Back to: CBSE 10th English Chapters Summary
Table of Contents
i. His First flight
Lack of Confidence
This is the story of a young seagull standing in the edge of a cliff. His siblings had flown away a day before. He had tried his best to fly but on approaching the edge, he would ultimately succumb to his fears and fail. He had no confidence in his wings.
After failing every single time, he would run back to the little hole and sleep. His brothers and sister had wings even shorter than him but they flew away and he couldn’t because he was unable to muster up the courage and fly.
Twenty-four hours earlier, his father and mother came near him and scolded him for not being able to fly. They told him that he would starve if he stayed there anymore. After all this time, he had now seen his parents teaching his siblings how to catch prey, how to fly perfectly and other life survival skills. His parents were proud of his brother who had caught his first fish while everyone threw taunts at him.
The sun was as the horizon as he felt its heat. This was because he had not eaten anything for a long time. He wanted attention but no one noticed him.
One day, he stood up and saw that every member of his family was busy. Only his mother was looking at him. She was also tearing meat from the fish that she recently caught. He became mad as he had a great craving for meat. He begged for meat from his mother but she didn’t comply. Now upon a sudden, he saw his mother with a piece of meat in her beak flying toward him. He became happy.
Fear Overcame
As his mother was approaching him, she stopped. The young seagull became mad at her, and for his penchant for meat, he at once dived to catch the fish already in his mother’s beak. Everything stopped for a moment, he felt nothing beneath his claws.
He was falling in the vast sea, but at once his wings started to flap. He could fly easily now. While flying he heard this shrill, “Ga, ga, ga, ga, ga, ga, Gaw-col-ah” It was his mother screaming with joy followed by his father and siblings. He experienced a whole new world, a world very different from what he used to see what he couldn’t fly.
His family landed on the cliff as he was still flying over the sea. He felt a bit tired and tried to reach the cliff but all in vain. He became closer and closer to the sea. His family was trying to encourage him but since he had not eaten anything for the past twenty-four hours, his belly touched the surface of the sea. He was floating on the water. Everyone was happy as he made his first flight.
ii. The Black Aeroplane
Sky-High!
It was a clear night sky while the pilot was flying the aeroplane over France at one-thirty in the morning and simultaneously gazing at the moon and stars. He was happy to fly past the sleeping people below him. He was happy as he was going on vacation to England and to be with his family.
He thought that he should call Paris air traffic control and said into his mic, “Paris Control, Dakota DS 088 here. Can you hear me? I’m on my way to England. Over.” He got the answer from air traffic control immediately along with the direction. He complied with the direction. He also thought of having an English breakfast upon reaching England. Everything was going good.
Oncoming Danger
After flying one hundred and fifty kilometres from Paris, he saw huge black clouds looking like black mountains. He knew that flying through these clouds was dangerous at the same time, he did not have enough fuel to fly up or over them. So, he decided to go back to Paris but he also wanted that English breakfast.
Finally, he decided to take the risk of flying into those black clouds. As he reached the clouds, it became dark. He could not see anything. The compass stopped working. All the instruments failed. He tried to inform the ground control about the incident but all in vain, the radio was also not working. He thought that he would die soon.
Saved by Hope
Suddenly in those dark clouds, he saw an aeroplane flying near him with no light on its wings. He was very glad to see the pilot of the other aeroplane who waved at him. The other pilot told him to follow his aeroplane and he followed a completely strange aeroplane like an obedient child.
After flying for half an hour, he had little fuel left in the last tank of his aeroplane. He started to feel frightened but suddenly he saw a runway. He searched for the strange plane in the air but it was gone.
He landed safely, went to the lady in the ground control to ask for the whereabouts of the plane that saved his life. To his utter surprise, the lady told him that no aeroplanes were flying in that storm except his.
The pilot was flabbergasted on hearing this statement and asked himself who was this person who saved his life?
