THE BOY WHO BROKE THE BANK – RUSKIN BOND

Introduction:

        Ruskin Bond (born 19 May 1934) is an Indian author of British descent. The Indian Council for Child Education has recognized his role in the growth of children’s literature in India. He was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award in 1992 for his novel “Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra”.

        In this story “The Boy who Broke the Bank”, Nathu, a central character and is working as Sweeper in Pipal Nagar bank which is owned by Seth Govind Ram. Nathu belonged to middle class family and still he has not been paid his payment from the manager of the bank. How this news spreads and what are the consequences caused by this news is the story.

Help becomes rumor:

          Seth Govind Ram owns a bank at Pipalngar town. The bank is financially very sound and has won the trust of the depositors. Nathu is a sweeper in the bank. One day, while sweeping the steps of the bank, he grumbles about the irregular payment of his salary by the bank authorities. Sitaram, the washer man’s son learns about Nathu’s complaints and tries to get him a new job. His customer named Mrs. Srivastava needed a sweeper. On hearing the fact not properly, Mrs. Srivastava gossiped that the bank was not able to give the salary to the boy.

       Mrs. Srivastava tells her friend Mrs. Bushan that the bank hasn’t been paying salaries to its employees. Mrs. Bhushan adds her own share of color to the news and tells her husband Mr. Bhushan. She tells him about the poor condition of the bank by saying Seth Govind Ram’s bank cannot pay its employers.

        Mr. Bhushan reveals this talk to Mr.Kishore who owns a photographic shop and Mr. Kishore feels happy after hearing this as he does not have any account in the bank but he informs his neighborhood Deepchand who is having a barber shop. He says to Deepchand that “The Pipal Nagar bank is about to collapse and also suggested him if he had account in that bank than get it as soon as possible.”

Shocking of a Barber:

        Deepchand, a barber, was shaving an old gentle man and was shocked and out of the shock he cuts the right ear of his customer. The customer was in pain because of two reasons, out of that one was that Deepchand cut his ear and he was worried about the bank as soon as he heard. He rushes out to the merchant shop to dial the number of Seth Govind Ram but Seth Govind ram was not at his home. He was in holidays and in Kashmir. Deepchand was informed by the old gentle man when came to know about Seth Govind Ram’s status.

        One incident adds more humor in the situation. The beggar namely old Ganpath when heard this news, he started leaping to his feet. This sight surprised everyone because no one had ever seen Ganpath was walking on his foot with the speed. He started running and the great surprise is he had been begging to the village people for so many years so he had thousand rupees in savings.

        Now everyone started gathering in front of the bank and started hurling on the glass windows of the bank. The manager pleased to the village people to come on the next day and stated that the bank has enough amounts to pay them but they did not stop and damaged the most parts of the bank. Nathu arrives to the bank on the next day and finds everything demolished and his last dialogues are “Who would have thought the bank would collapse!” but still he is waiting for his salary believing that it would be paid so soon and  started to curse the customers of the bank who made it damaged.

Conclusion: 

        Through the story “The Boy Who Broke the Bank” Ruskin bond tries to convey the appropriate way of listening and at the sometime he teaches the best way to cultivate listening skill. The message which he wants to deliver through this story is ‘Listening is the begging of the understanding.’  If the manager had listened to the problem of Nathu, the entire mess would have never happened.