6. 'If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.' Elucidate
this statement within 120 words with reference to the characters of Ranga from the
story, 'Ranga's Marriage and the narrator of the story, 'The Address'. Explain the
situations which brought about a change in their perspective.
(4)
Answers
Explanation:
Ranga’s Marriage- Introduction to the lesson
The story revolves around Ranga, the accountant’s son who got the opportunity to go out of the village to study. The narrator takes you through a journey where he changes Ranga’s perception about marriage, how he staged their union with the help of a Shastri and what role English has played in their village. The entire story involves funny instances and references for the narrator has made sure your mind stays occupied with the story.
Ranga’s Marriage- Summary
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 favour. 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.
Ranga’s Marriage- Lesson and Explanation
Ranga, the accountant’s son, is one of the rare breed among the village folk who has been to the city to pursue his studies. When he returns to his village from the city of Bangalore, the crowds mill around his house to see whether he has changed or not. His ideas about marriage are now quite different—or are they?
Rare breed- a person or thing with characteristics that are uncommon among their kind; a rarity
The lesson revolves around Ranga, the village accountant’s son who had just come back from Bangalore. At the news of his arrival, the villagers gather at his home to analyse if he had changed or not and what is his perception about marriage. Everyone was so excited because during those days, not everyone used to get a chance to go to cities for studying.
WHEN you see this title, some of you may ask, “Ranga’s Marriage?” Why not “Ranganatha Vivaha” or “Ranganatha Vijaya?” Well, yes. I know I could have used some other mouth-filling one like “Jagannatha Vijaya” or “Girija Kalyana.” But then, this is not about Jagannatha’s victory or Girija’s wedding. It’s about our own Ranga’s marriage and hence no fancy title. Hosahalli is our village. You must have heard of it. No? What a pity! But it is not your fault. There is no mention of it in any geography book. Those sahibs in England, writing in English, probably do not know that such a place exists, and so make no mention of it. Our own people too forget about it. You know how it is —they are like a flock of sheep. One sheep walks into a pit, the rest blindly follow it. When both, the sahibs in England and our own geographers, have not referred to it, you can not expect the poor cartographer to remember to put it on the map, can you? And so there is not even the shadow of our village on any map