First Flight 7 — Madam Rides the Bus

Unit at a glance

• Contains two pieces: the prose story “Madam Rides the Bus” and the ballad “The Tale of Custard the Dragon”.
• Both centre on an eight-year-old child’s (or child-like) encounter with the outside world.
• The prose explores the gap between knowing about death and understanding it; the poem presents a humorous take on bravery and cowardice.
• Common thread: innocence, curiosity, and the difference between appearance and reality.
• Written for Class 10 First Flight, Chapter 7 (NCERT Reprint 2026-27).

Prose – Madam Rides the Bus

Summary

Eight-year-old Valli, living in a village with no playmates, becomes fascinated by the bus that passes her street every hour. She secretly saves sixty paise, slips out during her mother’s afternoon nap, and takes a one-hour round trip to the town. She enjoys the sights until she sees the same cow that had amused her earlier lying dead by the roadside; the sight saddens her and she returns home without telling anyone where she had been.

Setting

A small village; the bus route runs six miles to the nearest town along a canal, fields, a railway crossing and shopping streets.

Main characters

• Valli: an eight-year-old curious, self-reliant girl who plans and pays for her own journey.
• The conductor: a jolly man who calls Valli “madam” and jokes with her.
• Elderly man and elderly woman: fellow passengers who try to advise or befriend her.
• Valli’s mother and aunt: unaware of the trip; the aunt is described as a “real chatterbox”.

Sequence of key events

1. Valli gathers information and saves thirty paise each way.
2. She boards the 1 p.m. bus alone and stands on the seat to see the view.
3. She refuses help, rejects the elderly woman’s company and laughs at the running cow.
4. At the town terminus she pays another thirty paise to return on the same bus.
5. On the return journey she sees the dead cow and sits silently.
6. She reaches home by 3:40 p.m. and quietly joins her mother and aunt.

Poem – The Tale of Custard the Dragon

Central idea

A humorous ballad that shows how the supposedly cowardly dragon, Custard, turns out to be the only one brave enough to face danger.

Stanza-by-stanza sense

• Stanzas 1–4 introduce Belinda, her pets (Ink, Blink, Mustard) and the “cowardly” dragon Custard who wants a safe cage.
• Stanzas 5–6 show everyone mocking Custard.
• Stanzas 7–9 a pirate enters; all flee except Custard, who gobbles the pirate.
• Final stanzas: everyone claims they would have been braver; Custard again asks for his cage.

Tone/mood

Light-hearted, playful and comic; the rhythm and rhyme create a bouncy, story-telling mood.

Themes and messages

• The prose shows that children can be more capable than adults assume (“I’ve paid my thirty paise like everyone else”).
• It also conveys the sudden, sobering reality of death that changes Valli’s excitement.
• The poem gently mocks false bravery and celebrates quiet courage when it is truly needed.

Literary devices (with lines from the text)
- Simile: “Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears”
- Imagery: “acres and acres of green fields — green, green, green, as far as the eye could see”
- Personification: “Trees came running towards them”
- Irony: everyone calls Custard cowardly, yet only he fights the pirate
- Repetition: “realio, trulio” (used throughout the poem)

Vocabulary

• wistfully: longingly
• kindle: set alight (feelings)
• discreet: careful, tactful
• slack time: quiet period with few passengers
• repulsive: causing strong dislike
• drivel: silly nonsense
• thriftily: spending money carefully
• resolutely stifled: firmly suppressed
• ventured: went cautiously
• thoroughfare: busy public road
• spreadeagled: spread out
• haunted: returned repeatedly to the mind

Exam pitfalls

• Confusing the dead cow seen on the return journey with the live cow that made Valli laugh on the way to town.
• Forgetting that Valli refuses the conductor’s offer of a cold drink because she has no extra money.
• Mixing up the poem’s characters or claiming Custard remains a coward at the end.
• Writing that Valli’s mother knows about the trip (the text clearly shows she does not).