About the Author:
Mulk Raj Anand (1905- 2004) was the prolific writer who earned great admiration for his short stories and novels like ‘Coolie’, ‘Untouchable’, ‘ The Village’, etc. Where he depicted the lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian society.
Mulk Raj Anand was born in Peshawar in 1905 and educated at the Universities of Punjab and London. After getting his Ph.D. in Philosophy in 1929, Anand began writing for T. S. Eliot’s magazine ‘Criterion’ as well as books on cooking and the arts. Recognition came his way with the publication of his first two novels, ‘Untouchable’ and ‘Coolie’ These were followed by a succession of novels including the well-known trilogy ‘The Village’ (1939), ‘Across the Black Waters‘ (1940), and ‘The Sword and the Sickle‘ (1942).
About the Text:
Mulk Raj Anand, the great Indian novelist writing in English, perfectly depicted the Indian society in his novels and short stories.
This text, an abridged version of a story of the same name, presents an apparently funny situation, where a businessman has his beloved cap seized y a monkey, and finally gets it back by offering the offending monkey a bunch of bananas. Though the tone of the story is lighthearted, the author notes with sad concern the unkind and unjust behavior of the businessman towards the poor fruit – vendor who had helped him to get back his cap.
Important suggestion (Questions and Answers):
1) Where did the young monkeys sit?
Ans- The young monkeys sat on the boughs of neem and tamarind trees.
2) Why, according to the fruit vendor, were the monkeys disturbing the passengers?
Ans- The monkeys were disturbing the passengers because they were hungry.
3) What did the monkey do to the cloth of the pious person?
Ans- While the person was bathing, the monkeys snatched it away.
4) Where was the narrator of the story going?
Ans- The narrator of the story was going from Faizabad to Lucknow.
5) What did Sethji’s luggage include?
Ans- Sethji’s luggage included a big steel trunk, several small baskets and a brass jug.
6) Where did the monkey go after taking away the cap?
Ans- After taking away the cap the monkey climbed up the neem tree.
7) How were several passengers busy in summer heat?
Ans- Several passengers were busy filling up their earthen pitchers from a water pump.
8) Why did vendor ask for the money?
Ans- The vendor asked for the money for the bananas.
9) How did Sethji try to justify his behavior to the fruit vendor?
Ans- One should not demand any money for an unsolicited help.
10) What was the businessman wearing?
Ans- The businessman was wearing a white muslin dhoti and a delicate tunic. He put on an embroidered cap on his head.
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11) What did the monkey do after accepting the fruit vendor’s bargain?
Ans- The monkey came down from the tree. He took the bananas with his right hand and released the embroidered cap with his left hand.
12) Why did the monkeys descend now and then on the platform?
Ans- The monkeys descended now and then to collect half-sucked mango stones and the remainders of food stuff from the platform.
13) What was the fruit vendor’s approach to recover the cap?
Ans- The fruit vendor tried to recover Sethji’s cap on exchange of two bananas. He stretched out his left hand for the cap, having bananas at the right.
14) What did the monkey do to the businessman?
All of the sudden, the monkey leapt down from the top of the compartment and snatched away the finely embroidered cap of the businessman.
15) How did the fruit vendor appeal when the train started to move?
Ans- The fruit vendor first ran along with the train. Then he got onto the footstep and clung to the window, praying continuously for the price.
16) Why did the monkey behave differently with the pious person and the businessman?
Ans- The pious man was good to the monkey. So, he responded to his request generously. The businessman threatened him. So, he went away further from him.
17) Why did every passenger have sympathy for the poor vendor?
Ans- In return to the help the fruit vendor volunteered, he was not given even the due price of bananas. So, every passenger was sympathetic to him.
18) Why did the fruit vendor get only one Anna as the price of bananas?
Ans- The miser and ungrateful businessman was reluctant to give any price for the bananas. However, passengers somehow compelled him to spend an Anna for that.
19) How did the monkey behave differently with three different persons?
Ans- The monkey granted the pious man’s request generously. He clinched a deal of exchange with the fruit vendor. He, however, responded negatively to the businessman’s threat.
20) Was Sethji justified in his behavior with the fruit vendor?
Ans- The fruit vendor recovered Sethji’s cap voluntarily. But Sethji was not ready to pay for the bananas given to the monkey. So, his behavior was unjustified.
21) How did the whole amusing episode end?
Ans- Sethji was unjustifiably hard to the generous-hearted fruit vendor. So, the whole amusing episode ended in a bitter sense of grievance against him.
22) When did the platform become silent and why?
Ans- The platform become silent when the vendor with a couple of bananas was trying to recover the embroidered cap of Sethji from the monkey.