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Lesson 5
Under the banyan tree
Objectives : By the end of the lesson you will have
• read a short story
• answered questions based on the story
• rewritten the story in your own English
A Read the following extract from a story by R.K. Narayan.
The village Somal, nestling away in the forest tracts of Mempi, had a population of less than three hundred, k was a remote village cut off from the rest of the world (the nearest bus stop was ten miles away); nevertheless the people of the village lived in a kind of perpetual enchantment. The enchanter was Nambi the storyteller. He was a man of about sixty or seventy — who could say! If any one asked Nambi what his age was, he referred to an ancient famine or an invasion or the building of a bridge and indicated how high he had stood from the ground at the time.
He was illiterate in the sense that the written word was a mystery to him; but he could make up a story, in his head, at the rate oft one a month; each story took nearly ten days to narrate.
His home was the little temple at the very edge of the village. He spent most of the day in the shade of the banyan tree that spread out its branches in front of the temple. On the nights he had a story to tell, he lit a small lamp and placed it in a niche in the trunk of the banyan tree. Villagers, as they returned home in the evening, saw this, went home and said to their wives, "Now, now, hurry up with the dinner, the story teller is calling us." As the moon crept up behind the hillock, men, women, and children gathered under the banyan tree.
The storyteller would open the story with a question. He asked, "A thousand years
ago, a stone's throw in that direction, what do you think there was? It was not the
weed-covered waste it is now. It was not the ash-pit it is now. It was the capital of
the king..."
It was story building on an epic scale. The first day barely conveyed the setting of the tale, and Nambi's audience had no idea yet who would come into the story next. As the moon slipped behind the trees of Mempi forest, Nambi would say, "Now friends* the Goddess says this will do for the day." He would abruptly rise, go in, lie down and fall asleep long before the babble of the crowd ceased.
The light in the niche would again be seen two or three days later, and again and again throughout the bright half of the month. On the day when the story ended, the whole crowd would go into the temple and pray before the goddess.
By the time the next moon peeped over the hillock, Nambi was ready with another story. He never repeated the same story or brought in the same set of persons and the village folk considered Nambi a sort of miracle. They quoted his words of wisdom and liyed^'in ajtind of an elevated plane even though their daily life in all other respects was hard and drab.
And it had gone on for years and years. One moon, he lit the lamp in the tree. The audience came. The old man took his seat and began the story. "... when king Vikramaditya lived, his minister was..." He paused. He could not go beyond it. He made a fresh beginning and then again his words trailed off in a vague mumbling. "What has come over me?" he asked pathetically. "Am I tired? Wait a moment. I will tell you the story presently." Following this, there was utter silence. Eager, faces waited patiently, but the story wouldn't come. Nambi sat staring at the ground bowing his head. When he looked up again all the people had gone except his friend Mari. "Tomorrow I will make it up. Age, age it has come on me suddenly." He lit the lamp again in the niche the next day. The crowd assembled under the banyan tree. Again the story wouldn't come. He struggled hard. He stammered. The audience rose without a word and went home.
The next moon he lit up the lamp in the niche again. The villagers as they returned home saw the light but only a handful turned up. Nambi insisted everyone must come the next day. He had a great story to tell. All night the people gathered. They were happy the storyteller had regained his powers. And Nambi started: " It is the goddess who gives the gifts, and it is she who takes them away. What is the lamp for when all the oil is gone? Goddess be thanked...These are my last words on this earth and this is my greatest story."
After that Nambi never spoke again. When he felt hungry he walked into any cottage as he had done before, silently sat down for food, and walked away the moment he had eaten. Beyond this he had hardly anything to demand of his fellow beings. The rest of his life was one great consummate silence.
(Abridged from Under the Banyan Tree by R. K. Narayan)
B Now give brief answers to the following questions.
1 What was the favourite pastime of the villagers of Mempi?
2 How did Nambi count his age?
3 How long were Nambi's stories?
4 How did Nambi inform the villagers that he was ready with a story to tell?
5 What was Nambi's method of telling the story?
6 Did his story-telling have any relationship with the moon?
7 What happened to Nambi suddenly?
8 Choose the answer that seems most appropriate:
Nambi's greatest story was
- the realisation that everything depended on the will of the goddess;
- that there was no oil in the lamp in the temple;
- that he had lost his powers and would not be able to tell stories anymore.
C The banyan tree has a place in Bengali culture too. Discuss in groups and list some of the activities that take place under a banyan tree.
D Now rewrite the story in brief in your own words for someone who has not read it.
Focus :
Skills.
Reading,
writing,
speaking.
Functions
Appreciating literary writing, narrating. Grammar/Structure.
Past tense for narrating events.
Vocabulary.
perpetual enchantment, nestling, niche, trailed, vague, epic, abruptly, babble,
mumbling, elevated plane
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Lesson 5
Under the banyan tree
Objectives : By the end of the lesson you will have
• read a short story
• answered questions based on the story
• rewritten the story in your own English
A Read the following extract from a story by R.K. Narayan.
The village Somal, nestling away in the forest tracts of Mempi, had a population of less than three hundred, k was a remote village cut off from the rest of the world (the nearest bus stop was ten miles away); nevertheless the people of the village lived in a kind of perpetual enchantment. The enchanter was Nambi the storyteller. He was a man of about sixty or seventy — who could say! If any one asked Nambi what his age was, he referred to an ancient famine or an invasion or the building of a bridge and indicated how high he had stood from the ground at the time.
He was illiterate in the sense that the written word was a mystery to him; but he could make up a story, in his head, at the rate oft one a month; each story took nearly ten days to narrate.
His home was the little temple at the very edge of the village. He spent most of the day in the shade of the banyan tree that spread out its branches in front of the temple. On the nights he had a story to tell, he lit a small lamp and placed it in a niche in the trunk of the banyan tree. Villagers, as they returned home in the evening, saw this, went home and said to their wives, "Now, now, hurry up with the dinner, the story teller is calling us." As the moon crept up behind the hillock, men, women, and children gathered under the banyan tree.
The storyteller would open the story with a question. He asked, "A thousand years
ago, a stone's throw in that direction, what do you think there was? It was not the
weed-covered waste it is now. It was not the ash-pit it is now. It was the capital of
the king..."
It was story building on an epic scale. The first day barely conveyed the setting of the tale, and Nambi's audience had no idea yet who would come into the story next. As the moon slipped behind the trees of Mempi forest, Nambi would say, "Now friends* the Goddess says this will do for the day." He would abruptly rise, go in, lie down and fall asleep long before the babble of the crowd ceased.
The light in the niche would again be seen two or three days later, and again and again throughout the bright half of the month. On the day when the story ended, the whole crowd would go into the temple and pray before the goddess.
By the time the next moon peeped over the hillock, Nambi was ready with another story. He never repeated the same story or brought in the same set of persons and the village folk considered Nambi a sort of miracle. They quoted his words of wisdom and liyed^'in ajtind of an elevated plane even though their daily life in all other respects was hard and drab.
And it had gone on for years and years. One moon, he lit the lamp in the tree. The audience came. The old man took his seat and began the story. "... when king Vikramaditya lived, his minister was..." He paused. He could not go beyond it. He made a fresh beginning and then again his words trailed off in a vague mumbling. "What has come over me?" he asked pathetically. "Am I tired? Wait a moment. I will tell you the story presently." Following this, there was utter silence. Eager, faces waited patiently, but the story wouldn't come. Nambi sat staring at the ground bowing his head. When he looked up again all the people had gone except his friend Mari. "Tomorrow I will make it up. Age, age it has come on me suddenly." He lit the lamp again in the niche the next day. The crowd assembled under the banyan tree. Again the story wouldn't come. He struggled hard. He stammered. The audience rose without a word and went home.
The next moon he lit up the lamp in the niche again. The villagers as they returned home saw the light but only a handful turned up. Nambi insisted everyone must come the next day. He had a great story to tell. All night the people gathered. They were happy the storyteller had regained his powers. And Nambi started: " It is the goddess who gives the gifts, and it is she who takes them away. What is the lamp for when all the oil is gone? Goddess be thanked...These are my last words on this earth and this is my greatest story."
After that Nambi never spoke again. When he felt hungry he walked into any cottage as he had done before, silently sat down for food, and walked away the moment he had eaten. Beyond this he had hardly anything to demand of his fellow beings. The rest of his life was one great consummate silence.
(Abridged from Under the Banyan Tree by R. K. Narayan)
B Now give brief answers to the following questions.
1 What was the favourite pastime of the villagers of Mempi?
2 How did Nambi count his age?
3 How long were Nambi's stories?
4 How did Nambi inform the villagers that he was ready with a story to tell?
5 What was Nambi's method of telling the story?
6 Did his story-telling have any relationship with the moon?
7 What happened to Nambi suddenly?
8 Choose the answer that seems most appropriate:
Nambi's greatest story was
- the realisation that everything depended on the will of the goddess;
- that there was no oil in the lamp in the temple;
- that he had lost his powers and would not be able to tell stories anymore.
C The banyan tree has a place in Bengali culture too. Discuss in groups and list some of the activities that take place under a banyan tree.
D Now rewrite the story in brief in your own words for someone who has not read it.
Focus :
Skills.
Reading,
writing,
speaking.
Functions
Appreciating literary writing, narrating. Grammar/Structure.
Past tense for narrating events.
Vocabulary.
perpetual enchantment, nestling, niche, trailed, vague, epic, abruptly, babble,
mumbling, elevated plane