CBSE Class 10 Answered

Arjun pestered his mother to give him permission to go to the village fair. She was a daily wage worker at a farm owned by a rich family of landlords. The wages that she would get at the end of each day’s work were not even enough to buy one time’s meal. If she allowed Arjun to go to the fair, the next thing he would ask was money to enjoy the rides and buy food items. How was she going to be able to find any extra money to give him? And so, lost in her thoughts, she kept winnowing the harvest while Arjun continuously begged her to say yes.  

Finally, in a couple of minutes, Arjun gave up and hopped off to the corn field to play with the other kids. Most of the kids had never gone to school, so while their parents slogged on the fields, the younger ones idled around their parents the whole day while the older ones took odd jobs to help the family with some extra money. Arjun was only eight, and a couple of years away from toiling on the farms from sunrise to sunset, just like his parents did. But he wasn’t very fond of idling around. He was a curious little boy who found great joy in making things. He would look around and observe all the adults working, and then go home and draw what he remembered on the walls with charcoal. Sometimes he would disappear from the fields for hours and find a quiet spot. This space was like his workshop, where he would use the sticks and stones he had collected to make miniature farms and farm equipment. There were ploughs and clay bulls, there were figurines similar to the women winnowing the harvest, there were green patches to show new harvest and brown ones with male figurines in between to show sowing of seeds.  

So when Arjun hopped off, this is where he was headed, to this space that he called his own and kept a secret from his mother. He was sure if the landlord or his children found out they would destroy everything. Arjun remembered stories that his parents had heard about the landlord’s mean children and how they created a ruckus whenever they came to the fields for picnics, disrupting work and destroying the crops. Arjun hurried to his spot and as he looked around, he was in tears and agony. All his toys were gone, there were only sticks and stones scattered around, and there were stale footprints going in the direction of the landlord’s mansion. Arjun sat there upset, but he knew he couldn’t tell anyone anything, and so he wiped his tears and started walking in the direction of where his parents were assigned the day’s work.  

As he sat there beside his toddler sister who was playing in the grass, he wondered what they must have done to his hard work. He wanted to tell his mother but he knew she would never believe him because he had never shown her anything. She would just dismiss it as a figment of his imagination. As he was lost in his thoughts, he heard his name being called out. He looked up, and saw the landlord’s oldest son Raghu waving at him.  

“You have been summoned by my father,” he said sternly.  

“What did you do?” asked Arjun’s mother anxiously. 

“It is not me who did something, I will be back, Mother” Arjun replied angrily. 

Arjun followed Raghu timidly and full of anger, imagining what the landlord would do to him and his family for using their land to make his silly toys. ‘My play is going to cost us our daily bread,’ he thought. 

As he entered the front porch, he saw all his miniatures lined up in a bullock cart neatly assembled. He was confused, not knowing what to do or say. The landlord, who had been sitting on the porch swing, stood up and started walking his Arjun’s direction. Arjun froze to the ground. But to his surprise, as the landlord came close to him, the man smiled and gave him a warm hug.

“This is great work of art my boy!” the landlord exclaimed, “Why don’t you sell these at the village fair?” he asked, “We are sorry for taking these away without asking you,” Raghu had the idea as soon as he saw them last night,” continued the landlord, “Perhaps you could teach my younger children to use their time wisely,” he sighed, “Or you could start making these on a large scale so that we could set up a shop for you in the village market!” the landlord gleefully said. 

Arjun had tears of joy in his eyes. He wasn’t going to become a farm hand like his parents he thought, maybe he could really make something meaningful out of his hobby.