A Horse And Two Goats

A Horse And Two Goats

R.K. Narayan

ASSIGNMENTS

Context Questions

I. (i) Something very small. Kritam, was probably the tiniest of the seven hundred thousand villages in India as it was a microscopic dot on the survey map.

(ii) A map gives the location of the village and the approach route to it. It serves as a guide for motorists — sources of revenue for revenue collectors — boundary of farms for farmers boundary of the village for administators.

(iii) Refer to Setting, on Page 60.

(iv) Kritam in Tamil meant "coronet" or "crown" on the brow of the Indian subcontinent. Muni lived in the last house in the fourth street in the village, beyond which stretched the fields.

(v) The Big House, unlike other houses was built with brickand cement. It was painted yellow and blue all over with carvings of

gods. The others houses were of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other unspecified materials. The theme of Wealth and Poverty is reflected by the grandeur of the Big House versus the poor unkempt state of the other houses.

II. (i) He would take his sheep and goats everyday to the highway to graze around. He carried a crook at the end of a bamboo pole to collect foliage from the avenue trees to feed his flock.

(ii) In his prosperous days Muni had owned a flock of forty sheep and goats. Gradually, Muni's fortunes declined and his flock of forty was reduced to only two goats.

(iii) Muni's wife would give him salted millet flour in boiled water for breakfast. For midday meal, she would give him the same millet cooked into a little ball, which he could swallow with a raw onion. This shows their poverty as they could not afford anything else.

(iv) This was done so that his two goats could graze only within a set radius and not wander off and get lost. Although no one could say precisely -who owned the tree, the only claim Muni had was that he lived in its shadow.

(v) Refer to Muni, under Characterisation, Page 56 and Wealth and Poverty, under Themes, Page 59.

III. (i) He was tired of eating drumstick leaves alone. He wanted to relish drumstick with sauce for a change.

(ii) His wife agreed thinking that next year, Muni might not be alive to ask for anything. She asked him to bring a few food items including a measure of rice or millet.

(iii) To attract the attention of the shopkeeper, Muni kept clearing his throat, coughing and sneezing. Muni, responded appropriately at the shop man's jokes. This helped him win the shop man over.

(iv) Muni would go and sit outside the shop. He would make polite sounds by cleaning his throat, coughing and sneezing until he caught the attention of the shop man. He would humour the shop man by appropriately responding to his jokes and then request the food items he needed.

(v) Refer to Wealth and Poverty under Themes, Page 59 and Muni, under Characterisation, Page 56.

IV. (i)Muni had been in the habit of coming to the shop, humouring the shopman and requesting for one or two items of food with the promise of repaying later. This time the shop man was not in a good mood so he lost his temper at Muni for daring to ask for credit.

(ii) Muni said that his daughter would be sending him money soon for his fiftieth birthday. Muni was telling lies. He had no children.

(iii) According to Muni, he was fifty year old. He calculated his age from the "time of great famine" when he was as tall as the parapet around the village well.

(iv) According to the shop man, Muni was seventy years old. Muni might have been be referring to himself as fifty years old, since past few years.

(v) In this extract Muni exhibits his quick wit to come up with convincing lies. Though a liar, he is harmless. His quick wit is shown when:

(1) the shop keeper asks for money to clear his debt and he replies he'd clear his dues on the first of the next month;

(2) after this extract he says his daughter would send him money. He has an answer to all the shopkeeper's questions.

V. (i) The shop man is referred to as scoundrel. Muni was annoyed because the shop man mocked at his habit of mentioning his birthday time and again to procure things on credit.

(ii) Muni didn't argue because he knew that if he obeyed his wife she would somehow conjure up some food for him in the evening. Muni trusted her as far as his welfare was concerned. He knew by taking up occasional jobs in the Big House, she would earn some money to keep dinner ready for him in the evening.

(iii) She would go out and work — grind corn in the Big House, sweep or scrub somewhere, to earn enough money to buy foodstuff.

(iv) When Muni was passing through the village, he avoided looking at anyone. He even ignored the call of his friends. He was ashamed of his poverty and childlessness.

(v) Refer to Muni's Wife under Characterisation, Page 58.

VI. (i) The statue referred to is that of a horse. The statue was life-sized made of burnt brightly coloured clay. It stood with is head held high and its forelegs in the air.

(ii) The statue of the warrior beside that of the horse is depicted as a man of strength through his description as a warrior with "scythe-like mustachios, bulging eyes, and aquiline nose."

(iii) Nobody from the village noticed its existence. Even Muni, who spent all his day at the foot of the statue, never bothered to look up and notice the splendour of the statue.

(iv) Muni didn't go back home early because he wanted to give his wife time to cool off her temper and feel sympathetic enough to arrange some food for him.

(v) Refer to Wealth and Poverty and Materialism versus Spiritualism, under Themes, Page 57-58.

VII. (i) The red faced foreigner entered the story in a strange yellow vehicle. He stopped it, got down and went around it, poked under the vehicle because his car ran out to gas.

(ii) The foreigner was an American businessman. He looked up the at the clay _horse and cried, "Marvellous".

(iii) As soon as Muni met the foreigner his first impulse was to run away but his age did not allow him. He assumed the foreigner to be a policeman or a soldier enquiring about a rumoured murder.

(iv) The foreigner was wearing khaki clothes. It made Muni think that he was a policeman or a soldier. To put Muni at ease, the other man pressed his palms together, smiled, and said, "Namaste!"

(v) Muni said that his name was Muni and the goats belonged to him. The village was full of slanderers who would claim what was not theirs. Refer to Language Barriers under Critical Appreciation, Page 62.

VIII (i) The foreigner was a tourist in India. He was a rich American businessman who dealt in coffee.

(ii) The foreigner's polite behaviour on meeting Muni for the first time. As a courtesy he offered Muni a cigarette. Muni, being a Tamil speaking man could not understand the foreigner, and used the only English words he knew, i.e., "yes, no".

(iii) Muni remembered the cigarette the shop man had given him on credit. He recalled how good it had tasted. When the foreigner flicked the light open Muni was confused about how to act so he blew on the light and put it out.

(iv) Muni started coughing. It pained him but it felt extremely pleasant. The strong American cigarette made Muni's head reel.

(v) Muni feared that the business card was an arrest warrant and he moved back. It shows Muni's ignorance. Muni is a poor illiterate villager who distrusts anyone in a semblence of a uniform.

IX. (i) The foreigner was wearing khakis which is the colour of a policeman's uniform. Muni mistook the foreigner for a policeman. He was too old to outrun the foreigner so he spoke in a fearful tone to talk his way out of trouble.

(ii) A mutilated dead body had been found thrown under a tamarind tree at the border between Kritam and Kuppan a few weeks ago. Muni is a theist who believed that "Bhagwan is all seeing" so "Bhagwan" alone would know about the murder. Muni feared that the khaki-clad foreigner was a policeman enquiring about the murder.

(iii) Muni mistook the foreigner's khaki dress and thought the foreigner to be a policeman. It shows Muni's ignorance about the world outside his remote village.

(iv) Refer to The Title, Page 56.

(v) Refer to Clash of Cultures, under Themes, Page 58.

X. (i) The foreigner said that Tamil to him "sounds wonderful" and he got a kick out of every word Muni uttered. The foreigner assumed Muni to be engaging in sales talk and told him that he already appreciated the article and could given a better sales talk.

(ii) Pongal is a four-day harvest festival celebrated in Tamil Nadu. During Pongal Muni and father would cut the harvest. Muni would then go out and play with others at the tank.

(iii) Refer to Knowledge and Ignorance under Themes, Page 59.

(iv) Muni realised that for a continuous supply of cigarettes he needed to humour the foreigner. He began a monologue about the horse being mythological

(v) Refer to Muni's wife under Characterisation, Page 58.

Child marriage was prevalent, as in the case of Muni and his wife. Women were honoured as seen as nuturers but they needed a man to support them. Muni knew his wife would garner the raw materials and prepare his drumstick gravy. He was worried what would happen to her after his death.

XI. (1) Refer to IX, (ii) and (iii).

(ii) Refer to Notes, Page 64. At the end of Kali Yuga, this world and all other worlds will be destroyed, and the Redeemer will come in the shape of a horse called Kalki and save all good people while evil ones will perish.

(iii) Refer to Language Barrier, under Critical Appreciation, Page 62.

(iv) The living room of the foreigner has a large bookcase filled with volumes of books. There are books piled up too.

(v) Muni describes the horse as mythological `Kalki' who would save all the good people and trample upon the evil ones. The foreigner assures Muni that he would keep the statue with utmost care in his living room in his house in the USA.

XII. (i) The foreigner. Muni was reflecting on the end of the world and asked the foreigner if he had any idea when Kali Yuga would end.

(ii) Muni had heard from passers-by that there were Jkapi-hotels' opened at the Friday Markets in the next town along the highway. Muni only recognised the word "coffee" in the foreigner's conversation. He thought that the foreigner wanted to drink coffee.

(iii) At the end of the world the Redeemer would come on the horse statue which would grow bigger and be called Kalki. There would be floods in which Kalki would carry good people to safety and the evil would perish.

(iv) The foreigner claimed that he was a modest businessman dealing in coffee. However he bragged about having the best home. He was a shrewd businessman — he realised he had bragged too much about his house. He took out a hundred rupee note and started bargaining over the price of the statue.

(v) The foreigner planned to cancel his air ticket and travel by ship with the horse in his cabin. He intends to keep the horse in his living room in his house in the USA.

XIII. (i) Muni was asking the red man about his children, if any. The red man did not understand Muni. He assumed that Muni was speaking about the statue, so he offered him hundred rupees for it. The humour here arises out of each ones inability to understand the other. They seemed to be conversing, but in reality, they are talking about entirely unrelated subjects.