Question

There came to our town some years ago a showman owning an institution called the

Gaiety Land. Overnight, our Gymkhana Grounds became resplendent with banners 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

motorcyclists 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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 at

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!’

5. ‘Can’t I sell it to some municipality?’ I asked innocently. He burst into a laugh: As a

showman, I have had enough troubles with municipal people. I would rather keep out of My friends and well-wishers poured in to congratulate me on my latest acquisition. No

one knew precisely how much a road engine would fetch; all the same, they felt that there

was a lot of money in it. ‘Even if you sell it as scrap iron, you can make a few thousands,’

some of my friends declared. Every day I made a trip to the Gymkhana Grounds to have a

look at my engine. I grew very fond of it. I loved its shining brass parts. I stood near it

and patted it affectionately, hovered about it and returned home every day only at the

close of the show. I was a poor man. I thought that after all, my troubles were coming to

an end. But how ignorant we are ! How little did I guess that my troubles had just begun.

(a) Write notes on the contents of the passage, using recognizable abbreviations wherever

necessary. 5

(b) Write a brief summary of the passage. 3​

Answer 1

Answer:

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