Around A Medicinal Creeper Lesson Summary Class 11 English

About Author

K.P. Poornachandra Tejaswi is a well-known Kannada author recognized for his distinctive writing style. He has written a number of well-known novels and short stories. He was raised in Malnad with a natural love of the outdoors and a burning desire to unravel its mysteries. Once his postgraduate studies were over, he made the decision to follow his heart.

He arrived at Mudigere, a Malnad outpost, because of his interests in agriculture, photography, ornithology, wildlife, and writing. His fame as a writer and advocate for environmental and social causes all originated in this area. He separated himself from the influence of his father, Kuvempu, and carved out a unique place for himself in Kannada writing.

Concerning "Around A Medicinal Creeper,"

Poorna Chandra Tejaswi is the author of the short tale Around A Medicinal Creeper. One day Tejaswi and Mara were constructing a bamboo structure. For the purpose of connecting the bamboo framework, Sanna brought some creepers. The gift included a medicinal creeper. All of them proceeded to inspect the creeper, which Mara tied to a nearby plant so that it would be easy to find afterward.

Every square inch of it, according to Mara, is useful. After twenty years, Tejaswi finally heard from Krishna about the benefits of the creeper. Farmhand Krishna formerly suffered from piles. Krishna asked a Malay Godman for a cure for piles. After tracking down the creeper, Tejaswi and Krishna removed its tuber, crushed it, and drank it with milk for five days. He had no more piles.

Summary of Around a Medicinal Creeper In-Depth

Poornachandra Tejaswi's "Around a Medicinal Creeper," tells the story of an uncommon medicinal creeper about which he had heard numerous tales. He was aware that not all stories were factual, but he was also aware that not all stories were entirely made up. He recounts many events that lead to the identification of the therapeutic qualities of the creeper in this essay.

He acknowledges that it took him approximately 20 years to learn these truths, though. In the first occurrence, he describes, a shade is built over a coffee seedbed to shield it from the sun. According to the author, Sanna, another servant, irritated Mara by pulling a medicinal creeper. The writer, Mara, and Sanna visited the forest out of curiosity after learning from Sanna that there were plenty of these creepers there.

The creeper was being tied to a neighboring tree by Mara, who was calling it a thief as she did so. Mara gave an explanation for his behavior by claiming that the creeper was cursed by a sage so that no one would find it when they needed it and looked for it. The author responds to the account by explaining that the creeper emerged right away after the rains and perished swiftly.

As a result, it was not seen until the next season. The author laments the fact that even if the creeper had any medical qualities, it would be obscured by the untruths that have been constructed around it after providing this explanation. The author goes on to note that this is the end of Indian medicine as a whole since experts in the medical sector believe that nothing regarding the special powers of plants and herbs is real.

The author shares a couple more of Mara's unbelievable tales with the readers in order to explain why the rumors around the creeper appear to be untrue. One involves Mara severing his hand's artery while slicing bamboo shoots. Mara revealed to the author that after bandaging the cut with a leaf that someone had provided, he went to a white man in Hulihindalu for medical attention.

However, there was nothing to be seen of the wound when the white guy unwrapped the bandage. After first believing Mara was playing a practical joke on him, the white guy became interested in discovering the plant. Mara spent the entire day looking for the plant, but he was unsuccessful. The Englishman who had threatened to shoot Mara down and promised him his entire estate in return for the plant's identification was furious with Mara.

The Englishman believed that Mara's reluctance to reveal the plant was a result of his extreme avarice, which led him to reject Mara's offer of the land. Mara, who had previously assured the author that the entire plant was therapeutic, was unsure of precisely what it might treat. The writer questioned whether Mara had actually been aware of the properties or whether he had been unwilling to reveal them. Even if his claims were true, their exaggerated nature of them made it impossible for anybody to trust him.

When questioned about the veracity of the prior narrative, Mara had the uncanny ability to conjure up a new one. By telling another tale about cowcals, or crow pheasants, who nibbled the leaves of the medicinal creeper to treat their snake bite, he sidesteps the author's direct queries about the plant. Mara told tales that went beyond the amazing healing creeper. The stories also have a negative aspect. Mara gave yet another completely cock-and-bull narrative to explain why he had lost the teeth on one side of his face.

When he went rabbit hunting in the woodland before dawn, he claimed to the author to have lost all of his teeth. He said that after brushing his teeth with a little plant stick, he lost the teeth that the stick had touched. Because he had flung the stick aside after tasting the plant and gargled his mouth with water from a nearby creek, the teeth were all from one side. Mara protested that it was hard to spot the plant amid the thousands of plants when the author requested him to exhibit the plant.

When the author made fun of him by stating that if he looked hard enough, he would locate the plant that would restore his teeth, Mara countered that in the process, he might eat something poisonous and perish as well. Mara said that he didn't want to get young since he didn't want to be married again when the author made fun of him by stating that he could even locate a plant that would restore his youth. Mara persisted with his stories despite all the jeers and skepticism, making them ever more improbable.

When Mara told him that a barking deer that he and his buddies had killed and divided had sprung to life when the package made of the special leaves was removed, the author was left speechless. Mara continued by saying that his wife burned the leaves in the fire without realizing their importance. The author encountered the same creeper once more a long time after Mara passed away.

However, this time Appanna was the one attaching the creeper to the tree, and his creeper was unique. He claimed that the creeper's leaf juice could cause milk to become solid. The author first speculated that the milk may have curdled rather than thickened due to the leaves' acidity. However, he discovered that the milk did really turn rubbery and hard when he tested it out on his buddy Chandru, a plant pathologist.

The author became certain that the creeper had certain unique properties at that point. He was still unsure of what illnesses it could treat, though. After some time had passed, the author's farmhand Krishna had a further epiphany. Krishna, who had previously been in good health, was frail and out of breath. He learned that he was passing blood with his stools from Krishna, and he assumed it was piled. When Krishna visited the hospital, the medical staff suggested surgery. Krishna feared having surgery.

In addition, a Malayali sadhu had already advised Krishna to combine crushed tree bark with duck eggs and consume it to heal his rashes. However, this time the sadhu, who was now old, told Krishna about the plant since he lacked the energy to look for it. Krishna drank the pulverized tuber of the miraculous creeper mixed with milk since the description fits the characteristics of the plant, which Appanna had fastened to a tree. He recovered fully in five days.

In addition, the author, who had tried a tiny bit of the root to check how it tasted, was healed of his heel discomfort. Additionally, the swelling that had grown near the heel bone and for which the specialist had advised surgery vanished. Even after receiving treatment, the author is still unsure. He questions if the treatment is a coincidence or the result of the plant's medical properties. He is aware that he cannot be certain which form of edema would be treated by the creeper, even if it were a side effect of medication.

With these concerns in mind, the author acknowledges that, despite its effectiveness, Indian medicine suffers from the issue of the local physicians not sharing their expertise with outsiders out of apprehension that the plant would spread if it were mentioned. loses its therapeutic properties. He asserts that this circumstance has put India's indigenous medical systems in danger of extinction.

Conclusion

The author comes to the conclusion that because this medicinal creeper is so unusual, no study has been done to uncover all of the plant's advantages. People like Mara don't care about it, and native physicians like Malayali Sadhu don't discuss such medicinal plants. They still have the belief that the effectiveness of their cures would be lost if they told anybody about them. As a result, our traditional medical systems are in danger of disappearing. He underlines the significance of performing in-depth study on these exceptional natural resources as a consequence in order to create and distribute knowledge about our medical system.

Questions and Solutions for Textbooks

Comprehension I

1. When they discovered the creeper, what did Mara do?

Answer: When they discovered the creeper, Mara tied it to a nearby tree.

2. Mention the plant's medicinal curse.

Answer: An ancient sage cursed the medical plan, declaring that no one would ever be able to locate the plant in their time of need.

3. What caught the white man off guard?

Answer: The white guy was surprised by the leaf, which later proved to be the cure for the injured hand. There was no evidence of the wound's existence, and it had not been apparent.

4. How did the mongoose and cowcal recover from being bitten by a snake?

Answer: The answer is that when venomous snakes bite mongooses and cowls, they quickly devour the healing leaf, curing themselves.

5. Why had Mara lost his right-side teeth?

Answer: Mara lost his right-side teeth after brushing them with a plant stick, causing them to fall out of his mouth.

6. What did Mara's wife discover when she opened the meat package?

Answer: A live wild deer was visible when Mara's wife opened the package of meat.

7. What occurred when the milk and leaf juice from a creeper were combined?

Answer: The milk hardened and rubberized.

8. According to traditional doctors, when would medications lose their effectiveness?

Answer: Native doctors think that their medications would lose their effectiveness if they shared information about them with outsiders.

Comprehension II

1. How long did it take the narrator to get familiar with the information on the medicinal creeper? What does it represent?

Answer: Poornachandra Tejashwi studied medicinal creepers for about 20 years. Mara told him a number of fascinating tales. On the other hand, Tejaswi did not believe him and thought that all of his allegations were absurd. He just eventually learned the truth about this therapeutic creeper. However, Appanna informed him of the partial truth. About the medicinal creeper, Appanna only knew that milk stiffened when the juice of the leaves was squeezed.

When Krishna was cured of piles, he realized the truth. As advised by Malayali Sadhu, he crushed this root and drank it with milk. He was fully recovered in about five days. Even though they were reluctant to speak, he frequently discussed and debated the distinctive qualities of plants and herbal remedies with his doctor pals. It implies that up to the narrator's encounter, he did not believe.

2. What can we infer about Indians in general from the story of Mara's wife putting the leaves into the fire?

Answer: A barking deer was once caught in a trap laid by Mara and his companion. They skinned and cleaned the meat in a stream, then distributed it equally. They carried their share, coated in leaves, home. At Mara's place, they were already getting ready to cook. When they unzipped the bundle and saw a wild deer inside instead of uncooked meat, they were astonished.

It sprang up and fled out of Mara's house as soon as it saw him. Mara's wife unintentionally took the leaves and added them to the fire while he was away after the wild deer. This incident shows that Indians do not consider the therapeutic potential of plants and medicines. And many people have untested beliefs. People react to circumstances and never utilize the circumstances against them because of their ignorance. This is a serious flaw in Indians.

3. How was Krishna's ailment treated?

Answer: When Krishna first met the storyteller, he was dealing with heaps. He was unable to pay for the allopathic therapy, which needed hospital-based surgery. Due to a lack of money, he was unable to manage. Later, he developed an interest in Ayurvedic medicine. He was once treated by a Malayali Sadhu who he knew. Krishna visited that godman again.

However, the godman was growing too old and was unable to search for the curative creeper. He would then describe to him the properties of the plant. Later, Krishna left in search of the leaves. He now encountered Tejaswi, who he informed about the leaves. Those were the leaves that Mara and Appanna had fastened to the tree. When the narrator became aware of this, he took the boy to the plant and started to dig. After crushing this root, Krishna drank it with milk. He eventually recovered fully in a matter of days.

Comprehension III

1. Do you believe the author is arguing that allopathic medicine is inferior to Indian herbal therapy? Defend your position.

Answer: The author of this brief story advises that we educate ourselves on the use of medicinal herbs. The majority of Indians have no idea how to cure illnesses using medicinal plants. Sad to say, modern man is not aware of the benefits of India's abundant herbal medicine. Ayurvedic medications are much safer than allopathic ones in terms of adverse effects and cost.

Tejaswi is reactivating the mystification system as a consequence by using instances from everyday life. Rich herbal plants are everywhere around Indians, yet they are uninterested in them. With the help of a few improbable incidents told by Mara and other characters, the author offers herbal treatment in the book. As Tejaswi's physician friends do, a modern man utterly disregards the utilization of trees and plants as well as ayurvedic medicine.

In the story, we discover how Krishna treated Mara's afflictions and how he used a medicinal herb to treat his wound. For instance, Krishna would have had more expensive allopathic care and would have required hospitalization for several days if he had undergone surgery. Ailments might sometimes take a long time to heal with allopathic therapy.

Krishna, however, received Indian herbal medication, which was less expensive than allopathic treatment, and his ailment was healed in five days. Ayurvedic treatment really outperforms allopathic therapy in terms of effectiveness, side effects, and cost. All ayurvedic herbs must now be preserved and used in Indian households as a matter of law. No Indian will become ill if it is practiced in families, and India will remain disease-free forever.

2. What caused the modern man to lose his understanding of conventional medicine? Do you believe that Ayurveda will successfully make a comeback?

Answer: Modern man is eradicating traditional medicine. It is brought on by a number of misconceptions, the medicinal plant's negligence, and the rivalry of allopathic medicine. The writer's doctor friends ridiculed him and called him an idiot and nuts when he informed them about these herbs.

The neighborhood doctor similarly kept the medicinal plants a secret. They thought the plant would lose its effectiveness if they informed anybody about it. This false belief led people to shun expensive plants. Even contemporary research has shown a failure to continue studying these plants, and deforestation adds to their scarcity. Because of this, our traditional medical practices are in danger of becoming extinct.

The author underlines the significance of performing an in-depth study on these natural resources through this. And preserve it for future generations to use to organically advance our health. More contemporary research on herbal plants is needed. Then only Ayurveda will unquestionably return. The bulk of things now has "Herbal Medicine" inscribed on them. Additionally, a lot of people are showing a great desire to buy herbal products.

3. We cannot survive without our natural resources. Explain the remark in light of the numerous "developmental" initiatives that are now being marketed.

Answer: With mountains, oceans, rivers, forests, and deserts among its many natural characteristics, India is a diversified nation. In India, human resources are also a precious natural resource. Given India's geographic location, it is clear how important natural resources are. The early people of India rarely went to hospitals since they ate mostly from natural resources.

No food catastrophe existed. As a result, people should strive to investigate natural resources rather than do industry-focused research. The potential of natural resources will expand if we keep moving in this manner. Unexpectedly, educated individuals have started using herbal remedies nowadays. Indigenous people who are aware of the unique abilities of herbs have been spreading knowledge. Today, a variety of initiatives are being undertaken to make use of plants and herbs. There have been a lot of naturopathy and ayurveda clinics all around the nation. This exemplifies the substantial demand for natural goods.