NCERT Book Class 8 English (It So Happened) Chapter 4 The treasure within

4 The treasure within
Before you read
• Every child is a potential achiever and is different from other
children in her/his style of learning and area of interest.
• Read the interview that follows. It is based on a conversation
between Ms Bela Raja, editor of Sparsh, a newsletter from the
Resource Centre, The Valley School, Bangalore, and Mr Hafeez
Contractor, one of India’s leading architects.

I
• Hafeez Contractor was an unhappy school boy.
• He loved doing things but detested mechanical learning.
Mathematics gave him the shivers.
• What his Principal once said to him influenced him deeply.

HC: “I used to have this terrible nightmare. Only now, over the
last four to five years, it seems to have disappeared.
BR: What nightmare are you talking about and why do you think
it has disappeared now?
HC: I used to get continuous nightmares about appearing for a
maths examination where I did not know anything! Now the
psyche must have gotten over it, I don’t have to think about
education and there is absolutely no time to get nightmares.

nightmare: haunting fear/frightening dream psyche: mind or mentality