A HORSE AND TWO GOATS
A HORSE AND TWO GOATS
A Horse and Two Goats is a part of R.K. Narayan’s collection of short stories. The collection A Horse and Two Goats and Other Stories was published in the year 1970. It is set in one of the tiniest villages in India, Kritam. The story’s centre of attraction is the conversation between Muni, an old man and a red-faced American businessman. It is a humorous conversation. It shows how two person ignorant of each other’s language was communicating.
A HORSE AND TWO GOATS
Summary
The story is set in one of the tiniest villages in India, Kritam. The village was so small that it consisted of less than thirty villages and only one of them was built with brick and cement. Muni, the protagonist of the story is an old man who once was a prosperous man and reared a flock of forty goats and sheep but now was left with only two goats and those too were too skinny to sell or eat.
A HORSE AND TWO GOATS
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
When they were prosperous his wife served him salted millet flour. She even put in his hand a packed lunch. It consisted of cooked millet ball. He ate it with a raw onion at midday while watching his cattle graze. But Muni’s riches is past now. He is left with only two skinny goats and hardly gets anything better to eat than drumstick leaves boiled and salted by his wife. Their only source of income is from his wife’s occasional jobs such as grinding corn in the Big House, or sweeping and scrubbing somewhere.
A HORSE AND TWO GOATS
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
A HORSE AND TWO GOATS
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
However the shopman refuses to give Muni any further credit and he returns from there empty handed and humiliated. Since there is no food in the house Muni is told by his wife to fast till evening and she sends him away with the goats. Muni soon reaches the outskirts and leaving his goats to meander and graze on the grass near the highway, he sits himself on the pedestal of the horse statue for the rest of the day and watches the lorries and buses passing through, to feel connected to the larger world. As he watches the road and waits for the appropriate time to return home, he noticed a new sort of vehicle coming down at full speed.
A HORSE AND TWO GOATS
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
The vehicle resembled both a motor car and a bus. A red faced foreigner in khaki-clothes gets down from the car and asks Muni if there is any gas station nearby. Muni mistakes the foreigner to be a policeman or a soldier and feels scared.
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
The red faced man suddenly looked up at the clay horse and cried, “Marvellous” in amazement. The American then greets Muni and says, “Namaste! How do you do?”, to which Muni replies in English, “Yes, no”, the only two English words in his vocabulary.
A HORSE AND TWO GOATS
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
He then flatly starts in Tamil : “My name is Muni.” And continues to say that those two goats were his, and no one could challenge it – though their village is full of slanderers those days who will not hesitate to say that what belongs to a man doesn’t belong to him.
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
Confused by Muni’s Tamil speech he takes out his silver cigarette case and offers one to Muni and tells him that he has come from New York. He takes out his wallet and presented Muni his business card.
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
Muni however thinks it to be his arrest warrant and shrinks back. He tries to explain in chaste Tamil his innocence regarding the murder which took place a few weeks ago. A body had been found mutilated thrown under a tamarind tree at the border between Kritam and Kuppam. The American listened attentively though he understood nothing.
A HORSE AND TWO GOATS
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
However in spite of not understanding each other’s language the two men go on talking. Each speaks about his own self.Neither of them understand the other butbothrespond in their own way.When Muni tells the American that he was not sent to school since he belonged to a low caste, the later understands nothing but laughs heartily.
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
Again when Muni explains the principles of Hinduism to him and that “the Redeemer will come in the shape of a horse, called Kalki”, the foreigner without having the slightest idea of what the former was saying assures him that once brought, he would keep the statue with utmost care in his living room in his house in the USA.
A HORSE AND TWO GOATS
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
Finally the American shows Muni a hundred-rupee currency note, and Muni laughs to think that the man is asking him for change. But when he saw the red faced man showing some interest in his goats Muni felt he is interested in buying his goats and thought his dreams of building up a small shop is about to be fulfilled.
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
At the end the American believed he had bought the horse statue and Muni returned home happy that at last he was successful in getting rid of his goats for money.
A HORSE AND TWO GOATS
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
Muni came home to present the money to his wife and told her that he had sold the goats to a foreigner in exchange of money. The American on the other hand with the help of a couple of men detached, “the horse from its pedestal and placed it in his station wagon.” The goats however returned to their home. Seeing them Muni’s wife became suspicious and thus accused Muni of stealing the money.
Theme
Clash of Cultures: The most important theme of the story. The clash of East-West culture is represented through the conversation of the conversation of Muni and the red-faced American.
MUNI EXPLAINS THE PRINCIPLES OF HINDUISM
Muni, a poor and uneducated villager knows no English but only Tamil, whereas on the other hand the wealthy, educated American knows no Tamil but expects Muni to speak English. While Muni is proud to discuss about his village, his religion, his culture, the American is only interested in a business deal with Muni.
