NCERT Solutions for Class 7 English Honeycomb Chapter 2: A Gift of Chappals

"A Gift of chappals" by Vasantha Surya is a story about children's simplicity and compassion towards helping a beggar. Their affection towards a baby kitten shows children's true nature and how they see the world with the values they have learned.

Mridu, a young girl growing up in Chennai with her Thatha and Tapi, visits her aunt Rukku Manni's house where her cousins Lalli, Meena, and Ravi are excited to see her.

Ravi and Meena dragged her to the backyard of their house. Behind a thick, bitter- berry bush sat a kitten in a torn football lay lapping the milk from the coconut shell. Meena said to Mridu how they found the kitten outside their house in the morning and kept it as a secret from their Grandma as it would annoy her. Amma was afraid that Paati might go away if she finds out about the cat in the house. Ravi commented on double standards of elders on how they teach about being kind to animals, and when in times of need, they start to call them a dirty creature.

Ravi somehow managed to get milk for the kitten from the kitchen and enacted drinking milk in front of her grandmother. The children named the kitten Mahendran. They heard a screeching sound of a violin played by Lalli, who was learning to play from her music teacher, and her tracks were annoying. In contrast, her teacher's play was melodious when suddenly their attention diverted from them to a beggar at their doorstep who pleaded with them to let him sit for a while until the blisters of his feet could hurt less. The children gave away the chappals of the music master to a beggar asking him not to come again.

The mother enquired the children about the missing chappals of Master. She informed her aunt about giving it to the beggar. She went inside hurriedly to bring Golu mama's slippers and gave them to the master and apologised on behalf of her son. Rukku Manni thanked God for the temporary relief but later realised that Golu mama would disapprove of their acts on returning.