A House is Not a Home Question Answers: NCERT Class 9 English - Moments

One Sunday afternoon, the author observed a strange smell. Suddenly, he saw smoke coming through the ceiling and occupying the whole room very quickly. The vision became hazy and they could hardly see anything after the smoke. By the time, they ran out into the front yard, the roof was already in flames and fire was spreading quickly. His mother runs back into the house to bring a small metal box which was full of important documents. She wanted to bring out important things from the house one by one. She was in a ‘crazed state’.

The feeling of suffering a major loss broke him down into the tears. He realized very soon that his cat was not to be seen anywhere. Then, he had flashback of everything at once – the new school, the fire, and his cat. That was the time when he broke down and cried.

The author was deeply embarrassed on the next day in the school because he was still wearing the same dress that he wore in church in morning and had no shoes as he had lost them in the fire. He had to borrow some tennis shoes for him. The clothes that he was wearing looked weird. He had no books or homework and even his backpack was also gone. Words used in the lesson that points out his fear and insecurity are outcast and geek like a zombie. ‘’ wanted to curl up and die’’, ‘’everything felt surreal’’, ‘’all the security….. had all been ripped away.’’

The author had great fondness towards his cat. He cried inconsolably when he couldn’t find his cat after the fire. He regularly goes to the site of his house in the hope of finding his cat. He remembered how the cat would crawl into his pocket and fall asleep. He missed her terribly. The cat was so freaked by the fire and ran a mile away from the burning house. One woman found the cat and took her in. she find the author’s number on the cat’s collar. However, she couldn’t reach them as the phone had been disconnected because of the fire. The women then made personal efforts to find the author to returned back his cat.

The schoolmates were genuinely connected to the author in spite of not knowing him well. They helped the author by collecting supplies, books and the clothes. He started making new friends and also went to their houses. He realized that people around him were good and very supportive. He was overwhelmed by their love and cooperation. The feeling of fear and insecurity got disappeared and confidence took over. Everything seemed to be okay now.

Here, the author wants to points out that his ideology of life gone is a complete change. His schoolmates have helped him with open hearts. They have extended invitations for their houses. Their actual concern makes the author touch his heart so much that he breathes as the sign of relief. He feels that the things well be good very soon. After a month woman came with a cat, then the narrator grabbed and hugged her. His friends were also hugging the narrator. This overwhelming feelings of loss and tragedy seemed to reduced. He was deeply obliged to the stranger who had brought his cat to him. He could not help by saying that he was back to his original self. In reality, he had gone nowhere but had become exhausted with his life due to colossal lose. He felt that he had returned to his original self like his cat, who came to his house.