Mijbil The Otter | NCERT Book Class 10 English First Flight
Summary – Mijbil the otter
In this story the author Gavin Maxwell tells us about his pet. After the death of the dog, he thought to have another pet. Early in 1956 he travelled to Southern Iraq. He saw there some Arab people having an otter. Then, he also thought of having an otter. He told this to his friend. His mail was due; therefore, with a friend he went to Basra to receive his mail. His friend collected his mail and went away. After he had left, he received a sack in which there was something. The sack was for the narrator and there was an otter in it. The narrator named it, Mijbil. First the otter slept on the floor but soon he entered the bed till the servant bought tea. When it went to bathroom it dive and rolled in the bath tub joyfully. The narrator was extremely surprised when he found it struggling with the water tap. It had learnt how to turn on the tap. It spent most of its time playing with the rubber ball and marbles.
He was staying at Basra while he had to move to England and then to Camusfearna. But the problem was that some of the airlines did not allow transporting animals. Therefore, the narrator had to choose a different flight that allowed animals on board. As a result, Mijbil was packed in a box of its size. Then the narrator went for the meals. When he returned to his room, he noticed blood coming out from the air holes. He got frightened. He opened it and saw that Mij was almost unconscious. He removed all the sharp edges from the box and placed it again into the box. The time was passing and he managed to hire a taxi. There were only ten minutes in his flight. So he sat at the back seat of the taxi and placed the box on his lap. Somehow he managed to catch the flight and he boarded the plane. The air hostess was somewhat friendly and she allowed the narrator to place the otter on his lap. But as soon as the narrator opened the box the otter disappeared in the plane. This frightened the passengers. But the airhostess helped him to find out Mij again.
In London people did not recognize otters. They used to make blind guesses to recognize the animal. The most surprising event was when the labourer was digging his hole in the street. On seeing the animal, he placed down his tools and when the narrator neared him, he shouted, what is that supposed to be.
Extra Question Answer
Q1: Why does he go to Basra? How long does he wait there, and why?
A: He went to Basra, to the Consultant-General, to collect and answer his mail from Europe. There, he found that his friend’s mail had arrived, but his had not. He sent a message to England. When nothing happened even after three days, he tried placing a call to England. On the first day, the line was out of order; on the second day, the exchange was closed for a religious holiday. On the third day, there was another breakdown. He arranged to meet his friend, who had left, in a week’s time. His mail finally arrived five days later.
Q2: How does he get the otter? Does he like it?
A: When he received his mail, he carried it to his bedroom to read. There, he saw two Arabs and beside them was a sack that twisted from time to time. They handed him a note from his friend saying that he had sent him an otter. Yes, he liked it.
Q3: What happened when Maxwell took Mijbil to the bathroom? What did it do two days after that?
A: When Maxwell took Mijbil to the bathroom, it went wild with joy in the water for half an hour. It was diving and rolling in it, shooting up and down the length of the bathtub underwater. Two days after that, it escaped from his bedroom to the bathroom. By the time author got there, Mijbil was up on the end of the bathtub and fumbling at the taps with its paws. In less than a minute, it had turned the tap far enough to produce some water and after a moment, achieved the full flow.
Q4: How was Mij to be transported to England?
A: Maxwell booked a flight to Paris and from there he would go on to London. The airline insisted that Mij should be packed in a box (not more than eighteen inches square) that was to be placed on the floor, near his feet.
Q5: What did Mij do to the box?
A: Maxwell had put Mij in the box and left for a meal. When he came back, he saw a horrific sight. There was complete silence from the box. However, from its airholes blood had trickled. He took off the lock and tore open the lid. Mij, exhausted and covered with blood, cried and caught his leg. It had torn the coating of the box to pieces. He removed the last of it so that there were no cutting edges left.
Q6: Why did Maxwell put the otter back in the box? How do you think he felt when he did this?
A: By the time Maxwell had removed the last of the inside layer of the box so that there were no cutting edges left, it was just ten minutes for the flight to take off. He had to rush to the airport, which was five miles away, and that is why he put the sad otter back into the box. Like the otter, Maxwell would also have felt miserable for putting it back in the box, particularly so, after seeing that the otter disliked being in the box.
Q7: Why does Maxwell say the air hostess was “the very queen of her kind”?
A: Maxwell said that the air hostess was “the very queen of her kind” because she was extremely friendly and helpful. He took her into his confidence about the incident with the box. She suggested that he might prefer to have his pet on his knee. Hearing this, he developed a profound admiration for her, for she understood the pain of both the otter and its owner.
Q8: What happened when the box was opened?
A: When the box was opened, Mij leapt out of it immediately. It disappeared very quickly down the aircraft. Several passengers shouted. A woman stood up on her seat screaming that there was a rat. He saw Mij’s tail disappearing beneath the legs of an Indian passenger. He dived for it but missed. The air hostess suggested him to be seated and that she would find the otter. After a while, Mij had returned to him. It climbed on his knee and began to rub its nose on his face and neck.
Q9: What things does Mij do which tell you that he is an intelligent, friendly and fun- loving animal who needs love?
A: Mij was an intelligent animal. It invented its own game out of the ping-pong balls. It screwed the tap till water began to flow and then it would play and splash in the water. Though it was aloof and indifferent in the beginning, it soon became very friendly. It formed a special attachment with Maxwell. It responded when Maxwell called out his name. It grew desperate when Maxwell left it in a box and it got hurt while trying to come out of it. After Maxwell took it out, it clung to his feet. It was a fun-loving animal. It enjoyed playing all kinds of games. It would play with a selection of toys, ping- pong balls, marbles, rubber fruit. It required to love and affection from Maxwell and it got that readily.