Get complete, authentic, and step-by-step DAV Class 7 English Literature Chapter 4 Question Answers: Fight, Manju, Fight! by Sigrun Srivastav. This comprehensive study guide includes Detailed Summary & Key Themes, Understanding the Story (Short Answer Questions), Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), Life Skills & Values, and Writing Skills (Diary Entry) strictly aligned with the prescribed DAV Board curriculum.
1. Detailed Summary and Key Themes
Author: Sigrun Srivastav
Protagonist: Manjula Parelkar
Core Theme: Inner determination, overcoming physical disability, and the power of resilience over self-pity.
Story Overview:
Manjula Parelkar is a cheerful girl born with severe congenital deformities: claw-like hands with only two fingers on each hand and deformed feet that make her walk clumsily. In spite of these physical barriers, Manjula possesses an extraordinary passion and talent for painting. Her mother recognizes her artistic gift and secretly buys her expensive watercolours and professional drawing paper using her personal savings. Her brother Yash is immensely proud of her talent and enthusiastically calls her a genius.
However, her father, Mr. Parelkar, is pragmatic and deeply anxious about family finances and Manjula’s future. Viewing painting as an impractical hobby that will never earn a livelihood, he urges her mother to redirect Manjula toward cooking or typing. Overhearing her father declare, “Will she earn a living out of painting? No, she won’t!”, Manjula is utterly devastated. Overcome with grief and self-pity, she tears all her beautiful paintings into shreds, stashes away her art supplies, and vows never to paint again.
Witnessing his sister’s despair, Yash quietly places a newspaper clipping on her study table. The article tells the inspiring story of Richard Belanger, a famous soccer athlete who lost both legs in a catastrophic train accident but refused to abandon his dreams, playing with artificial limbs under the headline: “Belanger refused to give up.”
Reading Belanger’s story strikes a powerful chord within Manjula. She realizes that physical limitations defeat a person only when the spirit gives up. Reclaiming her self-worth and courage, she takes out her brushes, enters the school’s on-the-spot painting competition, and resolves to fight her own battle with determination.
2. Understanding the Story (Textbook Question-Answers)
Q1: What physical deformities did Manjula have, and how did they affect her daily life?
Answer: Manjula had claw-like fingers with only two fingers on each hand, and deformed feet. Her deformed feet made her movements clumsy, and her two-fingered hands made handling daily objects awkward, though through sheer practice she learned to handle delicate paintbrushes with great mastery.
Q2: How did Manjula’s mother and brother encourage her talent?
Answer: Manjula’s mother encouraged her by secretly saving money to purchase high-quality artists’ watercolours and drawing paper. Her brother Yash boosted her morale by praising her paintings, defending her against critics, and calling her a genius.
Q3: Why did Manjula’s father oppose her passion for painting?
Answer: Her father opposed her painting because he was pragmatic and worried about family expenses and her long-term future. He believed painting was a costly and impractical pursuit that would not help a disabled girl earn a living, and suggested she learn practical skills like cooking or typing instead.
Q4: What made Manjula tear up her artwork and stop painting?
Answer: Manjula overheard her father telling her mother that painting would never provide her with a livelihood. Heartbroken by her father’s lack of faith and overwhelmed by self-pity, she destroyed her paintings, hid her colours, and decided to give up art forever.
Q5: Who was Richard Belanger, and how did his story inspire Manjula to fight back?
Answer: Richard Belanger was a brave athlete who lost both his legs in a train accident but continued playing sports using artificial limbs. The headline “Belanger refused to give up” made Manjula realize that true handicap exists in the mind, not in the body. Inspired by his grit, she pulled out her paints and decided to enter the school competition.
3. Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)
Q1: “A handicap is in the mind, not in the body.” Discuss in the context of Manjula Parelkar.
Answer: Physical limitations restrict bodily movements, but they do not limit talent, creativity, or human potential. Manjula painted exquisitely despite her deformed hands; she became truly handicapped only when she allowed external discouragement to create self-doubt and defeat in her mind. Once she regained mental resilience through Richard Belanger’s example, her physical barriers ceased to hold her back, proving that the mind’s determination surpasses bodily limitations.
4. Life Skills and Values
Life Skills: How can family members support a differently-abled child effectively?
Answer: Family members should:
1. Identify and nurture the child’s natural talents rather than focusing on limitations.
2. Provide steady emotional support to shield them from societal pity and ridicule.
3. Treat them with equal dignity, independence, and respect rather than overprotective sympathy.
Values: Determination, perseverance, and resilience in the face of adversity.
Reflection: Success is not determined by an easy life, but by one’s capacity to stand up after every setback. Manjula’s triumph is a tribute to the unconquerable human spirit.
5. Writing Skills: Diary Entry
Task: Write a Diary Entry of Manjula Parelkar reflecting on her emotional crisis after overhearing her father and her renewal of hope after reading about Richard Belanger.
DIARY ENTRY: MANJULA PARELKAR
Date: 12 October 2026
Time: 9:30 PM
Dear Diary,
What an emotional storm these past twenty-four hours have been! Yesterday, my heart was shattered into a thousand pieces when I overheard Father telling Mother that painting is an impractical pursuit for me, asking: “Will she earn a living out of painting? No, she won’t!” Hearing my own father doubt my future crushed me completely. In an agony of grief and self-pity, I tore up all my paintings and decided never to touch a brush again.
Then this morning, Yash left a newspaper clipping on my desk about Richard Belanger – an athlete who lost both legs but refused to give up, continuing to play with artificial limbs. The headline “Belanger refused to give up” hit me like a wake-up call. I felt ashamed of giving up so easily! If Belanger could overcome the loss of both legs, why should I surrender because of my fingers? My disability is in my body, not in my soul!
I immediately took out my colours, dusted off my brushes, and registered for tomorrow’s on-the-spot painting competition. I am ready to fight my battle, and I will never let self-doubt defeat me again!
Manjula
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