Chapter- 2.6           The Past in the Present 



1. Question: What is the title of the play?

Answer: The title of the play is “Mothers and Sons Through Time.”

2. Question: Who are the main characters in the play?

Answer: The main characters are the boys and their mothers from different time periods, and Neel and his mother in the modern time.

3. Question: In which period does the first scene take place?

Answer: The first scene takes place in modern times with Neel and his mother.

4. Question: What was the wish of Neel in the play?

Answer: Neel wished he had a robot to make his bed and tidy his room.

5. Question: What did Neel’s mother tell him about the past?

Answer: She told him that young boys have always had chores to do both outdoors and indoors.

6. Question: What did the 1st century CE boy wear?

Answer: He wore a dhoti and a waistband, without a shirt.

7. Question: What kind of dress did the 1st century CE mother wear?

Answer: She wore a saree with an upper garment and bead jewellery.

8. Question: What chores did the 1st century CE boy do?

Answer: He fed the poultry, tended the sheep, kept birds away from fields, and plastered the yard with dung.

9. Question: What game did the 1st century CE boy want to play?

Answer: He wanted to play Bagh-chal with his friends.

10. Question: What question did the 1st century CE boy ask his mother?

Answer: He asked why she wanted him to make the beds right now.

11. Question: What was his mother’s reply?

Answer: She said, “Because that is what boys have to do.”

12. Question: What did the 1st century CE mother want to tell her son about?

Answer: She wanted to tell him about his ancestor who lived 3000 years ago.

13. Question: In which period does the ancestor boy appear?

Answer: The ancestor boy appears from 3000 BCE.

14. Question: What did the 3000 BCE boy wear?

Answer: He wore a cloth around his waist held by a cord.

15. Question: How was the 3000 BCE boy’s hair styled?

Answer: His hair was tied in a bun or ponytail.

16. Question: What kind of jewellery did the 3000 BCE mother wear?

Answer: She wore stone and bead jewellery.

17. Question: What work did the 3000 BCE boy do for his family?

Answer: He hunted for food, carved stone bricks, dusted leather clothes, and moulded mud pots.

18. Question: What game did the 3000 BCE boy wish to play?

Answer: He wished to play Chaupar with his friends.

19. Question: What did the 3000 BCE boy ask his mother?

Answer: He asked why she wanted him to make his bed.

20. Question: What was the 3000 BCE mother’s reply?

Answer: She said, “Because me say so! Do it now.”

21. Question: What common phrase did all the mothers say in the play?

Answer: All the mothers said, “Do it now!”

22. Question: How did all the boys reply to their mothers?

Answer: They all replied, “Yes, mother.”

23. Question: What conclusion did Neel draw from his mother’s story?

Answer: He realized that boys have always had chores to do, both indoors and outdoors.

24. Question: What did Neel wish to invent?

Answer: He wished to invent a robot to make his bed and clean his room.

25. Question: What did Neel’s mother say about making a robot?

Answer: She said nothing is impossible, but even to make a robot, one must work hard.

26. Question: What is the final lesson Neel’s mother gives him?

Answer: She tells him to go and make his bed.

27. Question: What message does the play convey?

Answer: The play teaches that discipline and hard work are important in every age.

28. Question: What does the repetition of “Do it now” symbolize?

Answer: It symbolizes the timeless authority of mothers and the importance of obedience.

29. Question: How does the play connect the past with the present?

Answer: It shows how mothers and sons have had the same relationship of duty and discipline through thousands of years.

30. Question: What is the moral of the play?

Answer: The moral is that hard work, responsibility, and respect for parents are eternal values that never change with time.