Chapter 7 — Jalebis

Chapter 7 of the Class 8 English NCERT textbook (It So Happened), "Jalebis", is a semi-autobiographical story by Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, translated from Urdu by Sufiya Pathan. A fifth-standard boy carries four rupees meant for school fees; when the fee-collector is absent, the coins seem to tempt him into buying jalebis. He spends it all, skips school, and prays for a miracle that never comes. As an adult he reflects that if God granted every wish instantly, humans would never have developed the effort and ingenuity that built civilisation.

• Temptation and inner conflict — The boy's struggle with the 'talking' coins dramatises temptation versus duty. His personified rupees argue money is meant to be spent, and his surrender to the jalebis captures a child's battle with self-control.
• Guilt, honesty and consequences — Having blown his fee money, the boy hides, bunks school and is finally caught and punished. His panic and shame trace the familiar fallout of a small wrongdoing that spirals out of control.
• Faith and the meaning of unanswered prayer — He prays fervently under a tree for four rupees to appear, even bargaining with God, but no miracle comes. The story treats prayer honestly — divine help is not a shortcut around one's own effort.
• Effort as the engine of civilisation — The adult narrator's final insight is the story's message: God's refusal of instant wishes is itself a gift, for hardship forces the effort and ingenuity — even the art of making jalebis — that advance humanity.

1. 01The boy attends Government School, Kambelpur (now called Atak) in the fifth standard and carries four rupees for school fees and the fund.
2. 02Master Ghulam Mohammed, the fee-collecting teacher, is on leave, so fees are deferred to the next day — leaving the coins 'free' in the boy's pocket.
3. 03The coins are personified: they seem to speak and jingle (khanak-khanak), arguing that money is meant to be spent and that the scholarship will cover the fees the next day.
4. 04The boy spends all four rupees on jalebis from the halwai — one rupee for himself, another rupee's worth distributed to neighbourhood children like a 'Governor' distributing rice, and the remaining two rupees also spent on jalebis for the crowd.
5. 05He plans to repay the fees the next day using his four-rupee monthly scholarship, but discovers at school that the scholarship will be paid the following month, not that day.
6. 06He skips school and prays under a tree near Kambelpur railway station, offering namaaz, reciting ten surats, ayat-al-kursi, and kalma-e-tayyab, and even proposing a 'game' with God — hiding four rupees under a rock — but finds only a hairy worm.
7. 07Caught at home when his school absence is reported, the boy is punished. As an adult he reflects that God's refusal to grant instant wishes is itself a gift: if every need were met on demand, human beings would never have developed the art, effort, and ingenuity that advances civilisation.