Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 7 (formerly Chapter 9), Madam Rides the Bus by Vallikkannan (translated from Tamil by K.S. Sundaram), tells the sensitive story of eight-year-old Valliammai (Valli), whose deepest desire is to ride the bus between her village and the nearest town—a forty-five-minute journey that introduces her to both the joy of life and the mystery of death. The PDF also includes Ogden Nash’s ballad The Tale of Custard the Dragon.
What Class 10 English (First Flight) Chapter 7 Covers
Prose: Madam Rides the Bus (Vallikkannan) follows eight-year-old Valli, whose favourite pastime is standing in her front doorway watching the street and the hourly bus. Over several months she discreetly gathers every detail—the town is six miles away, the one-way fare is thirty paise, and the trip takes forty-five minutes—and saves sixty paise by resisting peppermints, toys, balloons and the village fair merry-go-round. Boarding the 1 o’clock afternoon bus alone, thejovial conductor calls her ‘Madam’. She laughs uncontrollably at a young cow running with its tail high in front of the bus, refuses the conductor’s offer of a free cold drink in town, and on the return journey is sobered and haunted by the sight of the same young cow lying dead by the roadside, struck by a fast vehicle.
Poem: The Tale of Custard the Dragon (Ogden Nash) is a humorous ballad about Belinda, who lives in a little white house with a black kitten (Ink), a grey mouse (Blink), a yellow dog (Mustard) and a pet dragon (Custard) mocked as a coward because he always cries for a ‘nice safe cage’—until a pistol-toting pirate climbs in the window, the ‘brave’ pets flee in terror, and Custard snorts like an engine and gobbles the pirate every bit.
Exercises in Chapter 7
- Oral Comprehension Check & Thinking about the Text cover Valli’s favourite pastime, her source of information about the bus, how she planned and saved up sixty paise for her first journey, why the conductor called her ‘Madam’, why she refused to get down from the bus at the town stall, and what dampened her enthusiasm on the return trip.
Read Class 10 English (First Flight) Chapter 7 Online
More Chapters
- Previous: Chapter 6: Mijbil the Otter (with Poem: Fog)
- Next: Chapter 8: The Sermon at Benares (with Poem: For Anne Gregory)
- Workbook companion: Words and Expressions II Unit 7: Madam Rides the Bus
- All English (First Flight) chapters and the other Class 10 books: Class 10 NCERT books 2026-27
- All Class 1 to 12 NCERT Textbooks: NCERT Books PDF (Class 1–12)
- Every book chapter by chapter: NCERT chapter wise PDF
FAQ
How did Valli save up money for her first bus journey, and was it easy for her?
Valli painstakingly saved every stray coin that came her way to reach the sixty-paise round-trip fare. It was not easy for an eight-year-old child: she had to resolutely stifle strong temptations to buy peppermints, toys and balloons, and at the village fair she even resisted the merry-go-round despite having the money.
Why did Valli’s enthusiasm vanish on her return journey in ‘Madam Rides the Bus’?
On her outward journey, Valli had clapped and laughed with tears in her eyes at a lovable young cow galloping right in front of the bus. On the return trip, she saw the very same young cow lying dead in a pool of blood by the roadside after being struck by a fast-moving vehicle. The sudden encounter with thehorrible reality of death overwhelmed her with sadness.