CBSE Textbook: A Tale of Three Villages | Communicative English for Class 10 PDF Download

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 There is one difference, however.  Outside Mr. Nana's front are three large empty 
metal drums, the bright red paint now flaking away, but the skull and crossbones 
symbol clearly visible on each.  And in a clearing 200m away from the village, next 
to a stream that the villagers get their drinking water from, is an enormous 
pyramid of identical drums, reaching to the sky.  Some of them are badly 
corroded, their slimy contents of various colours - grey, dark green, bright orange, 
etc. - leaking out, down, on to the baked African earth and into the stream.  Some 
have fallen down and rolled - or been rolled by playful children - into the bush.  
Some are smoking in the midday heat.  Some are swelling, as if their contents are 
bursting to get out.  Some have already burst. 
 "They came on a Wednesday," said Sunday, "Many, many big lorries.  They took all 
day unloading them.  No-one told us what was in them.  They gave the Chief a 
brown paper bag-I saw him smiling as the lorries drove away.  This was five years 
ago.  Then three months ago, one of the brightest boys in the village - Thomas 
Agonyo - started university in Lagos. He came home one weekend with a new 
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UNIT-4
MAIN COURSE BOOK
ENVIRONMENT  
 
  
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
146
UNIT-4
MAIN COURSE BOOK
ENVIRONMENT  
147
 There is one difference, however.  Outside Mr. Nana's front are three large empty 
metal drums, the bright red paint now flaking away, but the skull and crossbones 
symbol clearly visible on each.  And in a clearing 200m away from the village, next 
to a stream that the villagers get their drinking water from, is an enormous 
pyramid of identical drums, reaching to the sky.  Some of them are badly 
corroded, their slimy contents of various colours - grey, dark green, bright orange, 
etc. - leaking out, down, on to the baked African earth and into the stream.  Some 
have fallen down and rolled - or been rolled by playful children - into the bush.  
Some are smoking in the midday heat.  Some are swelling, as if their contents are 
bursting to get out.  Some have already burst. 
 "They came on a Wednesday," said Sunday, "Many, many big lorries.  They took all 
day unloading them.  No-one told us what was in them.  They gave the Chief a 
brown paper bag-I saw him smiling as the lorries drove away.  This was five years 
ago.  Then three months ago, one of the brightest boys in the village - Thomas 
Agonyo - started university in Lagos. He came home one weekend with a new 
UNIT-4
MAIN COURSE BOOK
ENVIRONMENT  
Chemistry book, and spent all day looking at the drums and writing things down 
and talking to himself and shaking his head.  We all thought he had gone mad.  
Then he called a meeting of the village and told us that the drums contained 
poisonous chemicals.  He said they had come from Italy.  But I don't know where 
that is.  Is it in Europe?
 Mr. Sunday Nana stopped, frowning, a troubled look on his face, "In the last five 
years, 13 people have died in this village, my own elder brother being one of them.  
They have been in pain, terrible pain.  We have never seen deaths like that before.  
Lots of our children are sick.  We have asked the Government to take the drums 
away, but they do nothing.  We have written to Italy, but they do nothing.  The 
Chief says we should move our houses to another place.  But we have no money to 
buy land.  We have no choice.  We have to stay here.  And they"---- pointing to the 
mountain of death in the clearing - "are our neighbours."
 D.2 Ponnimanthuri Village, India
 "I can remember the time." she said wistfully, "when all the fields around this 
village were green and the harvests good."  Her outstretched arm described a 
complete circle as she stood in the morning sun.  "Then they built those monsters, 
those…" Her voice spluttered in anger as she shook her fist at a collection of 
ominous-looking black buildings on the horizon, covered in a low-lying shroud of 
thick smoke.  "They said that factories need leather to make shoes, handbags and 
clothes.  They said our menfolk would get jobs.  They said we would all become 
rich."
 We stood silent, each thinking our own thoughts.  Yes, they told you all that.  But 
there is so much they didn't tell you.  They didn't tell you that to change animal 
skins into leather - which they call tanning - uses as many as 250 different 
chemicals, including heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic and chromium.  
They didn't tell you that these chemicals are discharged into the environment 
from those chimney stacks and fall to earth for miles around, polluting the earth 
below.  They didn't tell you that this would poison your fields, so that nothing will 
grow.
 "They didn't tell us that the chemicals would be dumped in open fields and into 
our rivers," sighed Vijayasama.  We had been thinking the same thoughts.  "They 
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UNIT-4
MAIN COURSE BOOK
ENVIRONMENT  
 
  
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
146
UNIT-4
MAIN COURSE BOOK
ENVIRONMENT  
147
 There is one difference, however.  Outside Mr. Nana's front are three large empty 
metal drums, the bright red paint now flaking away, but the skull and crossbones 
symbol clearly visible on each.  And in a clearing 200m away from the village, next 
to a stream that the villagers get their drinking water from, is an enormous 
pyramid of identical drums, reaching to the sky.  Some of them are badly 
corroded, their slimy contents of various colours - grey, dark green, bright orange, 
etc. - leaking out, down, on to the baked African earth and into the stream.  Some 
have fallen down and rolled - or been rolled by playful children - into the bush.  
Some are smoking in the midday heat.  Some are swelling, as if their contents are 
bursting to get out.  Some have already burst. 
 "They came on a Wednesday," said Sunday, "Many, many big lorries.  They took all 
day unloading them.  No-one told us what was in them.  They gave the Chief a 
brown paper bag-I saw him smiling as the lorries drove away.  This was five years 
ago.  Then three months ago, one of the brightest boys in the village - Thomas 
Agonyo - started university in Lagos. He came home one weekend with a new 
UNIT-4
MAIN COURSE BOOK
ENVIRONMENT  
Chemistry book, and spent all day looking at the drums and writing things down 
and talking to himself and shaking his head.  We all thought he had gone mad.  
Then he called a meeting of the village and told us that the drums contained 
poisonous chemicals.  He said they had come from Italy.  But I don't know where 
that is.  Is it in Europe?
 Mr. Sunday Nana stopped, frowning, a troubled look on his face, "In the last five 
years, 13 people have died in this village, my own elder brother being one of them.  
They have been in pain, terrible pain.  We have never seen deaths like that before.  
Lots of our children are sick.  We have asked the Government to take the drums 
away, but they do nothing.  We have written to Italy, but they do nothing.  The 
Chief says we should move our houses to another place.  But we have no money to 
buy land.  We have no choice.  We have to stay here.  And they"---- pointing to the 
mountain of death in the clearing - "are our neighbours."
 D.2 Ponnimanthuri Village, India
 "I can remember the time." she said wistfully, "when all the fields around this 
village were green and the harvests good."  Her outstretched arm described a 
complete circle as she stood in the morning sun.  "Then they built those monsters, 
those…" Her voice spluttered in anger as she shook her fist at a collection of 
ominous-looking black buildings on the horizon, covered in a low-lying shroud of 
thick smoke.  "They said that factories need leather to make shoes, handbags and 
clothes.  They said our menfolk would get jobs.  They said we would all become 
rich."
 We stood silent, each thinking our own thoughts.  Yes, they told you all that.  But 
there is so much they didn't tell you.  They didn't tell you that to change animal 
skins into leather - which they call tanning - uses as many as 250 different 
chemicals, including heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic and chromium.  
They didn't tell you that these chemicals are discharged into the environment 
from those chimney stacks and fall to earth for miles around, polluting the earth 
below.  They didn't tell you that this would poison your fields, so that nothing will 
grow.
 "They didn't tell us that the chemicals would be dumped in open fields and into 
our rivers," sighed Vijayasama.  We had been thinking the same thoughts.  "They 
148
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149
didn't tell us that our women would have to walk ten kilometers every day.  They 
didn't tell us that we would get ulcer and sores on our bodies.  They didn't tell 
us…"  Her voice trailed off.  There is so much they didn't tell you, I thought.
 "We don't buy leather shoes or leather handbags or leather clothes," she said.
 D.3  Vorobyov Village, Ukarine (formerly USSR)
 "It happened on April the 26th 1986.  I remember the date because it was my 
mother's birthday.  We heard the explosion early in the morning.  We didn't worry, 
because there had been explosions before from Chernobyl.  But this one was 
bigger.  Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened. Then we ran out into 
the garden.  We could see a cloud of white smoke coming from the nuclear 
reactor."  Natasha Revenko wiped her hands nervously on her apron.  Tears came 
to the corners of her eyes, and slid slowly down her pinched, pale cheeks.
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UNIT-4
MAIN COURSE BOOK
ENVIRONMENT  
 
  
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
146
UNIT-4
MAIN COURSE BOOK
ENVIRONMENT  
147
 There is one difference, however.  Outside Mr. Nana's front are three large empty 
metal drums, the bright red paint now flaking away, but the skull and crossbones 
symbol clearly visible on each.  And in a clearing 200m away from the village, next 
to a stream that the villagers get their drinking water from, is an enormous 
pyramid of identical drums, reaching to the sky.  Some of them are badly 
corroded, their slimy contents of various colours - grey, dark green, bright orange, 
etc. - leaking out, down, on to the baked African earth and into the stream.  Some 
have fallen down and rolled - or been rolled by playful children - into the bush.  
Some are smoking in the midday heat.  Some are swelling, as if their contents are 
bursting to get out.  Some have already burst. 
 "They came on a Wednesday," said Sunday, "Many, many big lorries.  They took all 
day unloading them.  No-one told us what was in them.  They gave the Chief a 
brown paper bag-I saw him smiling as the lorries drove away.  This was five years 
ago.  Then three months ago, one of the brightest boys in the village - Thomas 
Agonyo - started university in Lagos. He came home one weekend with a new 
UNIT-4
MAIN COURSE BOOK
ENVIRONMENT  
Chemistry book, and spent all day looking at the drums and writing things down 
and talking to himself and shaking his head.  We all thought he had gone mad.  
Then he called a meeting of the village and told us that the drums contained 
poisonous chemicals.  He said they had come from Italy.  But I don't know where 
that is.  Is it in Europe?
 Mr. Sunday Nana stopped, frowning, a troubled look on his face, "In the last five 
years, 13 people have died in this village, my own elder brother being one of them.  
They have been in pain, terrible pain.  We have never seen deaths like that before.  
Lots of our children are sick.  We have asked the Government to take the drums 
away, but they do nothing.  We have written to Italy, but they do nothing.  The 
Chief says we should move our houses to another place.  But we have no money to 
buy land.  We have no choice.  We have to stay here.  And they"---- pointing to the 
mountain of death in the clearing - "are our neighbours."
 D.2 Ponnimanthuri Village, India
 "I can remember the time." she said wistfully, "when all the fields around this 
village were green and the harvests good."  Her outstretched arm described a 
complete circle as she stood in the morning sun.  "Then they built those monsters, 
those…" Her voice spluttered in anger as she shook her fist at a collection of 
ominous-looking black buildings on the horizon, covered in a low-lying shroud of 
thick smoke.  "They said that factories need leather to make shoes, handbags and 
clothes.  They said our menfolk would get jobs.  They said we would all become 
rich."
 We stood silent, each thinking our own thoughts.  Yes, they told you all that.  But 
there is so much they didn't tell you.  They didn't tell you that to change animal 
skins into leather - which they call tanning - uses as many as 250 different 
chemicals, including heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic and chromium.  
They didn't tell you that these chemicals are discharged into the environment 
from those chimney stacks and fall to earth for miles around, polluting the earth 
below.  They didn't tell you that this would poison your fields, so that nothing will 
grow.
 "They didn't tell us that the chemicals would be dumped in open fields and into 
our rivers," sighed Vijayasama.  We had been thinking the same thoughts.  "They 
148
UNIT-4
MAIN COURSE BOOK
ENVIRONMENT  
149
didn't tell us that our women would have to walk ten kilometers every day.  They 
didn't tell us that we would get ulcer and sores on our bodies.  They didn't tell 
us…"  Her voice trailed off.  There is so much they didn't tell you, I thought.
 "We don't buy leather shoes or leather handbags or leather clothes," she said.
 D.3  Vorobyov Village, Ukarine (formerly USSR)
 "It happened on April the 26th 1986.  I remember the date because it was my 
mother's birthday.  We heard the explosion early in the morning.  We didn't worry, 
because there had been explosions before from Chernobyl.  But this one was 
bigger.  Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened. Then we ran out into 
the garden.  We could see a cloud of white smoke coming from the nuclear 
reactor."  Natasha Revenko wiped her hands nervously on her apron.  Tears came 
to the corners of her eyes, and slid slowly down her pinched, pale cheeks.
UNIT-4
MAIN COURSE BOOK
ENVIRONMENT  
 "It was a Saturday ," she went on, still wiping her hands on her apron.  "It was a 
lovely warm day, and the children played outside all weekend.  Even when the 
dust began to fall, they still played outside.  They picked up handfuls of it and 
threw it at each other, laughing.  It was Wednesday before the loudspeaker van 
came to the village, telling us to keep our children indoors and not to touch the 
radioactive dust.  They also told us to wash down our houses and roads with 
water.  A week later the children began to vomit.  Their hair fell out.  They couldn't 
eat.  They grew so thin, and sores appeared all over their little bodies.  Two weeks 
after that, all three died - all three on the same day."  She broke down now and 
cried quietly, as she had done so many times before.  "They're buried over there."  
She pointed to the church graveyard.  "Lots of village children are.  And adults."  
 I touched her gently on the shoulder, leaving her to her bitter-sweet memories, 
and walked on through the silence.  It was a ghost town.  No- one lived there any 
more.  They had either died or been forcibly evacuated.  The fields were barren.  
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