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131
Engine Trouble
136
Warm Up **************************************************

145 H a v e you ever participated in a lucky draw and won a prize you did not warnt

W h a t would you do if you won any one of these? Tell the class your choice

150 and what you would do with it.

a. an elephant b. a parachute d Spaceship
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159
Read this text to find out what a man did when he won a road engine as a lottery priz
167
There came down to our town some years ago (said the Talkative
171 Man)a showman owning an institution called theGaiety and
Overnight, our Gymkhana Grounds became resplendent with1tn
178 banners, streamers and coloured lamps. Gaiety Land provided us
with all sorts of fun and sideshows. In addition to this, there were

185 lotteries and shooting galleries where for an anna you always
stood a chance of winning a hundred rupees.

189 the show which in great

(There was a particular corner of
was

for ticket costing eight annas

you stood a chance
favour)Here, a
202 of acquiring a variety of articlespincushions, sewing machines,
cameras or even a road engine. On one evening, they drew a ticket
205 number1005, and I happened other half of the ticket.
to own the

Glancing down the list of articles, they declared that I became t

214 owner of a road engine! Don't ask me how a road engine came to

****** be included among the prizes. It is more thanI can tell you.

roadengine road roller resplendent bright and colourful sideshows separate

small shows at a fair anna a former monetary unit of India and Pakistan;

one anna was one-sixteenth

of a
rupee acquring here, winning
I looked stunned{People gathered around and gazed at me
as if I were some curious animal
"Fancy anyone becoming the owner of a road engine!" some persons
muttered and giggled.

It was not the sort of prize one could carry home at short notice.
I asked the showman if he would help me transport it. He merely
pointed at a notice which decreed that all winners should remove the
prizes immediately on drawing and by their own effortHowever
they had to make an exception in my case, They agreed to keep
the engine on the Gymkhana Grounds till the end of their season
and then I would have to make my own arrangements to take it out.

My friends and well-wishers poured in to congratulate me on

my latest acquisition. No one knew precisely how much a road

decreed ordered acquisition something that is obtained

engine would fetch; all the same they felt that there was a lot
of money in it.

"Even if you sell it as scrap iron, you can make a few thousands,"
some of my friends declared.

Every day I made a trip to the Gymkhana Grounds to have a look

at my engine. I grew very fond of it. I loved its
shining brass
parts
I stood near it and patted it affectionately, hovered about it, and
returmed home every day, only at the close of the show. I was a
poor man. I thought that my troubles were coming to an end.

How ignorant are!low ittle did I guess that my troubles had

we

just begun.)
When the showman took down his booths and packed up, I received
a notice from the
municipality to attend to my road engine.
When I went there the next day, it looked forlorn with no one
about. The showman had moved on, leaving the engine where it
stood.t was perfectly safe anywhere!)

I left it alorne for a few days, not knowing what to do with it.
I received a notice from the municipality, ordering that the
engine
should at once be removed from the ground as otherwise they
would charge rent for the occupation of the Gymkhana Grounds.
After deep thought I consented to pay the rent, and I paid ten
rupees a month, for the next three months. Dear sirs, I was a poor
man. Even the house which I and my wife occupied cost me only
four rupees a month.

And fancy my paying ten rupees a month for the road engine.
t cut into my slender budget, andI had to pledge a jewel or two
belonging to my wife)And every day my wife was asking me
what I proposed to do with this terrible property of mine and I
had no answer to give her. I went up and down the town,
offering
hovered about it stayed dose to lt municipality an administrative body
which manages theaffairsof a city or a town forlorn sad
pledge give something as a guarantee for a loan proposed here, planned
and sundry.
Someone s u g g e s t e that the Secrelar
sale to all might be intere sted in it.
it for Cosmopolitan
Cub
Whe
of the
local and asked what } the should do
Iapproached
him, he laughed
wit
a road engine.

concession
tor you. You have a t

dispose of it at a and even before o

"T11 morning"I began, him
rolled every
to be
a stupid thing
to say.Y
knew it was
smile I
maintaining this engine i the
bankrupt
I was making myself some day there would
Grounds. I really hoped
Gymkhana make amends for all this defict
sum and
my way lump
a
come arose when a cattle show
Fresh complications
and suffering. I was given
to be held on the grounds.
the offing. It
was
came in of the ground.
the thing out
hours for getting
twenty-four
for fifty miles
there was not a single person
I became desperate; about a road engine. Meanwhile,
around who
knew anything
out. I thought it over.
me to clear
was pressing
the municipality to gain his
and managed
of the local temple
I saw the priest services of his temple
elephant.
offered me the
sympathy. He
behind.
coolies to push the engine from
I also engaged fifty The coolies wanted
s u r e this
drained all my r e s o u r c e s .
You may be me s e v e n rupees
head and the temple
elephant cost
eight annas per to take the engine
had to give it one feed. My plan was

a day and I then down the

road to a field,
and
out of the gymkhana a friend.
He would not
The field was owned by
half a furlong off. of months,
when
the engine there for a couple
mind if I kept customer for it.
Madras and find a
I could go to
bus-driver who
a dismissed
Ialso took into service one Joseph,
could
he knew of road rollers he
nothing
said that although
somehow kept in motion.
nevertheless steer o n e if it was

wno
at a lower price bankrupt a person
something
giving money
concession
at a
does not have enough to pay thelr debts a lump sum an amount

that is
paid any at one time and not in smaller anmounts/instalmene
of money in the offing likely to happen soon furlong
an eightn
deficit shortage
of a mile Madras old name for Chennai
was a line sight: the temple elephant yoked to the engine by

means of stout ropes, with fifty determirned men plushing it from

behind, and my friend Joseph sitting in the driving seat. A hug

crowd stood around and watched in great glee. 1 ne engine began

the greatest
moment i n my ite. When
o It seemed to me
move. and reached the road, it began to
Came out of
the gvmkhana Instead ot going straight down
manner.
Denave in a strange
the road it showed a tendency to wobble and move zigzag

turned the wheel for all

elephant
Ihe dragged it one way, Joseph
he was worth without any idea of where he was going, and fifty

men behind it clung to it in every possible

manner pushed and

it just where they liked. As a result of all this confused dragging

the engine ran straight into the opposite compound wall and
reduced a good length of it to pOwder. At this the crowd let out
a joyous yell. The elephant, disliking the behaviour of the crowd,
trumpeted loudly, strained and snapped its ropes and kicked
down a further length of the wall. The fifty men fled in panic,
the crowd created a pandemonium. Someone slapped me in the
face-it was the owner of the
compound wall. The came on police
scene and marched me off.

When I was released from the

lock-up, I found the
following
consequences awaiting me: (1) Several yards of compound wall to
be built by
not
me. (2) Wages of fifty who ran away.
men
They would
explain how they were entitled to the
done their job. (3) wages when they had not
Joseph's
(4) Cost of medicine for
fee for
steering the
engine over the wall.
which had received sometreating the knee of the
temple elephant,
Here again the injuries while kicking down the wall.
Out that temple
authorities would not listen
I didn'l engage an when I pointea
the least, the
demand to move the elephant
to break a
wall. (5) Last, but not
I
engine out of its present station.
really could not
find any
I went means of
home, my wile asked, paying these bills. When
"What is this I
hear about
pandemonium chaos you
are temporarily lodged lock-up jail; place in a
police station where
prison
everywhere?" I took the opportunity to explain my difficulties.
She took it as a hint that I was again asking for her jewels, and
she lost her temper and cried that she would write to her father to
come and take her away.

I was at my wit's end. People smiled at me when they met me

in the streets. I was seriously wondering why I should not run
away to my village. I decided to encourage my wife to write to
her father and arrange for her exit. Not a soul was going to know

what my plans were. Iwas going to put off my creditors and

disappear one fine night.

I made preparations to leave the town in a couple of days, leaving

the engine to its fate, with all its commitments. However, Nature
came to my rescue in an unexpected manner. You may have heard
of the earthquake of that year, which destroyed whole towns
in Northerm India. There was a reverberation of it in our town
too. We were thrown out of our beds that night, and doors and
windows rattled.

Next morning, I went over to take a last look at my engine

before leaving the town. I could hardly believe my eyes. The
engine was not there. I looked about and raised a hue and

cry. Search parties went round. And the engine was found in
a disused well nearby, with its back up. I prayed to heaven to
save me from fresh complications. But when the owner of the
house came round and saw what had happened, he laughed

heartily and beamed at me, "You have done me a service.

was dirtiest water in that well and the municipality was
sending notice to close it, week after week. I was dreading the
cost of closing, but your engine fits it like a cork. Just leave
it there."

"But, but.."

echo
creditors people one owes money to reverberation
There are no buts. I will withdraw all
complaints and ch.
against you, and build that broken wall arges
the thing there."
myself, but only leav

"That is hardly enough." I mentioned a few other expenses

that this engine had brought on me. He
agreed to pay for
all that.

When I again passed that way some months later, I

peeped over
the wall. I found the mouth of the well neatly cemented
up.
I heaved a sigh of great relief.

RK Narayan

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan (1906-2001) is best known for his

stories set in the fictional town, Malgudi, in South India. In a writing
career of over sixty years, Narayan received his first major award from
Sahitya Akademi in 1958 for his novel, The Guide, and was also honoured
with Padma Bhushan in 1964.
Exercises 2
Answer these questions.
1. What did the Reading
arrived in the Gymkhana
town?
Grounds look like after
2.
Gaiety Land
How did the
narrator had
people behave once it became known
won a road that the
3.
engine?
Which rule was relaxed for the narrator and
4. What notice did the
why?
municipality send the narrator?
5. Describe the different ways in which the narrator tried to
the put
engine to use.

6. How did nature act as a saviour to the narrator?

Read these lines and
to the context.
answer the questions with reference

1. Isaw the priest ofthe local temple and managed to gain his
sympathy. He offered me the services of his temple elephant.
a. What did the narrator
plan to do with the elephant?
b. Whom did he engage as the driver of the road engine?
What did this person assure him?
c. Describe the disaster that occurred as a result of the
narrator's efforts.
2. I really could not find any means of paying these bills. When I went
home, my wife asked, "What is this I hear about you everywhere?"
I took the opportunity to explain my difficulties.
a. Which bills was the narrator
supposed to pay?
b. What was his wife's reaction to his situation?
c. What did the narrator plan to do in
despair?
Think and answer.
1. If you had to give any other title to the story, what title would
you give and why?
2. Give five adjectives to describe the narrator. Choose incidernts
or lines from the
story to defend your choice of adjectives.

Using Words