Iswaran the Storyteller

1.0About the Author

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman (24 October 1921-26 January 2015) was an Indian cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist. He started his career as a part-time cartoonist, working mostly for local newspapers and magazines. He is best known for his creation, The Common Man and for his daily cartoon strip, You Said It in The Times of India, which started in 1951.

2.0Central Idea

The story is about Iswaran who was good at telling stories and not only that he uses voice modulation and expressions that anyone could be captivated in the story. He was so talented in this art that the listener feels it to be a real one. He lives with his master Mahendra and moves from place to place with him. For him, he is the source of entertainment, he cooks for him and does all the household jobs for him. He used to narrate stories with great suspense and it feels that the scene has happened in front of him.

3.0The Asset

The story about Iswaran was told to Ganesh by a junior supervisor, Mahendra who used to work in a firm which offered on hire supervisors at construction sites like factories, bridges, dams etc. His work involved moving from one site to another. He was unmarried and adjusted well to odd conditions because his needs were simple.

Mahendra had a dedicated cook named Iswaran. He was like an asset because he would cook for Mahendra, wash his clothes, and also chat with him at night. Iswaran was a master storyteller and could make up innumerable stories on different subjects. Another quality of Iswaran was his ability to improvise cooking material even at the remotest place. He could cook delicious dishes quickly as if he were doing some magic. Mahendra's daily routine started with getting up early and leaving for work after breakfast. He would also carry lunch with him. When his master was away, Iswaran would use his time to finish off daily chores and have a leisurely bath after that. After lunch, he would read for a while and then take a nap.

Iswaran was fond of reading popular Tamil thrillers. Their imaginative descriptions and narrating styles would fascinate him. Influenced by these thrillers, he would add suspense and surprise even to the smallest incident during storytelling. Mahendra loved this style and would listen to Iswaran without interrupting him.

4.0The Disastrous Tusker

Iswaran would start a story with an introduction (prologue) in which he would lay the background about a character, usually negative, whose story followed. Then he would describe an elaborate incident involving that character. While describing, Iswaran would get carried away and would jump about on the floor. He would continue narrating and build up a situation that required a saviour or a hero-like character to resolve it. Here, he inserted himself in the story as that hero. He would confront the negative character and magically disarm him in a snap. Once he told Mahendra a story about an elephant that had escaped from the jungle and destroyed everything that came its way. When it reached Iswaran's school, everyone got terrified on watching the tusker pull the football goal post and volleyball net, Iswaran told that he was a student of the junior class at that time; still, he grabbed a cane from a teacher and ran down to challenge the tusker. It tried to scare Iswaran by stamping its feet and kicking up mud. But he was so brave that he hit on the third toenail of the elephant and the animal shivered and collapsed. Iswaran would leave this unfinished story midway and excuse himself to light the gas and warm up dinner. This would leave Mahendra hanging with suspense. On returning, Iswaran would not pick up the story right away. Mahendra would have to remind him that the conclusion was pending. Then Iswaran would wind up the story describing it as his own heroic deed. However, Mahendra would not feel satisfied and would ask Iswaran to explain how he had brought down the beast. Iswaran would attribute his success to some Japanese art, Karate or ju-jitsu, which temporarily paralyzed the nervous system. Every day, Iswaran would recount a new story filled with adventure, horror and suspense. Mahendra enjoyed listening to these stories even if they were unbelievable. Iswaran thus entertained Mahendra like a TV.

5.0The Supernatural Anecdote

Finally, one day talking about spirits of the ancestors, Iswaran began to talk of ghosts. He said that the place where they had their shed was, once a burial ground. He also had come across ghosts but he was not scared of them. He told Mahendra about a woman ghost seen only on a full moon night. She moaned and carried a foetus in her arms. This terrified Mahendra very much that he finally thought of that woman ghost on a full moon night. He could hear a low moan outside his window. He peeped from his window and there stood the ghost of woman. He flung himself down and found that he was often dreaming of that woman ghost. Iswaran used to ask grinning at Mahendra, "Sir, you were angry with me the other day when I told you about the ghost but you didn't you see her yourself last night?" Mahendra never used to listen to Iswaran's questions and finally decided to resign from his job and leave that haunted place.

6.0Recall

• The story is narrated to Ganesh by a young man named Mahendra. He was a supervisor in a firm.
• As he was a bachelor, he always had his cook Iswaran with him.
• His job was to supervise the activities at the work site.
• Iswaran used to read the popular Tamil thrilling stories.
• His own description was greatly influenced by Tamil authors.
• He had the power to weave endless stories and played a role of television in Mahendra's life.
• He narrated the tale of a Tusker, which destroyed everything on the way and how he made him collapse in the end, with a small cane.
• Iswaran linked the auspicious full-moon night to the story of a female ghost.
• Mahendra did not believe such baseless stories and rebuked him.
• One night Mahendra heard some moan near his window.
• He saw a cloudy form clutching a bundle.
• As it affected Mahendra very much he could not sleep properly.
• Next morning, Iswaran greeted him and asked him about the last night's experience.
• Mahendra was determined to leave the haunted place the very next day.

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