PUMPA - SMART LEARNING
எங்கள் ஆசிரியர்களுடன் 1-ஆன்-1 ஆலோசனை நேரத்தைப் பெறுங்கள். டாப்பர் ஆவதற்கு நாங்கள் பயிற்சி அளிப்போம்
Book Free DemoThe lesson "The Invention of Vita-Wonk" deals around a particular incident that happens in the space. The lesson is a part of the book by Roald Dahl titled "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator". The first paragraph serves as an introduction to the story that follows. The lesson deals with how Willy Wonka makes a potion called Vita-Wonka. This paragraph emphasises on the need for such a potion to be made. Willy Wonka is a rich man who owns a chocolate factory. A young boy named Charlie inherits the factory by being polite and kind. Willy Wonka takes Charlie, his parents and his four grandparents in a grand elevator, which accidentally reaches the space orbit. They are confronted by dangerous aliens called Knids. They are also faced with the responsibility to save the astronauts who have reached the space.
Astronaut with aliens
Amidst the chaos, Charlie's three grandparents refuse to get out of the bed as they are very old and feeble. Willy Wonka realises that this might cause a commotion as they might be attacked. He decides to take things into his hands by making them move. He did not want them to be in trouble or leave them behind just because they were old. He makes a potion named Wonka-Vite, which would reduce a person's age and make them young. But the intensity of it is too strong and would have side effects if taken in extra dosages.
Unfortunately, Charlie's grandparents consume the potion in excess. One of the grandparents is eighty seven years old and when he takes the extra dosage, he becomes younger and younger until a point occurs where he starts reverse ageing and reaching minus eighty seven. This would mean that, in order to be born again as a baby, he has to cross all the negative ageing and reach one. In short, he has to wait for eighty seven years to be born again. Willy Wonka had to create a remedy for this and hence had to invent an antidote for his own medicine. The entire lesson comprises of the story behind this invention of Vita-Wonk.
Sick grandpa
Mr. Wonka had already used his skills to make Wonka-Vite to make the grandparents strong and young. But it had backfired and his plans were altered. Now Willy Wonka has to put the rest of the plan of saving the astronauts to rest and busy himself with the job of creating an antidote. He sets to work by rolling up the sleeves of his shirt. Generally, people roll up their sleeves when they are about to perform a tiring or long task to aid them in the process. He squeezed his brain, as in he had to think from all the angles to get them out of the difficult situation. He set out to make a new recipe to make the grandparents come back to existence again.
Potions and chemicals
The grandparents had gone out of existence as a result of a strong overdose. So Willy Wonka prepares to make a reversal potion. He has to create the concept of age itself, as the grandparents have ceased to exist. He also says that it is a stage by stage process. He has to first make them be born, then a litter older for around ten or twelve years, then a little more to twenty years and so on until he reaches the original age eighty-seven. When he keeps talking about getting older, an idea for the recipe strikes him. He asks Charlie as to what was the oldest living thing that exists in the world. He wants him to think and answer as to what lives for the longest even when humans cease to exist. Charlie very promptly answers that trees are the only living things that can continue to exist even after a long time.
The grandparents transformed into babies
Trees live for a long time as they have unique stem cells that allow at least a part of a tree to retain intact even if it does not apply for the whole. Trees are immortals as they have Meristems which has the capacity to repair any internal damages. Trees, if not damaged by external sources, can live across centuries.
Willy Wonka gets an idea to prepare the antidote. He asks Charlie what the oldest living thing in the world was. Charlies gives him the reply as trees. Wonka appreciates the boy's knowledge on such things. But he looks for even more specific details. He asks him as to what kind of trees have the longest life on earth. This is because one cannot go by random and general information when it comes to making the potion. He is already facing an issue owing to one of his medicines having gone wrong. So he ensures that everything is specific this time.
Age reversal
Willy Wonka very carefully explains to Charlie why it is important to know what kind of tree has to be used in making the potion. He lists out the names of trees that are considered to be big and old. The Douglas Fir is a tree in pine family, which is found around the Western part of North America. The oak tree is considered one of the biggest trees, next to Cedar which is also the strongest tree. But Wonka says that in spite of being the biggest and longest living trees in the world, they are not the ones needed for making the antidote. He says that the Bristlecone pine is the oldest tree in the whole world. By adding parts of the oldest trees, he feels he might be able to make the grandparents old again. The Bristlecone pine is forty eight centuries old, which is \(4000\) years and is found on the White Mountains in California and grows upon the slopes of Wheeler Peak in Nevada, U.S.A.
Bristlecone pine
He also says that if Charlie has any doubts, then he may consult a dendrochronologist to check with the facts. A dendrochronologist is a person who dates the tree rings to the exact date they were formed. He also studies about various climatic conditions during different periods in history with the help of wood. He is also pretty sure that Charlie would not know the meaning of the word and asks him to look up the word in the dictionary when he reaches his home. This also shows that he is pretty confident that they would escape and go home. It also is a way to make Charlie trust in the process and has something to look forward to. Saying that, Willy Wonka positively jumps into the elevator to collect the materials needed to make the potion. He went in search of the longest living things in the world.
Wood rings
Willy Wonka is enlightened by an idea for making the reverse potion when he thinks of the word 'old'. He plans to collect all things old and take specific parts of it, as the recipe is for making the grandparents old again. He lists out the necessary things needed to make the potion. It contains the oldest of materials that are centuries old.
He first plans to collect extracts from the oldest tree, as trees are the longest of all living things. The oldest of the trees is the Bristlecone Pine which is found in the Nevada region. It is \(4000\) years old and he wants the sap from the tree to add it in the recipe. The sap of a tree is the innermost layer of the tree as it is a fluid present in the xylem cells of the tree. It is mostly extracted by making a small cut in the bark of the tree. He then goes on collecting items from a very specific range of people and things. He adds the toe nail of a \(168\) year old Russian Farmer to the list. He even mentions the name of the farmer as Petrovich Gregorovitch. He makes the name and the setting old and magical to stir interest. As the list progresses, it becomes even more specific, such as the egg laid by a tortoise. Not any ordinary tortoise, but the one that has lived for \(200\) years and has been owned by the King of Tonga. He does not mention any famous country, but rather Tonga is a Polynesian country in the South Pacific region.
Collecting sap from trees
Willy Wonka creates a list of impossible and particular things to create the antidote. The list gets difficult as he then says that he needs the tail of a fifty one year old Horse in Arabia. The Arabian Horse is pretty famous for having the best tail carriage, head shape and strong body. He then asks for the whiskers of a \(36\) year old cat named Crumpets. The maximum life expectancy of a cat is \(16\) years. But not only is the cat expected to be living beyond it, Wonka gives it a specific name too. But even if one could fill this criterion, the next one baffles the readers. He wants a flea that has lived on the cat named crumpet for the same thirty six years.
Arabian Horse
He wants the tail of a Tibetian rat that has lived for \(207\) years. Tibet is known for its rats, as it was even referred often as 'Plague of desert rats'. He also asks for the black tooth of a \(97\) year old grey cat (Grimalkin) that has lived in a cave in Mount Popocatepetl. Mount Popocatepetl is a volcano in Mexico and is very famous for having erupted frequently. It is very rare to have a cave in such areas and a grimalkin to be found with a black teeth, living for so long. He also needs the knucklebones of a cattaloo from Peru. A cattaloo is a cross breed between a cow and buffalo. The entire list contains specific, problematic and unusual things. But since the entire lesson is based on magical realism, it does not affect it. It in fact adds more colour and makes it interesting.
Cataloo
Willy Wonka makes a list of things he needs to make Vita Wonk, But the list was not so simple or easy. He had wanted to take things pertaining to anything that was old. It was difficult to collect these things, but he somehow manages to do so. He recollects his experiences to Charlie, saying that he literally travelled all around the world to gather them. He hunted down to every old animal or person so that he could get at least a small bit of thing from them. He took little things such as a hair or eye brow from them. He also takes jam from between the toes of certain animals. It would be just an ounce or two that the animal would have had between the foot. He had to take it only when it is sleeping, making the whole process subtle and not get attacked by the animal.
Exotic and old animals
He lists out the names of these venomous animals. He tracked down animals and reptiles like the whistle pig, bobolink, the skrock, the pollyfrog, The giant Curlicue, the stinging slug, the venomous Squerkle etc. The names itself indicate that they are highly dangerous as they are venomous, capable of stinging, giant etc. The venomous squerkle can spit poison exactly into a person's eye even if they are fifty yards away. The bobolink, pollyfrog etc., though not dangerous, may be a rare variety. He has less time to explain everything in detail as he has to bring the grandparents alive. But he says that he has already tested the medicine on the Oompa Loompas. The Oompa Loompas are his workers in the factory. They are tiny creatures who are capable of doing anything. He had done a lot of experimenting with the collected things to make the medicine.
He had tested it in the lab thereby bringing in bubbles, smoke etc. After boiling and mixing it in his inventing room, he gets a thick oily cup of black liquid which he gives to one of the volunteers. The Oompa-Loompa, who was brave took four drops of it. When Charlie asks what the result was, Wonka gladly reports that the result turned out to be fine, as the potion worked. The volunteer started becoming old, with noticeable changes such as falling of hair, teeth etc. He gets all the physical attributes of a seventy-five year old. The Oompa-Loompa was initially \(20\) years old. Finally Wonka invents an antidote named Vita-Wonk to bring the grandparents back.
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