An Alien Hand

Chapter 1 of NCERT Class 7 English (An Alien Hand), "The Tiny Teacher", is an informational prose piece that presents the ant as the smallest yet wisest insect. It describes the organised life inside an anthill — the roles of the queen, workers, soldiers, and grubs — the ant's use of feelers (antennae) to communicate, the life cycle from egg to grub to cocoon to adult, and the practice of keeping other creatures such as the greenfly inside the nest. The chapter closes by noting the lessons humans can still learn from the ant: hard work, duty, discipline, cleanliness, care for the young, and loyalty.

• 1The ant is described as the commonest, smallest, and wisest insect; the story of its life sounds almost untrue but is based on close observation of ants kept as pets.
• 2Ants communicate by touching feelers (antennae); ants moving in a row greet others coming from the opposite direction this way.
• 3An anthill contains hundreds of rooms and passages serving as nurseries for grubs, storerooms for food, workers' quarters, and soldiers' barracks — each type of ant stays strictly in its own area.
• 4The queen ant lives for about fifteen years, bites off her wings after a wedding flight on a hot summer day, and thereafter only lays eggs.
• 5The ant life cycle runs from egg → grub (guarded by soldiers, fed and aired by workers) → cocoon (three weeks without food or activity) → complete ant, after which new ants are trained by older ants in their duties.

Chapter 2 of NCERT Class 7 English (An Alien Hand), "Bringing Up Kari", is a first-person narrative by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (adapted from his book Kari, the Elephant) about a nine-year-old boy who raises a five-month-old baby elephant named Kari. The chapter describes Kari's daily care and bathing routine, his dramatic rescue of a drowning boy, his mischievous banana-stealing habit, and the commands — 'Dhat' (sit) and 'Mali' (walk) — the boy teaches him, culminating in an explanation of the difficult 'master call' that takes five years for an elephant to learn.

• 1Kari was five months old when given to the nine-year-old narrator; they grew up together, which is why the narrator never noticed exactly how tall Kari became.
• 2Kari's pavilion had a thatched roof resting on thick tree stumps so it would not collapse when Kari bumped into the poles.
• 3Kari needed forty pounds of twigs a day; the narrator had to sharpen a hatchet carefully before cutting them because elephants will not eat mutilated twigs.
• 4Kari rescued a drowning boy from the river by trumpeting to alert the narrator, then pulled both the narrator and the boy ashore with his trunk, acting like a lasso around the narrator's neck.
• 5Kari secretly stole ripe bananas through the dining-room window for weeks; servants and then the narrator were blamed before Kari was caught and scolded — after which his pride was so injured he never stole again.

Chapter 3 of NCERT Class 7 English (An Alien Hand), "Golu Grows a Nose", is a simplified and abridged story by Rudyard Kipling about Golu, a baby elephant who is famous for asking endless curious questions. He travels to the great, grassy Limpopo river to learn what a crocodile eats for dinner. There, a crocodile grabs him by the nose and a tug-of-war stretches it into a long trunk. The python, who had followed Golu, helps him pull free. Golu's new trunk turns out to be more useful than his old bulgy nose — he can swat flies, pluck grass, and cool himself with mud — showing that curiosity leads to unexpected gain.

• 1Long ago all elephants had only a bulgy nose and could not pick up things with it.
• 2Golu is a baby elephant whose endless curiosity annoys his relatives — the ostrich, giraffe, hippopotamus, and baboon — none of whom can answer his questions.
• 3The mynah bird advises Golu to visit the great, grassy Limpopo river to find out what the crocodile has for dinner.
• 4At the river a crocodile, disguised as a log of wood, lures Golu close and grabs his nose, saying it plans to eat a baby elephant for dinner.
• 5The python, who has been quietly following Golu, urges him to pull hard; together they stretch the nose into a five-foot trunk before it breaks free.

Chapter 4 of NCERT Class 7 English (An Alien Hand), "Chandni", is an adaptation of a story by Zakir Husain. It follows Chandni, a young white goat kept by Abbu Khan of Almora, who yearns for the freedom of the hills despite the danger of a wolf that has killed every goat before her. When Abbu Khan locks her in a hut, she escapes through a back window, reaches the hills, and fights the wolf alone through the night. By morning she lies wounded, but a wise old bird declares her the winner — because she chose and defended her freedom to the last.

• 1Abbu Khan lives alone in Almora and names his goats with affectionate names; all his previous goats eventually broke free and were killed by the wolf in the hills.
• 2Chandni is white as snow, has two small horns and gleaming red eyes, and is named after the word for moonlight.
• 3Chandni's longing for the hills makes her stop eating, grow thin, and stare moodily at the hilltops; she tells Abbu Khan directly, 'If I stay on in your compound, I'll die.'
• 4Abbu Khan warns Chandni about the wolf and recounts the story of Kalua — a goat as large as a big deer — who fought the wolf all night but was killed by morning.
• 5When Abbu Khan locks Chandni in a small hut, she escapes through a small window he forgot to close, reaching the hills on the same night.

Chapter 5 of NCERT Class 7 English (An Alien Hand), "The Bear Story", is a short story by Axel Munthe about a lady who lives in an old manor-house on the border of a big forest and keeps a pet bear she is deeply fond of. Found as a helpless, half-starved cub in the forest, the bear is brought up on the bottle by the lady and the old cook. He grows into a large, amiable animal that lives peaceably with the household's dogs, ponies, and children. The story's central incident occurs one Sunday when the lady discovers a bear following her through the forest — and the surprising twist at the end reveals the true nature of the encounter.

• 1The bear cub was found half-dead of hunger in the forest and brought up on the bottle by the lady and the old cook.
• 2He grew into a large bear but remained amiable — he never harmed anyone, lived alongside dogs and ponies, and let children sleep in his kennel.
• 3He was a vegetarian, eating bread, porridge, potato, cabbage, and turnip; he loved apples and once had trouble resisting the beehives, for which he was chained for two days.
• 4He was chained at night and on Sundays when his mistress walked through the dense forest to visit her married sister on the other side of the mountain-lake.
• 5One Sunday a bear followed the lady through the forest; she hit it on the nose with her parasol so hard it broke, and the bear turned back.

Chapter 6 of NCERT Class 7 English (An Alien Hand), "A Tiger in the House", is a story by Ruskin Bond about Grandfather raising a tiger cub named Timothy from infancy to near-adulthood before sending him to the Lucknow zoo — and his unexpected encounter with a wild tiger when he returns to visit six months later.

• 1Grandfather discovers the tiger cub (about eighteen inches long) hiding among the roots of a banyan tree in the Terai jungle near Dehra.
• 2Grandmother names the cub Timothy; he is first fed milk by the cook Mahmoud, then shifted to raw mutton, cod-liver oil, pigeons and rabbits.
• 3Timothy's companions are Toto the monkey — bold enough to pull Timothy's tail and escape up the curtains — and a small mongrel puppy Grandfather found on the road.
• 4At roughly the size of a full-grown retriever, Timothy still plays gently: he stalks the narrator, rolls on his back, and kicks with delight, but never truly harms anyone.
• 5Around six months old Timothy turns dangerous — he stalks the cook Mahmoud with what looks like villainous intent — so Grandfather takes him by first-class rail compartment to the Lucknow zoo.

Chapter 7 of NCERT Class 7 English (An Alien Hand), "An Alien Hand", is a science-fiction story by Jayant Narlikar about a boy named Tilloo who lives underground on a planet whose surface has become uninhabitable. Tilloo secretly uses his father's security card to enter the forbidden underground passage that leads to the surface, but is caught by security staff before reaching it. His father then explains how changes in their sun forced their ancestors to move underground after birds, animals, and fish became extinct. Meanwhile, two alien spacecraft — later revealed to be NASA's Viking Mission to Mars — approach their planet. The Central Committee debates whether to destroy or observe them and chooses non-interference to avoid revealing that life exists on the planet. When Tilloo visits the Control Room, he impulsively presses the red button on the control panel and accidentally disables the mechanical hand extending from the alien spacecraft, causing a malfunction reported at a NASA press conference. The hand is later reactivated, collects soil samples, and finds no signs of life on the planet.

• 1Tilloo and his parents live underground because the planet's surface is too cold and the air is too thin to breathe without a special suit and oxygen reservoir.
• 2Tilloo steals his father's security card to enter the forbidden underground passage, but invisible mechanical security devices detect and photograph him and he is escorted home before reaching the surface.
• 3Tilloo's father explains that their sun changed slightly, which upset the balance of nature: birds became extinct first, then animals, then fish, and the community survived only by moving underground using superior technology.
• 4Two alien spacecraft approaching the planet are detected in the Control Room; the Central Committee debates destroying them, rendering them unoperational, or passive observation and chooses non-interference to avoid revealing that life exists on the planet.
• 5Number One (defence) states the spacecraft can be destroyed with missiles or rendered ineffective after landing; Number Two (scientist) recommends non-interference and passive observation; Number Three (social scientist) agrees and adds that surface activities should be minimised to create the impression of no life.