A letter to God

Given: Lencho is a farmer whose fields need water.

Answer: Lencho hoped for rain. He had been watching the sky towards the north-east all morning, hoping that a good downpour or at least a shower would come and water his ripe cornfields, ensuring a good harvest.

Given: Lencho is a farmer who depends entirely on his crop for his livelihood.

Answer: Lencho compared the raindrops to 'new coins' because, for a farmer, rain means a good harvest, and a good harvest means money and prosperity. Just as new coins represent wealth, the raindrops represented future income and financial well-being for Lencho and his family. The large drops were like ten-cent coins and the small drops were like five-cent coins.

Given: It had started raining, which Lencho initially welcomed.

Answer: The rain suddenly changed into a hailstorm. Very large hailstones began to fall along with the rain. The hail rained down on the valley for an hour, completely destroying Lencho's fields. The corn was totally ruined, the flowers were beaten off the plants, and the field was left covered with a sheet of white (hailstones), as if covered with salt. Not a leaf remained on the trees.

Given: The hailstorm has destroyed Lencho's entire crop.

Answer: When the hail stopped, Lencho's soul was filled with grief and sorrow. His heart was heavy with sadness because all his hard work had come to nothing. He said, 'The hail has left nothing. This year we will have no corn.' He was deeply distressed, knowing that his family would go hungry that year. He felt helpless and devastated.

Given: Lencho's crop has been destroyed and he has no means of support.

Answer: Lencho had complete and unshakeable faith in God. He believed that God's eyes see everything, even what is deep in one's conscience. Acting on this faith, he sat down on the following Sunday at daybreak and wrote a letter directly to God, asking Him for a hundred pesos so that he could sow his field again and support his family until the next harvest. He then carried the letter to town and posted it.

Given: Lencho posted a letter addressed 'To God'.

Answer: First, one of the post office employees (who was also a postman) found the letter and, laughing heartily, took it to his boss. Then the postmaster read the letter. The postmaster, though he initially laughed, soon turned serious and was deeply moved by Lencho's unshakeable faith in God.

Given: The postmaster has read Lencho's letter asking God for a hundred pesos.

Answer: The postmaster, not wanting to shake Lencho's faith in God, decided to answer the letter. He collected money from his employees, gave part of his own salary, and asked several friends to contribute 'for an act of charity'. Though he could not gather the full hundred pesos, he managed to collect a little more than half (seventy pesos). He put the money in an envelope addressed to Lencho and included a letter signed with a single word: 'God'.

Given: Lencho had written to God asking for a hundred pesos.

Answer: No, Lencho showed not the slightest surprise on seeing the money. Such was his absolute confidence and unshakeable faith in God that he fully expected God to send him the money. He had no doubt whatsoever that God would answer his letter, so receiving the money did not surprise him at all.

Given: Lencho received an envelope containing money from 'God'.

Answer: Lencho became angry when he counted the money and found that it was only seventy pesos, whereas he had asked for a hundred pesos. He was convinced that God could not have made a mistake and could not have denied him what he had requested. Therefore, he concluded that someone at the post office must have stolen the remaining thirty pesos. This made him very angry, and he immediately wrote a second letter to God, calling the post office employees 'a bunch of crooks'.

Given: The story 'A Letter to God' by G.L. Fuentes.

Answer: Lencho has complete and unshakeable faith in God.

The following sentences from the story illustrate this:

1. *'...there was a single hope: help from God.'* — Even after losing everything, Lencho's only hope was God.

2. *'All through the night, Lencho thought only of his one hope: the help of God, whose eyes, as he had been instructed, see everything, even what is deep in one's conscience.'* — This shows his deep belief that God is all-seeing and all-knowing.

3. *'It was nothing less than a letter to God.'* — He directly wrote to God, showing he believed God would respond.

4. *'God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested.'* — Even when the full amount did not arrive, Lencho did not doubt God; instead he blamed the post office employees.

These sentences collectively show that Lencho's faith in God was absolute and unquestioning.

Given: The postmaster has read Lencho's letter to God.

Answer:

Why he sends money: The postmaster was deeply moved by Lencho's extraordinary and unshakeable faith in God. He did not want to shake or destroy that faith. He felt it would be wrong to let such a sincere believer lose his trust in God. So, out of goodwill and as an act of charity, he collected money from his employees, contributed from his own salary, and gathered contributions from friends to send Lencho as much money as he could.

Why he signs 'God': The postmaster signed the letter 'God' because the letter was a reply to Lencho's letter which was addressed to God. If he had signed his own name, Lencho would have known it was not from God and his faith would have been shattered. To preserve Lencho's faith and make the gesture meaningful, the postmaster signed the letter with the single word 'God'.

Given: Lencho received an envelope with money signed 'God'.

Answer: No, Lencho did not try to find out who had sent the money to him.

Reason: Lencho had absolute, unquestioning faith in God. He had written the letter to God and fully expected God to reply. When he received the money, it simply confirmed what he already believed — that God had answered his prayer. It never occurred to him to question or investigate the source of the money, because in his mind there was no doubt: it had come from God. His faith was so strong and simple that he accepted it as a matter of course.

Given: Lencho asked for 100 pesos but received only 70 pesos.

Answer:

Who Lencho thinks stole the money: Lencho believed that the post office employees had stolen the remaining thirty pesos. In his second letter to God, he wrote: *'don't send it to me through the mail because the post office employees are a bunch of crooks.'*

The Irony: The irony of the situation is that the very people whom Lencho calls 'a bunch of crooks' are actually the ones who helped him. It was the postmaster and his employees who, out of pure kindness and charity, collected money from their own pockets and salaries to send to Lencho. They were the ones who went out of their way to protect his faith in God. Yet Lencho, without any evidence, accuses these generous and kind-hearted people of being thieves. The people who did him the greatest good are the ones he suspects of wrongdoing — this is the unexpected and deeply ironic twist in the story.

Given: The character of Lencho as portrayed in the story.

Answer: Yes, there are people like Lencho in the real world — people who have deep, simple, unquestioning faith in God or a higher power.

Lencho can be described using the following words:

- Naive: He is simple and innocent in his belief. He literally writes a letter to God and expects a reply, without questioning whether this is possible.
- Unquestioning: His faith in God is absolute and he never doubts God for a moment. He accepts without question that God will help him.
- Ungrateful: He is ungrateful towards the postmaster and his employees who genuinely helped him. Instead of being thankful, he accuses them of stealing.
- Comical: His actions — writing to God, accusing the post office of theft — have a comical quality, though they arise from genuine distress.

Overall, Lencho is a man of deep but blind faith. While his trust in God is admirable, his readiness to accuse innocent, kind people without any proof shows a lack of wisdom and gratitude. He is a simple, hardworking farmer whose faith, though touching, leads him to an ironic and unjust conclusion.

Given: The story 'A Letter to God'.

Answer:

1. Conflict between Humans and Nature:
This conflict is the central crisis of the story. Lencho is a farmer who is entirely dependent on nature for his livelihood. He hopes for rain to ensure a good harvest. Nature initially seems to cooperate — it begins to rain. However, the rain suddenly turns into a violent hailstorm that destroys his entire crop. The field is left covered with hailstones 'like a plague of locusts'. All his hard work is ruined in a matter of minutes. This illustrates the helplessness of human beings against the forces of nature, and how a farmer's entire year of effort can be wiped out by a single natural event.

2. Conflict between Humans:
This conflict is more subtle and ironic. It arises at the end of the story. The postmaster and his employees are kind, generous people who collect money out of their own pockets to help a stranger maintain his faith. However, Lencho, upon receiving less than the amount he asked for, immediately suspects the post office employees of theft. He writes to God calling them 'a bunch of crooks'. This creates a conflict between Lencho's unfounded suspicion and the genuine goodwill of the postal workers. The irony is that the conflict is entirely one-sided and unjust — the 'opponents' Lencho imagines are actually his benefactors.

Answer: cyclone

A cyclone is a violent tropical storm in which strong winds move in a circle around a calm central area.

Answer: gale

A gale is an extremely strong wind, typically used to describe winds of considerable force.

Answer: typhoon

A typhoon is a violent tropical storm with very strong winds, occurring especially in the western Pacific Ocean.

Answer: tornado

A tornado is a violent storm whose centre is a dark cloud shaped like a funnel, which spins very fast and causes great destruction.

Answer: hurricane

A hurricane is a violent storm with very strong winds, especially one that occurs in the western Atlantic Ocean.

Answer: whirlwind

A whirlwind is a very strong wind that moves very fast in a spinning movement and causes a lot of damage.

Answers:

1. 'I hope so' → *wanting something to happen (and thinking it quite possible)*
— The speaker wants to get the subjects and thinks it is quite possible.

2. 'I hope you don't mind...' → *showing concern that what you say should not offend or disturb the other person: a way of being polite*
— The speaker uses 'hope' as a polite way of softening a potentially offensive remark.

3. 'give new hope' → *a feeling that something good will probably happen*
— The discovery gives patients a feeling that recovery or a cure is probable.

4. 'hoping against hope' → *wishing for something to happen, although this is very unlikely*
— The participants wished the judges would not notice, even though it was very unlikely.

5. 'in the hope of speaking to her' → *thinking that this would happen (It may or may not have happened.)*
— The caller thought it was possible to speak to her before she left for school.

6. 'given up hope' → *stopped believing that this good thing would happen*
— Everyone had stopped believing the fishermen would return safely.

Answer: I often go to Mumbai, which is the commercial capital of India.

*(Non-defining relative clause using 'which' to give additional information about Mumbai.)*

Answer: My mother, who cooks very well, is going to host a TV show on cooking.

*(Non-defining relative clause using 'who' to give additional information about the mother.)*

Answer: These sportspersons, whose performance has been excellent, are going to meet the President.

*(Non-defining relative clause using 'whose' to indicate possession/relationship.)*

Answer: Lencho prayed to God, whose eyes see into our minds.

*(Non-defining relative clause using 'whose' to give additional information about God.)*

Answer: This man, whom I trusted, cheated me.

*(Non-defining relative clause using 'whom' as the object of the verb 'trusted'.)*

Answer: The sentence from the story is:

*'Not a leaf remained on the trees.'*

The negative word 'not' is used here for emphasis to convey that the trees were completely stripped of every single leaf — not even one leaf was left.

Answer: The sentence from the story is:

*'It was nothing less than a letter to God.'*

The negative phrase 'nothing less than' is used for emphasis to stress that the letter was addressed to God himself — it was not addressed to any lesser authority or person.

Answer: The sentence from the story is:

*'Never in his career as a postman had he known that address.'*

The negative word 'never' is used for emphasis to convey that in all his years as a postman, this was the very first time he had come across such an address — he had absolutely never seen it before.

Completed Table:

| Object | Metaphor | Quality or Feature Compared |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud | Huge mountains of clouds | The mass or 'hugeness' of mountains — clouds are compared to mountains to suggest their enormous size and density. |
| Raindrops | New coins (the large drops were ten-cent pieces and the small ones were five-cent pieces) | Value and wealth — the raindrops are compared to coins to suggest that rain means prosperity and income for the farmer. |
| Hailstones | A plague of locusts | Destruction — the hailstones are compared to a swarm of locusts to suggest the total devastation they caused to the crops. |
| Locusts | An epidemic / a plague | Rapid spread and widespread destruction — locusts spread like a disease, destroying everything in their path. |
| Hailstorm/destruction | (implied: a plague) | An epidemic that spreads rapidly and leaves devastation behind. |
| Lencho | An ox of a man | Strength, endurance, and hard physical labour — Lencho is compared to an ox to show that he was a strong, hardworking man who toiled like an animal in the fields. |

Answers:

(i) In addition to the sender, the form has to be signed by the receiver (payee).

(ii) The 'Acknowledgement' section of the form is sent back by the post office to the sender after the receiver (payee) signs it.

(iii) The 'Space for Communication' section is used for writing a short personal message from the sender to the receiver (for example, the purpose of sending the money, or any personal note the sender wishes to convey).

(iv) The form has six sections. The sender needs to fill out five sections and the receiver one (the acknowledgement section, where the receiver signs to confirm receipt of the money).

*(Note: The exact numbers in part (iv) may vary slightly depending on the specific form shown in the image, which is not fully visible. The above answer is based on the standard Indian Postal Money Order form structure.)*