This page is about the story Bholi by K.A. Abbas, in the NCERT Class 10 English supplementary reader Footprints without Feet. The chapter runs about nine printed pages — a story of roughly 2,800 words — and the official NCERT chapter PDF is right below.
Under it you will find a plain-English guide to the story, its characters, the themes it raises, and the questions the book itself asks.
If you only need the file, take it now. If the story did not make sense on a first read, the sections below walk through it in order, grouped the way the book itself groups it.
Download the official chapter PDF
The official chapter — the complete text of K.A. Abbas’s story exactly as printed in the current NCERT edition, including its glossary and exercise sections — is available free as a Bholi Class 10 PDF (Footprints without Feet, official NCERT chapter). You will want this file because it is the exact version in the NCERT reader, with nothing cut or reworded.
If your school edition differs, the latest Class 10 English readers are always listed on the official NCERT textbook portal at ncert.nic.in.
Bholi: the chapter at a glance
This section shows the shape of the chapter before you read it, so you know what the PDF actually contains.
Bholi is a narrative text — a short story — so it has no formal sections of its own. The chapter opens with a short printed note telling you that Bholi was neglected from childhood, plus two teaser questions about her teacher’s special interest in her.
The story itself is split by three Read and Find Out question boxes, each pausing the reading with two questions.
The chapter closes with a glossary of seven words, a Think about it section with five questions, a Talk about it section with three discussion prompts, and a Suggested reading list of three stories. The printed chapter also carries a few illustrations with no captions, so this page teaches from the text in words rather than reproducing the artwork.
What happens in Bholi: the story in three movements
This section walks the story in order, grouped by the book’s three Read and Find Out blocks. If you lost the thread of the plot on a first read, this is the section to fix it.
Movement 1: Sulekha’s childhood — how the label “Bholi” begins
This movement answers the first question box: why her father is worried about her, and for what unusual reasons she is sent to school.
- Her real name is Sulekha, but everyone calls her Bholi, the simpleton.
- At ten months she fell off the cot on her head. The story says the fall perhaps damaged part of her brain, which is why she remained a backward child.
- At two she had smallpox. Her eyes were saved, but deep black pock-marks permanently disfigured her body.
- She could not speak till she was five, and when she finally spoke she stammered. Other children mimicked her, so she talked very little.
- Ramlal, a prosperous farmer and the village numberdar (revenue official), has seven children. His sons study in the city; the elder daughters Radha, Mangla and Champa are married or settled. Only Bholi worries him: “She had neither good looks nor intelligence.”
- The push comes when a girls’ primary school opens in the village and the Tehsildar orders Ramlal, as the government’s representative, to set an example by sending his daughters.
- Ramlal’s wife solves the problem: send Bholi, since there is little chance of her getting married anyway and “let the teachers at school worry about her.”
Movement 2: the first day at school — a soft voice changes everything
This movement answers the second question box: does Bholi enjoy her first day, and is her teacher different from the people at home?
- Ramlal drags her to school by the hand. Terrified, Bholi remembers how their old cow Lakshmi was turned out of the house and sold a few days earlier. She screams “N-n-n-n NO” and pulls away.
- For once she is given a clean dress — one that has shrunk and no longer fits her sister Champa — and her dry, matted hair is bathed and oiled. Only then does she begin to believe she is being taken somewhere better than home.
- Inside the school she sees rooms full of girls her own age and hopes one of them might become her friend. The pictures on the wall fascinate her because they look like her own world: a horse like the Tehsildar’s, a goat like the neighbour’s, a cow “just like their Lakshmi.”
- When the teacher asks her name, she can only stammer “Bh-Bho-Bho-” and breaks down crying in her corner.
- The turning point: the teacher calls her name softly — “Bholi” — and Bholi realises no one has ever spoken her name like that. After every failed attempt the teacher says “Well done, well done,” until Bholi finally manages “Bh-Bh-Bho-Bholi.”
- The teacher’s promise: a picture book now, reading within a month, bigger books after that, and in time “more learned than anyone else in the village” — “then no one will ever be able to laugh at you.” Her core line: “Put the fear out of your heart and you will be able to speak like everyone else.”
- Bholi leaves as if temple bells were ringing; her heart is “throbbing with a new hope and a new life.”
Movement 3: the years that pass — the village changes, and so does Bholi
This movement sets up the third question box: why the parents accept Bishamber’s proposal, and why the marriage does not take place.
- Years pass. The village becomes a small town; the primary school becomes a high school. A cinema, a cotton ginning mill and a railway stop arrive.
- The story skips these years in a single sentence — “Thus the years passed.” It jumps from Bholi’s first day to the night, years later, when her parents discuss Bishamber’s marriage proposal while Bholi lies awake on her cot listening.
- That gap is the point: the change in Bholi is invisible to her family. They still think of her as a “dumb cow” — which is why the ending shocks them.
Characters in Bholi: who is who and what they show
This section gives you the character sketches a long-answer question will ask for: who each person is, one key trait, and one piece of evidence you can quote from the story.
| Character | Who they are | Key trait | Evidence from the story |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sulekha / Bholi | The fourth daughter of Numberdar Ramlal, neglected since childhood | Backward and stammering at first, then transformed by schooling into a confident speaker | Says her own name “Bh-Bh-Bho-Bholi” on the first day; years later refuses Bishamber “without even the slightest stammer” |
| The lady teacher | Never named — only “the lady teacher” and “Ma’am” | Patient, encouraging, the force behind Bholi’s change | Praises her after every stammer (“Well done, well done”); her closing smile is that of “an artist… contemplating the completion of her masterpiece” |
| Ramlal | The father, a revenue official and prosperous farmer | Weak-willed, torn between the Tehsildar’s order and his wife; later bowed with shame | Places his turban — his honour — at Bishamber’s feet; at the end he stands “rooted to the ground, his head bowed low” |
| Ramlal’s wife | The mother | Practical and cruel; values daughters by their marriage prospects | “If girls go to school, who will marry them?” and “She is like a dumb cow” |
| Bishamber Nath | A well-to-do grocer from another village; much older than Bholi, limps, has grown children | Greedy and mean; asks no dowry at first, demands money only after seeing the bride’s face | “Five thousand, or we go back. Keep your daughter.”; “On Bishamber’s greedy face appeared a triumphant smile” |
| The Tehsildar | The government official who opens the village school | The push that sends Bholi to school | Orders Ramlal to set an example and send his daughters to school |
| Lakshmi the cow | The old family cow, sold off days before Bholi’s first school day | Her fate shadows Bholi’s value in the family’s eyes | Bholi remembers her “turned out of the house and sold” when her father pulls her towards school |
What the story is really about: education, labels and dignity
Long-answer questions on a story usually ask what it means, not just what happens. Three connected ideas run through Bholi.
1. Education as transformation. The teacher does not lecture Bholi. She speaks softly, praises every faltering attempt, promises books and respect, and predicts that no one will ever laugh at her.
The chapter’s opening note asks why the teacher took a special interest in Bholi and whether Bholi measured up; the final scene answers both — the teacher’s smile is that of an artist over a finished work. Bholi’s own vow to teach “in the same school where I learnt so much” completes the idea.
2. Labels and identity. “Bholi, the simpleton” and “dumb cow” are names others give her, carrying their judgment. The family treats her as the label says — until she outgrows it and leaves them startled by her clear speech. Her challenge to the old woman is the story’s thesis: “the dumb cow, the stammering fool, is speaking.”
3. The girl child, marriage and honour. Daughters in Ramlal’s house are measured by marriageability: Radha, Mangla and Champa are married off, while Bholi is sent to school only because no one will marry her. Ramlal’s izzat (honour) is so central that he literally places his turban at the groom’s feet.
“Think about it” links this directly to the government scheme Beti Bachao Beti Padhao — save the girl child, educate the girl child.
The wedding scene: why the marriage fails
This section walks the climax step by step and answers the third Read and Find Out box: why the parents accept the proposal, and why the marriage does not take place.
Why the parents accept: Bishamber is well-to-do — a big shop, a house of his own, several thousand in the bank — and he is not asking for any dowry. He comes from another village, so he does not know about Bholi’s pock-marks.
His age and his limp are waved away: “If we don’t accept this proposal, she may remain unmarried all her life.”
- The wedding procession arrives with a brass band playing a popular film tune and the groom on a decorated horse. Ramlal is overjoyed; Bholi’s sisters are envious.
- At the bride’s place near the sacred fire, a woman slips back the silken veil. Bishamber takes one quick glance — and the garland of yellow marigolds stays poised in his hands.
- “She has pock-marks on her face.” His friend answers, “So what? You are not young either.”
- Bishamber’s price: five thousand rupees on the spot, or he goes back.
- Ramlal places his turban — “his honour” — at the groom’s feet and pleads, offering two thousand. “No. Five thousand, or we go back. Keep your daughter.”
- Tears streaming, Ramlal opens the safe and counts out the notes. Bishamber smiles triumphantly: “He had gambled and won.”
- The veil is slipped back a second time — but now Bholi’s eyes are not downcast. She looks straight at her “prospective husband” with “neither anger nor hate, only cold contempt.”
- Her hand strikes the garland into the fire. She throws away the veil and says in a clear, loud voice, without the slightest stammer: “Pitaj! Take back your money. I am not going to marry this man.”
The reversal that students miss: Bishamber asked no dowry at the proposal. His demand for five thousand rupees comes only at the wedding, after he has seen the bride’s face and sensed the family’s helplessness. This is greed, not custom — and it is greed that Bholi refuses.
Why the story calls her Sulekha again at the end
This section answers Think about it question 4: why the real name comes back only in the closing paragraph.
Bholi means simpleton — a name others gave her, carrying their verdict on her. Her real name, Sulekha, appears at the very start of the story (“Her name was Sulekha…”) and then once more near the end, in the paragraph where she speaks calmly about serving her parents and teaching at the same school.
The return of the real name marks the moment the label stops defining her. In that paragraph she is no longer the object of pity or the “dumb cow” but a person speaking for herself — calm, steady, and planning her own future. The story signals the change with the name, not just with her words.
What language are the characters actually speaking?
This section answers Talk about it question 3, with the evidence from inside the story.
The story is written in English, but the characters are clearly speaking Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu). The narrator keeps certain words in the original language, and those words are the evidence: Tehsildar, Numberdar, Pitaj/Pitaji and izzat, along with the Indian names and village setting. The expression “dumb-driven cow” also reads like a translated idiom rather than natural English.
A writer does this to keep the setting honest and give the story local colour. In an answer, say it plainly: the characters speak their own language while the narrator reports their words in English — and the non-English words left in the text are the clue.
Glossary: the words the chapter explains
This section gives you the seven glossary words from the chapter in plainer words, so you can move through the story without stopping.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| simpleton | A foolish person easily tricked by others |
| numberdar | An official who collects revenue |
| matted | Tangled |
| squatted | Sat on one’s heels |
| scurried | Hurried or ran quickly |
| ginning | Separating raw cotton from its seeds |
| downcast | Looking downwards |
One note that ties the list to the story: “Bholi” itself means “simpleton” — which is the whole point of the nickname the family gives her.
The questions the story asks: pointers for Think about it and Talk about it
This section guides the chapter’s own exercises. These are pointers, not model answers — each one names the scene that answers the question and the points to include. For any character or theme answer, a full-mark response names a scene and quotes one short line.
Think about it
- What made Bholi feel school was better than home? The first-day preparation — a clean dress that had shrunk, a bath, oil rubbed into her matted hair — plus the sight of many girls her own age, the hope of a friend, wall pictures from her own world, and the teacher’s soft voice. Include the contrast with home, where no one mended or washed her clothes.
- How did the teacher change her life? Patience after every stammer, the book with coloured pictures, the promise that reading would make laughter impossible, and the final pride of the artist. Note that the teacher is unnamed — the force is her role, not a personality.
- Why agree first, then refuse? Duty to her family’s izzat made her willing to marry a lame, much older man; the groom’s greed at the wedding made her draw the line. What this tells us: she is dutiful but not blind — and she can now speak her mind.
- Why is she called Sulekha again? Use the reasoning in the section above: the real name returns when the label “Bholi, the simpleton” stops defining her.
- Are girl children treated at par with boys? Use the married-off sisters, the “dumb cow” remark, and the parents’ panic about a bridegroom. Tie it to Beti Bachao Beti Padhao — the chapter itself asks you to read about the scheme and design a poster in groups.
Talk about it
- Changing social attitudes: structure the answer as actions — refusing to laugh at a stammer, treating a girl’s education as normal, and speaking up when someone measures a girl by her marriageability.
- Girls’ rights and equality: state your position, then prove it from the story — Bholi was never asked; she was told. The wedding stopped only when she refused. Then say what equal treatment would look like in the same family.
- What language were they speaking? Use the evidence in the language section above: the Hindi words the text keeps, such as Tehsildar, Pitaji, izzat and Numberdar.
Common mistakes students make in Bholi
This section names the misreadings students make in Bholi before you make them, each with the correction from the story text.
| Mistake | Correct rule | How to check your answer |
|---|---|---|
| Bholi’s stammer was caused by the smallpox. | The fall from the cot at ten months is linked to her slow development and stammer; smallpox at two disfigured her body, though her eyes were saved. | Re-read the opening paragraph — the story lists the two events separately, with different results. |
| The teacher is named in the story. | She appears only as “the lady teacher” and “Ma’am”; the story never gives her a name. | Scan the text for any name attached to the teacher — there is none. |
| Bishamber demanded a dowry when the proposal was made. | He asked nothing at the proposal. His demand for five thousand rupees comes only at the wedding, after he sees her pock-marked face. | Compare the night-time conversation (“he is not asking for any dowry”) with the wedding scene. |
| Bholi really was a “dumb cow”. | The story shows her learning to read, speaking without a stammer, and planning to teach. The label was the family’s excuse, not her truth. | Track every time Bholi speaks across the three scenes — her final speech has no stammer at all. |
| Bholi refused because the groom was old and lame. | Her own words at the fire name his character: “mean, greedy and contemptible coward.” She never mentions his age or his limp when refusing. | Quote her actual refusal to the family, not the parents’ earlier objections. |
How to revise Bholi for a test
Bholi is a story from the supplementary reader, and textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official Class 10 English syllabus on cbse.gov.in to see what is examinable this session.
For a literature chapter like this, focus your revision on:
- the plot sequence in order — childhood, first day, the proposal, the wedding, the refusal;
- one piece of evidence for each character from the table above;
- the three themes: education as transformation, labels and identity, and the girl child and marriage;
- two or three short quotable lines — “Put the fear out of your heart and you will be able to speak like everyone else”; “the dumb cow, the stammering fool, is speaking”; the artist and her masterpiece;
- the social message tied to Beti Bachao Beti Padhao.
No one can predict exactly which question will appear, so revise the story’s weight-bearing moments — the name change, the wedding refusal, the teacher’s role — rather than memorising answers.
Bholi in one minute: the whole story
This section is a last-night revision aid: the whole plot as a numbered sequence, then one compact summary.
- The fall from the cot at ten months leaves Sulekha a backward child; smallpox at two disfigures her; she begins to speak only at five, and then with a stammer.
- Everyone calls her Bholi, the simpleton. Her father worries; her mother sees no marriage chance for her.
- The Tehsildar orders Ramlal to send his daughters to school; the mother volunteers Bholi.
- First day: terror, the clean shrunk dress, the wall pictures, tears when asked her name.
- The teacher’s soft voice and encouragement; the promise of reading; “put the fear out of your heart.”
- Years pass: the village becomes a town; Bholi is educated; her family still sees the “dumb cow.”
- Bishamber’s proposal: a well-to-do grocer, no dowry asked; the parents accept while Bholi listens from her cot.
- The wedding: brass band, decorated horse; the veil slips; Bishamber sees the pock-marks and demands five thousand rupees.
- Ramlal places his turban — his honour — at the groom’s feet and pays; Bishamber smiles triumphantly.
- The second unveiling: Bholi’s eyes are up; the garland flies into the fire; she refuses in clear words and vows to serve her parents and teach “in the same school where I learnt so much.”
In one line: a neglected, stammering girl whom everyone has written off is changed by a patient teacher, and when her family tries to hand her to a greedy groom, she — not her father, not the groom — decides her own future.
The story’s last image tells you whose victory it is: the teacher smiling “with the light of a deep satisfaction that an artist feels when contemplating the completion of her masterpiece.”
Related resources
This listing is maintained for the 2026-27 academic session using the NCERT textbook information available to us. NCERT remains the authority for confirming the latest edition.
If you are studying this story, these pages on this site will help you move around the book and find related revision material.
- NCERT Class 10 English books — all the readers for this class in one place
- Footprints without Feet: supplementary reader book page — the book that contains Bholi
- NCERT Class 10 books hub — every Class 10 subject listed
For quick revision of this and the chapters around it, the Class 10 English notes hub, the Class 10 notes hub and the main notes index are also live. The Sermon at Benaras and The Proposal are other Class 10 English chapters you may be preparing next — see their guides at The Sermon at Benaras and The Proposal.
| What the chapter holds | Count | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Printed pages | 9 | |
| Official NCERT PDF | Download the chapter PDF | the chapter exactly as NCERT publishes it |
Chapter-wise notes for this subject are not published yet. The unit-wise syllabus on this page is complete and verified against the official CBSE curriculum document.
Reference: NCERT Class 10 English textbook Footprints without Feet (Supplementary Reader), the chapter “Bholi” by K.A. Abbas, official edition on ncert.nic.in.
Sources and data verification
Four facts about what this page is based on, plainly stated.
- This page describes the story Bholi by K.A. Abbas in the NCERT Class 10 English supplementary reader Footprints without Feet, as published on ncert.nic.in.
- It covers this one story and its exercises. It does not cover the main reader First Flight or the other stories in the supplementary reader.
- The listing is maintained for the current academic session. NCERT settles textbooks, editions and official PDFs; CBSE settles the curriculum, syllabus and examinations.
- For what is examinable this session, check the current official CBSE Class 10 English syllabus; the story text itself is from the NCERT edition.
Frequently asked questions about Bholi
Why is Sulekha called Bholi in the story?
Because from childhood everyone called her Bholi, the simpleton. The nickname began after the fall from the cot at ten months left her a backward child; the smallpox at two disfigured her, and she stammered when she finally spoke.
In the glossary, a simpleton is “a foolish person easily tricked by others” — so the name carried the family’s low opinion of her from the start.
Why did Bholi agree to marry Bishamber Nath at first?
She never really consented — she was told, not asked. She lay awake on her cot and listened to her parents’ whispered plan, and for the sake of her family’s izzat (honour) she was willing to go through with it.
She says so herself at the wedding: “For the sake of your izzat, I was willing to marry this lame old man.” It was duty, not choice.
Why did Bholi refuse to marry Bishamber Nath at the wedding?
Because his greed was exposed in public. After seeing her pock-marks, Bishamber demanded five thousand rupees on the spot, humiliated her father, and smiled triumphantly when the money was paid. Bholi flung the garland into the fire and refused in clear, unstammering words: she would not have “such a mean, greedy and contemptible coward” as a husband.
It was not his age or his limp — it was his character.
Who is the teacher in Bholi and what role does she play?
The teacher is never named; the story calls her “the lady teacher” and “Ma’am.” She is the force behind Bholi’s transformation: she speaks softly, praises every attempt (“Well done, well done”), promises that books will make Bholi “more learned than anyone else in the village,” and predicts that no one will ever laugh at her.
The story ends with her smiling like an artist contemplating her finished masterpiece.
What is the message of the story Bholi?
The story carries three connected messages: education transforms even the child everyone has written off; labels such as “simpleton” or “dumb cow” say more about the family than about the girl; and a girl child has the right to dignity, including the right to refuse humiliation.
The chapter connects this to the government scheme Beti Bachao Beti Padhao — save the girl child, educate the girl child.
Who wrote Bholi and where does it appear in Class 10 English?
Bholi was written by K.A. Abbas. It appears as a story in Footprints without Feet, the NCERT Class 10 English supplementary reader — not in the main reader First Flight.
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