Madam Rides the Bus: visual lesson, CBSE Class 10 English Language and Literature

Lesson

Madam Rides the Bus — Vallikkannan

First Flight, prose · short story (translated from Tamil) · Class 10 CBSE English.

Read the story itself in your textbook, First Flight (NCERT). This lesson is SOYL's explanation and analysis; it does not reproduce the text.

In this lesson you will

Retell Valli's adventure in sequence, in your own words
Explain Valli's curiosity and planning, and the lesson about life and death she learns
Sketch Valli's character with evidence from her bus ride
Compare the outward and return journeys and explain the contrast
Answer extract-based, short and long questions within the word limits

CBSE 2026-27, Section C (literature).
In the board paper	Question form	Marks
Reference to context	an extract with short questions (answer A or B)	5
Short answer (First Flight)	40–50 words	3 each
Long answer	100–120 words: character, theme, diary, letter or opinion	6

Concept

Read the story once in First Flight, straight through.
Use these slides for the sequence, Valli's character and the themes.
Explain events in your own words; report what characters say instead of quoting it.
Practise the extract questions, which use SOYL commentary on the story.

Concept

Table of facts: the author is Vallikkannan, pen name of the Tamil writer R. S. Krishnaswamy; the story was written in Tamil; it is a third-person short story; it is set in a village, on the bus route and in the nearest town; the main character is Valli, an eight-year-old girl.
About the story
Author	Vallikkannan, pen name of the Tamil writer R. S. Krishnaswamy
Original language	Tamil (read in English translation)
Genre	short story, told in the third person, closely following Valli
Setting	a village in Tamil Nadu, the bus route to the nearest town, and the town itself
Main character	Valli (Valliammai), an eight-year-old girl