NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Prose Chapter 1 A Letter to God

The first chapter of the First Flight book, A Letter to God, is a touching story written by Gregorio López y Fuentes. This story helps students understand how people sometimes deal with problems in their lives. It also teaches an important lesson about faith, hope, and kindness.

In the story, we meet a poor farmer named Lencho. He lives with his family on a small farm in the countryside. Lencho completely depends on his crops to feed his family and survive. One year, he hopes for rain to help his crops grow. Unfortunately, instead of gentle rain, a heavy hailstorm comes and destroys all his hard work. The crops are ruined, and Lencho and his family face the danger of having no food.

Even after such a loss, Lencho does not lose hope. He has great faith in God. Believing that God will help him, he writes a letter asking for money to save his family. He sends this letter to God through the post office. The postmaster, touched by Lencho’s strong faith, decides to collect money from his coworkers and friends to help Lencho. They manage to gather some money, although not the full amount Lencho asked for.

When Lencho receives the money, he still believes that it came from God. However, he feels that part of the money is missing. Thinking that the post office staff might have taken some of it, he writes another letter to God, asking not to send the money through the post office again.

This chapter teaches readers about faith, innocence, human kindness, and misunderstanding. The NCERT Solutions for this chapter will help students understand the story better, learn the meanings of difficult words, and answer all textbook questions easily.

Do Check: NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English

NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight A Letter to God - PDF Download

Get the complete NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 1 A Letter to God in a simple and easy-to-understand PDF format. These solutions include detailed answers to all textbook questions, helping students grasp the story's meaning, characters, and key themes like faith, kindness, and hope. Download the free PDF and prepare confidently for your exams.

A Letter to God Question Answers

Q1. What was Lencho hoping for?

Answer: Lencho was a farmer whose only wish was to get rain for his field. His crops were ready to be harvested, but they still needed some rain. Without rainfall, the crops would dry up and die, causing a huge loss for him.

Q2. Why did Lencho compare the raindrops to 'new coins'?

Answer: Lencho's corn crop was nearly ready for harvest, but it still required rain to grow fully. He knew that a good rainfall would give him a good profit. That’s why he called the raindrops ‘new coins’ as they would bring him money through a good harvest. The bigger raindrops seemed like ten-cent coins, and the smaller ones like five-cent coins to him.

Q3. How did the weather change? What happened to Lencho’s fields?

Answer: At first, it started raining, and Lencho felt happy as his crops would finally grow well. But soon the pleasant rain turned into a heavy storm with strong winds and hailstones. The hailstones hit the crops hard and destroyed them completely.

Q4. How did Lencho feel after the hail stopped?

Answer: After the hailstorm, Lencho saw his crops totally ruined. He was heartbroken because the harvest was his only way to earn food and money for his family. Now, with no crops left, he feared that they would not have enough to eat or survive in the coming days. He felt hopeless and sad thinking about the difficult future.

Q5. Whom did Lencho trust? What action did he take?

Answer: Even after facing such a disaster, Lencho kept his trust in God. He believed that God saw everything and would help him. So, Lencho wrote a letter to God asking for 100 pesos, which he needed to plant new crops and support his family after losing everything in the hailstorm.

Q6. Who read Lencho’s letter?

Answer: The postmaster read Lencho’s letter. The address on the envelope was unusual because it was simply written to ‘God’, which caught his attention.

Q7. What did the postmaster do after reading the letter?

Answer: At first, the postmaster laughed when he saw the letter addressed to God. But later, he was touched by Lencho's strong faith. He decided to help him. The postmaster collected money by giving a part of his own salary and also asking his friends, colleagues, and acquaintances to contribute. In the end, he gathered some amount and sent it to Lencho.

Do Check: NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight

Q8. Was Lencho surprised to receive the letter with money?

Answer: Lencho was not surprised at all because he had full faith that God would listen to him and send him help. So, when he received the letter with money, he believed it was sent by God.

Q9. What made Lencho angry?

Answer: After opening the envelope, Lencho counted the money and saw that there were only 70 pesos inside instead of 100 pesos, which he had asked for. He became very angry, not at God, but because he thought someone had stolen part of the money. He was sure that God would never send him less than what he requested.

Q10. Whom did Lencho completely trust? Which lines from the story show this?

Answer: Lencho had complete and blind faith in God. He believed God would never let him suffer.

Here are a few sentences that show his faith:

• "But in the hearts of all who lived in that solitary house in the middle of the valley, there was a single hope: help from God."
• "All through the night, Lencho thought only of his one hope: the help of God, whose eyes, as he had been instructed, see everything, even what is deep in one’s conscience."
• "God,” he wrote, “if you don’t help me, my family and I will go hungry this year."
• "God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested."
• "He wrote ‘To God’ on the envelope, put the letter inside and, still troubled, went to town."
• "It said: 'God: of the money that I asked for, only seventy pesos reached me. Send me the rest since I need it very much.'"

Q11. Why did the postmaster send money to Lencho and sign the letter as ‘God’?

Answer: The postmaster was deeply moved by Lencho's strong faith in God. He did not want to break Lencho's trust. To keep his belief alive, the postmaster collected money and sent it to him. He even signed the letter as ‘God’ so that Lencho would believe it came directly from God.

Q12. Did Lencho try to find out who actually sent the money? Why or why not?

Answer: No, Lencho never tried to find out who had sent him the money because he had no doubt that it came from God. His faith was so strong that he didn’t even consider that a human might have helped him. Instead, he went to the post office again to complain that the full amount didn’t reach him.

Q13. Whom did Lencho blame for the missing money? What is the irony here?

Answer: Lencho thought that the post office employees had taken part of the money before giving it to him. The irony is that the very people he blamed—the postmaster and his colleagues—were the ones who actually collected and sent the money to help him.

Q14. Are there people like Lencho in real life? What kind of person was he?

Answer: In real life, very few people have such strong and unquestioning faith like Lencho. He was very naive and unquestioning because he believed blindly without any doubt. He did not try to understand who might have helped him or question how God sent the money directly.

Do Check: NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Footprints without Feet

Q15. What are the two types of conflicts shown in the story?

Answer: The story shows two main conflicts:

• Man vs. Nature:
  Nature destroyed Lencho’s crops with a hailstorm, leaving him helpless. This shows how humans are often powerless in front of nature’s forces.
• Man vs. Man:
  After receiving the money, Lencho wrongly blamed the post office employees for stealing part of it, even though they were the ones who helped him. This shows conflict caused by misunderstanding between people.

A Letter to God Summary

The story "A Letter to God" is about a poor farmer named Lencho who lives with his family on a small farm. His house is the only one on a hill in the valley. Lencho works very hard to grow crops, and his family depends on the harvest for their food and survival.

One year, Lencho’s crops are almost ready to be harvested, but they still need some rain. Lencho looks up at the sky and hopes for rain. Soon, dark clouds appear, and it starts raining. At first, Lencho is very happy because he knows the rain will help his crops grow fully.

However, the weather suddenly changes. The rain turns into a strong hailstorm. Large pieces of ice fall from the sky and destroy all of Lencho’s crops. After the hailstorm, Lencho’s fields are ruined. He becomes very sad and worried because he has no way to feed his family.

Even though he is upset, Lencho has strong faith in God. He believes that God will help him in this difficult time. So, he decides to write a letter to God. In his letter, Lencho asks God to send him 100 pesos so that he can plant new crops and take care of his family.

When Lencho mails the letter, the postman sees it and shows it to the postmaster. The postmaster is surprised and touched by Lencho’s faith. He wants to help Lencho so that his faith in God remains strong. The postmaster and other employees collect money from their salaries and donations. They manage to gather 70 pesos and put the money in an envelope. The postmaster signs it as ‘God’ and sends it to Lencho.

When Lencho receives the letter, he is not surprised because he fully trusts God. But when he counts the money, he finds only 70 pesos instead of 100. He becomes angry, not at God, but at the people in the post office. Lencho believes that the post office workers have stolen the remaining 30 pesos. He writes another letter to God, asking for the remaining money and telling God not to send it through the post office next time because he thinks the employees are dishonest.

The Message of the Story

The story shows Lencho’s strong faith in God. It also shows the kindness of the postmaster and the people who tried to help him. At the same time, it shows the irony because Lencho blames the very people who helped him, thinking they stole from him.