Poem 3 - Iswaran The Storyteller

In this article, the chapter “Iswaran The Storyteller” has been explained thoroughly for a better understanding. We, at UrbanPro, provide the best study material which will help CBSE students to prepare well for their examinations. The overall Iswaran the Storyteller NCERT Solutions provided comes with well-drafted questions & answers of the chapter. We also offer downloadable NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Moments Chapter 3 PDF for you to download.

Introduction

Written by R.K. Laxman, “Iswaran The Storyteller” highlights the story of Iswaran. He is called the storyteller because of his skill in the art of storytelling. He uses ventriloquism to add special sound effects while narrating the stories. He also modulates his voice according to the character he takes on and uses the language of his body to make the stories seem realistic to his audience.

Explanation

The story of Iswaram was narrated to Ganesh by Mahendra, a single young man who lived alone in a shelter that was provided by his construction company. The story explains that Iswaran was always with Mahendra and Iswaran provided him with company and food. Iswaran made his life easy while he was working as a construction worker. Mahendra would wake up every morning to a prepared meal and would take his lunch and go to work. While he was at work, Iswaran would clean the place and complete all his chores. Iswaran would entertain Mahendra with his storytelling when he returned home from work. His art of storytelling brought the story and its characters to life. Even though the stories were fictional, Iswaran would tell the stories in a manner that it would draw in Mahendra’s curiosity. Iswaran would give a detailed description of the story and would lay it out for his audience in a proper manner. He described the incidents with sharp attention to detail and the descriptions were often accompanied by hand gestures which created an interesting visual of those situations in the minds of his listeners.

Iswaran once narrated a story about how an elephant escaped the jungle and how it destroyed everything in its path. He told Mahendra that the elephant had entered his school and destroyed everything on the premises. Being a junior in school when this incident occurred, he watched everything happen from the rooftop of the school. He was not afraid of the beast and tried to threaten the elephant with a stick. Iswaran gathered his strength and attacked the elephant on its toenail. This stunned the elephant, which made it faint, and eventually, the elephant fell on the ground. Mahendra was so into the story that he wanted Iswaran to complete it as he was curious to know what happened after this, but Iswaran went to prepare for dinner as it was getting late.

Iswaran then continued that a veterinarian was called and the elephant was brought back to consciousness. After two days, the elephant was taken back to the jungle by the mahout. Mahendra wanted to know as to how Iswaran overpowered the elephant. Iswaran said that he had used a Japanese martial art technique. He had read about this technique of martial arts and how it could paralyse the nervous system. Iswaran would narrate a new story to Mahendra every day. Through this story, the writer wanted to showcase Iswaran’s storytelling quality.