Summary of lawley road by rk narayan
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The Talkative Man often reported the affairs of the Municipality in good light. He was a favourite of the Chairman and often went to see him.
About a week after the celebration of Independence Day, the Chairman was not happy. He wanted to do something more sensational and more patriotic. So he called a meeting of the Council and proposed to nationalise the names of streets, parks and localities. A few names like Mahatma Gandhi Road, Nehru Road and Netaji Subhash Bose Road were in great demand. The Councillors fellout for them. The result was that more than one street got the same name. This caused a lot of confusion. Letters often went to wrong places.
The Chairman was inspired to do something yet more grand. There was a statue of Sir Frederick Lawley in the Lawley Extension. The Extension was now called Gandhi Nagar. It was odd that it should continue to have Lawley's statue there. So the Council resolved to remove it from there.
But it was not an easy affair to remove it. The statue was about twenty feet high. It stood firmly on a solid pedestal of molten lead.
Tenders to remove it were invited. The lowest quotation stood at fifty thousand rupees. Municipality could not afford it.
So they offered it free to the Talkative Man provided he removed it at his own cost. The talkative man was happy. He hoped to make a good profit out of it. The statue weighed about three tons of metal. He hoped he could sell the metal and recover more than his cost. He hired men to hack it and coolies and bullock carts to cart it away. But the statue was too firm. So the talkative man had it blasted off its foundation. With a great difficulty he had it carted to his house in Kabir Street. He sent a long report about the removal of the statue to his paper.
Soon it was discovered that there had been a mistake of identity of Sir Frederick Lawley. Of course there had been a Sir Lawley during the time of Lord Warren Hastings. He was a cruel and ruthless tyrant. He had suppressed the people. But this Lawley, whose statue had been removed, had been a kind man. He was a friend of people. He had helped the people of Malgudi in many ways.
The Public was angry. They picketed the house of the talkative man where the statue lay supine. They demanded the statue back. They wanted to restore it to its original place.
The talkative man was not willing to part with the statue. He wanted the Municipality to pay him the money he had spent on bringing it to his house. A litigation started between the talkative man and the Municipal lawyer. The talkative man wanted to get rid of the statue in a respectable settlement.The government asked the Municipality about the statue. It was feared that the Municipal Council would be dissolved and fresh elections would be held.
The talkative man was able to persuade the Chairman to buy the statue along with his house to convert it into a National Trust. The Chairman found it cheaper to buy the place than to contest a fresh election. He agreed to buy the house and turn it into a public park. He promised to call Kabir Street as Lawley Road. In this way the talkative man got rid of the statue and the Chairman was able to protect his position.
Hope it helps! ^^
Suddenly, on the day of India’s independence, the Municipal Council was inspired to do something special. They cleaned up the town and hoisted flags all over. But the Chairman of the Municipal Council was not satisfied.
He wanted to do something grand to mark the occasion. So he and his council decided to nationalize the names of all the streets and parks. Along with these, the council also decided to remove the statue of Sir Frederick Lawley that stood on Lawley Road as they had changed the name of Lawley Road to Gandhi Nagar. They further discovered that Sir Frederick Lawley had been a cruel despot who had ill-treated Indians.
The statue of Sir Frederick Lawley was more than 20 feet tall and made of lead. It was not an easy task to remove it. But the Chairman and the council were determined to remove it. Since the contractors were demanding a lot of money to remove the statue, the Municipal Council offered the statue to the narrator if he agreed to remove it for free. The narrator took up the job considering it a good investment. He hired strong men from Koppal and set to work removing the statue. After many days, he had to finally use dynamite to blast the statue and remove it. He then carted it off to his house in Kabir Lane in order to sell the metal and make a profit.
Unfortunately, a week later, the Chairman received information from various historical societies that Sir Frederick Lawley had in fact been a very good man who had helped Indians, especially the people of Malgudi, in many ways. The government wanted him to reinstate the statue. But the narrator having spent a lot of money on removing the statue, refused to part with it. A lot of legal wrangling took place between him and the Municipal Council, but the statue remained in the narrator’s house for six months.
Then the Government conducted an enquiry into the issue and decided to dissolve the council and have re-elections. The narrator came up with an idea on how the Chairman could avoid having to fight another election. He suggested that the Chairman do something grand like acquiring the narrator’s house in Kabir Lane as a National Trust. He was willing to part with his house for a reasonable price. Since the statue of Sir Frederick Lawley was already in the house, it would be easier to just install it there, instead of taking it back to its original place. The Chairman liked the idea, and a few days later, the Municipal Council decided to rename Kabir Lane as Lawley Road.
The story thus is a satire on the completely illogical way in which our political leaders go about their business, especially the random naming and renaming of places.
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