A Letter to God Summary, Questions and Answers PDF, NCERT Solutions Class 10 English Chapter 1

A Letter to God Summary

A Letter to God is a story written by G.L. Fuentes which shows the belief of a poor and not-so-clever-minded farmer named Lencho in God. Lencho was poor but a dedicated farmer. He was hoping for a good harvest. But unfortunately his bad luck, a hailstorm came suddenly and destroyed all his crops and harvest completely. This has broken his heart. However, he had a strong faith in God. He was a literate man who knew how to read and write. Due to his faith in God, he was certain that God would definitely help him.  So, he decided to write a letter to God while addressing his economical concerns to him. In the A Letter to God, he requested God to send him one hundred pesos to harvest his fields again and save his family from starvation. Soon he wrote a letter and went to the post office. He placed a stamp on A Letter to God and dropped it into the mailbox.

When the postman took out the letter from the post-box, he laughed with a full heart after reading it. He immediately rushed to the postmaster and showed him the weird letter. The postmaster read the letter but laughed out loud when he noticed that the letter was addressed to God. However, he was also moved by the belief of the farmer with which the letter was written to God. He praised the poor farmer’s unquestionable faith in God and decided to help him. Soon, he asked the employees of the post office to contribute some money as a charity and also gave a part of his salary so that Lencho’s faith in God is not broken. However, the money collected was a little less than what Lencho had requested from God. The postmaster then put all the money collected in an envelope and addressed it to the poor farmer.

The very next Sunday, Lencho went to the post office to check if there was a letter for him. The postmaster politely handed over the letter to him. Lencho was not surprised at all to see the letter with money inside the envelope. He excitedly opened the envelope to count the money but became angry when he saw that there was only seventy pesos in it. He was sure that God could have never made such a blunder. He instantly went to the window to ask for paper and ink and wrote another letter to God and dropped it into the letterbox.

When Lencho had left the place, the postmaster opened and read his letter immediately. In it, Lencho had raised a complaint to God that he had initially requested one hundred pesos, but he was upset to find seventy pesos only. Moreover, he criticized the post office employees and felt that they must have stolen the remaining thirty pesos from his envelope. He requested God to send him the rest of the money since he was in urgent need of it. However, he requested God not to send the money through the mail because Lencho thought that the post office employees were a bunch of crooks who might have stolen the remaining money from the envelope.

A Letter to God: Video Explanation

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A Letter to God Questions and Answers PDF

A Letter to God PDF

A Letter to God Questions and Answers- NCERT Solutions Class 10 English Ch-1

Page 5

Question 1. What did Lencho hope for?
Answer: Lencho was a farmer who hoped for good rain to harvest his crops.

Question 2. Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like ‘new coins’?
Answer: Lencho was expecting rain as his crops were ready to harvest so he compared rain with new coins because rain is bringing him profit.

Question 3. How did the rain change? What happened to Lencho’s fields?
Answer: Lencho was expecting good rain for his crops but unfortunately, the rains changed into storms as a strong wind began to blow and huge hailstones began to fall along with the rain. All the crops in Lencho’s field got destroyed because of the weather conditions.

Question 4. What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped?
Answer: Lencho was filled with grief after the hail stopped as everything was ruined and there was nothing that he could feed his family with. He could see a blank future for himself and his family.

Page 6
Question 5. Who or what did Lencho have faith in? What did he do?
Answer: Lencho had good faith in God. He believed ‘ that God sees everything, even what is deep in one’s conscience and helps everyone in one’s problems. He wrote a letter to God requesting him a hundred pesos to sow his field again.

Question 6. Who read the A Letter to God?
Answer: Postmaster read the A Letter to God.

Question 7. What did the postmaster do after reading A Letter to God?
Answer: The postmaster laughed heartily when he read Lencho’s letter but soon he became serious and was moved by the writer’s faith in God. He didn’t want to break Lencho’s faith. So, he decided to collect, money and send it to Lencho on behalf of God.

Page 7
Question 8. Was Lencho surprised to find A Letter to God for him with money in it?
Answer: Lencho was not surprised to find A Letter to God with money from God as he believed that God will help him.

Question 9. What made Lencho angry?
Answer: There were only seventy pesos in the envelope whereas Lencho had demanded a hundred pesos. The difference in the amount made him angry.

Thinking about the Text  (Page 7,8)

Question 1. Who does Lencho have complete faith in? Which sentences in the story tell you this?
Answer: Lencho has complete belief in God as he is told that God knows everything and helps everyone with their problems. There are a few sentences that show his belief

• But in the hearts of all who lived in that solitary house in the middle of the valley, there was a single hope help from God.
• All through the night, Lencho thought only of his one hope: the help of God, whose eyes, as he had been instructed, see everything, even what is deep in one’s conscience.
• “God”, he wrote, “if you don’t help me, my family and I will go hungry this year”.
• He wrote ‘To God’ on the envelope, put the letter inside and still troubled, went to town.
• God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested.

Question 2. Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter God?
Answer: The postmaster sends money to Lencho in order to keep Lencho’s faith in God alive and steady as he was completely moved by it.
When the postmaster reads the letter of Lencho to God, he becomes serious and does not want to break his faith and decides to answer the letter. He collects money with the help of his post office employees and friends on behalf of God and signs the letter ‘God’ so that Lencho’s faith does not get broken.

Question 3. Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why or why not?
Answer: Lencho did not try to find out who had sent the money to him because he never suspected the presence of God and had complete faith in God. He could not believe that it could be – anybody else other than him who would send him the money.
His faith in God was so strong that he believed that he had sent money to him for his help in his problem.

Question 4. Who does Lencho think has taken the rest of the money? What is the irony in the situation? (Remember that the irony of a situation is an unexpected aspect of it. An ironic situation is strange or amusing because it is the opposite of what is expected).
Answer: Lencho thinks that the post office employees have taken the rest of the money as he had demanded a hundred pesos from God and in the letter, there were only seventy pesos and God cannot make such a mistake. So, he assumes that they have stolen the money.
The irony in this situation is that Lencho suspects those people who helped him with his problem and tried to keep his faith alive in God.

Question 5. Are there people like Lencho in the real world? What kind of a person would you say he is? You may select appropriate words from the list to answer the question.

• Greedy
• Naive
• Stupid
• Ungrateful
• Selfish
• Comical
• Unquestioning

Answer: It is almost impossible to find a person like Lencho as he is an unquestioning and naive kind of person. He is not stupid if he doesn’t know who has sent him money or a letter will reach God without any address. It is Lencho’s faith in God. In real world, people are selfish and greedy and Lencho is totally lovable and different.

Question 6. There are two kinds of conflict in the story between humans and nature and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated?
Answer: Conflict between Humans and Nature: The conflict between humans and nature is illustrated by the destruction of Lencho’s crop by the hailstorm as Lencho was expecting good rain to have a good harvest as that was the only hope he had for his earnings. He worked so hard to feed his family, but nature turned violent and destroyed everything.
The conflict between Humans and Humans: The story also illustrated another conflict, between humans themselves as the postmaster along with his friends and staff sent Lencho money that Lencho demanded from God although they didn’t know Lencho. Lencho blamed them for taking away some amount of money. He called them “a bunch of crooks”. This shows that man does not have faith in another man, thereby giving rise to this conflict.

Thinking about Language        (Page 8,9,10,11)

1. There are different names in different parts of the world for storms, depending on their nature. Can you match the names in the box with their descriptions below, and fill in the blanks?

Question 1. A  violent tropical storm in which strong winds move in a circle c__.
Answer: cyclone
Question 2. An extremely strong wind __ a __.
Answer: gale
Question 3. A violent tropical storm with very strong wind __ p __.
Answer: typhoon
Question 4. A violent storm whose centre is a cloud in the shape of a funnel __n__.
Answer: tornado
Question 5. A violent storm with very strong winds, especially in the Western Atlantic Ocean __ r__.
Answer: Hurricane
Question 6. A very strong wind that moves very fast in a spinning movement and causes a lot of damage __l__.
Answer: whirlwind
Question 7. Match the sentences in column A with the meaning of ‘hope’ in column B.

A Letter to God Answer:
1. (b)
2. (e)
3. (a)
4. (f)
5. (d)
6. (c)

3. Join the sentences given below using who, whom, whose, which, as suggested.
Question 1. I often go to Mumbai. Mumbai is the commercial capital of India, (which)
Answer: I often go to Mumbai which is the commercial capital of India.

Question 2. My mother is going to host a TV show on cooking. She cooks very well, (who)
Answer: My Mother who cooks very well, is going to host a TV show on cooking.

Question 3. These sportspersons are going to meet the President. Their performance has been excellent, (whose)
Answer: These sportspersons, whose performance has been excellent, are going to meet the President.

Question 4. Lencho prayed to God. His eyes see into our minds, (whose)
Answer: Lencho prayed to God, whose eyes see into our minds.

Question 5. This man cheated me. I trusted him. (whom)
Answer: This man whom I trusted cheated me.

4. Find sentences in the story with negative words, which express the following ideas emphatically.
(a) The trees lost all their leaves.
(b) The letter was addressed to God himself.
(c) The postman saw this address for the first time in his career.
Answer:
(a) Not a leaf remained on the trees.
(b) It was nothing less than a letter to God.
(c) Never in his career as a postman had he seen that address.

5. In pairs, find metaphors from the story to complete the table below. Try to say what qualities are being compared. One has been done for you.

Answer:

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