The Treasure Within Summary & Solution - CBSE Class 8 English It So Happened Chapter 4

Summary 

Nissim Ezekiel wrote The Treasure Within. The lesson is on Mr. Hafeez Contractor, a well-known architect. He was not an excellent student. His interests leaned towards sports. He also received discipline from the teachers. He led a group and participated in gang battles. On the encouragement of his principal, he began studying and received a 50% grade in SSC.

He enrolled at Jai Hind College and subsequently met with an architect who happened to be his cousin's spouse. The architect saw his ability and invited him to attend the architecture college. He passed the tests with flying colours and is now one of the country's most prominent architects.

This chapter is an extract from Mr. Hafeez Contractor's and Ms. Bela Raja's interview. Hafeez Contractor had a difficult education. He did well in school throughout his first and second years. However, he seemed to lose interest in academics after the third grade. He was terrified of mathematics and had dreams about the maths exam. He frequently got a vision of himself presenting in a mathematical test knowing nothing.

As a student, he preferred playing games and pulling pranks on others. He was a great athlete who was the senior champion for several years. He was also the captain of the school's cricket squad.

He claims that he only passed his exams by copying and cheating. However, during class 11, his principal contacted him to offer him some advise. Despite the fact that he never studies, the principal assured him that he is an excellent student. He also informed Contractor that he had previously taken good care of him, but that now he must take care of himself. He persuaded him to study.

The contractor followed the principal’s advice and would only go for prayers, eat, and study. As a result, he scored 50 percent marks in his SSC exams. On being asked by Ms. Bela that was he punished in school, he replied that he received canning almost every week. However, it did not affect him as he was more interested in playing. Not only this, but he would also indulge in group fights and was the gang leader. He remembers that one day when he was not in the mood to study, they played ‘chor police’ for one whole hour.

After school, he wished to join the army. But his aunt and mother did not let him join even the police. With some influence, he got admission in the Jai Hind College. There he was supposed to study French but being weak in French, he took the help of his cousin. Her husband was an architect and eventually, he started going to his office in order to learn French.

One day he saw an employee drawing a window detail which is a very advanced drawing. Looking at it, he told him that this drawing was wrong as the window drawn will not open. He won the bet and his cousin’s husband asked him to draw a few specific things. He did that immediately. The architect got highly impressed by this and asked him to study architecture.

In the college for architecture, only students with 80 – 90 percent were admitted. The principal allowed him to appear for the entrance exam with a condition that if he does not do well he will not be allowed to join. He got an ‘A+’ grade and after that, he always got first class throughout.

After he became an architect, he went to see Mrs. Gupta, his teacher, who had once told him to become an architect. He says that school life made him street-smart. He closely observes a client to understand his taste and then makes a sketch spontaneously. According to him, his sketches are his mathematics.

Comprehension Check on page 28

1. What did Hafeez Contractor have nightmares about?

2. What did the Principal say to him, which influenced him deeply?

3. “... that year I did not step out onto the field.” What was he busy doing

that year?

4. (i) What “distraction” did Hafeez Contractor create one day?

(ii) Would you have liked to participate in the “distraction” had you

been with him?

Answers:

1.Hafeez Contractor use to get nightmares about appearing in mathematics examination in which he did not know anything.

2. The Principal reminded him how his mother was working hard to bring him up after his father’s death. She also said that he was a fully fledged grown up and therefore should start taking care of himself. She also said that his main concern should be his studies instead of sports.

3. Being a cricketer he used to play a lot but this year, he was busy studying. He went for prayers, and ate and studied hard so that he could clear his exams.

4. (i) He played chor-police for an hour and even school boy loved distractions more than studying.

(ii) Had I been with Hafeez Contractor, I would have certainly liked to particulate in the distraction as it is the basic nature of children especially boys at this age.

Comprehension Check on page 32

1. Hafeez Contractor wanted to join the police force. Why didn’t he?

2. In the architect’s office, Hafeez Contractor was advised to drop everything and join architecture. Why?

3. (i) What was Mrs Gupta’s advise to Hafeez Contractor?
(ii) What made her advise him so?

4. How did he help fellow students who had lost a button?

5. Which rules did he break as a school boy?
(i) What is Hafeez Contractor’s definition of Mathematics?
(ii) How would you want to define Mathematics? Do you like the subject?

Answers:

1. Hafeez wanted to join the police force, but his mother advised him to do his graduation first. So he joined Jaihind College in Mumbai.

2. It happened quite by chance. One day he saw somebody drawing a window design. He pointed out that the drawing was wrong, and the window would not open. And he was proved right. His cousin’s husband was surprised. He asked him to design a house and he did that. After that he told Hafeez to leave everything and join architecture.

3. i) When he was in the second or third standard, one of his teachers Mrs Gupta saw
his sketches and advised him to become an architect when he grew up.
(ii) She advised him so on seeing his fine sketches.

4. When a fellow student lost a button while playing or fighting, Hafeez would cut a button for him from chalk, using a blade.

5. As a school boy, he never studied, until his 11th He always copied to pass the examination.
(i) According to Hafeez Contractor, Maths is a combination of putting designs,
construction, psychology and sociology together and making sketch from all that,
(ii) Mathematics is the best branch of science, but it is a bit difficult to be good in this subject. Howover, I like this subject.

Answer the following Questions:

Question 1:

It is likely that someone who is original and intelligent does not do very well at school? Should such a learner be called a failure? If not, why not?

Answer:

A learner who is original and intelligent may appear to be a failure at school, but the chances of his doing well in later life are bright.

Question 2:

Who, in your view, is an ‘unusual’ learner?

Answer:

An unusual learner can be a genius in any subject. He will be different from the rest.

Question 3:

What can schools do to draw out the best in unusual learners? Suggest whatever seems reasonable to you.

Answer:

School should stop treating all the learners as ordinary. They should not follow old mechanical methods of teaching. They should try to discover the hidden talent in each learner and encourage him to do his best developing it.