17. Explanation of the lesson "Iswaran the Storyteller"

 

The supervisors got posted at different construction sites like factories, bridges, and dams, and Mahendra was one among them. Mahendra’s job was to keep an eye on the workers whether they were doing their work or not. As Mahendra was a site engineer, he had to change his workplaces often because he had to work at various locations as per the instructions from his head office.

 

 

At first, Mahendra worked in a coal mining area; then, he shifted his work spot to a railway construction site. Later he was scheduled to work in a chemical plant construction site which was coming up somewhere.

As Mahendra was unmarried, he was able to live in the temporary quarters provided at the construction sites. Mahendra had to stay in an ill-equipped circuit house or sometimes he had to stay in his construction site by making a portable tent. Mahendra, a humble man, adjusted well in all these circumstances and lived without any hesitation. It shows how simple Mahendra was.

 

 

Mahendra's biggest advantage was that he was always accompanied by his cook Iswaran. Iswaran was not only his cook, but he was also a good caretaker. He was Mahendra's best companion and was very important to Mahendra. Iswaran was very close to Mahendra and accompanied him everywhere. Iswaran did not complain to Mahendra about the tough conditions in which he had to live. Iswaran cooked food for him, washed his clothes, and gave him company by talking to him at night. Iswaran had an extraordinary talent: he was good at telling stories. He entertained Mahindra with his stories based on different themes. Iswaran narrated stories with lots of expression and gestures. As a result, the incident would appear in front of the eyes of Mahendra while Iswaran narrated it.

  

Iswaran was not only a good storyteller, but he was also a great cook. Mahendra was always surprised by Iswaran's capacity to cook delicious food using fresh ingredients, especially within an hour of their arrival at their new accommodation. They lived in areas where they could not find any house and people, and they stayed under temporary shelters made of roofs with zinc sheets. As they lived in the middle of a desolate landscape, there would not be any shops nearby. Iswaran would have to walk a longer distance to find a grocery or vegetable shop. Here, Mahendra describes the talent of Iswaran as he would get the fresh vegetables and ingredients needed for cooking from the desolate landscape, prepare delicious food, and everything within an hour's time. Cooking was an art, and Iswaran was good at that.

 

Mahendra would wake up early in the morning, get ready and leave for work after eating his breakfast. Also, he would carry his lunch along with him. After he left, Iswaran would clean their living place, wash Mahendra’s clothes and have a nice bath. He would pour several buckets of water over his head, and he would always mutter a prayer. Later, he would eat his lunch. After lunch, he had a habit of reading books. Iswaran was interested in reading Tamil thriller books, and the book would contain a lot of pages. While reading the story, Iswaran would go deeper into the narrative style and descriptions given in the book. He feels very excited to read the thrilling stories. After reading the book, he would take a nap.

 

Later, the elephant reached the outer boundary of their town, and it broke the fences like matchsticks. Here, Iswaran portrays how the walls were broken like matchsticks. Then, the elephant reached the main road and broke all the stalls selling different things like fruits, mud pots and clothes. The people ran here and there with great fear and confusion. After that, it broke the walls of a school and entered the ground.

 

 

When the elephant entered the school, the children were playing in the playground. On seeing the elephant, all the boys ran back into their classrooms and closed the doors tightly. At that moment, the elephant screamed and roamed around the school ground. As the elephant lost its control, it started to break things.

 

At first, the elephant broke the goal post on the football ground, then it tore the net that had been put up in the volleyball court, and later, it kicked out the water drum and broke it. Moreover, the elephant pulled out many plants with its trunk. Due to fear, the teachers ran to the roof of the school building and watched helplessly as the elephant destroyed the school property. They were eagerly waiting for someone to save them. But there was not even a single person to be seen around the school. All the streets of the town seemed empty. People were scared of the mad elephant, and so they were inside their home. The roads looked vacant as if there were no human inhabitants in the town.

 

 

 

The elephant again lifted its trunk and made a loud noise. Within a moment, Iswaran moved forward, gathered all his force, and quickly hit the elephant’s third toenail. The elephant stood stunned for a moment, and it was not sure what happened. Then, the elephant shivered from head to foot, and it fell on the ground and became unconscious.

 

While narrating the story of the wild elephant to Mahendra, Iswaran left the story without finishing it. Iswaran in a soft voice said that he would return after lighting the gas stove because he wanted to warm the dinner.  Mahendra was very curious to know what happened next, but he felt disappointed that Iswaran had left the story unfinished. When he returned after warming the food, he did not continue with the same incident, as he wanted to create curiosity in Mahendra. Mahendra was eager to know how the story ended, but Iswaran wanted Mahendra to remind him to conclude the story. It shows that Iswaran wanted to know how curious was his master in listening to his stories.

When Mahendra reminded him about the same story, Iswaran said casually that a veterinary doctor was called to treat the elephant. The veterinary doctor brought the elephant back to consciousness. After two days, the mahout took the elephant back to the jungle.

 

 
After hearing his exciting story, Mahendran had a few doubts in his mind. So he asked him how the young Iswaran managed to overpower the vast elephant and the method he followed to bring down the beast.

At that moment, Iswaran said that he probably performed Japanese martial art. He said it was called Karate or ju-jitsu. Iswaran added that he had read about it somewhere in a book. It was mentioned that a technique from the martial art would make a person unconscious and it could paralyse their body. At last, he said that he followed the same principle on the elephant and made it unconscious.

 

 

Iswaran continued his story. He stated that sometimes he saw ghosts at night, but he wasn't scared of them because he was a brave man. On the other hand, during the full-moon nights, he often saw a horrible ghost. It was a ugly female ghost with rough and unkempt hair, and a bony, wrinkled face. The ghost looked like a skeleton holding an unborn baby in its hands.

 

Iswaran saw a female ghost

After hearing the frightful description, Mahendra became nervous, and he started to interrupt Iswaran from talking about the ghost. Mahendra was angry, and he scolded him and said that Iswaran had gone mad. Mahendra contradicted by telling that the creatures, like ghosts or spirits, did not exist in this world. He added that it was all about Iswaran’s imagination. Mahendra thought that it was all because of reading horror books. Mahendra asked, "Iswaran to get himself checked up with a doctor". He used the statement figuratively to suggest that Iswaran has gone mad as he was talking about ghosts in the middle of the night. In addition, Mahendra also asked him to test his digestive system. The reason behind the statement to get his digestive system examined was because people tend to lose sleep if there was some problem with digestion. So, that would lead people to imagine things that are not real.

Later, Mahendra left the room and went to bed. While thinking about Iswaran, Mahendra had expected that Iswaran would remain quiet for a few days because Mahendra had scolded him. But the following day, Mahendra was surprised to see a cheerful Iswaran, and he spoke to him in a casual way. It shows Iswaran had forgotten what happened in the previous night, and he was speaking to his master in a relaxed manner.

 

 
Even though Mahendra bravely spoke about the lack of existence of ghost or spirit in the world, Iswaran's ghost story lingered in his mind. So every night before going to sleep, Mahendra would look out of the window next to his bed to confirm that there was no ghost or movement of any dark shades. But instead of ghosts, Mahendra saw only the dark landscape with the twinkling lights of the factory, which was shining miles away from the living place.

Mahendra was a nature lover, and he liked to see the white coloured landscape during full-moon nights. So during full-moon nights, its brightness hits the landscape, and seemed to be milk-white colour. However, after hearing the story of a ghost woman, Mahendra stopped enjoying the full-moon night and its beauty. So whenever it was a full-moon night, he would remember Iswaran's ghost story.

 

Mahendra got scared whenever he thought about the ghost story. Then, one night while Mahendra was in his deep sleep, he was awakened by the sound of someone crying. He thought that it could be the sound of a cat because the cats tend to roam here and there in search of mice during nighttime. So he tried convincing himself that it was nothing and tried to get back to sleep.

 

Again Mahendra heard the same sound, and it became harsher and seemed to be horrible. Mahendra wanted to look out of the window, but he had stopped himself because he was worried that he might see something terrible that could stop his heart. Later, as time passed, the crying sound became louder, and he concluded that it was not the sound made by a cat.

 

Even though Mahendra was in great fear, he could not stop himself from knowing what was happening around him. So he lowered his head nearby the window to see whether anything was there. In the moonlight, Mahendra saw something that seemed to be in the form of a dark cloud. The dark cloud seemed like a ghost holding a bundle in its arms.

 

 
Mahendra panicked after seeing the figure, and his face was filled with sweat because of anxiety. He started breathing heavily and fell back on the bed. After some time, Mahendra slowly recovered from the scary experience and told himself that his thoughts were the reason behind everything. Mahendra assumed that he had been thinking about the ghost throughout the night and that's why the thoughts in his mind had appeared in front of him like a ghost.