It all begins when Ranga, the accountant’s son comes back to his village Hosahalli after six months. He had gone to Bangalore to pursue his studies, which to mention, not many in the village get this opportunity. The whole village gets excited to see Ranga and thus, they gather around his home only to see how he would have changed.The narrator has beautifully elaborated about their village Hosahalli and how every authority responsible forgot to mention it in the maps. Moving on, he admires Ranga and wants to get him married but to his dismay, Ranga has very different views about marriage at that point. The Narrator stages the entire union of Ranga and Ratna, Rama Rao’s eleven-year-old niece.The girl has a very sweet voice and can play Veena and harmonium. At first, the narrator tells him that she is married to see how it affects Ranga. As expected, Ranga was disappointed. The narrator then manipulated the village Shastri to say things in his favor.He then took Ranga to visit him where he predicted that Ranga has a girl on his mind and her name resembles something found in the ocean. Shyama, the narrator guesses her name to be Ratna but again, she is married. On their way back, they confirmed that Ratna is not married only to find Ranga happy and full of hope.On the other hand, the Shastri disagreed on having staged anything predetermined. He claims to have said whatever his predictions showed. However, at the end, Ranga and Ratna are happily married with a three- year old son named after the narrator. Ratna is also pregnant with another child. To conclude, the narrator makes sure that he didn’t bore his readers.
Question 1.
Comment on the influence of English—the language and the way of life—on Indian life as reflected in the story. What is the narrator’s attitude to English ?
Answer:
The story reflects the old lifesytle of India when only a few people knew English. Those knew it never used its words while speaking Kannad. In those olden days, people were simple and did the same like of flock of sheep. The narrator was the true admirer of his village Hosahalli.
He was very cultured and caring but believed in respecting his own mother tongue. He used English when required only. He was also feeling delighted while narrating that no one could notice village people conversing in English in every street of Hosahalli during holidays.
Question 2.
Astrologers’ perceptions are based more on hearsay and conjecture than what they learn from the study of the stars. Comment with reference to the story.
Answer:
Most of the astrologers depend either on the basis of the hearsay or on basis of the information collected from their clientrThe innocent client feels that his astrologer is reading his stars but in fact the crooked fellow robs innocent faces. The same happens in the story when Shyam, the narrator tutors Shastri to vomit the mugged up facts in front of Rangappa that Ratna would be the only suitable match for him according to star cast. The poor Ranga listened to his heart and married Ratna because of the dramatic mockery played by Shyam and Shastri. He got so influenced that he named his son ‘Shyam’ after the narrator.
Question 3.
Indian society has moved a long way from the way the marriage is arranged in the story. Discuss.
Answer:
In today’s world each and every Indian is well-qualified and cultured. As knowledge is increasing same as expectations or vision is getting wider. This deep thought was there in narrator’s mind which gave origin to the story. Narrator has plotted the whole drama to make Ranga realize the marriageable age and how to choose the right partner. He knocked at Ranga’s heart and he welcomed Ratna in. If narrator had asked simply and proposed for Ratna, Ranga might have run away telling so many ifs and buts.
Question 4.
What kind of a person do you think the narrator is?
Answer:
The today’s self-centered fast world no one pains for others. But the narrator is a different man. He not only devotes his time but also selflessly plans for Ranga’s marriage. In fact he extends a mature and experienced help to tender heart and immature mind of Ranga in choosing a right life partner. As a reward of his selfless deed Ranga named his son Shyam after the narrator’s name.
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