First Flight - Class X
Reprint 2025-26
This is a one-act play, a farce, by the Russian short story writer and dramatist Anton Chekhov. It was written in 1888–89.
The play is about the tendency of wealthy families to seek ties with other wealthy families, to increase their estates by encouraging marriages that make good economic sense. Ivan Lomov, a long time wealthy neighbour of Stepan Chubukov, also wealthy, comes to seek the hand of Chubukov's twenty-five-year-old daughter, Natalya.
All three are quarrelsome people, and they quarrel over petty issues. The proposal is in danger of being forgotten amidst all this quarrelling. But economic good sense ensures that the proposal is made, after all — although the quarrelling perhaps continues!
Activity
1. The word 'proposal' has several meanings. Can you guess what sort of proposal the play is about?
Do you know anything about a Russian marriage ceremony? Read this article about a Russian wedding.
Preparations for a Russian Wedding: A Russian wedding is very simple. The planning only includes arranging for rings, brides' dress, cars, and a reception. Earlier, the bride's family paid for the reception, but now-a-days brides' and grooms' families usually share expenses. A Russian wedding lasts for two days; some weddings last as long as a week, and the occasion becomes something to remember for years.
The necessary part of the wedding ceremony is a wedding procession of several cars. The best friends of the groom/bride meet before the wedding a few times, make posters, write speeches and organise contests. When the groom arrives to fetch the bride for the registration, he has to fight to get her! Russians usually live in apartments in tall buildings, and the groom has to climb several stairs to reach his bride. But at each landing he must answer a question to be allowed to go up. The bride's friends ask difficult questions (sometimes about the bride, sometimes just difficult riddles), and the groom must answer with the help of his friends.
For example, he may be shown a few photos of baby girls and he must say which one his bride is. If he guesses wrong, he must pay cash to move ahead. After the marriage registration, the newly-married couple leaves the guests for a tour of the city sights. After two or three hours of the city tour the couple arrives at the reception. The couple sits at a specially arranged table with their family, friends and invited guests. The reception starts with toasts to the couple. A wedding toast is a custom where a close friend or relative of the groom or the bride says a few words to wish the couple, then everyone raises their glass of wine, and drink it up at the same moment. The groom is then asked to kiss the bride. After a few toasts, people start eating and drinking, and generally have fun. After some time, the bride gets 'stolen'! She disappears, and when the groom starts looking for her, he is asked to pay a fee. Usually it is his friends who 'steal' the bride. Then there are the bride's friends — they steal the bride's shoe. The groom must pay money for the shoe too. The guests enjoy watching these tussles, and continue partying.
2. Do you think Indian and Russian weddings have any customs in common? With the help of a partner, fill in the table below.
Wedding Ceremonies in Russia and India
| Customs similar to Indian ones | Customs different from Indian ones |
|---|---|
Can you find the words below that are spelt similarly, and sometimes even pronounced similarly, but have very different meanings? Check their pronunciation and meaning in a dictionary.
• They were too close to the door to close it.
• Since there is no time like the present, she thought it was time to present the present.
1. The bread was not to charge full for half a loaf.
2. The of the school enforced a strict of discipline.
A sentence in reported speech consists of two parts: a reporting clause, which contains the reporting verb, and the reported clause.
Look at the following sentences:
(a) "I went to visit my grandma last week," said Mamta.
(b) Mamta said that she had gone to visit her grandma the previous week.
In sentence (a), we have Mamta's exact words. This is an example of direct speech. In sentence (b), someone is reporting what Mamta said. This is called indirect speech or reported speech.
1. To report a question, we use the reporting verb
2. To report a statement, we use the reporting verb
3. The adverb of place here changes to
4. When the verb in direct speech is in the present tense, the verb in reported speech is in the
5. If the verb in direct speech is in the present continuous tense, the verb in reported speech changes to