81. Reading Skills Comprehension: A WRONG MAN IN WORKERS’ PARADISE

A WRONG MAN IN WORKERS’ PARADISE

The man had never believed in mere utility. Because of having no logical work he got engrossed in madly objects. He started to make little sculptures of castles, men as well as women. He Thus he wasted his time on all that was useless, needless. People laughed at him. He spent his earth life in useless work and yet after his death the gates of Heaven opened 5 wide for him and he was sent to Workers’ Paradise.

 But this newcomer did not fit in with the scheme of things in Workers’ Paradise. He lounged in the streets absently and jostled the hurrying men. He lay down in green meadows, or close to the fast-flowing streams.

A hustling girl went every day to a silent torrent (silent, since in the Workers’ Paradise 10 even a torrent would not waste its energy singing) to fill her pitcher. ‘Aha !’, she cried with concern. ‘You have no work in hand, have you ?’ The man sighed, ‘Work! I have not a moment to spare for work.’ The girl did not understand his words, and said, ‘I shall spare some work for you to do if you like.’ She further said, ‘What kind of work would you like ?’ ‘Will you give me one of your pitchers, one that you can spare ?’ She asked: ‘A pitcher? You want to draw water from the torrent ?”No, I shall draw pictures on your pitcher.’ The girl was annoyed. Pictures, indeed! I have no time to waste on such as you. I am going.’ And she walked away.

But every day they met, and every day he said to her the same thing.

She yielded at last. She gave him one of her pitchers. The man started painting. When he had completed his work the girl held up the pitcher and stared at its sides, her eyes puzzled. Brows drawn, she asked: ‘What do they mean, all those lines and colours? What is their purpose ?’ The man laughed. ‘Nothing. A picture may have no meaning and may serve no purpose.’

At home, away from prying eyes, she held it in the light, turned it round and round and scanned the painting from all angles. At night she lighted a lamp and scanned it again in silence. For the first time in her life, she had seen something that had no meaning and no purpose at all.

When she set out for the torrent the next day, her hurrying feet were a little less hurried than before. For a new sense seemed to have wakened in her, a sense that seemed to have no meaning and no purpose at all.

She saw the painter standing by the torrent and asked in confusion; ‘What do you want of me ?”Only some more work from your hands.”What kind of work would you like ?”Let me make a coloured ribbon for your hair,’ he answered. ‘And what for ?”Nothing’.

Ribbons were made, bright with colour. The busy girl of Workers’ Paradise had now to spend a lot of time every day tying the coloured ribbon around her hair. Much work was left unfinished.

In Workers’ Paradise work had of late begun to suffer. Many persons who had been active before were new idle, wasting their precious time on useless things such as painting and sculpture. The elders became anxious. A meeting was called. The aerial messenger also 40 hurried in, bowed before the elders and made a confession. ‘I brought a wrong man into this Paradise,’ he said. ‘It is all due to him’.

The man was summoned. Stiffly, the President said: ‘This is no place for the like of you. You must leave.’ The man sighed in relief and gathered up his brush and paint. But as he was about to go, 45 the girl of the silent torrent came up tripping and cried: ‘Wait a moment. I shall go with you.’                                                                         Rabindranath Tagore (adapted)

 

A.4.1 On the basis of your reading of the article, answer the following questions briefly

(a) Find one paragraph from the article which deals with the wrong man’s causing problems to the workers in the Paradise. Write the first three words of this paragraph.

(b) ‘He lounged in the streets …’ ‘He’ here stands for…

(c) ‘The girl was annoyed’. What was the reason for the girl’s annoyance?

 (d) The ‘Wrong’ Man took a pitcher of the girl for…

 (e) After going home, the girl looked at her pitcher with searching eyes and felt for the first time in her life that…

(f) Find a word from lines 20-30 which means ‘looked at carefully’.

 (g) The ‘wrong’ man was finally asked to leave Paradise because…

(h) I shall go with you’. Why did the girl go with him?

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