Iswaran the Storyteller Summary Class 9 English Moments Chapter 3

This is a story about Mahendra, a junior supervisor and his cook, Iswaran. Former had to keep moving from place to place as ordered by headed office. But he had fortunately an expert caretaker, Iswaran who cooked his meals, washed his clothes and chatted with him at night.
Iswaran was very fond of reading Tamil thrillers during his spare time. As a result he innovated his own thrillers and would tell Mahendra about it. The latter used to hear patiently without finding any loopholes in the story.
Iswaran often in his stories narrated about elephants. For example, he told a story about how he paralyzed a mad elephant that had gone berserk. He said that there were timber logs loaded on trucks. But if an elephant went mad no mahout could control it. The elephant now entered a school ground where children were playing, breaking through the brick wall. Children and teachers ran helter and skelter to save their lives. The elephant was stunned when Iswaran then only a little boy took a rod and hit at the elephant’s third toe nail. The secret was if the elephant is hit there, his nervous system gets paralyzed.
Finally, one day talking about the 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 so 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 the 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 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.

Value Points

• 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.