“Madam Rides the Bus” by Vallikkannan is a sensitive story that describes the bus journey of an eight-year-old girl who stepped into the outer world for the first time. The story followed Valli, an eight-year-old girl who lived near a bus stop village. Once, she developed a strong desire to ride a bus and to make it possible, she reduced her expenses and gathered enough money for the two-way fair.
On her journey to the town by bus, Valli felt independent and enjoys her journey throughout. At the time of her return, the sad sight of a dead young cow spoiled her mood but she decided to keep it to herself. The story finely caught the introduction of Valli into the mystery of life and death. The story concludes on a strong note, where she wished to go for another ride in future despite her bitter experience in the past.
Valli found the most fascinating thing about the bus travelling between the town and her village. She watched closely and discovered that when the bus passed through the street the scenes started changing with time and the bus was being filled up with new sets of passengers in every stoppage. This became the source of the underlying joy for Valli.
From the very start, Valli wanted to ride on the bus and with time, her desire started becoming stronger and eventually, it became the strongest desire for Valli.
On her way to the town by bus Valli listened to the conversations between the neighbours who regularly travelled by bus. From their conversation and by asking a few discreet questions Valli discovered that the town was only six miles from her village. She also found out that the fare for the journey from the village to the town was only thirty paise one way. She also identified that the elapsed time of the journey was about forty-five minutes from her village. All these details were collected by Valli when she listened to the conversation of the passengers and asked a few questions to her fellow travellers.
Valli stood up in her seat to peer over the window of the bus just to see the view from outside. She saw that the bus was crossing the bank of the canal and the road was very narrow there. She also discovered that beyond the canal, there were palm trees, blue sky and distant mountains. On the other side, she saw that there were acres of green fields as far as her eyes went. The greeneries and the beauty of nature astonished her and she enjoyed her journey to the town by bus very much. Valli found the elderly woman to be absolutely repulsive as her physical appearance bothered her very much. Valli found the big holes in the ear lobes of the woman very disturbing and the ugly earrings of the woman also agitated her. In addition, the woman was chewing betel juice which was threatening to Valli if it spills over the lips of the woman. Valli also thought in her mind that how could someone be sociable with such a person. Therefore, Valli did not want to make friends with the elderly woman.
The first journey of Valli was very special to her as she had to go through painstaking and careful plans to make this happen for her. She started saving whatever stray coins came into her way thriftily. She even resisted her temptation to buy balloons, peppermints and toys. In the village fair, Valli resisted her strong desire to ride the merry-go-round just to save the money she had.
Valli did not want to go to the stall because she wanted to save all the money she had in her pocket. The resistance that Valli showed towards her desire in the stall, especially while resisting herself from grabbing a drink. She clearly mentioned that she did not have enough money and currently she could not afford to drink something from the money she had. This outlines how strong and focused Valli was, especially if it came to fulfilling longstanding desires.
The conductor of the bus on which Valli travelled, was a jolly sport and very fond of joking. As soon as she saw Valli making her own way onto the bus, she took lit lightly and asked everyone to step aside as Valli was approaching the bus. It was a slack time for the bus and they had only six to seven passengers in it, so the conductor jokingly calls Valli ‘madam’ as he was probably in a mood for a joke at that time.
On her returning journey, Valli was equally greeted by everything that came her way despite seeing them previously on her way to the town. Despite being so excited to see the scenarios, she suddenly discovered a young cow lying dead by the roadside. She immediately recalled she encountered same cow on her way to the town when it came in front of their bus. After looking at the lost charm and horrible fate of the beautiful creature, Valli’s mood was soiled and she refused to look out of the window on her way back.
Q1. What kind of a person was Valli?
Ans. Valli was a brave, strong and adventurous little girl who shared a strong desire to ride a bus one day with her money. Valli was also a kind-hearted person who felt very sorry for the young cow she saw dead on her return journey.
Q2. What was Valli’s most precious lesson she learned during the course of the story?
Ans. During the course of the story, Valli learnt to see the gap between the knowledge of death. The story also described the journey of Valli where she understood the meaning and truth of death after seeing a beautiful creature lying lifeless on the side of the road.
Q3. Why did Valli resist herself at the village fair?
Ans. Valli possessed a strong desire to afford a bus journey all by herself. Therefore, she did not pursue any other desire she had while roaming around the village fair.
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