The Bond of Love Important Questions Class 9 Beehive English
Very Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. How did the author’s wife receive the baby sloth bear?
Answer
The author’s wife was extremely happy to get the baby sloth bear as a pet. She put a coloured ribbon around his neck and named him Bruno.
Question 2. Why was a squad of coolies engaged?
Answer
A squad of coolies was engaged to take down ‘Baba’s box from the top of the car.
Question 3. Where did the author find the bear cub?
Answer
The author found the bear cub when he was passing through the sugarcane fields near Mysore.
Question 4. How did Bruno come to be called ‘Baba’?
Answer
Bruno came to be called ‘Baba’ which in Hindustani means a ‘young boy’ after the narrator’s wife developed a special bond of affection for him. She loved him as she loved her son and started calling him ‘Baba’.
Question 5. Why did the author put barium carbonate poison in a home?
Answer
He put this poison in a home to kill rats and mice.
Question 6. Why had Bruno to be kept in chains most of the time?
Answer
Bruno had grown up very fast. Therefore, it was felt that it could be dangerous to let him move about freely around the children of the tenants. Therefore, it was decided to keep Bruno in chains.
Question 7. What was the effect of the poison on Bruno?
Answer
Bruno suffered a paralysis attack and he could not stand on his feet.
Question 8. How did Baba behave when he saw the narrator’s wife in the zoo?
Answer
Baba was overjoyed to see the narrator’s wife. He recognised her from a distance of some yards and howled with happiness. To express his pleasure at meeting her again, he stood on his head.
Question 9. What was Bruno brought upon?
Answer
Bruno was brought up on buttermilk, fruit, rice and potatoes.
Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. Why did Bruno drink the engine oil? What was the result?
Answer
Once the narrator had drained the old engine oil from the sump of his car and kept it to treat termites. Bruno, who would drink anything that came his way, drank about one gallon of this oil too. However, it did not have any effect on him.
Question 2. Why did the author not kill the sloth bear when she appeared suddenly?
Answer
Being kind-hearted, the author did not kill any animals without any motive or provocation. As the sloth bear had not provoked or attacked him, he did not kill it. That is why he describes his companions shooting of her a wanton act.
Question 3. How was Bruno, the baby bear, fed initially? What followed within a few days?
Answer
Initially, the little Bruno was given milk from a bottle. But soon he started eating all kinds of food and drank all kinds of drinks. He ate a variety of dishes like porridge, vegetables, nuts, fruits, meat, eggs, chocolates etc., and drank milk, tea, coffee, lime-juice, buttermilk, even beer and alcoholic liquor.
Question 4. What kind of tricks did Bruno, the pet bear, do?
Answer
Bruno was mischievous and played a lot of tricks. When he was called to wrestle, he would vigorously tackle anyone who came forward. When asked to hold the gun, he pointed a stick at the person. On being asked where the baby was, he brought out a stump of wood and cradled it as if it were a baby.
Question 5. How did the author get the baby sloth bear?
Answer
The author got the baby sloth bear in a freak accident. Once the author and his friends were passing through the sugarcane fields near Mysore, Bruno’s mother was wantonly shot dead by one of his companions. The cub was found moving on the body of his mother. It was in great shock and tried to flee but the author managed to capture it, and bring it home.
Question 6. What did the letters from the curator and the friends who visited the zoo report about Baba?
Answer
The letters from the curator of the zoo reported that though Baba was well, he was sad and upset, and refused to eat. The friends who visited the zoo gave similar reports telling that he had grown very thin and kept fretting all the time.
Question 7. Why did one of the author’s companions kill the bear?
Answer
One of the author’s companions killed the bear wantonly, in a moment of impulsive rush of blood. He may have though the bear would attack them and he may have shot it as an impulsive act born of self-preservation.
Question 8. How was Bruno cured of paralysis?
Answer
Bruno had mistakenly consumed poison and had got paralysed. However, he managed to crawl to the author’s wife on his stumps. He was taken to the veterinary doctor who and injected 10 cc of the antidote into him. The first dose had no effect. Then another dose was injected which cured Bruno absolutely. After ten minutes of the dose, his breathing became normal and he could move his arms and legs.
Question 9. How did Bruno become attached to the family of the author?
Answer
Bruno got lot of love in the family of the author and he grew very fond of them. It slowly got attached even to the two Alsatian dogs and to all the children of the tenants. But, above all, he loved the author’s wife and she loved him dearly too.
Question 10. How did the author’s wife do when she met her ‘Baba’ at the zoo?
Answer
At the zoo, the author’s wife rushed to the cage where Baba was been kept. She showed her love by stroking him affectionately through the bars and sat near the cage for three hours. She fed him tea, lemonade, cakes, ice-cream and what not.
Question 11. Bruno was a loving and playful pet. Why, then, did he have to be sent away?
Answer
Bruno was certainly a loving and playful pet. He had developed affection for everyone around him and was particularly attached to the author’s wife. However, he had to be sent away to the zoo because he had grown too big to be kept at home. He could be a threat to the people in the neighbourhood, especially children.
Question 12. How did the narrator’s wife react when Baba was sent to Mysore zoo?
Answer
When Baba was sent to Mysore zoo, the narrator’s wife felt so miserable that she could not be consoled. She wept and kept worrying about the bear. She refused to eat anything for some days. She wrote letters to the curator of the zoo to inquire about Baba’s well being.
Question 13. How did Baba reach back home?
Answer
At the request of the narrator’s wife, the Superintendent of the zoo agreed to permit her to have Baba back home. He wrote a letter to the curator and asked him to lend a cage so that the bear could be brought home safely. The cage was carefully put on the top of the car and Baba travelled back to his home in Bangalore.
Question 14. Describe the house on the island in which Baba would sleep at night.
Answer
A wooden box that was once used to keep the fowls was put on the island for Baba to sleep at night. Straw was placed inside to keep it warm and Bruno’s toys—his ‘baby’, the gnarled stump, and his ‘gun’, the piece of bamboo were also placed there for him to play with.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1. Why was Bruno sent to the Mysore zoo and why was he ultimately brought back home?
Answer
As months passed, Bruno, the cub bear, grew big in size. The author and his son felt it was not advisable to keep a fully grown wild animal at home, especially with the children of the tenants around. So, they felt Bruno should be sent to the zoo in Mysore. Their friends, too, offered the same advice. Although the author’s wife opposed the proposal for some time, she ultimately gave her consent after three weeks.
After her approval, they wrote a letter to the curator of the zoo asking if he wanted a tame bear for his collection. Once they received a positive response from the curator of the zoo, Baba was sent to the Mysore zoo. However, the separation was unbearable both for the author’s wife and Baba.
Both were inconsolable and would not eat properly. Bruno, especially, grew very weak and fretted. After three months of separation, the narrator’s wife put her foot down and had to be taken to the zoo in a car. On seeing each other after so long, both the narrator’s wife and Baba expressed their joy and pleasure. He recognized her from a distance, howled with .delight and stood on his head in happiness.
She patted him through the bars of his cage and fed him a variety of food and drinks that she had brought. When it was closing time at the zoo both the narrator’s wife and Baba cried so bitterly that even the curator was moved. She requested the curator to send Baba back and he suggested to seek the Superintendent’s permission. The Superintendent, who was a kind fellow, agreed and at his recommendation, the curator had the bear sent back home to Bangalore.
Question 2. The author ends the story “The Bond of Love” with the rhetorical question: “But who can say now that a sloth bear has no sense of affection, no memory and no individual characteristics?” Discuss this statement in the light of Bruno’s character.
Answer
The Bond of Love revolves around the mutual, sincere and selfless love of the narrator’s wife and her pet bear, Bruno. The young bear loved and brought up like a child by the author’s wife, proves that he richly deserves this love because he himself is capable of showing equally deep and faithful love.
He is treated like a member of the family and he himself proves that he is as much bound by loyal love to the members of the family as they are to him. The deep emotions of Bruno come to the fore when he is sent to the Mysore zoo. He is so pained by the separation from his mistress that he frets terribly and refuses to eat anything. He grows very lean and thin.
Even three months is not long enough a period for him to reconcile himself to the separation from the author’s wife. When she goes to see him, he recognizes her at once, even from a distance of some yards, and expresses his delight by howling and standing on his head. At the closing time of the zoo he cries bitterly at the thought of parting again from his mistress. His emotions move the hearts of the zoo curator and the keepers who agree to give Bruno back to the author’s family. This proves that animals too feel love and affection.
Question 3. How was Bruno brought to the author’s home? How did he become it member of the family?
Answer
The baby bear was brought to the author’s home by chance. Once, when the author and his companions, were going to Mysore, they were passing through the sugarcane fields when they saw people driving away the wild pigs from the fields by shooting at them. Some of the animals were shot and some escaped. When the author thought that everything was over, suddenly a black sloth bear came out panting in the hot sun, and one of the author’s companions wantonly killed the bear.
The cub who was riding the back of his mother ran around its prostrate parent making a pitiful noise. Filled with pity, the author chased him and captured him. He brought the baby bear home and gifted it to his wife as a pet. The author’s wife accepted him with love and named him Bruno to mark that he was no longer a homeless, wild animal. Soon there developed a bond of love between Bruno and the author’s wife and Bruno came to be called ‘Baba’ which means a ‘small boy’. He had now become a true family member who enjoyed complete freedom and deep affection.
Question 4. How was Bruno transported back to Bangalore from the Mysore zoo? What special arrangements were made to keep him at home?
Answer
Bruno, the pet bear, was transported back to Bangalore in a cage lent by the Mysore zoo authorities. The cage containing Bruno was hoisted on top of the car and tied securely. The vehicle was driven slowly and carefully, lest he was hurt. At the writer’s home in Bangalore, special arrangements were made to keep Bruno at a safe distance from the tenants’ children.
An island was made for Baba that was twenty feet long and fifteen feet wide, and was surrounded by a dry pit, or moat, six feet wide and seven feet deep. A wooden box that once housed fowls was brought and put on the island for Baba to sleep in at night. Straw was placed inside to keep him warm, his toys – the gnarled stump, his ‘baby’, and the piece of bamboo, which was his ‘gun’ – both of which had been sentimentally preserved by the author’s wife were put back for him to play with. After that the coolies hoisted the cage on to the island and Baba was released.