her surprise, she found a live wild
buck instead of the meat. In anger and out of frustration she threw those leaves into the fire, while Mara
ran behind the buck. She ignorantly threw the leaves into fire, thus remaining
ignorant about her own local medicines. This tells us that Indians have a
casual attitude towards the medicinal plants though it can do wonders.
3. How is Krishna Cured of his illness?
Ans: - Being a
Rickshaw driver, Krishna had piles. So had started passing blood with his
stools. Now he had become serious and tired. So Krishna went to see the
Malayali God man. Now He had become too old. Apparently, he told Krishna that
he did not have the strength to search for the plant. He simply describes it.
Krishna had to search for this plant, dig out the tuberous root, mix it with
milk and drink the medicine for five days. Within a day his piles improved. He
was completely cured in five days.
III. Answer the following questions in 200 words.
1.
Do you think the author is suggesting that
Indian herbal medicine is better/ safer than allopathic medicine? OR
2.
What
has made the
modern man lose
the knowledge of
traditional medicine? Do
you think Ayurveda
will make a comeback in a successful way?
The
writer K.P Poornachandra
Tejaswi’s is trying
to suggest that
Indian Herbal Medicine
is better and
safer than allopathic medicine. People like Mara and his
wife were ignorant and neglected the significance of the medicinal creeper and
this took the author almost twenty years to test, if there was some Truth in
what Mara and other illiterates claimed. The author tries to show that Indian
herbal medicine can do wonders, when allopathic medicine becomes a failure or
settle as the one with side effects than benefits, through surgery. Allopathic
Practitioners have regarded Ayurveda as ‘Bunkum’ but the reality is that
there is a
wealth of knowledge
to be explored
in the Indian
Herbal Medicine. Today
people are seen
giving more importance to the
herbal cosmetics and other products having a tag ‘herbal’. This shows that
‘Ayurveda’ will make a comeback.
3.
“Our Natural Resources are our vital resources.”
Explain the statement in the light of several developmental projects that are
being promoted today.
Natural
resources are indeed the
vital resources. In
this story we
realize the importance
of natural resources
such as medicinal herbs. The mismanagement of these
natural resources has led to various disasters and natural calamities, global
warming, climatic changes, new diseases
and epidemics. Water,
air, land and
space have been
polluted beyond imagination.
We have lost innumerable flora and fauna in the name
of some developmental projects. Recycling the
natural resources and finding
alternate sources of energy would
help us conserve the
precious natural resources. Harnessing
(tie together) solar energy for various
purposes in the form of solar cells,
cooker and heater will help save a lot of other resources. Rain
water Harvesting should be made mandatory in order to save water. Opting for
alternative sources like wind energy
and tidal energy
to generate electricity
can be utilized.
Finally, by following
the principles of
3R’s Reduce, Reuse
and Recycle, one can conserve the natural resources for the generations
to come.
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