Welcome dear students! Today we are going to learn about The Town By The Sea from Class 7 English_FL. Let us begin with our pre-reading task. Have you ever gone on a school trip? You have? Very good. The textbook shares a peaceful trip to Chandragiri, but contrasts it with the terrible Uttarakhand floods of June eighteenth, twenty thirteen. Why does the author do this? To show us how quickly nature can change from peaceful to disastrous. Today’s story explores a similar natural calamity, but focuses on the two thousand four Indian Ocean tsunami. We will follow a director who loses his family and must find a way to cope with unimaginable grief. Pay attention to how the author describes the events and the director’s quiet response.
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Let us dive into the reading. The story opens on December twenty-fifth, two thousand four. The director is in Port Blair, travelling for official work, while his family stays in Malacca, Car Nicobar. He spends the night at Haddo Circuit House near the water. Early on the twenty-sixth, his bed shakes violently. The floor is heaving, so he runs out of the building. His mobile phone rings. It is his wife calling from Malacca. He cuts off the call and decides to phone back later. Notice how the author describes this moment. There is no panic, just quick, practical action. Once the ground is still, he tries to call back. There is no answer, and he wonders if the network is down. Then he observes a strange phenomenon. The harbour water is rising rapidly, and anchored ships are swirling. He runs to higher ground with others.
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At this point, the director remembers an important fact. The Nicobar islands are very low-lying. Car Nicobar stands only a few meters above sea level at its highest point. This realization makes him deeply anxious. He knows he must reach his family. He finds a government office in Car Nicobar that has a satellite phone. He dials again and again. When he finally gets through, he receives news that Malacca was badly hit. There are some survivors, but there is no news about his family yet. He keeps calling throughout the day. In the afternoon, he learns that his thirteen-year-old son has been found alive, clinging to the rafters of a church. That night, he speaks to his son directly.
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The boy explains what happened. The family was in the bedroom when the earthquake started. A terrifying sound from the sea drove them into the drawing room, but the boy kept running. When the wave hit, the wooden house dissolved into splinters. The boy was carried away as if on the wind. Flailing his arms, he grabbed onto something fixed to the earth. He held his grip through wave after wave until the water receded. He realized he was holding the only upright structure left. When the director asked about his mother and sister, the boy simply said, Baba, they just disappeared. Then, for the first time, the boy began to cry. The director’s heart broke because he knew his son was crying out of fear that he would be scolded and blamed for what had happened.
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With help from the local administration and airbase officers, the director gets on a flight the very next day. He spends the day searching through the rubble. He finds many household possessions, but no trace of his daughter or wife. He returns to Port Blair with his son that evening. Later, the narrator joins him on a second visit to Car Nicobar. The road winds through a dense tropical jungle. The narrator notices that the island’s interior is sparsely inhabited, with people living mostly along the seafront. To his surprise, many thick strands of coconut palms are still standing near the water, and the forest canopy looks almost undisturbed. However, all trace of human habitation has been completely wiped out. The tsunami was highly selective. It caused maximum damage to life and property but left nature largely unharmed.
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They arrive at the district library, which is unharmed, just like the surrounding offices. A medical camp is set up there. The director asks a doctor about his family, but the doctor has no news. They continue walking until the director spots a mound of household objects. He points out his suitcase, a steel trunk, a cabinet, office records, and his slides. He takes only the slides. They reach the exact spot where his house once stood. Only the concrete foundation remains. The director shares a quiet memory: his wife taught English at a local school and wanted a transfer, but it never came. He says, There was so much she could have achieved. I was never able to give her the opportunity. When the narrator reaches out to touch his arm, the director shakes his hand away brusquely. He does not want sympathy. He shows his daughter’s paint box but refuses to pick it up. When asked why, he says, What good will it do? What will it give back?
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The narrator reflects on this moment. He wonders what he would have done or felt in the same situation. The author explains that the director’s choice is an expression of the innermost sovereignty of the self. There is no hesitation or doubt. The director finds comfort in focusing on his work. The author notes that after such a tragedy, words seem futile. Thinking, reflecting, and writing feel trivial. Only taking action and intervening in real events holds value. By choosing his slides, the director mounts a powerful defence against his grief. He chooses to act rather than dwell on the past. Now, let us review the key vocabulary from the text. Calamity means a terrible event. Fury means wild force. Disastrous means a sudden great misfortune. Unprecedented means never having happened before. Cloudburst is a sudden heavy rain. A slide is a thin glass piece for a microscope. Heaving means shaking. Phenomenon is an unusual natural event. Swirl means a twisting movement. Anxious means troubled or fearful. Survivors are those who live through danger. Rafter is a roof beam. Splinter means broken wood pieces. Intervention means help. Rubble means broken debris. Sparsely means scattered. Inhabited means lived in. Thick strands means coconut gardens. Canopy means a covering. Brusquely means quickly and rather impolitely. Sovereignty means complete freedom to act. Futile means useless.
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Let us work through the Reading, Speaking, and Writing exercises together. I will guide you through each question using only the text. Question one: The director woke up with the feeling that the building would collapse. This is supported by the text saying the floor was heaving and he ran out. Question two: The director cut off his wife’s call because he wanted to save himself first. This is Not True. He cut off the call and decided to phone back later. The text does not say he did it to save himself first. Question three: The director lost the chance of hearing his wife’s last words. This is True. The text states he cut the call to run to safety, and when he tried to call back, the network was down and there was no answer. Therefore, he missed hearing from her. Question four: Car Nicobar Islands stand the highest among Nicobar Islands. Not True. The text states they are low-lying and stand only a few meters above sea level. Question five: Port Blair was hit by the rising sea before Car Nicobar Islands. Not True. The text does not state that Port Blair was hit first. It only mentions the director observing rising water in Port Blair while worrying about the low-lying Car Nicobar islands.
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Question six: The director heard from Malacca that his family had survived. Not True. He heard there were survivors in Malacca, but there was no news of his family. Question seven: The director’s heart broke when he felt his son’s misery. True. He understood the boy was crying because he feared being blamed. Question eight: The poor thirteen-year-old’s misery was that he had not been able to save his mother and sister. True. His tears show he feels responsible for surviving while they disappeared. Question nine: When did the director become really anxious? He became anxious when he realized the Nicobar islands are very low-lying and saw the harbour water rising rapidly. Question ten: What did the director’s son tell him? He described the terrifying sound, the house shattering, being swept away, holding onto a fixed structure, and his mother and sister disappearing.
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Question eleven: The mother and sister had died. The boy feels he is to be blamed. This shows his sense of responsibility. Explain this point. The boy cries because he thinks he will be scolded for surviving. He feels responsible because he was unable to save his mother and sister when the wave hit. Question twelve: The director wanted to mourn alone quietly. True. He shook the narrator’s hand away brusquely, showing he did not want sympathy or pity. Question thirteen: Why did the director choose his slides and not anything else? He chose his slides to focus on his professional work. As the introduction mentions, he does this to drown his grief in his work rather than keeping painful personal items like the paint box. Question fourteen: Words seem futile, says the author. Explain what he means. The author means that after a massive tragedy, talking or writing feels useless. Only taking practical action and intervening in real events holds real value. Question fifteen: How did the author himself intervene and act in the course of the events? The author accompanied the director on his second visit to Car Nicobar, witnessed the destruction, listened to his story, and wrote this account to share the experience.
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Now, let us move to the Word Formation exercise. First, write the names of five countries. Then, make words from them using the suffix an. Finally, add a noun to each word to make a noun phrase. Here are five clear examples to guide you. First, America becomes American. Add a noun: American scientist. Second, India becomes Indian. Add a noun: Indian teacher. Third, Italy becomes Italian. Add a noun: Italian artist. Fourth, Canada becomes Canadian. Add a noun: Canadian forest. Fifth, Australia becomes Australian. Add a noun: Australian wildlife. Remember, the suffix an helps form adjectives or nouns that show origin or nationality.
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Next is our Grammar section on suffixes. Suffixes change a word’s grammatical function. Look at the word surprise. It can be a noun, a verb, an adjective like surprised or surprising, or an adverb like surprisingly. Now, let us fill in the blanks with the correct form. One. Surprised at finding the lone, hungry cub, grandfather brought it home. Two. A tiger on the leash surprises people on the street. Three. It was a surprise for them to see a man with a tiger. Four. Do not be surprised if he eats up Mahamoud, said Grandmother. Five. Surprisingly, the tiger did not harm the man. Six. Surprisingly, they all watched the man petting the tiger. Notice that sentences five and six begin with adverbs. You already know adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. But here, they modify the meaning of the whole sentence, setting the tone for what follows.
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Now, let us practice the next exercise. Write two more sentences beginning with fortunately and unfortunately. Here are model examples to help you. Fortunately, the heavy rain stopped just before the school sports day began. Unfortunately, the library was closed on the day we planned to visit. Try writing your own using this structure. Finally, let us practice the Writing activity. The prompt asks you to imagine the author meeting the director exactly one year later, on December twenty-sixth, two thousand five. They share a cup of tea and discuss the tragedy. Here is a model conversation based on the text. Author: Good morning, sir. It has been a year. I wanted to express my condolences again. Director: Thank you for remembering. Please, sit. Would you like tea? Author: Yes, thank you. How is your son doing? Director: He is recovering slowly. We focus on the present now. Author: I still remember you choosing only your slides. It was a quiet but strong choice. Director: Yes. When everything vanished, my work remained. Grief is heavy, but duty keeps the mind steady. Author: I understand. Words truly feel useless after such loss. I am glad you found a way forward. Director: Thank you. We must keep going. That is all we can do.
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To conclude, let us learn about the author. Amitav Ghosh is a famous journalist, sociologist, and novelist. He was born on July eleventh, nineteen fifty-six, in Calcutta. His father was Lieutenant Colonel Shailendra Chandra Ghosh, a retired officer of the Pre-Independence Indian Army. He studied at Doon School in Dehradun and Saint Stephen’s College in Delhi. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Saint Edmund Hall, Oxford. Since two thousand five, he has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard University, where he teaches Comparative Literature. His writing often explores history, human resilience, and the impact of nature, which is clearly reflected in this story.
Thank you for listening! Keep revising and practicing. Goodbye! [CHAPTER_COMPLETE]