The Adventures of Toto | Summary
The author’s grandfather was a great lover of animals. He had made a zoo at home in which he would keep animals and gave them a lot of care. In his zoo, one could see a tortoise, a pair of rabbits, a tame squirrel and pet goats. One day he saw a pretty monkey. The monkey was a pet animal of a tonga driver. The tonga driver used to keep the red monkey tied with the feeding trough but it looked extremely tragic there. When the grandfather saw the monkey, he was so fascinated that he purchased the monkey from the tonga driver for a total of five rupees.
The Adventures of Toto
The Adventures of Toto
However, Toto’ a presence was not revealed at home because the grandmother disliked the new arrival of animals at home. Toto was extremely insidious and destructive. When the writer and his grandfather concealed Toto in a pantry and fixing him to a peg, he broke the peg, tore wallpapers and author’s blazer and caused ruin in the room. The following day, when he was kept in the servant’s room with different other animals, he didn’t give them a chance to rest throughout the night. In this way, he never let other animals live in harmony with the other pets. He proved to be an expensive deal.
One day the grandfather had to go to Saharanpur for work, he chose to take the monkey along with him. He conveyed Toto in a solid sack made of canvas and shut the zip pleasantly so that Toto couldn’t get away. Toto made unsuccessful attempts to escape the sack, which made the sack back bounce and roll. This excited the interest of individual travellers at the railway station. At the Saharanpur railway station when grandfather was getting his ticket checked, Toto looked out of the sack and grinned at the ticket collector. As the ticket collector proclaimed that it was a dog, grandfather needed to purchase a fare ticket for 3 rupees for him.
Answers
Answer:
This is a humorous and adventurous story of a naughty monkey named ‘Toto’. The writer’s grandfather bought the monkey from a tonga driver. The pranks played by Toto have been narrated in an interesting way and make the story a must read for us.
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Lesson and Explanation
GRANDFATHER bought Toto from a tonga-driver for the sum of five rupees. The tonga-driver used to keep the little red monkey tied to a feeding-trough, and the monkey looked so out of place there that Grandfather decided he would add the little fellow to his private zoo.
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Feeding-trough: a large container for feeding animals
Tonga: horse cart
The writer’s grandfather purchased a monkey named Toto from a tonga driver by paying five rupees to him. The tonga driver had tied the little red - coloured monkey to a feeding trough, so that he could not run away. When the writer’s grandfather saw the monkey, he had a desire to add him to the collection of animals which he had in his zoo at home.
Toto was a pretty monkey. His bright eyes sparkled with mischief beneath deep-set eyebrows, and his teeth, which were a pearly white, were very often displayed in a smile that frightened the life out of elderly Anglo-lndian ladies. But his hands looked dried-up as though they had been pickled in the sun for many years. Yet his fingers were quick and wicked; and his tail, while adding to his good looks (Grandfather believed a tail would add to anyone’s good looks), also served as a third hand. He could use it to hang from a branch; and it was capable of scooping up any delicacy that might be out of reach of his hands.
Anglo-lndian: a person relating to both britain and india
Pickled: food that is preserved in vinegar
scooping up: lifting
The writer gives a description of Toto. He had bright, shiny eyes which were full of mischief. The eyebrows were deeply set on his face. His teeth were like pearls. Many ladies belonging to the Anglo - Indian community got scared when they saw his teeth which were displayed when he smiled. Toto’s hands were dry and wrinkled as if they had been dried in the sun like pickled vegetables. He had a long tail. The writer’s grandfather thought that the tail added to the good looks of an animal. Toto’s tail was like a third hand for him. It helped him hang from the branch of a tree. He also used it to lift objects which were beyond his hand’s reach.
Grandmother always fussed when Grandfather brought home some new bird or animal. So it was decided that Toto’s presence should be kept a secret from her until she was in a particularly good mood. Grandfather and I put him away in a little closet opening into my bedroom wall, where he was tied securely — or so we thought — to a peg fastened into the wall.
Peg: a hook
The writer’s grandmother was against the grandfather's attitude of bringing new pets - birds and animals. So, the grandfather thought that they would conceal this fact from her until she was in a good mood. At that time, they would disclose this to her. The writer and his grandfather secured Toto in a little cupboard in the writer’s room. In order to be sure that Toto did not escape, they tied him to a hook in the wall.
A few hours later, when Grandfather and I came back to release Toto, we found that the walls, which had been covered with some ornamental paper chosen by Grandfather, now stood out as naked brick and plaster. The peg in the wall had been
wrenched from its socket, and my school blazer, which had been hanging there, was in shreds. I wondered what Grandmother would say. But Grandfather didn’t worry; he seemed pleased with Toto’s performance.