My Brother's Great Invention: NCERT Class 7 English Story (Poorvi)

etmantra3 Nov 20266 min read

Every family has someone who loves taking things apart. In this funny and slightly spooky story, a boy who thinks he is a scientist builds a burglar alarm that soaks his own father, and then a time machine that may have swallowed a thief. Children enjoy the suspense and learn sound words, idioms and the past perfect tense.

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From NCERT’s new English book Poorvi for Class 7, unit “Dreams and Discoveries”. Unit 3.

What your child learns

Words for sounds (onomatopoeia): crash, hum, hiss, clatter
Binomials and idioms: peace and quiet, safe and sound, get on someone's nerves
The simple past and the past perfect tense (had + past participle) to show which action came first
Saying words ending in -ough the right way: though, through, cough, bough, enough

What the story is about

Anita, who is fourteen, tells the story of her younger brother Anand, who loves tinkering with gadgets, wires and tools. After a string of thefts in their colony, he builds a burglar alarm that works only when the door is opened gently, with a water bag that falls on the 'thief'. But it is Papa, who always opens the door softly, who gets soaked. Then the children watch the film 'Back to the Future', and Anand spends two noisy weeks building a time machine in his room. Papa refuses to let him try it, and before their parents leave for a wedding in Kharagpur, Ma makes Anand promise not to touch it.

That night a thief opens the front door. It is Boppa, the man who had begun sweeping the compounds nearby, and he locks the children in a room. When he asks for their father's room, Anand quickly sends him into his own room, where the time machine stands. The children hear a crash, a scream, thumps and a humming sound. Neighbours come to help, but Boppa is gone, and only his green scarf lies near the machine. Nobody knows how he vanished. Anand is sure his machine sent Boppa into the past, and he now plans a telephone to talk to creatures in outer space.

New words, with Hindi meanings

tinkering: trying to fix or change a machine by playing with its parts (हिंदी: छेड़छाड़ करना)
blueprint: a detailed drawing that shows how something will be built (हिंदी: नक़्शा, ख़ाका)
sceptical: having doubts; not sure that something is true or will work (हिंदी: शंकालु)
stealthily: quietly and secretly, so that no one sees or hears (हिंदी: चुपके से)
frantic: very hurried and full of worry or excitement (हिंदी: बेचैन, हड़बड़ी भरा)
crestfallen: sad and disappointed (हिंदी: उदास, मायूस)
groggily: in a sleepy, confused way (हिंदी: उनींदे ढंग से)
brandishing: waving something, like a stick, to frighten someone (हिंदी: लहराना)
unison: together, at the same time (हिंदी: एक साथ)
dismantled: taken apart into pieces (हिंदी: खोल दिया, तोड़ दिया)

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 Anand make a burglar alarm, and what went wrong with it?
What gave Anand the idea of building a time machine?
How did Anand trick Boppa, the thief?
Why did Mr Sharma not believe Anand's idea about the time machine?
If you could invent one thing to help at home, what would it be?

Answers for parents

There had been many thefts in the colony. The alarm worked only when the door was opened gently, so when Papa opened it softly, as he always does, the water bag fell and soaked him.
Anand and Anita watched the film 'Back to the Future', which is about a time machine. After that, Anand decided he had to make one too.
When Boppa asked where their father's room was, Anand quickly pointed him to the room next to theirs. That was Anand's own room, with the time machine in it.
He thought it was only the boy's imagination. A machine sending a man into the past seemed impossible to him, so he smiled fondly and sent the children to bed.
For example: I would invent a machine that folds the washed clothes, so my mother gets more time to rest.

Grammar corner: Simple past and past perfect tense

When we talk about two actions in the past, we use the past perfect (had + past participle) for the action that happened first. We use the simple past for the action that happened later. Words like before, after, by the time and when often join the two actions.

Anand had finished the blueprint before his parents came home.
By the time the neighbours arrived, the thief had disappeared.
Papa locked his tool box after Anand had taken apart the mixer.

Practice at home

Fill in the blank with the past perfect: When we reached the cinema, the film ___ (start) already.
Match each sound word to what makes it: crash, hum, tick-tock. (a) a fan (b) a clock (c) a falling plate
Make a sentence with the binomial 'safe and sound'.

Answers: 1. had started · 2. crash: a falling plate; hum: a fan; tick-tock: a clock · 3. For example: After the long bus ride, we reached Grandma's house safe and sound.

Try this

Play 'Inventor's desk' at home. Ask your child to pick an everyday problem, such as losing the TV remote or forgetting to water plants, and draw a quick blueprint of a machine to solve it on any scrap paper. Then they explain how it works in three or four sentences, just like Anand explains his burglar alarm. Family members can ask one 'But how does it know...?' question each, the way Anita does.

Tip for parents

Ask in Hindi first: 'Anand ki machine ne chor ko kahan bhej diya hoga?' Let your child answer in Hindi or in a mix, then help them say it in English with 'had', for example 'The thief had vanished before the neighbours came.' Praise every try, and point out sound words around the house in both languages, like 'khat-khat' and 'knock-knock'.

Questions parents ask

What is the story My Brother's Great Invention about?

It is about Anand, a boy who loves making inventions that never quite work. His burglar alarm soaks his father, but one night a thief enters his room, the time machine starts humming, and the thief is never seen again.

Who wrote My Brother's Great Invention?

The story is written by Anita Rau Badami. It is told by Anita, Anand's fourteen-year-old sister.

Is My Brother's Great Invention in the new NCERT book?

Yes. It is chapter 7 in NCERT's new Poorvi book for Class 7, in Unit 3 (Dreams and Discoveries).

Learn every Class 7 chapter with CALP

Every chapter of Poorvi, NCERT’s new Class 7 book, with notes in English and Hindi, say-it-aloud practice with a score, listening, grammar, speaking and writing with feedback. ₹1,599 for the whole year.

See the free lessons and enrol →