WEATHERING THE STORM IN ERASMA

SUMMARY

Weathering the Storm Ersama Summary – Prashant was a young boy of

nineteen years of age. He belonged to Kalikuda, a village in the coastal state of
Odisha. He had lost his mother seven years ago. On 27 October 1999, when he
was visiting a friend in Ersama, a super cyclone hit the area. There was large
scale devastation. The gushy winds and rains continued for two days. They
remained on the rooftop of the house and survived on the tender coconuts from
the coconut trees that had fallen on the roof. As the rain stopped, Prashant left
for his home as he feared the worst for his family. He took a stick to help him
find the road. At times, he had to swim through the flood waters. On the way he
met two friends and their uncle and the group moved together. They came
across dead bodies of human beings and animals which floated with the current.
As they crossed villages, not even a single house could be seen. Prashant’s house
was shattered too and he saw the belongings hanging on the branches of the
trees. He wept as he felt that he had lost his beloved. He went to the Red cross
shelter in search of his family. There Prashant met his maternal grandmother.
She was elated to see him alive as they had not expected that he would have
survived the storm. Prashant saw a crowd of 2500 people at the shelter. Many
had lost their families in the disaster. They were grief stricken as the
catastrophe had snatched everything. For the last 2 days they had survived on
coconuts but they were running out of stock. Prashant took control of the
situation. He formed a group with some elders and young people. They forced
the merchant to give them the stock of rice and were successful. After 4 days the
crowd ate a meal. Then the group of volunteers cleaned the shelter and tended
to the injured people. Prashant engaged the widows to work in the NGO named
“Food for work”. He engaged the children by arranging sports matches for
them. The volunteers managed to set up foster families comprising of the
widows, orphaned children and lone men who would form a family and support
each other. Like this Prashant overcame his grief and learnt to smile even in the
face of adversities.

SHORT ANSWERS

Question 1: What shocked Prashant? Why? Or What did Prashant see around him after the rain?
How did he feel then?

Answer:After the rain, Prashant saw a raging, deadly, brown sheet of water everywhere around him.
A few fractured cement houses were the only things visible. Bloated animal carcasses and human
corpses floated in the water. The trees including the huge ones had fallen down. Prashant felt worried
about his family.

Question 2: What did Prashant see on his way to his village which saddened him the most?

Answer:On his way back to his village, Prashant saw the havoc caused by the rain and the flood. He
saw the villages which had been swept away by the flood and the carcasses and corpses were floating
in the water. He had to wade through the water. He couldn't see in any house standing intact the
villages. It disappointed and saddened him. He started crying loudly.

Question 3: What was `the miracle' for the family members of Prashant?

Answer:Prashant's family had been worried about him. When he did not return for days, they
thought they had lost him. But when Prashant's family found him alive at the Red Cross shelter, they
were extremely happy. They took it to be 'a miracle' because it wasn't easy to survive the rains and the
flood.

Question 4: What did Prashant sense was wrong with the people at the shelter? How did he solve the
problem?

Answer:Prashant could sense the feeling of a deadly grief settling fast upon the people in the shelter.
They mourned for the people who had died due to the flood and the property they had lost. They also
had nothing to eat. Prashant formed teams to resolve these problems. He also organised matches to lift
their spirits.

Question 5: What did the Government do to improve life in Orissa? Why did Prashant resist the plan?

Answer:To improve the life in Orissa, the Government also decided to set up institutions for orphans
and the women. Prashant resisted the plan as he felt these institutions would increase the stigma of
widowhood and loneliness in widows. Instead, he encouraged the foster families.

Question 6: What hit Orissa on 27th October, 1999? Or What happened when Prashant had gone to
visit his friend in Ersama?

Answer:On that day, a super cyclone with a speed of 350 km per hour hit the coastal areas of Orissa.
It was followed by continuous heavy rains for two days. Raging ocean waves flooded Orissa.

Question 7: How did Prashant contribute to improve the condition of the shelter?

Answer:He organised a team to collect food and other utilities. He formed a team of volunteers to
clean the shelter of all the filth, urine, vomiting, and carcasses etc. he uplifted the spirits of the
inhabitants emotionally, physically and psychologically.

Question 8: How did Prashant help the children affected by the cyclone and flood?

Answer:He set up a polythene shelter for orphans, helped them resettle in their own societies through
adoptions and foster families. He organised cricket matches etc to help them recover.

Question 9: How did Prashant help the women affected by the devastating cyclone?

Answer:He helped them by providing food and other basic needs. He made them work for NGOs and
look after orphans. He helped them set up foster families. He helped them emotionally and
psychologically.
Question 10: how did Prashant pass his time during the first two days of the super cyclone?

Answer:After the Super Cyclone had hit Ersama, Prashant's friend's house immersed in the water. They
were compelled to shift on the roof. They had to spend two days there. They had nothing to eat but the
tender coconuts of those two trees which had fallen on the roof.

Question 11: What were the two important tasks Prashant did after deciding to be the leader of the
village?

Answer:Prashant was a bold and patient boy. He took the responsibility and became the leader of the
village. He organised a group of youths and elders. They put pressure on merchants and compelled them
to release some rice for the poor. People got food after many days. Then, he organised a group which
cleaned the shelter and took care of the wounded.

Question 12: What did Prashant see when he reached his village?

Answer:On reaching his village, Prashant saw everything was devastated. The trees were immersed and
their branches appeared above water. His heart turned cold. Houses had been ruined and only their
roofs were visible. His whole family had got scattered.

Question 13: How did the villagers make the helicopters drop regular quantities of food?

Answer:A group of volunteers collected all the utensils in the shelter. Then, a few small boys were made
to lie down on the sand near water with these utensils on their stomachs. This was done to communicate
to the helicopters that they needed food as well. The helicopters dropped food regularly after this.

Question 14: How did Prashant escape the fate of his village people during the rain?

Answer:Prashant was at his friend's house when the storm struck Orissa. Prashant had to spend two
nights on the open rooftop in the rain due to the flood. He survived by eating the coconuts from a tree
that had fallen on the roof. However, his village people had to face the fury of the storm. They lost their
houses and had to take shelter at the Red Cross shelter.

LONG ANSWERS
Answer the following questions in 100-150 words.

Question 1: How did Prashant infuse the people with new life?

Answer:Prashant could not only see physical but also the emotional and the psychological needs. He
made a separate shelter for the orphans. He encouraged women to look after the children. He further
encouraged them to come out of the stigma. He organised some amusement activities to lighten up
their lives. With his leadership quality, he managed to infuse a new life in them. He encouraged the
young children to play games and organise cricket matches. He persuaded women to start an NGO
and take care of orphaned children.

Question 2: How did the community come together when needed?

Answer:The people of the community helped one another by joining hands under the leadership of
Prashant. They jointly pressurised the merchant to give rice as everybody was starving. A fire was
lighted to cook the rice. It was the first time after the cyclone had hit the area that everyone ate their
fill. A team of youth volunteers was organised to clean the shelter and to tend to the wounds and
fractures of the people injured in the cyclone.

When the military helicopter dropped some food parcels but did not return, the youth task force
gathered empty utensils from the shelter and deputed the children to lie in the sand with these utensils
on their stomachs to communicate to the passing helicopters that they were hungry.

The women of Kalikuda looked after the orphaned children. Though they became grief-stricken after
a few days, on Prashant's insistence, they also started working in the food-for-work programme
started by an NGO..

Question 3: How does Prashant show leadership qualities?

Answer:Prashant proved to be an excellent leader. He organised people and raised their morale. He
sorted his tasks according to priority. For instance, as safety and hygiene was most important, the first
thing he did was to organise a group which would do that. Next was food. He mobilized a group which
convinced a merchant to give them food. He came up with brilliant ideas to solve problems. For
instance, making children lie down and keeping utensils on their stomachs. He was quite far sighted to
understand that widows and orphans will benefit more if they stayed together. He also had the
courage to fight against the government efforts and convince them for his idea.

Question 4: How was Prashant an asset to his village?

Answer:Prashant shows the true leadership qualities. He motivates people for self-help. His young
energy works miracles in awakening people to fight with the after effects of the super cyclone.

Prashant was initially shocked to see the after effects of the cyclone. He first got a grip over himself.
Then, he decided to step in as the leader of his village. He organised a group of youths and elders to
jointly pressurize a merchant to give them rice. He was successful in this task.

His next task was to organise a team of youth volunteers to clean the shelter and to tend to the wounds
of the people who had been injured because of the cyclone. He also brought a number of orphaned
children together and constructed a polythene shelter for them. While women were mobilized to look
after them, the men secured food and essentials for the shelter. When he realised that the women were
becoming too grief-stricken, he persuaded them to start working in the food-for-work programme,
which was initiated by an NGO. He also organised sports events for children.

EXTRACT BASED QUESTIONS

Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:

ON 27 October 1999, seven years after his mother’s death, Prashant had gone to the block
headquarters of Ersama, a small town in coastal Orissa, some eighteen kilometres from his village, to
spend the day with a friend. In the evening, a dark and menacing storm quickly gathered. Winds beat
against the houses with a speed and fury that Prashant had never witnessed before. Heavy and
incessant rain filled the darkness, ancient trees were uprooted and crashed to the earth. Screams rent
the air as people and houses were swiftly washed away. The angry waters swirled into his friend’s
house, neck deep. The building was of brick and mortar and was strong enough to survive the
devastation of the wind’s velocity of 350 km per hour.

Q1. Name the chapter from where this extract has been taken?
Ans- This extract has been taken from the chapter “Weathering the Storm in Ersama”.

Q2. What happened in October 1999 in Orissa?

Ans- A cyclone hit Orissa in October 1999.

Q3. Where was Prashant when the calamity hit Orissa?

Ans- Prashant was in Ersama which is a small coastal town when the cyclone hit Orissa. He had gone
there to visit a friend.

Q4. Find a word from the given extract which means the same as “terrifying, alarming, frightening”

Ans- Menacing

B. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:

Prashant and his friend’s family had taken refuge on the roof. Prashant will never forget the shock he
experienced at his first glimpse of the devastation wrought by the super cyclone, in the grey light of
the early morning. A raging, deadly, brown sheet of water covered everything as far as the eye could
see; only fractured cement houses still stood in a few places. Bloated animal carcasses and human
corpses floated in every direction. All round even huge old trees had fallen. Two coconut trees had
fallen on the roof of their house. This was a blessing in disguise, because the tender coconuts from the
trees kept the trapped family from starving in the several days that followed. For the next two days,
Prashant sat huddled with his friend’s family in the open on the rooftop. They froze in the cold and
incessant rain; the rain water washed away Prashant’s tears..

Q1. How were Prashant’s tears washed away?

Ans- Prashant’s tears were washed away by the rain water that fell upon him.

Q2. Where did Prashant and the friend’s family take shelter during the calamity?

Ans- Prashant and his friend’s family had taken refuge in the open on the roof of their house.

Q3. What did they eat to survive during the calamity?

Ans- Prashant and his friend’s family ate tender coconuts to survive during the storm.

Q4. What do you understand by “blessing in disguise”?

Ans- Blessing in disguise refers to something that seems bad or unlucky at first but causes something
good to happen later.

C. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:

Eventually, Prashant reached his village, Kalikuda. His heart went cold. Where their home once stood,
there were only remnants of its roof. Some of their belongings were caught, mangled and

twisted in the branches of trees just visible above the dark waters. Young Prashant decided to go to
the Red Cross shelter to look for his family. Among the first people he saw in the crowd was his
maternal grandmother. Weak with hunger, she rushed to him, her hands outstretched, her eyes
brimming. It was a miracle. They had long given him up for dead. Quickly word spread and his
extended family gathered around him, and hugged him tight in relief. Prashant anxiously scanned the
motley, battered group. His brother and sister, his uncles and aunts, they all seemed to be there.
Q1. What was a miracle?

Ans- Survival of Prashant was considered to be a miracle by the grandmother.

Q2. Name Prashant’s village.

Ans- Prashant’s village’s name is Kalikuda.

Q3. Who was among the first people Prashant saw at the Red Cross Shelter?

Ans- Prashant saw his maternal grandmother first.

Q4. Find a word from the above extract which means the same as “apprehensively, cynically”.

Ans– Anxiously

D.. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:

On the fifth day, a military helicopter flew over the shelter and dropped some food parcels. It then did
not return. The youth task force gathered empty utensils from the shelter. Then they deputed the
children to lie in the sand left by the waters around the shelter with these utensils on their stomachs, to
communicate to the passing helicopters that they were hungry. The message got through, and after
that the helicopter made regular rounds of the shelter, airdropping food and other basic needs.

Q1. What measures did military helicopter take?

Ans- Military helicopter airdropped some food packages and other basic needs.

Q2. How did children communicate to the military helicopters that they were hungry?

Ans- Youth task force sent out the kids to lie with utensils on their stomachs to signal to the passing
helicopters that they were starving.

Q3. Which shelter is being referred to here?

Ans- The shelter being referred to here is the Red Cross shelter.

Q4. Find a word from the given extract which means the same as “famished, ravenous”.

Ans- Hungry