how did the people behave when they got to know that the speaker had won a road engine?
*from chapter- engine trouble....class 8
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Have you ever won a prize that has put you into trouble rather than making you happy?
Consider how you would react in such a situation and initiate a group discussion.
THERE came down to our town some years ago (said the Talkative Man) a showman owning an
institution called the Gaiety Land. Overnight our Gymkhana Grounds became resplendent
withbanners and streamers and coloured lamps. From all over the district crowds poured into the
show.Within a week of opening, in gate money alone they collected nearly five hundred rupees a
day. Gaiety Land provided us with all sorts of fun and gambling and side-shows. For a couple of
annas in each booth we could watch anything from performing parrots to crack motor cyclists
looping the loop in the Dome of Death. In addition to this there were lotteries and shooting
galleries where for an anna you always stood a chance of winning a hundred rupees.
There was a particular corner of the show which was in great favour. Here for a ticket costing
eight annas you stood a chance of acquiring a variety of articles pincushions, sewing machines,
cameras or even a road engine. On one evening they drew a ticket number 1005, and I happened
to own the other half of the ticket. Glancing down the list of articles they declared that I became
the owner of the road engine ! Don't ask me how a road engine came to be included among the
prizes. It is more than I can tell you I looked stunned. People gathered around and gazed at me as
if I were some curious animal. Fancy anyone becoming the owner of a road engine! " some
persons muttered and giggled.
It was not the sort of prize one could carry home at short notice. I asked the showman if he
would help me to transport it. He merely pointed at a notice which decreed that all winners
should remove the prizes immediately on drawing and by their own effort. However they had to
make an exception in my case. They agreed to keep the engine on the Gymkhana Grounds till the
end of their season and then I would have to make my own arrangements to take it out. When I
asked the showman if he could find me a driver he just smiled : " The fellow who brought it here
had to be paid a hundred rupees for the job and five rupees a day. I sent him away and made up
my mind that if no one was going to draw it, I would just leave it to its fate. I got it down just as
a novelty for the show. God ! What a bother it has proved!"