Back to: Karnataka Board Class 6th English Guide and Notes
Table of Contents
Characters
- Madhav: A Father of a young child who takes his son to visit a lighthouse.
- Rajiv: A small child who visits a lighthouse for the first time.
Introduction
In this lesson, we come to know about the inventions and uses of the lighthouse through the dialogues between Rajiv and his father Madhav. Madhav takes his son Rajiv for a small trip to watch the lighthouse. Madhav tells his son about the tall strong building in the shape of a tower with powerful lights at the top. Rajiv wanted to know the uses of the lighthouse which he points out its uses with the help of narration.
Summary
Madhav takes his son Rajiv to visit a lighthouse for the first time
One day, Rajiv and Madav go out on a small visit to the Lighthouse. They started at 5 pm and reached the shore by 6 pm. The Lighthouse was a tall, strong building in the shape of a tower with powerful lights. Rajiv was curious to know about the uses of lighthouses. Madav explained that lighthouses help sailors to know where the land is and what place they are near. The lighthouses also warn sailors and guide them away from places dangerous to ships.
When Rajiv wanted to know how lighthouses work his father told him that modern lighthouses used powerful electric lights. Then Rajiv wanted to know about the days when there was no electricity. His father explained that wood fires would be lit in high places on the shore and later a large number of candles were lit in glass enclosures.
Madhav explains the reason for the lighthouse being built
Mr. Madhav added that in the days before lighthouses were built, sailors got lost in the sea and there was also the danger of ships wrecking against high rocks in the dark seas, being unable to see a safe place to land. The Lighthouses guided them to safety.
When Rajiv asked Mr. Madhav when were the first Lighthouses built, he replied that he believed that some inventive young men had set fire to huge logs to guide the fishermen lost in the sea to return to the shore safely. They were laughed at by many elders but continued to keep the fire burning. Turned out, the fishermen were guided by the dire light to the safety of the beach. They went back home after having an Ice-cream.
Conclusion
One of the great dangers to ships in the sea in the rocky shores, and sunken rocks on which ships may be driven by sea and wind, and sandbanks where they might stick because the water is shallow and be broken into pieces by the waves.
In the daytime, sailors can see some of these dangers and keen out of the way, but in the dark nights, if they get out of their course, they may be wrecked because they can see nothing. Thus, lighthouses are built along the rocky coasts and on sunken rocks, to warn sailors of the dangers and also as a guide to the land if they get lost in the sea.
