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10 Rikki-tikki-tavi
10
Rikki-tikki-tavi

Theme: Animals

Time to start

Look at the pictures of some unusual pets in the world. Name them. Would

you like to keep any of these animals or any other unusual animal as your
pet? Tell the class about it.

Before you read the story.

Rikki-tikki-tavi is a young mongoose who is washed away from his family in a summer flood. He is rescued
by Teddy, a young English boy who stays with his parents in a big bungalow in Segowlee cantonment .
1
Although the mother has a soft spot for animals, she isn’t sure she wants a wild animal in her house. But
Teddy’s father convinces her that a mongoose is the perfect house pet. After all, deadly snakes live right in
their garden, and mongooses are snake killers. So, the family adopts the orphaned mongoose and decides
to keep him as a pet. They name him Rikki-tikki-tavi because his war-cry as he scuttled through the long
grass, was: ‘Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!’. Rikki-tikki-tavi is naturally curious and adventurous, and he
decides to explore the family’s garden the next morning after an early breakfast of banana and boiled egg.
The story is set in the late 1800s when the British ruled India.

1 a British military town where servicemen and their families lived in separate bungalows
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