The Blue Bead: Context and Summary

The Blue Bead: Context and Summary

Context

Norah Aileen Burke was born in 1907 in Bedford, England. She moved to India at a very young age with her family, as her father was employed with the Forest Service in the country. Owing to the nature of her father's job, young Norah spent considerable time moving from one jungle camp to another.

She became deeply familiar with the sights and sounds of jungle and village life at the foothills of the Himalayas. Her familiarity with this way of life is reflected in her works, which include Jungle Child, King Todd, Jungle Picture, Eleven Leopards and Hazelwood.

The Blue Bead is a story about a courageous young girl named Sibia, who, despite her young age, saves a woman from a ferocious crocodile's jaws.

It shows us how dangerous and adventurous life can be for those who live

near a jungle, and how even children can be quick-thinking and brave.

Summary

Here is a summary of the The Blue Bead by Norah Burke.

The story begins with a description of a fully grown mugger crocodile, twice the length of a tall man, coming out of a river. Ferocious and almost evil-looking, it had a thick hide with only two weak spots - its eyes and its underbelly,

Near the river from which the crocodile emerged was a village where twelve-year-old Sibia lived. Sibia's family was extremely poor. All she owned was the rag that she wore. She had seen fine cloth, jewellery and mouth-watering sweets, but only at the bazaar in a town situated across the forest.

Every day, she accompanied her mother and some other women when they went to harvest paper grass from the cliffs near the river. One day, as Sibia skipped along to the cliffs, she noticed necklaces made from seeds around some women's necks. She wanted to make one for herself too. But the needle, with which she could drill a hole through the seeds, had broken. She could not make a necklace till her family could afford to buy a new needle.

On their way to the cliffs, the women passed a camp of the nomadic Gujar tribe. The Gujars, like Sibia and her family, were born and bred in the forest. Soon, the group of women reached the riverbank. While they crossed the wom river, the women spoke loudly and made as much noise as they could. Noise kept crocodiles away, as it did the big mugger crocodile that was lying in wait for food. The women reached the other side safely and got down to work.

After a hard day's wsork, they started making their way back to their village. But Sibia took her own time and decided to go check on some clay cups that she had left in cavelets by the river. By the time Sibia returned, the women were nowhere to be seen or heard. Unaffected by this, Sibia started crossing the river. Halfway down the path, she paused to catch her breath.

Around this time, a Gujar woman had come to the river to fill water. Out of nowhere, the crocodile leaped out of the water and grabbed her by her leg. Sibia sprang into action. She hopped across the river effortlessly, and plunged her hayfork into the crocodile's eyes. Thrashing around in pain, the crocodile let the woman go and retreated.

Sibia then got the woman back to the Gujar camp and returned to retrieve her things. Her hayfork was lying in the river. As Sibia bent to take it out, a blue bead in the stream caught her eye. She fished it out of the river. To her joy, the blue bead was already pierced, just perfect for the necklace she wanted to make!

After putting the bead away safely, Sibia continued on her way home and ran into her mother, who had returned to look for her. Her mother was worried that something had happened to Sibia. Sibia joyfully exclaimed that something did - she had found a blue bead for her necklace. So ecstatic was she about finding the bead that she did not even tell her mother about the crocodile.