01. A Letter to God

 SUMMARY

A Letter to God is a story of a farmer who had extreme faith in God. It is the story of Lencho, a poor, honest and hard- working farmer, who wrote a letter to God and asked God to send him money. Lencho was a dedicated farmer. He was expecting a good harvest. Unfortunately a hail storm came and destroyed his harvest totally. Lencho was very sad, but he had strong belief in God. He was sure that God would definitely help him. So the simple straight forward man wrote a letter to God asking for one hundred pesos. Although, his wishes get fulfilled partially, if not completely, he is ungrateful in the end and questions the honesty and modesty of the post-masters who actually helped him with money (anonymously) in the name of god.

Oral Comprehension Check   (pg. 05)

Q1. What did Lencho hope for?

Ans– Lencho hoped for rain.

Q2. Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like ‘new coins’?

Ans – Lencho said it because the raindrops helped the crops of his field to produce good harvest.

Q3. How did the rain change? What happened to Lencho’s fields?

Ans – Suddenly a strong wind began to blow and along with the rain very large hailstones began to fall. Due to the heavy hailstones Lencho's field was totally destroyed.

Q4. What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped?

Ans – Lencho’s soul was filled with sadness. When the storm had passed, he stood in the middle of the field and said to his sons, “A plague of locusts would have left more than this.

Oral Comprehension Check    (pg. 06)

Q1. Who or what did Lencho have faith in? What did he do?

Ans – Lencho had completely faith in the God. When his crops were destroyed he decided to write a letter to God demanding 100 pesos.

Q2. Who read the letter?

Ans– At the Post office the postmaster read the letter.

Q3. What did the postmaster do then?

Ans – After reading Lencho's letter the postmaster decided to send him money on the behalf of God.

Oral Comprehension Check     (pg. 07)

Q1. Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?

Ans – No, Lencho did not surprise to find a letter for him with money in it. Such was his confidence on God.

Q2. What made him angry?

Ans – Lencho became angry when he counted the money. Because he found only 70 pesos inside the envelope instead of 100 which he asked to God.

Thinking about the Text

Q1. Who does Lencho have complete faith in? Which sentences in the story tell you this?

Ans – Lencho had complete faith in God.
The following sentences from the story tell us.

(i) All through the night, Lencho thought only of his one hope: the help of God, whose eyes, as he had been instructed, see everything, even what is deep in one’s conscience.

(ii) Lencho showed not the slightest surprise on seeing the money; such was his confidence — but he became angry when he counted the money. God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested.

Q2. Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter ‘God’?

Ans – The postmaster was impressed by the faith of Lencho in God. So in order not to shake Lencho' s faith in God the postmaster decided to send the money to him.

The postmaster sign the letter God to show that none else but the money was send by God to Lencho.

Q3. Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why/Why not?

Ans – No, Lencho did not try to find out that who had sent the money to him.
Because I think he had complete faith in God and he believed that only God can help him.

Q4. Who does Lencho think has taken the rest of the money? What is the irony in the situation? (Remember that the irony of a situation is an unexpected aspect of it. An ironic situation is strange or amusing because it is the opposite of what is expected.)

Ans – Lencho became angry when he found only 70 pesos in the envelope because he had complete faith in God and he believed that God could neither have made a mistake by sending less money nor could he have denied him what he had requested. And due to it Lencho thought that the employees of the Post office had taken the rest of the money (30 rupees) from the envelope.

Irony of the situation is people who should praised for their good work are being called 'a bunch of croocks'.

Q5. Are there people like Lencho in the real world? What kind of a person would you say he is? You may select appropriate words from the box to answer the question.

        greedy      naive       stupid          ungrateful

              selfish           comical         unquestioning

Ans – Yes, I think there are many people in the real world like Lencho. There are many people who have blind faith in God and they rely on his help. And even God help them in the form of his representatives.

I would say that Lencho is a naive and an ignorant person. 

Q6. There are two kinds of conflict in the story: between humans and nature, and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated?

Ans – The writter of this story G. L. Fuentes has beautifully illustrated the two kinds of conflict in the story.

The first conflict is between human and nature. Where Lencho and his sons have worked hard to get good harvest from the crops. But due to the hailstorm their fields were destroyed completely. All their hard work goes waste.

The another conflict in this story is between the humans. At the post office the postmaster, his employees and his friends supported Lencho by sending their hard earned money to Lencho who is unaware of their act of charity and blame them for stolen a part of his money. 

Thinking About Language 

I. Look at the following sentence from the story. Suddenly a strong wind began to blow and along with the rain very large hailstones began to fall.

‘Hailstones’ are small balls of ice that fall like rain. A storm in which hailstones fall is a ‘hailstorm’. You know that a storm is bad weather with strong winds, rain, thunder and lightning.

There are different names in different parts of the world for storms,.depending on their nature. Can you match the names in the box with their descriptions below, and fill in the blanks? You may use a dictionary to help you.

                  gale,                  whirlwind,                    cyclone,

             hurricane,                tornado,                 typhoon

1. A violent tropical storm in which strong winds move in a circle:

__ __ c __ __ __ __

2. An extremely strong wind : __ a __ __

3. A violent tropical storm with very strong winds : __ __ p __ __ __ __

4. A violent storm whose centre is a cloud in the shape of a funnel:

__ __ __ n __ __ __

5. A violent storm with very strong winds, especially in the western Atlantic

Ocean: __ __ r __ __ __ __ __ __

6. A very strong wind that moves very fast in a spinning movement and causes a lot of damage: __ __ __ __ l __ __ __ __

Ans –

1. Cyclone 

2. Gale

3. Typhoon

4. Tornado

5. Hurricane 

6. Whirlwind

II. Notice how the word ‘hope’ is used in these sentences from the story:

(a) I hope it (the hailstorm) passes quickly.

(b) There was a single hope: help from God.

In the first example, ‘hope’ is a verb which means you wish for something to happen. In the second example it is a noun meaning a chance for something to happen.

Match the sentences in Column A with the meanings of ‘hope’ in Column B.

Ans –

A                 B

1.      —       iv

2.      —        v

3.      —        i

4.      —       vi

5.      —       ii

6.      —      iii

III. Relative Clauses

Look at these sentences

(a) All morning Lencho — who knew his fields intimately — looked at the sky.

(b) The woman, who was preparing supper, replied, “Yes, God willing.’’

The italicised parts of the sentences give us more information about Lencho and the woman. We call them relative clauses. Notice that they begin with a relative pronoun who. Other common relative pronouns are whom, whose, and which.

The relative clauses in (a) and (b) above are called non-defining, because we already know the identity of the person they describe. Lencho is a particular person, and there is a particular woman he speaks to. We don’t need the information in the relative clause to pick these people out from a larger set.

A non-defining relative clause usually has a comma in front of it and a comma after it (some writers use a dash (—) instead, as in the story). If the relative clause comes at the end, we just put a full stop.

Join the sentences given below using who, whom, whose, which, as suggested.

1. I often go to Mumbai. Mumbai is the commercial capital of India. (which)

2. My mother is going to host a TV show on cooking. She cooks very well. (who)

3. These sportspersons are going to meet the President. Their performance has been excellent. (whose)

4. Lencho prayed to God. His eyes see into our minds. (whose)

5. This man cheated me. I trusted him. (whom)

Ans –

1. I often go to Mumbai which is the commercial capital of India.

2. My mother is going to host a TV show on cooking who cooks very well.

3. These sportspersons are going to meet the President whose performance has been excellent.

4. Lencho prayed to God, whose eyes see into our minds.

5. This man cheated me whom I trusted. (whom)

Sometimes the relative pronoun in a relative clause remains ‘hidden’. For example, look at the first sentence of the story:

(a) The house — the only one in the entire valley — sat on the crest of a low hill.

We can rewrite this sentence as:

(b) The house — which was the only one in the entire valley — sat on the crest of a low hill.

In (a), the relative pronoun which and the verb was are not present.

We know that sentences with words such as no, not or nothing show the absence of something, or contradict something. For example:

(a) This year we will have no corn. (Corn will be absent)
(b) The hail has left nothing. (Absence of a crop)
(c) These aren’t raindrops falling from the sky, they are new coins.
(Contradicts the common idea of what the drops of water falling from the sky are)

But sometimes negative words are used just to emphasise an idea. Look at these sentences from the story:

(d) Lencho…had done nothing else but see the sky towards the northeast. (He had done only this)

(e) The man went out for no other reason than to have the pleasure of feeling the rain on his body. (He had only this reason)

(f) Lencho showed not the slightest surprise on seeing the money. (He showed no surprise at all)

Now look back at example (c). Notice that the contradiction in fact serves to emphasise the value or usefulness of the rain to the farmer.

Find sentences in the story with negative words, which express the following ideas emphatically.

1. The trees lost all their leaves.

   ______________________________________________

2. The letter was addressed to God himself.

     _______________________________________________

3. The postman saw this address for the first time in his career.

     _______________________________________________

Ans –

1. Not a leaf remained on the trees.

2. It was nothing less than a letter to God

3. Never in his career as a postmaster had he know that address.

V. Metaphors

The word metaphor comes from a Greek word meaning ‘transfer’. Metaphors compare two things or ideas: a quality or feature of one thing is transferred to another thing. Some common metaphors are

• the leg of the table: The leg supports our body. So the object that supports a table is described as a leg.
• the heart of the city: The heart is an important organ in the centre of our body. So this word is used to describe the central area of a city.

In pairs, find metaphors from the story to complete the table below. Try to say what qualities are being compared. One has been done for you.

Ans –

Object                 Metaphor            Quality or feature compared

Cloud                      Huge mountains                The mass or 'hugeness'

                                             of clouds                             of mountains

Raindrops                          New Coins                           Size, shape & monetary value

Hailstones                          Frozen pearls                      round, hard and shining as pearls

Locusts                               A plough of locusts            Epidemic that spreads very rapidly

Lencho                               An ox of a man                     hard working and strong as an ox.

Writing

Lencho suffered first due to drought and then by floods. Our country is also facing such situations in the recent years. There is flood and there is drought. There is a need to save water through water harvesting. Design a poster for your area on how to save water during summer and when it is available in excess.

Ans