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The Treasure Within Exercise 28

Solution 1

Hafeez Contractor used to have continuous nightmares about appearing for a maths examination where he did not know anything.

Solution 2

When he was in eleventh standard, the Principal called him and told him that he was a good student, but he never studied. He said that he had taken care of him till that day, but now he could no longer take care of him and so he would have to do it himself. He also said that he did not have his father and his mother had worked so hard to bring him up and paid all his fees all those years but all he had done was only play games. Now, it was time that he rose to the occasion and start studying.

Solution 3

That year he did not step out onto the field because he would go to say his prayers, and then would only eat and study.

Solution 4

(i) One day he did not want to study, so he created a distraction. For one whole hour they played 'chor police'.

(ii) (in this answer you can write your own views-either you could like or not have liked) No, I would not have liked to participate in the distraction had I been with him.

Chapter 4 - The Treasure Within Exercise 32

Solution 1

Hafeez Contractor wanted to join the police force but his mother asked him not to join the police force but do his graduation. So he went to Jaihind College in Bombay.

Solution 2

In the architect's office where Contractor was going to learn French he saw somebody drawing a window detail. A window detail is a very advanced drawing. Contractor told him that his drawing was wrong — that the window he had drawn would not open. He then had a bet with him and later he found that indeed, his drawing was wrong. His cousin's husband was surprised. He asked him to draw a few specific things, which he immediately did. He asked him to design a house which he did. After that, he told him to drop everything and join architecture.

Solution 3

(i) In school, when he was in the second or third standard, one of his teachers, Mrs Gupta, saw his sketches and told him, that although he was useless in everything else his sketches were good and when he grew up he should become an architect.

(ii) She advised him so after seeing his sketches.

Solution 4

Discipline in the school was very important and no student could afford to have a button missing. When his fellow students lost a button while playing or fighting, they would come running to him and he would cut a button for them from chalk, using a blade. In this way the student would get past dinner with a full neat uniform and after that it did not matter.

Solution 5

The rules he broke were that he used to copy in class during exams, watch movies, play jokes and pranks on others. He used to try to get hold of the examination paper that had been prepared and study it, as he could not remember things that were thought in class.

If while in class it was raining outside he would be thinking about the flowing water and how to build a dam to block it. And since discipline was very important in his school if a student lost a button he would cut a button for them out of chalk using a blade so that they could go past dinner with a full neat uniform.

Solution 6

(i) Hafeez Contractor's definition of mathematics is to put design, construction, psychology and sociology together and make a sketch from all that.

(ii) Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Yes, I like the subject.