Answer any one of the following questions in 120 – 150 words :

(a) Describe the efforts made by the Tiger King to achieve his target of killing a hundred tigers.

(b) Explain the reaction of Dr.Sadao’s servants when he decided to give shelter to an enemy in the house.

(c) Describe Jack’s art of storytelling.

The king of Pratibandapuram disapproves the prophecy made by the astrologers on his birth and killing the tigers seems to be the sole reason for the king’s existence. Hunting the hundred tigers had become the utmost priority of the King. The prophecy could not be proved wrong as the king was ultimately killed by a tiger, though not a real one but the 100^th one. The Tiger King had to make many efforts to achieve his target of killing a hundred tigers. Once a British officer came to his kingdom and expressed his interest in being clicked with a tiger he hunted. But the king refused to allow him to hunt tigers in his territory and after a lot of negotiation he offered to make arrangements for any other sort of hunt like boar hunt, mouse hunt or even a mosquito hunt. In order to save his territory he sent gold rings to the British officers wife expecting her to select one but she kept all the 50 rings, the cost of which was borne by the Tiger King. When tigers vanished from his territory he had to look for a kingdom where he could marry the princess and hunt tigers there. So he searched for the most suitable family and married their daughter. Finally, when he was unable to find the 100^th tiger arrangements were made to bring a tiger from the people’s park in Madras so that him to hunt.

(b) The reaction of Dr. Sadao’s servants to Tom’s presence in the house was ordinary. They couldn’t tolerate their master helping Tom because they saw him as their enemy. The servants reflect the mindset of the poor, uneducated and narrow minded section of the society and therefore react ruthlessly. They were scared on hearing about the wounded being an American soldier. The gardener felt that he should be left to die because if he would be saved by Sadao the sea would take revenge. Yumi refused to wash the wounds of the enemy soldier and was angry with Sadao for putting his family in danger. Their cook felt that Sadao operated and saved the enemy because he was too proud of his skills. After 7 seven days they even left their jobs in protest. They were unable to understand Sadao’s dilemma because they were afraid of the repercussions of helping an enemy soldier. On the contrary, Sadao and Hana showed unprecedented maturity and kindness by answering the call of humanity.

(c) Jack told Jo stories that had some relation to his past. His stories usually had moral lessons that he wanted to teach Jo. But Jo being a child couldn’t understand his reasons and always looked for a happy ending. He wanted the best for his child and therefore tried to conclude the story in whatever way he felt was best. His story line was common for all. It would start with a small creature whose name was common i.e. Roger and the surname would be the creature that he was using like Roger Fish, Roger Skunk etc. This creature would always face some or the other problem. These problems were chosen by Jack very wisely as they would be something that children at Jo’s age might face. He would go to the old owl for advice. The owl would then ask him to go to the wizard who would cast a magic spell and the problem would get solved. This was the predetermined path used by Jack for storytelling.