Character Sketch OF the Foreigner in the story Horse and two goats
ICSE class 10
Answers
Answer:
What ???............
Answer:
uestion 1.
What do you know about the village named Kritam and point out what the name means ?
Answer:
Kritam was a tiny village in the south of India. Though the village was small and consisted of less than thirty houses, it had a grand name “Kritam” which means “coronet” or “crown”. There was a Big House in the Tamil village which was made of brick and cement. It was gorgeously carved with figures of gods. The other houses were much smaller and were made of bamboo, straw and mud.
Question 2.
Comment on Muni’s occupation and his domestic situation.
Answer:
Muni is a shepherd who earns his daily bread by grazing goats or sheep. There was a time in his youth when he owned a flock of forty goats and sheep but now his stock has dwindled to two goats only. This change in his economic situation has been caused by famines in the past. The things are so bad now that Muni is under debt and the village shopkeeper refuses to lend him any more. His wife pesters him often to get essential items for the kitchen but he is too poor to get any. He asks his wife to take the drumsticks and sell them in the market place.
Question 3.
Bring out the humour and irony in the conversation between Muni and the shop man.
Answer:
The story “A Horse and Two Goats” by R.K. Narayan is replete with touches of humour. We are amused when Muni’s wife sneers at him by saying “You have only four teeth in your jaw, but your craving is for big things”. She sends Muni to fetch dhall, chilly, curry leaves, mustard, coriander, gingelley oil etc. knowing too well that he has no money in his pocket. The shop man pays no attention to him when he sits on an upturned packing case below the platform of the shop.
Question 4.
How does Muni feel after returning empty-handed from the village-shop ?
Answer:
The visit to the grocery fatigues Muni so much that he flings himself down in a corner after returning home. His wife also chides him : “Fast till the evening, it’ll do you good”. He understands that his wife is shattered with her poverty, though she is good-natured and caring about him. Her temper was undependable in the morning but improved by evening time. He knew that she would go out and work – grind corn in the Big House, sweep and scrub somewhere and earn enough to buy some food for the evening.
Question 5.
Describe the horse statue situated on the edge of the village. What is the part played by this statue in the story ?
Answer:
There was a huge horse-statue on the edge of the village. The pedestal of this statue was a resting place for Muni. Sitting on this pedestal for the major part of the day, Muni could enjoy the full view of the highway and see the lorries and buses pass through to the kills. It gave him a sense of belonging to a larger world. The horse was nearly life-size and it was moulded out of clay. There was a figure of a warrior beside the horse. This horse-statue plays a significant part in the story as it is unwittingly sold away to an Englishman who doesn’t understand the Tamil language spoken by Muni.
Question 6.
Comment on the communication gap between Muni and the red-faced foreigner bringing out the element of humour in the situation.
Answer:
Muni often sits at the foot of the horse- statue watching his goats and the passing vehicles. A yellow vehicle which looks like both a motor-car and a bus stops in front of him on this particular day. A red-faced foreigner gets down and looks around for help since he has run out of petrol. He approaches Muni and asks him if there is a gas-station (petrol pump) nearby. Suddenly his attention is caught by the horse- statue and he exclaims : “Marvellous”. The red faced man was wearing khaki clothes and this scares Muni because he could be a policeman or a soldier. He has an inner urge to run away but stays on. He curses his age since he can no longer put his limbs into action. Meanwhile, the foreigner comes closer to him and says “Namaste ! How do you do ?” Muni exhausts his English vocabulary saying “Yes, no,” in response. his claim.
Question 7.
What do you gather about the red-faced foreigner who meets Muni on the roadside ?
Answer:
The red-faced foreigner is an impressive character in the story “A Horse and Two Goats” written by R.K. Narayan. We come to know that this man has come from New York in America and is staying currently with his wife, Ruth, in a Srinagar hotel. Sick of the hot-summer in Connecticut, he suddenly made a plan to visit India and how he is just “doing the rounds”. After his vehicle breaks down on the way owing to shortage of petrol, he finds Muni to while away some time before he can get help from some other driver. He shows his friendliness to Muni by offering him a cigarette from his silver cigarette case. Since there is a language problem, he cannot understand whatever Muni says about his cattle and other things.