‘When I was Twelve’ is the 10th Chapter of the Class 6 English Textbook ‘Wind Chimes’ published by ‘Madhuban Publications’. The chapter is about R K Laxman, the most famous political cartoonist of India. The chapter starts with a few cartoons of R K Laxman. The chapter ‘When I was Twelve’ contains the younger days incidents of R K Laxman. here we are giving important notes in the form of Word-meanings, summary and solutions of the chapter ‘‘When I was Twelve’.

Word-Meanings: When I Was Twelve Class 6

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A. Answers

1. ‘We’ seems to refer to the author’s contemporaries.

2. Laxman felt that a personality gets rubbed off onto inanimate objects. By figuring out, he was able to relate things and creatures to personalities.

3. The teachers were of high quality and Maharaja of Mysore took an interest in it.

4. The teacher was angry. He twisted Laxman’s ears and punished him.

5. Not everyone is able to be humorous enough to enjoy one’s own caricature. The cook was one such person who could not digest that it was just a child and the caricature was not to malign his image.

6. The cook became furious and he refused to cook for the wedding. He was ready to leave with stomping.

C. Answers

1. Laxman and his classmates were weak at arithmetic, but they performed much worse because they feared their teacher. According to Laxman students did not dare tell even the correct answers.

2. Laxman’s fear of the teacher was evident in the fact his caricature took the shape of scary tiger.

3. Laxman was not understanding arithmetic and also did not want to make his career in it.

4. A cartoonist’s work is great fun, until we ourselves become the subject of her/his caricatures. When that happens, the subject inevitably gets rubbed the wrong way.

5. The Laxman’s family welcomed the cook by standing themselves. They flattered him saying that he knew what was best for cooking. They also offered him coffee with humbleness.

6. Laxman’s family was an enlightened family. The family supported the caricature making skill of Laxman. They wanted him to pursue his passion and career.

7. I do not agree with Laxman’s views. All teachers are not like his arithmetic teacher. In fact, the teachers create a conducive atmosphere while teaching so that students could ask frankly but in a disciplined manner.

8. I cannot say that I could go spared in such episodes. Parents would surely scold and may punish for enraging the cook the way Laxman had done.

9. Laxman’s parents allowed him to work at his talents. He was given chalk to start with and then a pencil at the age of six or seven and then colour pencils and paint boxes. They always showed pride in his every achievement as he progressed in the class.

10. For Laxman, the secret of caricaturing is in finding extensions of people’s personalities in the other creatures or objects. Laxman also realises that often caricatures rubbed the people wrong way especially the subject of caricature. Others enjoy but the person who is in the caricatures may not be sportive enough to take it lightly as the cook was.