Chapter 1

Third Level

Page No: 7 Read and Find Out

1. What does the third level refer to?

Answer: The third level refers to the subway of the Grand

Central Station that takes passengers to Galesburg,
Illinois. The third level on the station was a medium of
escape for Charley, the narrator from the harsh realities of
modern life. It provided him a base where he could
interweave fantasy and reality.

Page No: 5

2. Would Charley ever go back to the ticket-counter

on the third level to buy tickets to Galesburg for
himself and his wife?

Answer: No, Charley would never go back to the ticket-

counter on the third level to buy tickets to Galesburg for
himself and his wife because third level was his
imagination.
 Page No: 7 Reading with Insight

1.Do you think that the third level was a medium of

escape for Charley? Why?

Answer: Yes, I think that the third level was a medium of

escape for Charley. Life in modern world is full of
insecurity, fear, war, worries and stress. Man has to
confront them all the times. The harsh realities of life
make living quite unpleasant and even unbearable. So he
wants to escape into a wishful world. Charley talks to his
psychiatrist friend about the third level at the Grand
Central Station. His friend calls it “a walking-dream wish
fulfillment”. Charley possesses an escapist tendency.
Even his stamp collecting is a ‘temporary refuge
from reality’.

2. What do you infer from Sam’s letter to Charley?

Answer: The way Charley came across Sam’s letter was

surrounded in mystery. Among his oldest first-day covers,
he found an envelope. The envelope containing the letter
bore the address of his grandfather. It was written on July
18, 1894. The postmark showed the Picture of President
Garfield. Generally the first day covers have blank papers
in them, but this one contained a letter. The letter was
addressed to Charley. In the letter Sam had informed
Charley that he was living on the third level. He had also
told Charley and his wife to keep looking for the third
level. Clearly, the letter was a product of Charley’s
imagination.

3. ‘The modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war,

worry and stress.’ What are the ways in which we
attempt to overcome them?

Answer: We can overcome the anxieties and insecurities

bred by our inevitable existence in the modern world by
getting involved in some practical and beneficial
activities. Cultivating hobbies, spending time with family
and friends, going on trips and excursions, pursuing
meditation and exercises help us live a balanced and
healthy life. Reading good books is equivalent to having
good friends with great insight. They not only enrich us
with the vast store of knowledge but also help us to learn
from other’s experience and stay rooted to some
basic qualities of humanity. Joining hobby classes or gym,
attending social events like birthdays and weddings, going
for outdoor games, interacting meaningfully through
socialnetworking sites and writing diaries etc can also
help us relieve our worries and stay focussed and
disciplined in life. Simple activities like listening to
music, playing with pets, an occasional dinner out,
watching cinema or plays or going to places like parks etc
can go a long way in helping us get rid of stress, boredom
and insecurities.

4. Do you see an intersection of time and space in the

story?

Answer: Yes, there are certain instances in the story that

show an intersection of time and space. Firstly, the first
two levels of Grand Central Station were located in the
present time while the third level existed in the 1890s.
Secondly, Charley and his wife, Louisa, live in the
present time yet he rushes to get old currency to buy two
tickets to go to the Galesburg of 1894. Further, the old
architecture of the platform at the third level is different
from the modern platforms of the first twolevels. Besides,
the archaic manner of dressing by the people, and the
newspaper, The World, dated June 11, 1984 also overlaps
with Charley’s real time world and existence. Lastly, the
letter that was mailed to Charley’s grandfather on 18th
July, 1894 highlights the intersection of time and space as
the sender (Charley’s friend Sam) and receiver (Charley
himself) belong to the present time.

5. Apparent illogicality sometimes turns out to be a

futuristic projection? Discuss.
Answer: It is true that apparent illogicality sometimes
turns out to be a futuristic projection. Before the Wright
Brothers invented the first aero plane, nobody could have
dared to believe that man could fly. Before Alexander
Graham Bell invented the telephone, it would have
been impossible to believe in long-distance talks
happening in the real-time interface. Moreover, there are
examples of inventions, like that of inventing a modern-
day sewing machine with a needle that has hole on its
wrong end, which were conceived in dreams but
now are part of our everyday reality. All this emphasizes
that fantasies of one point of time that seem illogical may
turn out to be revolutionary things that change the future
of the mankind. Similarly, it would not be farfetched
to think about railway stations fitted with time-machine
devices that would make travel from one era to another
just a matter of time.

6. Philately helps keep the past alive. Discuss other

ways in which this is done. What do you think of the
human tendency to constantly move between the past,
the present and the future?

Answer: Besides philately, there are numerous other

ways to help keep the past alive. Collecting historical
artifacts, paintings and inscriptions in a museum,
collecting and reading books (including autobiographies,
bio-sketches, letters and diary entries) written in different
eras, collecting and viewing documentaries and other
videos are all a few ways of revisiting history. Besides,
we can keep our culture and traditions alive when we
follow the rituals in ceremonies, treasure memories in the
form of videos, photographs and audio collections.
Also, reviving old monuments, buildings and other
artefacts may prove a huge learning opportunity to those
visiting such places, and promote tourism at the same
time.
The capacity to oscillate between the past, present and
future is a great intellectual gift. This human tendency
enables him to plan for the future in the present by
reaping benefits from the past. Consider a very simple
example of adopting a study technique for board exams.
Considering the past result (of class test or half yearly
exams) a student makes a strategy plan to address the
weak areas more and score better in the future. Thus, such
a tendency helps in ensuring acceptance of the impact of
important decisions taken at any point of time
and learning from them.

7. You have read ‘Adventure’ by Jayant Narlikar in

Hornbill Class XI. Compare the interweaving of
fantasy and reality in the two stories.
Answer: In 'Adventure' Jayant Narlikar expressed that
many world exist simultaneously though they appear to be
separated by time. He expressed that the other world also
existed and prospered with the world we are aware of. On
the other hand, In the third level, Charley a young new
York commuter wandering Grand Central Station by
accident finds a gateway that leads to a real past of
1894Seizing the opportunity Charley attempts to escape
the rat race by buying a one way ticket to his childhood
town of Galesburg. Not having proper currency for that
period, he forced to postpone his plan to escape to the
past.