Chapter 3 — Unit 3: Dreams and Discoveries

The story "My Brother's Great Invention" was written by Anita Rau Badami. It is narrated in first person by a character also named Anita.

The narrator is Anita, fourteen years old. Her brother Anand is one year younger than her, so he is thirteen.

Anand built the alarm because there had been a rush of thefts in the colony. He rigged it so that it would trip when the door was opened gently (as a thief would open it). However, Papa, who always opens the front door softly, triggered the alarm — he was drenched by the water bag and found standing sopping wet and scowling.

Anand and Anita watched the film "Back to the Future", which is about a time machine. After seeing it, Anand decided he had to build one himself. Papa locked up his tool box and Ma kept a wary eye on her oven and mixer, but Anand spent a fortnight building the machine in his room from wires, springs, levers, and bulbs around an enormous control switchboard panel.

Boppa, a fellow who had been sweeping compounds in the row of houses (and knew when occupants were away), broke into the house at night. Anand misdirected him into his own room — the room with the time machine. Loud crashes, muffled thumps, an eerie whine, and a low humming sound were heard. When neighbours Mrs. Sharma, her husband, and Dr. Mohan arrived, Boppa was nowhere to be found; only his green scarf was left near the panel of switches. Anand insists his time machine worked and Boppa disappeared into the past.

"Paper Boats" was written by Rabindranath Tagore. The poem is about a child who floats paper boats down a running stream every day, writing his name and the name of his village on them in big black letters, loading them with shiuli flowers from the garden, and hoping someone in a strange land will find them. At night he dreams the boats float under midnight stars, sailed by fairies of sleep with baskets full of dreams.

The child loads his paper boats with shiuli flowers from his garden, which he calls "blooms of the dawn", hoping they will be carried safely to land in the night.

Shaana is a girl who lives on Rameswaram island. She travels the length and breadth of the country with her parents, Amma and Appa, and shares her experiences through postcards written to her friends back at school.

Shaana visits the Thajiwas glacier in Kashmir (April 30); Himachal Pradesh (May 10); Arunachal Pradesh, where they stay in a treehouse reached through a thick forest (May 17); the Sundarbans in West Bengal, where she sees mangroves, crocodiles, and a snake (May 24); Gujarat's desert (May 30); the Narmada river where the family goes rafting (June 7); Goa, where she sees plateaus, hills, and beaches (June 12); Chennai and Puducherry, where she learns to surf (June 17); the Pamban bridge with ocean on both sides (June 22); and Olaikaadu beach for a final stop (June 24).

Shaana notes that there was much more snow at the Thajiwas glacier the previous year, and that Appa says the Narmada river used to have a lot more water. Her mother (Amma) is sad about how much the Sundarbans floods today. These observations point to environmental changes such as glacier retreat and flooding in wetlands.

The section mentions four figures: Sushruta (sixth century BCE), a pioneer in medical science whose innovations in surgery paved the way for modern surgery; Dr. Janaki Ammal (Padma Shri), who made significant contributions to cytogenetics; Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (Bharat Ratna), under whose directorship at ISRO the satellite Rohini was launched in near-earth orbit in 1980 via India's first Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III); and Dr. Narinder Singh Kapany (Padma Vibhushan), known as the Father of Fibre Optics and named one of seven "Unsung Heroes of the Twentieth Century" for his invention.

Onomatopoeia is the use of words that imitate the actual sounds of the things they describe. Examples from Unit 3 include: "clanging" (the sound of the alarm), "humming" (a continuous low sound from the time machine), "hissed" (whispered angrily), and "hammering, sawing, clattering" (constant loud construction noises from Anand's room).

Yes. You can download the NCERT Class 7 English Poorvi Unit 3 PDF for free on CBSE PrepMaster — no sign-up or payment required.