Bamboo Curry: NCERT Class 5 English Story (Marigold Unit 1)

etmantra13 Jun 20209 min read

Can you make curry out of a door? In this funny picture story, a young man thinks you can. Children laugh at his mistake and learn that a part of the bamboo plant really can be cooked and eaten.

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From the NCERT English book Marigold for Class 5, unit 1. NCERT’s newer Class 5 book is Santoor, but many schools still teach Marigold.

Watch: Bamboo Curry

Play the video three or four times. The first time, just listen. Then point at the pictures, and from the third time, say the lines along with the video. Short, repeated listening is how CALP builds a child’s English.

What your child learns

Family words: bridegroom, mother-in-law, in-laws
Past tense with -ed: cooked, pointed, boiled, laughed
Which part of the bamboo plant we can eat
Asking 'What is it?' when you don't understand

What the story is about

A Santhal bridegroom visits his mother-in-law, and she cooks him a special curry. He finds it delicious and asks what it is. She points at the bamboo door. The next morning, as he is leaving, he remembers there is no bamboo in his village. So he takes the bamboo door off and carries it home.

At home he asks his wife to make curry from the door. She is shocked, but he helps by chopping the bamboo and she boils it again and again. It is still far too hard to eat, and he blames her cooking. That evening the in-laws come to visit and laugh at his foolishness. His mother-in-law explains that the curry was made from bamboo shoots, the soft young parts of the plant, not from a bamboo door.

New words, with Hindi meanings

bridegroom: a man who is getting married or has just married (हिंदी: दूल्हा)
mother-in-law: the mother of your husband or wife (हिंदी: सास)
delicious: very tasty (हिंदी: स्वादिष्ट)
shocked: very surprised in an upsetting way (हिंदी: हैरान)
chopping: cutting into small pieces (हिंदी: काटना)
in-laws: the family of your husband or wife (हिंदी: ससुराल वाले)
foolishness: a silly way of thinking or acting (हिंदी: मूर्खता)
bamboo shoot: the soft new part of a bamboo plant that can be cooked (हिंदी: बाँस की कोंपल)

Explained in Hindi

If your child finds the English hard, watch this explanation of the story and its word meanings in Hindi, then go back to the English video.

Talk about it

Ask these aloud after reading or watching. Let your child answer in English if they can, or mix in their home language. Both help.

Why did the bridegroom take the bamboo door home?
Why could the wife not make a soft curry from the door?
What was the curry really made from?
Have you ever made a funny mistake by misunderstanding something? What happened?

Answers for parents

He loved the bamboo curry, and there was no bamboo in his village, so he took the door to cook it.
The door was made of hard bamboo, so it stayed too hard to eat however long she boiled it.
It was made from bamboo shoots, the soft young parts of the bamboo plant.
For example: Once my mother asked me to bring the 'paper', and I brought a notebook instead of the newspaper.

Grammar corner: Past tense with -ed

When something has already happened, many action words get -ed at the end. 'Cook' becomes 'cooked' and 'laugh' becomes 'laughed'. If the word already ends in -e, we add only -d, as in 'removed'.

The mother-in-law cooked a tasty curry for her guest.
The wife boiled the hard bamboo for hours.
Everyone laughed when they saw the door in the pot.

Practice at home

Fill in the blank with the past tense: The wife ___ (boil) the bamboo again and again.
Choose the right word: The curry was made from bamboo (shoots / doors).
Make a sentence about the story using 'remembered'.

Answers: 1. boiled · 2. shoots · 3. Sample: The bridegroom remembered that his village had no bamboo.

Try this

Role-play the story at home, with one person as the bridegroom, one as the wife and one as the mother-in-law. Then talk about vegetables you eat that come from different parts of a plant: roots, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds.

Tip for parents

Retell the funny part in Hindi first: "दामाद ने सोचा दरवाज़े से सब्ज़ी बनेगी!" Then ask in English, "What was the curry made from?" and let your child answer in Hindi, English or both. Praise the answer, then say the English sentence together.

Questions parents ask

What is the story Bamboo Curry about?

A Santhal bridegroom loves a bamboo curry at his mother-in-law's house and carries her bamboo door home to cook it. It stays too hard to eat, and he learns the curry was made from bamboo shoots.

Who are the characters in Bamboo Curry?

The Santhal bridegroom, his mother-in-law, his wife and the in-laws who visit.

Which NCERT book has Bamboo Curry?

It is Unit 1 of NCERT's older Marigold book for Class 5. The newer NCERT English books are Mridang for Class 1–2 and Santoor for Class 3–5.

Learn every Class 5 chapter with CALP

Every chapter of Santoor, NCERT’s new book, with notes in English and Hindi, say-it-aloud practice with a score, grammar, speaking and writing practice. ₹1,299 for the whole year.

See the free lessons and enrol →