Hello Friends...

Sure, we all are doing well... Be careful, we must stay fit and shouldn't fall ill getting our studies affected. We shall eat and drink healthy, exercise regularly, and won't avoid our domestic and social responsibilities. And whatever time we get for ourselves at the end of the day, we must study hard for most of the time, so that we learn to think... and learn. We simply cannot afford to stop thinking, for we are learners, and we are the chosen ones who got the scope to learn...

Let's learn to think first...

What We Would Study Here

Here we meet together to read an adapted version of a 'short story' (as published in Bliss, ESL textbook meant for Class IX, WBBSE) written by Manoj Das, the renowned Indian (Oriya) bilingual author. If you are interested, you may click here to know more about him. We also have an official site in his name on the web.

Though they popularly call this adapted text a 'short story', I'm sure we will agree at the end that this is more like a series of humorous anecdotes rather being a 'short story'. If you get motivated to read the original story 'Bhola Grandpa And the Tiger' [along with many more by Manoj Das] after going through the discussion on this adaptation, you may find this link useful.

Learning Objectives

Primarily, we would read this text for pure fun. As we read, we would certainly attempt to discuss and understand humour, perhaps the most rare manifestation of comedy.

Analysing and understanding the narrative and the perspective of the narrator would be one of our other objectives as well.

Studying the characters from the text to get a view of the socio-cultural framework of the community in the referred time would be an engaging activity, I assure you.

And finally, apart from the above mentioned literary objectives, we would certainly attempt to note the linguistic simplicity of the text and its appropriateness and use the text to study contextual grammar and vocabulary.

Tales of Bhola Grandpa

Manoj Das

The Title

Isn't the title of the text very direct in its approach here? It immediately conveys the fact that we are going to get introduced to Bhola Grandpa and his life, isn't it? Do you feel that we might get something more in the text that doesn't concern Bhola Grandpa in any way? Let's find out as we go through the text, right?

The Text

The First Paragraph

Bhola Grandpa and his wife lived at the western end of our village. A large bokal tree overshadowed their hut. In the bokal tree lived a small troop of monkeys. Bhola Grandpa and his wife did not mind it.

Contextual Vocabulary And Grammar

Have you come across the verb phrase 'overshadowed' ever before? It means to cast shadow over something. Were you able to guess the meaning right [if you are encountering the word for the first time]?

Here in this paragraph, the word 'mind' is used as a verb phrase, meaning differently from the same word functioning as a noun phrase. Should I show you how the same word mean differently when used differently? Let me use the word in two different ways then-

As a verb: You don't mind my lecturing, do you?

As a noun: You are not going to change your mind, right?

Do you get it now? If you are still confused, let me know.

Why do you think 'Grandpa' is written with a capital 'G' here? Normally, this kinship term is used as a class noun and not as a proper noun that we conventionally begin with a capital letter. But here in this text, it has been used as an honorific marker to probably address quite a senior person, an integral part of the name of Mr. Bhola, and hence it begins with a capital letter. In India, people conventionally address each other by different kinship terms. Hence, such instances of using capital letters to write kinship terms are quite common when you read a text written by Indian authors writing in English.

Perhaps, some among you would like to note how we might use the suffix '-ern' with some nouns to get the corresponding adjectives. Here we have the adjective 'western' formed by adding '-ern' to the root 'west'. It is possible to get the adjective forms of the other directions the same way. Would you care to see if you get them?

'In the bokal tree lived a small troop of monkeys.'- Have you noticed the inverted structure of the sentence, by the way? Normally, we would have said that a small troop of monkeys lived in the bokal tree, right? But here, the structure of the sentence is inverted just to link the sentence with the previous one referring to the bokal tree for the first time in the text. This is how readers are helped to get the association of ideas flowing from a sentence to the next.

Introduction of Characters

Can we deny the fact that the way the family gets introduced is very simple, direct, and effective? Do you find it unusual? Possibly you feel so because you have grown in some urban pocket, learning some formal/western way of introducing people. But in rural India, people get known by their places, by their families, and sometimes, by their peculiarities as well.

Urban And Rural Family Patterns

Do you have any idea about the rural folk and their family patterns? They usually live together in joint families unlike the urban people who have to stay as micro units. Do you know why?

Why do you think we are only told that Bhola Grandpa lived with his wife? Did they have nobody else to live with? Isn't that quite unusual for a village couple? If they had no other family members, particularly no grandchildren, how could Bhola Grandpa earn his 'Grandpa' title? Did they call Bhola Grandpa 'Grandpa' because of his seniority only? Indians, particularly in rural India, prefer to call others by kinship terms, isn't it?

But they call Bhola Grandpa's wife 'his wife' and not 'grandma'. Would you like to come up with a possible explanation?

Bokal Tree

The most common English name for 'bokal' tree is 'Spanish Cherry'. Though the author is writing in English, he prefers to refer to the tree by its local name. This is what we might consider as a typical example of Indian writings in English.

The Monkeys

Bhola Grandpa and his wife didn't mind the monkeys. Do you wonder why this information is considered to be important enough to get shared with the readers? Maybe Bhola Grandpa had retired from the regular farm work, the usual occupation of the village people, due to his old age. And hence, they didn't mind the monkeys, who otherwise pose a threat to any farmer destroying their crops and other yields.

Monkeys, in many places over India, are worshipped as well for being one of the close associates of Rama, the central character of the epic Ramayana. Many ancient communities and tribes have monkeys as their totem. Can we use the information to interpret the text here? How?

The Second Paragraph

One moonlit night, we were returning from a festival. The road was long and foggy. I was riding on the village chowkidar's shoulders. Suddenly, Bhola Grandpa let out a loud wail. Everyone in our party was surprised. We halted. Enquiry revealed that Bhola Grandpa had taken his grandson to the festival. He had tightly held on to the two fingers of the boy. He did not realise when those fingers slipped out. Bhola grandpa was continuing as before. Then someone asked Bhola Grandpa what he was gripping. He remembered his grandson and let out a loud wail.

Contextual Vocabulary And Grammar

Have you ever got the word 'moonlit' confused with 'moonlight'? 'Moonlight' functions as a noun phrase referring to the light reflected by moon whereas 'moonlit' functions as an adjective referring to any object or place being lit by the moon.

The word 'foggy' here means 'covered with fog'. It might also be used to refer to 'confusion', as in the sentence 'My foggy brain can't decide what to do.'.

It is noteworthy how the suffix '-y' is added to the root 'fog'[noun] to get the corresponding adjective.

Do you wonder why we have added an additional 'g' in 'foggy'? When we have a word ending with a consonant [c] preceded by a vowel [v] which is again preceded by a consonant [c], we mostly repeat the last consonant once again when we add a suffix to it. Do you now remember you were always told to spell 'run' with a single 'n', but to add another 'n' in case of 'running'. That is because the word 'run' has got a '-cvc' ending. Would you like to find and make a list of few more cases like these?

The word 'chowkidar', used in many Indian languages, means 'watchman' in English.

A 'deep, painful cry' is often referred to as 'wail'. A wail is always supposed to be 'loud', and never 'feeble'. If you are interested, you might look for the meaning of 'wale', a homophonous word, in your dictionary or in the web.

The phrasal verb 'hold on' might seem to be a bit difficult for use at the beginning. But I might help you out with a clue. If we have the phrasal verb followed by the preposition 'to', it means to 'grip/grasp/hold (something)'. Otherwise, it might be used to ask to 'stop' or 'wait' [as in the sentence 'Please hold on for a minute.'], or, to mean the 'effort of enduring' [as in the sentence 'We need to hold on for a little longer to get a remedy for the situation.']

Narrowing down to a Specific Time

'One moonlit night, we were returning from a festival.'- Here, in the very beginning of the second paragraph, the narrative narrows down to the specific incident that might be the core of the action of the story. Don't you see how the second paragraph begins with the phrase 'One moonlit night...', zooming into a very specific point of time? This is quite a common strategy adopted while narrating tales. Don't you remember the childhood fairy tales beginning with a broad reference to time ['Once upon a time...'], and then narrowing down to the specific 'One day...' to refer to the core action of the story?

The Active Narrator

Isn't it interesting to notice how the narrator [and his party] make their entry into the action of the story? As soon as we read the first sentence in this paragraph, don't we understand that they too are the active characters in the action being referred to, and not just some passive, distant observants narrating the story?

Moonlit Night And a Festival

They were returning from a festival, right? Do you wonder what were they celebrating, and why the narrator didn't identify the festival? Well, the answer to the second question is easy- the name of the festival isn't relevant or important for the tale itself. We don't bother our listeners or readers with unnecessary information.

But, if you are interested, you might find this an opportunity to think about a list of probable festivals. You already have a hint by now...

A Long And Foggy Road

'The road was long and foggy.'- In rural India, villagers often attend festivals and fairs being organised even in far away villages. Often, you might find country folks flocking together along the long village roads in India to attend such festivals.

Do you get some additional information now to draw your own list of the probable festivals? Well, nights turn out to be foggy in the eastern India in the winter mostly, or if the place is an inter-montane valley. Earlier, we have learnt that it was a moonlit night,- maybe a full-moon night, for traditional Indian festivals are often associated with full-moons. I'm sure you didn't miss the point. Now you need to check what festivals the Oriya people celebrate during the full-moons in winter season, it's simple...

The Narrator,- a Kid Back Then

'I was riding on the village chowkidar's shoulders.'- Now I'm sure you are amazed to find that our narrator was just a kid at the time of the incident being narrated, right?

The Rural Lifestyle

At the same time, I would like to let you know that the rural folks in India apparently tend to have a stronger community feeling than the urban folk. It is often observed that they help out children and older folks on their way together just out of humanity and no direct material benefits.

Organising And Narrating Events with Causality And Chronology Chain

'Suddenly, Bhola Grandpa let out a loud wail. Everyone in our party was surprised. We halted.' Would you like to halt for a little and note how wonderfully the three brief sentences are organised via causality chain? We have the cause referred to at first, being followed by the effect. Therefore, in this brief section, each preceding sentence refer to the cause of the effect referred to in the following sentence. This technique is again perhaps the simplest mode of organising and narrating events, and we ourselves use it so often that we tend not to notice it. Don't miss the fact that the causality and the chronology is so evident here that linkers like 'so', 'therefore', 'hence' etc. are not used at all.

The Crisis

'Enquiry revealed that Bhola Grandpa had taken his grandson to the festival. He had tightly held on to the two fingers of the boy. He did not realise when those fingers slipped out. Bhola grandpa was continuing as before. Then someone asked Bhola Grandpa what he was gripping. He remembered his grandson and let out a loud wail.'- Do you find the incident implausible and improbable? Well, I don't plan to argue on this with you. But, would you care to read an extract from the humorous essay 'On Forgetting' by Robert Lynd? If you agree, here it is-

...ordinarily good memory is so common that we regard a man who does not possess it as eccentric. I have heard of a father who, having offered to take the baby out in a perambulator, was tempted by the sunny morning to pause on his journey and slip into a public-house for a glass of beer. Leaving the perambulator outside, he disappeared through the door of the saloon bar. A little later, his wife had to do some shopping which took her past the public-house, where to her horror, she discovered her sleeping baby. Indignant at her husband’s behaviour, she decided to teach him a lesson. She wheeled away the perambulator, picturing to herself his terror when he would come out and find the baby gone. She arrived home, anticipating with angry relish the white face and quivering lips that would soon appear with the news that the baby had been stolen. What was her vexation, however, when just before lunch her husband came in smiling cheerfully and asking: “Well, my dear, what’s for lunch today?” having forgotten all about the baby and the fact that he had taken it out with him.

Are you interested to read the whole of the text now? You may read the whole text here. And, if you want to initiate the discussion on the probability and plausibility of Bhola Grandpa forgetting his grandson after listening to Robert Lynd, let me know down the comment box below. Memory and forgetting are certainly two very interesting aspects affecting human lives in interesting ways...

The Grandson

Now we know Bhola Grandpa had at least a grandson, right? Maybe they lived together, or he used to visit his grandparents occasionally. Perhaps the information about Bhola Grandpa's family that we were looking for earlier was not considered by the editor/author to be relevant for the story? Perhaps, we get this character being referred to in here only because of his relevance to this part of the tale and nothing else...

The Third Paragraph

My father chose two sharp-eyed men from our party to go back with Bhola Grandpa to the festival. The grandson was found before long. He had taken a cosy shelter under a cow's belly.

Contextual Vocabulary And Grammar

The meaning of the adjective 'sharp-eyed' is self-evident, isn't it? Yes, you are quite right to have guessed the meaning as 'observant', or 'smart', or 'alert'.

Maybe you have also noted the use of the adjective 'cosy', used to mean 'comfortable'. You might try to use these adjectives as per your convenience and requirement if you have learnt these new to get them incorporated into your active vocabulary.

The Resolution

Are you amazed to see how the crisis got resolved? I feel happy that the situation didn't turn to worse. I also appreciate the way the narrator's father and others volunteered to help out the poor old man. And I feel amazed to see how intimate and close human-animal existence can be, particularly when human-animal conflicts often make headlines today. What would you like to say about this?

The Father

And you should not miss to note how the narrator's father serves as the subject of the verb phrase 'chose', thus gaining an authoritative position over the others in the party.

Reconsidering Previous Interpretation

Would you like to reconsider your interpretation of the narrator riding on the village chowkider's shoulders now that you have noticed the authority of his father? I would be all ears if you share your thoughts in the comment box below...

The Fourth Paragraph

I remember another funny incident about Bhola Grandpa related by my father. It had been a rainy afternoon. Bhola Grandpa, wild with excitement, told my father and his friends that he had seen a gang of pirates. They were burying a large box under one of the sand dunes on the seashore by our village. At once, father and his friends started looking for the hidden treasure. Evening passed on to night. Moonlight came in through the clouds. A pack of jackals were howling. It was past midnight. At this point of time, Bhola grandpa confessed that there was no real treasure. It was all a dream which he had during his midday nap.

Contextual Vocabulary And Grammar

'Bhola Grandpa, wild with excitement, told my father and his friends that he had seen a gang of pirates.'- Let us consider the phrase 'wild with excitement' from the sentence. It refers to Bhola Grandpa obviously, right? It is an adjective phrase in apposition referring to the noun phrase Bhola Grandpa functioning as the subject of the sentence. It may be noted that such phrases can just be placed next to the noun phrases they qualify, separating them with just a comma. A comma should also mark the end of the phrase. To convert the phrase to a clause, you just need a relative pronoun and a suitable verb phrase:

Bhola Grandpa, who was wild with excitement, told my father and his friends that he had seen a gang of pirates.

Have you noted the collective nouns used in the paragraph? Why don't you go through it once again if you have missed to spot them? See if you can think of some other collective nouns appropriate enough to substitute the used ones.

Not a Short Story

Do you note how now the narrator recounts 'another funny incident about Bhola Grandpa'? This is why I feel it is more like a series of anecdotes or a collection of incidents involving Bhola Grandpa rather than being a 'short story' which mostly develops round a single plot. I would like to hear from you if you have a difference of opinion.

The Source

Interestingly, though we have the same narrator telling us this incident, he himself is not a privy to this. Rather he tells us the story that he heard from his father, right?

The Social Context

Do you think this is just another tale about Bhola Grandpa and his frailing mind? Apparently it may seem so, but that's not all. This story is quite interesting for the scope it provides to observe the people and the society. It refers to a coastal community, and their interactions with pirates who perhaps used to visit the village as their safe haven to bury and hide the loot.

Do you think that the pirates were just a fragment of Bhola Grandpa's wild imagination conceived in his dream? Why do you ignore the fact that the villagers believed him in spite of knowing him and his frailties? Doesn't it indicate that the pirates hiding their loots in their village was quite a usual occurrence?

How would you prefer to interpret this behaviour of the villagers? Would you like to call this greed, or love for adventure and thrill? Why?

The Art of Description

'It had been a rainy afternoon. Bhola Grandpa, wild with excitement, told my father and his friends that he had seen a gang of pirates. They were burying a large box under one of the sand dunes on the seashore by our village. At once, father and his friends started looking for the hidden treasure. Evening passed on to night. Moonlight came in through the clouds. A pack of jackals were howling. It was past midnight.'- How about reading this section once again? I would like you to read this once again to note how the description helps the readers to visualise the scene. Note how skillfully the author arranges to tell us about the moon rising [evoking our visual perception] and the jackals howling [evoking our auditory perception] so that we can actually sense the time gradually passing by from the evening to past midnight. Do you now understand how your way of description can increase the efficacy of communication?

A Confusion

The verb phrase 'confessed' seems to be a bit confusing to me. Confession involves prior knowledge of a crime or sin. Do you really believe that a person like Bhola Grandpa is capable of playing pranks upon others by deliberately misguiding them with his dream?

If you agree with me, how would you prefer to replace the used verb phrase to match the character with the one whom we have been knowing since the earlier incident?

The Fifth Paragraph

Once Bhola Grandpa had a great adventure in the Sundarbans. In those days Royal Bengal tigers freely roamed the dense jungles of the Sundarbans. People took care to move about only in groups, particularly after sundown.

Contextual Vocabulary And Grammar

There is no doubt that you all know that the expression 'take care' is used to mean 'stay safe'. But do you know that when the phrase is used alongwith the preposition 'to', it means to 'make sure (to do something)'.

I am sure you have often been asked not to 'move about' outside your classroom by your teacher back at your school. Do I really need to tell you that the phrasal verb refers to the action of roaming?

The Beginning

Have you noted the beginning of this paragraph? Yes, it begins with the indefinite referral 'once'. Doesn't it sound like another tale beginning fresh?

Sunderbans And It's People

What peculiarities do you get to know about Sunderbans and its people from this paragraph? Do you get to note any particular threat of the region? How would you like to evaluate the threat from your concern for ecology?

The Sixth Paragraph

One evening, Bhola Grandpa was returning from the weekly market. Suddenly at a distance of about five yards behind him, he heard the growl of a Royal Bengal tiger. Bhola Grandpa turned and found the bright gaze of the tiger on his face.

Contextual Vocabulary And Grammar

Are you wondering what this 'weekly market' might mean? In areas with sparse/less population, markets may not operate daily as you are used to with. If we have a market place somewhere operating only once a week, then we refer to it as a weekly market.

You And Bhola Grandpa

Why don't you imagine yourself in Bhola Grandpa's position and find out your probable reaction? Then it might be interesting to see how Bhola Grandpa reacted in this situation...

The Seventh Paragraph

Bhola Grandpa instantly climbed up a nearby banyan tree. The tiger roared and circled the tree about a hundred times. Then it settled down under a bush without taking its eyes off him. With nightfall, the forest grew dark and silent. Bhola Grandpa could hear the tiger beating its tail on the dry leaves. Hours passed.

Human Life in And around Forests

Have you ever read any writing of Jim Corbett? If you have, then you might find the situation described quite familiar. Communities living inside forest areas along with wildlife often face such situations. So, please note that there is no good reason to interpret this as some unrealistic situation.

The Art of Description

And before we move on to the next paragraph, I would like to remind you to make a note of how efficiently the author describes the situation appealing to our visual and auditory senses again. Interestingly, some among you might have noted that darkness or absence of visual perception is also a visual sensation just as silence or absence of auditory perception is an auditory sensation.

The Eighth Paragraph

Dawn broke with the cooing of doves. Bhola Grandpa came down. There was a group of men on a mound a little away. Bhola Grandpa climbed the mound and requested the first man he saw for some water to drink. The man had seen the tiger waiting. He was much bewildered. "What is your secret that you simply walked past the hungry beast and it did nothing?" He asked Bhola Grandpa.

Contextual Vocabulary And Grammar

Here in this paragraph, we have two words ending with the suffix '-ing' but none is a verb, or a part of any verb phrase. One functions as a gerundial noun, and the other as a present participle adjective. Would you care to find them out on your own? You are always free to reach me down in the comment box below if you feel stuck.

Bhola Grandpa And His Uniqueness

Are you surprised to see how Bhola Grandpa behaved differently from what you would have done? Are you in shock? But then, we have our original Bhola Grandpa, who could be so forgetful not to realise that his grandson's fingers had slipped out of his grip, back again.

The Ninth Paragraph

The tiger was stretching its limbs and yawning. Then, Bhola Grandpa remembered the tiger and looked at it. Bhola Grandpa almost lost his senses in fear. He ran back home.

Laughing with Others

I am sure you all are laughing out wildly, being amazed at the same time, right? Well, I am no exception here.

But there is nothing to malign as we all laugh, isn't it? Maybe, if we all are honest enough, we all are probably recounting those situations when we acted quite like Bhola Grandpa in our own lives. Yes, there are phases in all of our lives when we all turn forgetful, and act weirdly till we gain our 'sense' back. So, as we laugh, we also laugh at ourselves as well. When we being amazed, laugh with others for fun instead of laughing at others to malign, it is humour.

A Different Story?

How might the tiger have felt then after he missed a prospective meal for dozing off by the morning after an exhausting watchful night? Would you care to think about its feelings?

The Final Paragraph

Half a century later, Bhola grandpa left us forever one morning at the age of ninety-five. His eighty-year old wife lamented much. She said with a sigh, "The old man must have forgotten to breathe."

Contextual Vocabulary And Grammar

There is no point in telling you that 'left us forever' means 'died'. But, would you care to find out how many different ways you do know to communicate about somebody's death?

The word 'lamented' is quite closely associated with 'sorrowful losses'. Why don't you look for some appropriate substitutes in your dictionary if you prefer to strengthen your vocabulary?

The Age of Bhola Grandpa

My goodness! Bhola Grandpa must have been in his forties during the events narrated earlier, have you noticed that?

Surely he did not earn his 'Grandpa' title not for his seniority or old age then? Well, you just need to remember that in the text, he is being referred to as 'Grandpa' only by a kid, and nobody else.

Still, it might also be his forgetfulness, which is otherwise associated with old age, that earned him his title?

What is your interpretation? Why don't you share your reading with us all in the comment box below?

Social Context

People still opt for early marriage in many communities, and it's not something that was very rare in India. Can you make this out from this text?

And you might also note the age difference between Bhola Grandpa and his wife? Do you think this information might be of some importance to understand the society and its culture represented in the text?

The Final Comment

How would you like to comment upon the comment of Grandma? I myself think that her comment probably reflects the character of Bhola Grandpa the best.

Back to the Title Again

Let me know how you would like to appreciate the title for this text now as you have already participated in this long discussion. If you ask me, I must say that I find the title quite justified the way it refers to the central character under discussion, and subtly hints for much more of the society that define and construct Bhola Grandpa. But I am always eager to listen to a different interpretation...

The Narrator And His Narrative

Do you think that we have a kid as the narrator here? Certainly not, right? Yes, we do have an aged narrator here who is telling us the tales involving Bhola Grandpa. He himself was a privy to one of the incidents when he was just a kid. He got to know about another incident from his father, as we are told. We have no information how he came to know about the other incident at Sunderbans, but we may very well assume that he somehow managed to learn that from somebody else. But, as evident from his matured narrative, he must be recollecting and narrating us the tales as a grown up. Do you have a different thought?

How would you like to comment upon the narrative style? Do you find it simple, yet intimate? That is the typical style of Manoj Das. That is why he is regarded as a master 'story-teller'. He got the skill to keep his listeners/readers engaged with his tales. Simplicity and realism were his keys.

The Adaptation And the Original Story

Please do not forget that so far we have discussed the adapted text, as published in Bliss [ESL Textbook, Class IX, WBBSE], and not the original story. If you are interested, read it on your own to compare it with the adaptation. Find out how similar, and different the two texts are. Find out which texts is more up to your liking, and why.

And if you need somebody to share your thoughts, you have got me...