A Horse And Two Goats - Workbook/Textbook Solutions of Treasure Trove of Short Stories and Poems ICSE - Evergreen Publication
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Extract I
(i) Muni refers to his visit to the shopkeeper, where the shopkeeper insulted him of his age, and his inability to pay off the many debts of the shopkeeper.
(ii) Muni's wife tells him so, because she is frustrated, and angry at him for not being able to get the ingredients, she asked him prepare his food. So, as a punishment for his husband, she asked him to fast till the evening.
(iii) Muni's wife is upset, and angry because Muni is unable to get the ingredients, from the shopkeeper, required to prepare the supper, for both of them, and thus, told him to fast, and go away with the goats.
(iv) She asked him so, because if he went out until the sunset, then she would have enough time to gather some foodstuff, to keep a dinner ready for him, in the evening.
(v) She planned to earn enough to buy for the evening meal, by ordering her husband to go out, and not return till sunset, and by working, and gathering food by herself.
Extract II
(i) Muni uttered weird cries from time to time, in order to urge the goats to move on. He did not wanted to talk to anybody because he thought that he might had taken money from the strangers, and they might ask him to pay his debt, as he was not sure about from whom he had taken money from, he decided to ignore all the people that passed by him. Another reason is that they might mock him.
(ii) He ignored his cronies, because he thought, that he might be under their debt, or they might mock him of his misery. His days of affluence was when he lorded over a flock of fleecy sheep.
(iii) The wealth lies in the sheep, as they can be sold for a good amount of money, plus, their wool can also be a good source of money as well.
(iv) The butcher bought Muni, on the weekly market days some foodstuff, and some ingredients for the preparation of his dinner at night, for Muni, and his wife.
(v) Muni lost several cattle under unknown circumstances. He lost them very quickly. As of now, he has now came down to only two goats, which were tethered to the trunk of a drumstick tree.
Extract III
(i) The advantage of this was that he could watch the highway, and see the lorries, and buses that passed through to the hills, and it gave him a sense of belonging to a larger world.
(ii) The horse was nearly life-size, moulded out of clay, baked, burnt, and brightly coloured, and reared its head proudly, prancing its foreleg in the air, and flourishing its tail in a loop.
(iii) The old image makers believed in indicating a man of strength, by bulging the eyes of the statue of the warrior beside the horse, and sharpening his moustache tips, like scythe.
(iv) The splendour of the house was that it was life-size. The people did not recognize it because no one even remembered its presence over there, as all of them were busy with their own work when they passed by the statue.
(v) The young village lads damaged the things near the statue by gashing tree trunks with knives, and tried to topple off milestones, and inscribed lewd designs on all walls.
Extract IV
(i) The deep puff from the American cigarette made Muni cough, as it was racking, but was pleased at the same time. The American cigarettes were made with roasted tobacco.
(ii) Muni thought that the card, given to him by the American, was some sort of arrest warrant, and thus, he shrank away from the card, and did not accepted it.
(iii) Muni wanted to beware of khaki, because every common person of that village, feared the police as they thought that the police visited a person, only to arrest them for their certain crimes.
(iv) Muni thought that the American was police, and was there to arrest him of the murder, he had not committed. In order to ward off the trouble, he gave an excuse, in a very fearful voice.
(v) Muni told the American businessman, to prove himself innocent, that he knew nothing about the murder, and whoever did it, will be caught by the villagers, and will be buried under the sand with his/her head out, until the police gets him.
Extract V
(i) Muni refers to the body that was found mutilated, and thrown under a tamarind tree at the border between Kritam, and Kuppam. He is afraid because he fears that the American thinks he is the murderer.
(ii) The foreigner nodded his head, because he thought that Muni was describing the beauty of the horse statue. The foreigner asked Muni that when the horse was made?
(iii) Muni promised that the villagers will catch the true murderer, and not let him go, until the police takes him into custody. Muni tells that his village has a clean record against crime.
(iv) Muni, and the American businessman are so, because of their different spoken language. They continue to converse, because each one thinks that the other one is talking about the subject, he is interested in.
(v) The American told about the difficulty of working in the hottest month of August, in his office, dressed in shirt-sleeves. He says, that they also had a power failure one day, and that he was stuck for four hours in his office.
Extract VI
(i) Muni understood that the foreigner was making reference to the horse, as he made his hands point at the direction of the horse, when Muni decided to go home.
(ii) The American businessman concluded that Muni was the owner of the statue of the horse statue, since he found Muni sitting on the foot of the statue, and was confused.
(iii) Muni finally understood that the foreigner was talking about the horse, when the American pointed his hands at the direction of the horse statue, and started talking about the statue, in his own language.
(iv) Muni began to talk about the horse enthusiastically, because he felt relieved that the American was not there to arrest him, but to talk about the horse statue.
(v) The foreigner listened to Muni with fascination, when he did not understood Muni's language, because he thought that Muni was describing the beauty of the horse, and its selling price, which fascinated the American.
Extract VII
(i) The foreigner praised the horse by giving compliments such as 'Marvellous', and praising its features, and agreeing to pay high price for the statue.
(ii) Muni said that he was very little when his grandfather told him about the horse, and the warrior, and that his grandfather was himself very little when his grandfather told him about the horse statue, and went on talking about other irrelevant things.
(iii) The foreigner assured Muni that his horse statue will be in the best home in the USA, and that in spite of being a book-lover, he will move the bookcase for it, to make space for the statue.
(iv) Muni describes that their pundit discoursed in the temple once how the oceans are going to fill the earth, and this horse will grow bigger, and carry the good people, and kick the evil ones.
(v) The foreigner said that he was not a millionare but a modest businessman, and that his trade is coffee, when Muni asked him about when the oceans are going to fill all the land on earth.
Extract VIII
(i) Muni played the role of Sita in the play of Ramayana. His teacher taught him some songs for the drama. This teacher played the role of Lord Rama.
(ii) The foreigner offered a hundred rupees for the horse statue. He planned to take it away by the help of a station wagon, and push it through the street.
(iii) Muni told the foreigner about Krishna in the Mahabharata that, Krishna had a philosophical conversation with his friend, and cousin, Arjuna, during the Kurushetra War, which later became the holy book of Hindus, Bhagavad Gita.
(iv) The foreigner told Muni to help him to take the horse off the rock, so that he could carry it on his station wagon, through the streets, when he referred to the tenth avatar.
(v) Muni thought that the foreigner was offering hundred rupees to buy his goats, because the American thought to show some respect to Muni's pet, since he believed he was doing a deal with Muni, and thus, reared the back of the goats.
ASSIGNMENT
(i) The story, 'A Horse And Two Goats' deals with the misunderstanding between an Indian, and an American, as both do not know each other's language, but instead act according to the action, given by the other, in a way, which is completely irrelevant to the subject, the other person is actually talking about in the first place, and pretend to understand it. Muni, in this story, is talking about different- different topics, example, about a murder, himself, the purpose of the horse statue, why it was built, etc; whereas the American thinks that Muni is the owner of the statue, and talks about selling the statue to him, in exchange of money.
This clearly shows that either one of them are understanding, what the other person is saying, creating a misunderstanding.
(ii) The story 'A Horse And Two Goats' is a fine example of humour, as both Muni, and the American do not understand what the other person is saying due to language differences. Muni does not understand a word of the American, and only knows two words of English language in his vocabulary. So, to every question the American asks him, he simply replies 'Yes, or No' to all those questions, which confuses the American, and also makes the story more amusing. Moreover, Muni gives answers, completely irrelevant to the American's questions, after saying 'Yes, No' first, to which the American thinks that Muni is talking about the horse statue, which he wants to buy. This further increases the excitment of the story, and adds humour to it.
(iii) R.K. Narayana's story 'A Horse And Two Goats' is set in a tiny south Indian village, and depicts the everyday life of Muni, and his wife, realistically, as this story begins by giving us some brief information about Muni, and his wife, how they became so poor, etc. R.K. Narayana has done an amazing job in explaining us the day to day life of both these characters, by giving them both some dialougs, and by also creating a small argument between Muni, and his wife, at the start, so as to further the plot, and not making the story boring in the begining. This argument is depicted so cleverly by the author, that it also succeeds us in making us believe that these are the things that both these characters do, in their everyday life. Moreover, their work is not so interesting, or extra-ordinary, which is what adds realism to this story.
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