FLAMINGO
CHAPTER-3 : DEEP WATER
Q-1 When did the writer join the Y.M.C.A. pool? Why?
Ans. The writer was then ten or eleven years old. He had a childhood fear of water. He wanted to get
over this fear. The Y.M.C.A. had a swimming pool. It offered an opportunity to learn to swim. That was
why the writer decided to join it.
Q-2 Describe the writer's childhood experience when he was three or four years old.
Ans. The writer's father took them to the beach in California. They were standing together in the surf.
The writer was clinging to his father. But a strong wave come and swept over him. He was buried in
water. His breath has gone. His father laughed but he was frightened. It left in his heart a fear of the
water.
Q-3 What did the writer notice when he was sitting alone on the side of the YMCA pool?
Ans. There was none else at the pool. The writer was afraid to go in alone. So he just sat on the side of
the pool and waited. It was all quiet. The water was still. The tiled bottom was as clean and white as a
bathtub.
Q-4 How did the big boy who threw the writer into the pool look?
Ans. The boy looked a kind of bruiser. He was about 18 years old. He had thick hair on his chest. He
had a well-built beautiful body. He had rippling muscles on his arms and legs.
Q-5 What did Douglas experience as he went down to the bottom of the pool for the first time?
Ans. The writer went at once to the bottom of the pool. He was frightened, but not much. On the way
down, he made a plan. He would hit the bottom and make a big jump. Then he would come to the
surface like a cork.
Q-6 How did the writer feel when he stopped all efforts to save himself in the pool?
Ans. Now the writer relaxed. Blackness swept over his brain. It wiped out all fear. There was no more
panic. He began to feel sleepy. He felt he was being carried along in tender arms. Then everything
blanked out.
Q-7 How did the incident at the YMCA pool affect Douglas?
Ans. It shook the writer badly. After some hours, he was able to walk back home. He was feeling very
weak. He was trembling. He shook and cried when he lay on his bed. He could eat nothing that night. A
terrible fear filled his heart. He never went back to that pool again.
Q-8 Why was Douglas keen to get over his fear of water?
Ans. Douglas visited many famous water spots in his country. But whenever he wanted to put his foot
into them, the old fears would come to his mind. It spoiled all his joys of fishing, boating and swimming.
That was why he was determined to get over his fear.
Q-9 What did the water finally do to get over his fear of the water?
Ans. The writer used every way to overcome this fear. Finally, one October, he decided to get an
instructor and learn to swing. He went to a pool and practised five days a week, an hour each day.
Q-10 How did the instructor help Douglas to overcome his fear of water?
Ans. First the instructor trained Douglas with the help of an overhead pulley. Douglas practised for
many weeks. Then he was taught to exhale under water and inhale above water. Thus bit by bit, Douglas
overcame his fears of water
Q-11 The writer says, “The instructor was finished. But I was well finished." Why?
Ans. The instructor thought he had made a swimmer out of the writer. But the writer was still not
satisfied. He feared that when he was alone in the pool, his old fears would come back to him. So he
wanted to try still more in the pool.
Q-12 How did Douglas overcame ‘the old terror'?
Ans. Douglas visited some of the famous water spots. He swam across them successfully. At last he went
to Lake went worth. He swam across to the other shore and back. He shouted with joy. Now he knew
that he had overcome his old terror of water.
