Half A Rupee Worth Summary and Explanation
PSEB Class 10 English Chapter 2 Half A Rupee Worth Summary, Explanation along with Difficult Word Meanings from English Literature (Supplementary Reader) Book
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PSEB Class 10 English Chapter 2 – Half A Rupee Worth
by R.K. Narayan
Half A Rupee Worth by R.K. Narayan is a thought-provoking short story about greed in times of crisis, human selfishness in the face of human suffering, and moral failure. With his simple approach and clever irony that is characteristic of his writing style, Narayan elaborated on how individuals have lost their empathy and responsibility to their fellow human beings in terms of material gain. The story serves as a stark caution to the reader, illustrating the consequences of mindless materialism and being insensitive towards others that may ultimately lead to one’s destruction. The familiar characters and significant moral of the story encourage readers to ponder the situation of their fellow human beings and whether humanity is most important, particularly in times of distress.
- Half A Rupee Worth Summary
- Half A Rupee Worth Summary in Hindi
- Half A Rupee Worth Theme
- Half A Rupee Worth Explanation
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Half A Rupee Worth Summary
Half A Rupee Worth by R. K. Narayan is an intense short story set in a time of crisis that reveals the impact of selfishness, greed, and immorality upon society. The story is about Subbiah, a clever and rich merchant and rice shop owner located just outside the market gate. Subbiah is an expert on a variety of rice and has good business savvy. He is proud of his merchant trade. Growing up, his father was strict with training him to manage the shop and build the business. Over the decades, his hard work and clever (if occasionally amoral) tactics would build an empire.
While a drought and war caused rice to become scarce and people to become desperate, Subbiah decided to hoard rice and sell it at decidedly high prices. What was once a side business became highly lucrative due to the high demand for what he sold during the shortage. As a rich merchant, he then pursued expansion opportunities of godowns and was able to purchase even more land and rights to property. However, the scheme fell apart when the government imposed food and price control measures, which he had to pretend to comply with, while secretly pursuing black-market deals aided by bribes and misreported records. He kept rice hidden in a godown and sold it in small amounts to already known patrons. He would fabricate reasons/illusions of supply shortages to drive demand and prices further.
One evening, a poor man, whose ration card had expired, went to Subbiah’s shop begging for half a seer of rice for half a rupee, as his two children and old mother were starving. Subbiah behaved rudely but agreed to help him, albeit begrudgingly, but instead of handing over a bag of rice, he took the rupee over, and told the man to wait for the rice to come from another person, after which he shut the shop and disappeared where his secret godown. The man waited for several hours and then unsuccessfully searched the streets before eventually coming to Subbiah’s house. His wife informed the man that Subbiah had not returned since leaving the shop.
The next morning, after becoming worried, the wife took a group of people to the secret godown. They found the door locked from inside and had to break in through a ventilator. Inside, they discovered Subbiah dead, buried underneath a pile of bags of rice that had collapsed on top of him, and he was still clutching the same half-rupee the poor man had given him in his hand.
The tale concludes with great irony and moral power. Subbiah, who would not give even a starving man a handful of rice to save his life, meets his demise, being buried under the wealth he had hoarded. R.K. Narayan uses this simple story to demonstrate how someone’s downfall comes as a direct result of gluttonous greed, brutish corruption, and apathetic insensitivity. It serves to remind readers that dignity and humanity are far more worthwhile than riches and stuff.
Summary of the Lesson Half A Rupee Worth in Hindi
आर. के. नारायण द्वारा लिखित “हाफ अ रुपी वर्थ” संकट के समय की एक गहन लघुकथा है जो समाज पर स्वार्थ, लालच और अनैतिकता के प्रभाव को उजागर करती है। कहानी सुब्बैया नामक एक चतुर और धनी व्यापारी और बाज़ार के ठीक बाहर चावल की दुकान के मालिक की है। सुब्बैया चावल की विभिन्न किस्मों के विशेषज्ञ हैं और उनमें अच्छी व्यावसायिक समझ है। उन्हें अपने व्यापारिक व्यापार पर गर्व है। बड़े होते हुए, उनके पिता ने उन्हें दुकान चलाने और व्यवसाय को आगे बढ़ाने के लिए सख्त प्रशिक्षण दिया। दशकों में, उनकी कड़ी मेहनत और चतुर (यद्यपि कभी-कभी अनैतिक) रणनीतियों ने एक साम्राज्य का निर्माण किया।
जब सूखे और युद्ध के कारण चावल की कमी हो गई और लोग हताश हो गए, तो सुब्बैया ने चावल जमा करने और उसे निश्चित रूप से ऊँचे दामों पर बेचने का फैसला किया। जो कभी एक छोटा-मोटा व्यवसाय था, वह कमी के दौरान उनके द्वारा बेची जाने वाली चीज़ों की भारी माँग के कारण बेहद लाभदायक बन गया। एक धनी व्यापारी के रूप में, उन्होंने गोदामों के विस्तार के अवसरों की तलाश की और और भी अधिक ज़मीन और संपत्ति के अधिकार खरीदने में सक्षम हुए। हालाँकि, यह योजना तब विफल हो गई जब सरकार ने खाद्य और मूल्य नियंत्रण संबंधी उपाय लागू कर दिए, जिनका पालन करने का दिखावा तो उसे करना ही था, साथ ही रिश्वत और गलत रिकॉर्ड के सहारे गुप्त रूप से कालाबाज़ारी के सौदे भी करता रहा। वह चावल को एक गोदाम में छिपाकर रखता था और उसे पहले से ही जानने वाले ग्राहकों को थोड़ी-थोड़ी मात्रा में बेचता था। माँग और कीमतों को और बढ़ाने के लिए वह आपूर्ति की कमी के कारण/भ्रम गढ़ता था।
एक शाम, एक गरीब आदमी, जिसका राशन कार्ड समाप्त हो चुका था, सुब्बैया की दुकान पर आधा रुपये में आधा सेर चावल माँगने गया, क्योंकि उसके दो बच्चे और बूढ़ी माँ भूख से मर रहे थे। सुब्बैया ने अशिष्टता से व्यवहार किया, लेकिन अनिच्छा से ही सही, उसकी मदद करने के लिए तैयार हो गया, लेकिन चावल का एक थैला देने के बजाय, उसने रुपया ले लिया, और उस आदमी से कहा कि वह किसी और से चावल आने का इंतज़ार करे, जिसके बाद उसने दुकान बंद कर दी और अपने गुप्त गोदाम में गायब हो गया। वह आदमी कई घंटों तक इंतज़ार करता रहा और फिर सड़कों पर खोजबीन करने के बाद आखिरकार सुब्बैया के घर पहुँचा। उसकी पत्नी ने उस आदमी को बताया कि सुब्बैया दुकान से जाने के बाद से वापस नहीं लौटा है।
अगली सुबह, चिंतित होने पर, पत्नी कुछ लोगों को लेकर गुप्त गोदाम में गई। उन्होंने पाया कि दरवाज़ा अंदर से बंद था और उन्हें वेंटिलेटर तोड़कर अंदर जाना पड़ा। अंदर, उन्होंने सुब्बैया को मृत पाया, चावल की बोरियों के ढेर के नीचे दबा हुआ, जो उसके ऊपर गिर पड़ी थीं। उसके हाथ में अब भी वही आधा रुपया था जो उस गरीब आदमी ने उसे दिया था।
कहानी बड़ी विडंबना और नैतिक शक्ति के साथ समाप्त होती है। सुब्बैया, जो एक भूखे आदमी की जान बचाने के लिए मुट्ठी भर चावल भी नहीं देता, अपनी संचित संपत्ति के नीचे दबकर मर जाता है। आर.के. नारायण इस सरल कहानी के माध्यम से यह दर्शाते हैं कि कैसे किसी का पतन लोलुप लालच, क्रूर भ्रष्टाचार और उदासीन असंवेदनशीलता का सीधा परिणाम होता है। यह पाठकों को याद दिलाता है कि गरिमा और मानवता धन-दौलत और अन्य चीज़ों से कहीं अधिक मूल्यवान हैं।
Theme of the Lesson Half A Rupee Worth
The central theme of Half A Rupee Worth is greed and exploitation under conditions of crisis. Subbiah, the rice merchant, hoards rice during a famine period and sells it for an exorbitant price. The merchant Subbiah showed how greed can blind someone to even the basics of human compassion. The other significant theme is poetic justice. Although Subbiah is rich and cunning, he dies lying under the rice sacks which he hoarded; and the half-rupee coin of the starving man is clutched in his hand; this suggests how someone’s immorality might lead to one’s ultimate downfall. The story compares material wealth against moral dignity. The starving man is humble, and he is respectful when he is asking for a little support. Subbiah is separated from the individual man; he is cold and dismissive it suggesting that for many, the pursuit of profit can obliterate moral values. Through the sharp irony, R.K. Narayan brings us deeper than the circumstances of the incident: he draws attention to the consequences of selfishness and points towards the need for empathy.
Half A Rupee Worth Lesson Explanation
Passage: Subbiah sold rice at the market gate. In his shop, you found, heaped in wicker baskets, all varieties: from pebbly coarse rice to Delhi Samba, white as jasmine and slender as a needle. His shop was stuffy and dark, but he loved every inch of it. He loved the smell of gunny sack, of rice and husk. Through good times and bad, he flourished. There were days of drought when paddy didn’t come up and the rice mills were silenced, when people looked hollow-eyed and half dead. But even then, he never closed his shop. If he didn’t find stuff for twenty baskets, he scoured the countryside and filled at least two baskets, and sold them. There were times when the harvest was so rich he could hardly accept a quarter of the grain that was offered, when it seemed a fool’s business to be selling rice. If you sold rice all day and night, you could not hope for a profit of even fifty rupees. They called it ‘depression in the trade’.
Word meanings:
wicker: long, thin sticks of wood that are used to make baskets, furniture, etc.
coarse: consisting of large pieces; rough, not smooth
gunny: coarse sacking, typically made of jute fibre.
husk: the dry outside layer of nuts, fruits and seeds, especially of grain
paddy: rice that has not been processed in any way and is still in its husk or rice as a growing crop
stuffy: without much fresh air
drought: period of time when there is a little or no rain
scoured: searched the place thoroughly
depression: a period of little economic activity
flourished: to be very successful
Explanation: Subbiah is a committed and enthusiastic rice merchant, who has a small shop near the market entrance. His shop, though stuffy and dark, is described with affection, showing his strong emotional connection to his work. The lines “he loved every inch of it” and “he loved the smell of gunny sack, of rice and husk” reflect his dedication and personal pride in his trade. In his shop, there existed rice of many kinds, from coarse, pebbly rice to finer varieties. Among them was Delhi Samba, which is described as “white as jasmine and slender as a needle”, highlighting not only its high quality but also the merchant’s careful attention to stocking the best for his customers. Subbiah is portrayed as a hardworking man, determined to keep his business running under all circumstances. Whether it is during a drought when rice is scarce and people are starving, or during an abundant harvest when selling rice hardly brings profit, Subbiah never closes his shop. Even when he can’t fill all his baskets, he travels through the countryside to find and bring back even a small amount of rice. His efforts reflect his unwavering commitment to his trade. The reference to earning not even fifty rupees during low times further shows how unprofitable the business could be, yet Subbiah continues with passion. This reveals that Subbiah’s dedication isn’t driven solely by profit, but also by his deep-rooted identity as a rice trader.
Passage: But Subbiah survived all ups and downs. Rice was in his blood. He had served as an unpaid apprentice when his father ruled. Those were days when Subbiah loathed the rice bags. He longed for the crowded streets, cinemas, football matches and wrestling tournaments, which he saw through the crowded shop door. But his father more or less kept him chained to the shop and discouraged his outside interests. ‘Boys should be horsewhipped if they are not to become brigands.’ He practised this theory of child-training with such steadfastness that in due course the little man had no eyes or head for anything except rice and the market. When his father died, he slid in so nicely that nobody noticed the difference. Most people thought that the old man was still there counting cash. Business prospered.
Word meanings:
apprentice: one who is learning a trade under an expert
loathed: disliked
brigands: thieves, criminals
prospered: became successful
steadfastness: dedication/devotion
longed for: wanted very much; greatly desired
horsewhipped: beat (a person or animal) with a horsewhip.
Explanation: This paragraph gives context to Subbiah’s background and allows us to understand how he became so involved in the rice trade. Although he would eventually come to be a successful rice merchant and passionate about the trade, he experienced early reluctance and strict guidelines. As a boy, he was mostly an unpaid assistant to his strict father, who ascribed to a tough parenting philosophy. During this time, Subbiah disliked the business and wanted to do more exciting activities outside of the shop (Movie Video Shows, Sports, the excitement of the city, etc. However, his father kept him in the shop and focused on the family business. After being raised in this way, Subbiah fully became a man in the rice business. In fact, when Subbiah’s father died, he stepped into the role of rice merchant without really causing any disruption, and many people hardly even noticed. When he fully transformed and became this positive business model, he made the shop profitable, thus showing how early discipline and environment shaped him into a merchant identity.
Passage: Subbiah kept five prized cows and buffaloes whose milk, curd and butter he and his wife and five children had day and night, and then became rotund and balloon-like. He owned thirty acres of land in a nearby village, and visited it once a month to survey his possessions and make sure they were intact. He lent money at exorbitant rates of interest and if people failed to pay he acquired their houses. He became swollen with money. He sent his children to a school, bought them brocaded caps and velvet coats, and paid a home-tutor to shout the lessons at the top of his voice every evening under a lamp in the hall. He loaded his wife with gold ornaments and draped her in gaudy Benares silk; he added on to his house two more storeys and several halls and painted all the walls with a thick blue oil paint, and covered them with hundreds of pictures of gods in gilt frames. All day he sat by his iron safe and kept shoving money into it, watching closely at the same time his assistants measured out rice into gunny sacks; he led a satisfying life. There seemed no reason why it should not go on through eternity – the same set of activities and interests, going on and one or the other of his sons to acquire his shape and appearance and continue the family business.
Word meanings:
intact: complete-not damaged
rotund: round (fat body)
exorbitant: much too high
brocade: thick cloth with gold and silver material
gaudy: too bright, lacking taste
gilt: thin layer of gold used on any surface for decoration
Acquired: to obtain or buy something
swollen with money: someone who has become wealthy and possibly conceited or arrogant as a result
shoving: to push with a sudden, rough movement
Eternity: a period that never seems to end
Explanation: This paragraph illustrates Subbiah’s wealth, lifestyle, and mentality since he had become a successful rice merchant. His wealth is evident in his extravagant lifestyle; he possesses highly desired cows and buffaloes, eats extravagant meals with his family, and lives a lifestyle of comfort and luxury. He proceeds to buy thirty acres of land, which expands his property, in addition to his willingness to lend money at high-interest rates and taking away the homes of the borrowers who were unable to pay back the loan. Subbiah becomes increasingly obsessed with riches; he makes it customary to adorn his family members with luxurious clothing, continues professional development of his children with private tutor sessions, and intends to decorate his family home with gold, silks, and framed images of the Gods. His newly extended and elaborately painted home showed his classic materialistic success. He spent his time hoarding cash in an iron safe and conducting thorough consultations with other business operations. This leads us to infer that Subbiah led a life with a singular focus on profits and possessions and was wholly satisfied. Subbiah genuinely believed his current way of life would persist infinitely into the future until his two sons took control of the same branded business. We can derive that Subbiah appears to be just another victim of materialism, blinded by greed, overconfidence and a lack of vision for any potential consequence awaiting him.
Passage: It might have continued thus but for the War. It seemed at first to be the end of civilization, but after the first shock, it proved not so unwelcome after all. His profits piled up as never before. Saigon and Burma ceased to send rice, and that meant the stock he held was worth its weight in gold. People flocked to his shop at all hours. He bought the big house next door for a godown and then the next one and the next; and then bought a dozen more villages. War seemed, on the whole, a very beneficial force till the introduction of Price and Food Control. For the first time in his life he was worried. He could not see how anyone had the right to say what he should sell and at what rate. He felt happy when he heard someone say. The Food Department is a hoax. The government is making a mess of things.
Word meanings:
ceased: stopped
hoax: something made to look true, though.. is not
profits piled up: you get more and more of them
flocked: (used about people) to go or meet somewhere in large numbers
Explanation: The paragraph represents a turning point in Subbiah’s life that coincides with the outbreak of war. At first, the war seemed poised to disrupt normal life and business, but for Subbiah, it rapidly became a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Without new rice supplies from places like Saigon and Burma, the price for his stocked rice would soar and would make him even richer than before. Customers came to his store at all hours, and sales continued to increase beyond his imagination. He was able to use some of that money to grow his new business empire – buying up neighboring houses to store more rice and purchasing several villages, drastically increasing his assets. However, things began to change with the role of the government which regulated prices and announced food control policies. For the first time, Subbiah felt the anxiety of being threatened, as he resented being told how much to sell, and at what price. For Subbiah, the belief in unrestricted trade was an issue going against government control, and he felt comforted to hear others criticize the government. This paragraph ultimately demonstrates Subbiah’s growing arrogance, conflict with authority, and the belief that wealth should be attained without restrictions, illustrating how success blinded him to questions of fairness and regulation.
Passage: He soon found that he could still survive under a new garb. By waiting before officials, and seeing people, and filling up forms, he was soon allowed to continue his business as a Fair Price Grain Depot. He groaned unhappily when he learnt that he had to surrender all the rice his peasants cultivated in his village fields. The whole thing seemed to him atrocious. “They have to fix the price for my produce! They have to give me permission to take what I myself produce!” but he accepted the position without much outward protest. He slept little and lost the taste for food. All through the dark nights he thought about this problem. Finally, he had a solution. He cried to himself, “I still have my rice in the fields, and I still have the bags in my godown. After all, what does the government want? To have things in nice shape on paper? That they shall have.” He kept all the rice he wanted for sale and personal use but out of sight and out of paper. He had to give away a lot of money to people who came to examine his stock and accounts. If he passed a ten-rupee currency note on such an occasion, it meant he had screened from prying eyes a thousand rupees worth of grain. When he thought it over, he realized that all controls were really a boon. He distributed a few annas for charity twice a week, and broke a coconut at the temple on Fridays in appreciation of God’s interest in his affairs. Gradually, with experience, he became a master of his situation. At his depot, he measured out rice with a deft hand, so that at the end of a day a considerable quantity accumulated which was nobody’s, and then he delayed and opened and closed and reopened his shop in such a manner as to make people come to him several times before they could get any rice out of him: when they had money he had no stock, or when he had rice they had no money. By all this, he accumulated a vast quantity of rice every week; and then out of his village harvest only a small portion reached the Food Department. Very soon he converted one of his houses in a back street into a godown and there piled up rice bags from floor to ceiling. It was supposed to be a store of waste paper and rags, which he collected for the paper mills.
Word meanings:
waiting: serving
groaned: to complain about something
surrender: hand over
atrocious: shocking, brutal
produce(n): things that have been grown like wheat, rice, etc
considerable: large in size/amount
deft: skilful
accumulated: increased, gathered more and more
garb: A false outward appearance
Explanation: This paragraph illustrates how Subbiah, very cleverly, adjusts Government protocols of pricing and food controls while still being dishonest in his practice. Subbiah acknowledges the governmental regulations as being unfair but does not resist them in an open manner. Instead, he registers himself as a Fair Price Grain Depot and quietly hoards rice in a godown. In addition to this, he provides bribes to the people involved, involves himself in stock manipulation through fake records, and entails even more stock manipulation through the means of artificial scarcity to instigate demand and thereby increase price. At his depot, he would measure out rice with such skill that by the end of the day, a good quantity would be left unaccounted for. Furthermore, he would open and close the shop irregularly, forcing customers to make repeated visits. When people had money, he claimed he had no stock; when he had rice, they had no money. Subbiah’s cleverness allows him to generate a profit, even under strict governmental controls, and justifies his actions through giving away small donations and performing service at temples. His character in this article reflects a clever but unscrupulous businessman who has found a way to profit from exploiting loopholes.
Passage:
He never sold his rice except in a small quantity, and to known customers. He took their cash in advance and told them to call later. He always threw in a doubt; “There was a person who had a little rice. I don’t know if he still has it. Anyway, leave the cash with me.’ Sometimes, he returned the money with, “Sorry, not available, the man said he had it, but you know we can never count on these things nowadays”.
One evening, as he had just closed his shop and started out with the key in his pocket, a person halted before him and said, “Oh! You have closed. Just my luck.”
“I have other business now, no time to stop and talk”, said Subbiah. He went past him. The other man followed him. He held him by the arm and cried: “You must open your shop and give me rice. I can’t let you go. My two children are crying for food. They and my old mother have been starving. My ration card was exhausted three days ago. I can’t see them in that condition any more”. “Please somehow give me some rice. I have gone round and round the whole town today, but I couldn’t get a grain anywhere. At home they will be thinking I’m returning with something. They will… God knows what they’ll do when they see me go back empty-handed.”
Word meanings:
exhausted: to consume entirely
halted: to stop
Explanation: Here we see the cruel contrast between Subbiah’s manipulative greed and the desperation of a starving man. Subbiah, despite having ample stock, pretends scarcity and sells only small quantities to familiar customers, often taking money in advance and returning it with excuses to maintain control and build urgency. One evening, as he locks up his shop, a poor man pleads with him for rice, describing the unbearable hunger of his children and old mother. He explains how his ration card has expired and how he has searched the entire town in vain. Yet, Subbiah shows no compassion and brushes him off coldly, focused only on his “other business.” The man’s plea, filled with raw emotion and helplessness, reflects the harsh reality faced by the poor during a food crisis, while Subbiah’s indifference shows the heartlessness of greed and the devastating impact of profiteering in times of need.
Passage:
“How much do you want?”
“Give me a seer. There are six mouths to feed at home.”
“How much have you?” The man held up a half-rupee coin. Subbiah looked at the coin with contempt. “You expect to get one seer of rice for this?”
Word meanings:
contempt: a feeling of dislike
seer: a traditional unit of weight, roughly equivalent to 0.9331 kilograms or 933.10 grams
Explanation: In the short passage, a desperate poor man asks Subbiah for a seer of rice to feed his six starving family members. When Subbiah asks for his money then the man offers a half-rupee coin in payment. That is all he has. Subbiah scoffs as he looks at the small coin, arrogantly, as if to say, how could a man believe that such a small amount of money could buy a seer of rice. This brief episode unveils Subbiah’s lack of empathy, mercilessness and profit-focused nature, and the abject poverty of people during a crisis, the ever-so-familiar kind.
Passage:
“But it’s three seers for a rupee, isn’t it?”
“Don’t talk of all that now. You will starve if you talk of controlled price and such nonsense.” He felt enraged. “If you have another eight annas, perhaps, you may get a seer,” said Subbiah.
Word meanings:
enraged: to make someone very angry
Explanation: Here, the poor man reminds Subbiah of the government prices, which allow three seers of rice for a rupee, hoping to get a respectable sum bound to their oppressive rules. Subbiah blows it off as “nonsense”. A laughable concept, given the present scarcity. Stating rules will only lead to starvation, revealing his greedy and exploitative intentions. Furthermore, here, Subbiah starts demanding money by saying, Only with an additional eight annas will the poor man get one seer, he has violated rules, entirely showing how greedy, opportunistic traders took advantage of desperate people during the contemporary crisis, becoming ignorant of ethics and the regulations of the government.
Passage:
The other shook his head: “This is the end of the month, you see, this is all I have.”
“You will get only half a seer. That’s the price a man I know will-demand.”
“All right,” the other said. “Better than nothing.”
“Give the coin here,” said Subbiah. He took the coin. “Don’t follow me; that fellow is suspicious. He will say no the moment he sees anyone with me. You wait here, I will be back, but I can’t promise. If he says no, it will be just your luck, that is all. Give me the coin.”
He was gone with the eight annas and the man stood on the street corner.
Three hours had gone by and yet there was no sign of Subbiah. The night had deepened. The man began to mutter several times to himself, “Well, what has happened, where is he? Where has he gone? When am I to go home and cook the rice? The children, ah, the children.” He turned and walked in the direction the other had gone but that took him nowhere, because the other had pretended to go that way in order not to show where his secret godown was, but actually had turned and gone off in another direction. The man wandered up and down through the silent streets and went back to the main shop, hoping he might be there. He wasn’t there either. The lock was still on the door, just as he had seen it before. Then he called at Subbiah’s house. He knocked at the door. Subbiah’s wife opened it. He asked, “Is Subbiah at home?”
Word Meanings:
mutter : to complain in a quiet way
Suspicious: that makes you feel that something is wrong, dishonest or illegal
Wander: to walk somewhere slowly with no particular sense of direction or purpose
Explanation: The poor man offers his final coin of eight annas, and Subbiah states that he will give him just half a seer of rice, then directs the man to stay behind to avoid suspicion because he claims he is collecting it from a third party source. Taking the coin, he pretends not to know if he can get rice or not, and he simply disappears. The poor man is exhausted by his growing despair and constantly thinks about his starving children and sick mother. As he continues to worry, he becomes distressed and then physically agitated and starts running around the street frantically looking for food. Meanwhile, Subbiah has fooled him and taken a different route to hide the location of the secret godown from the poor man. The poor man who has wandered about is now completely hopeless, and we see him go from the street to Subbiah’s locked shop, and finally return home in hope of finding some trace of either the merchant or the food or both. He notices that the lock is still on the door, just as he had seen it before, which confirms that Subbiah never returned. In desperation, he then goes to Subbiah’s house and knocks, where Subbiah’s wife answers the door. This scene effectively conveys Subbiah’s duplicity, and particularly the tragic condition of the poor man, creating an emotional punch from the cruelty of greed, exploitation and manipulation.
Passage:
“No. He hasn’t come home at all.” She looked very anxious. By six next morning they became nervous, and in that condition she could not help, saying. “Have you looked for him at the other godown?”
‘Where is it?”
She had to tell, being the only person who knew its whereabouts. They started. After passing through some bylanes, they came upon the building. The door was bolted from inside. They knocked on it. Finally they had to break open the front ventilator, slip a boy through it, and then have the main door opened. A faint morning light came in through the broken ventilator. In a corner they saw an electric torch lying on the floor and then a half-rupee coin, and a little of a hand stuck out of a pile of fallen bags.
Word Meanings:
Anxious: worried and afraid
Whereabouts: the place where somebody/something is
Bolted: secured or locked
Explanation: Subbiah’s wife starts to become more and more anxious about her husband’s unexplained disappearance overnight, also reveals the location of his secret godown (the only individual who knows its location). She, along with some others in the village, decide to go check out the hidden storage building, but it was locked from the inside. They knocked a few times with no success, and they ended up breaking the front ventilator and sending a boy inside to unlock the door. As daylight entered the godown through the broken ventilator, they saw a horrible sight inside: an electric torch on the floor, a half-rupee coin, and a hand sticking out of a pile of collapsed bags of rice. The implication is simple—Subbiah had hoarded so much rice at once that, in the context of his greed and secrecy, he got crushed under the rice bags that fell on him. The half-rupee belonged to the man who waited all night; a terrible form of poetic justice. The man who could not even find mercy in employing a small quantity of food and a small transaction amount ends up dying with the very half-rupee he was so ready to cling on to. It is a cautionary tale about the evils of greed and inhumanity.
Conclusion
This post provides the summary, word meanings and lesson notes of Half a Rupee worth story for students of PSEB Class 10 from the supplementary reader. Students can get a quick recap of the story with the help of this post.