Ruskin Bond’s

“The Boy Who Broke the Bank”

• Objectives
• Bond’s Life and Writings
• “The Boy Who Broke the Bank”
• Characters
• Thematic, Formal, Linguistic
and Literary Analysis
• Human Relationships
• Reflections on Life
• Takeaways
• Summary
 Objectives
• To highlight the life and writings of Ruskin Bond
• To discuss Bond’s humorous but serious short story
“The Boy Who Broke the Bank”
• To examine and explain how a rumor generates and
spreads like a wild fire
• To understand the role of effective listening in our
everyday life
• To address people’s problems at the right time to avoid
catastrophic consequences
 Bond’s Life
• Ruskin Bond (1934- )
• A most loved children’s writer in India
• A novelist and a short story writer
• A journalist and essayist
• Awarded Padma Sri (1999) and Padma Bhushan (2014)
• Received the Delhi Government’s Life Time
Achievement Award (2012)
• An exceptional writing career over 70 years
• “To be able to laugh and to be merciful are the only
things that make man better than the beast.”
 Bond’s Writings
• Novels
The Room on the Roof (1956)
A Flight of Pigeons (1981)
• Children’s Novels
Angry River (1972)
The Blue Umbrella (1974)
• Short Stories
The Night Train at Deoli (1988)
Our Trees Still Grow in Delhi (1991)
• Autobiography
Scenes from a Writer’s Life (1998)
 “The Boy Who Broke the Bank”
• A well-known and frequently anthologized short story
• Included in the volume The Night Train at Deoli and
Other Stories, published in 1988.
• Concerned with a sweeper boy who unwittingly
becomes the cause for the collapse of the Pipalnagar
Bank
• Included in English and Soft Skills, volume one, to
highlight the communication skill of listening
 Characters
• Nathu: the sweeper boy
• Sitaram: the washerman’s son and Nathu’s friend
• Mrs Srivastava: Sitaram’s customer
• Mrs Bhushan: a friend of Mrs Srivastava
• Mr Bhushan: a visitor at Kamal Kishore’s shop
• Kamal Kishore: a photographer
• Deep Chand: a barber and Kamal Kishore’s neighbor
• The Half-Shaven Old Man: a customer at Deep Chand’s
• Ganpath: a beggar and a customer of the bank
• Seth Govind Ram: Owner of Pipalnagar Bank
• The Manager of Pipalnagar Bank
 Opening
Nathu grumbled to himself as he swept the steps of the
Pipalnagar Bank, owned by Seth Govind Ram. He used
the small broom hurriedly and carelessly, and the dust,
after rising in a cloud above his head settled down again
on the steps. As Nathu was banging his pan against a
dustbin, Sitaram, the washerman’s son, passed by.
Sitaram was on his delivery round. He had a bundle of
freshly pressed clothes balanced on his head.
‘Don’t raise such dust!’ he called out to Nathu. ‘Are you
annoyed because they are still refusing to pay you an
extra two rupees a month?’
‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ complained the sweeper-boy.
‘I haven’t even received my regular pay. And this is the
twentieth of the month.
 Mrs Srivastava and Mrs Bhushan
Mrs Srivastava had to do some shopping. She gave
instructions to the ayah about looking after the baby, and told
the cook not to be late with the mid-day meal. Then she set
out for the Pipalnagar market place, to make her customary
tour of the cloth shops.
A large shady tamarind tree grew at one end of the bazaar,
and it was here that Mrs Srivastava found her friend Mrs
Bhushan sheltering from the heat. Mrs Bhushan was fanning
herself with a large hand kerchief. She complained of the
summer, which she affirmed was definitely the hottest in the
history of Pipalnagar. She then showed Mrs. Srivastava a
sample of the cloth she was going to buy, and for five
minutes they discussed its shade, texture, and design.
Having exhausted this topic, Mrs. Srivastava said, ‘Do you
know, my dear, that Seth Govind Ram’s bank can’t even pay
its employees? Only this morning I heard a complaint from
their sweeper, who hasn’t received his wages over a month!’
 Mrs Bhushan and Mr Bhushan
‘Don’t start grumbling. The heat is trying enough. I don’t
know what’s happening to Pipalnagar. Even the bank’s
about to go bankrupt.’
‘What’s that?’ said Kamal Kishore, sitting up suddenly.
‘Which bank?’
‘Why the Pipalnagar bank of course. I hear they have
stopped paying employees. Don’t tell me you have an
account there, Mr. Kishore?’
‘No, but my neighbor has!’ he exclaimed; and he called
out over the low partition to the keeper of the barber shop
next door. ‘Deep Chand, have you heard the latest? The
Pipalnagar Bank is about to collapse. You’d better get
your money out as soon as you can!’
 The Half-Shaven Old Gentleman
Deep Chand, who was cutting the hair of an elderly
gentleman, was so startled that his hand shook and he
nicked his customer’s right ear. The customer yelped with
pain and distress: pain, because of the cut and distress
because of the awful news he had just heard. With one
side of his neck still unshaven, he sped across the road
to the general merchant’s store where there was a
telephone. He dialled Seth Govind Ram’s number. The
Seth was not at home. Where was he, then? The Seth
was holidaying in Kashmir. Oh, was that so? The elderly
gentleman did not believe it. He hurried back to the
barber’s shop and told Deep Chand: ‘The bird has flown!
Seth Govind Ram has left town. Definitely, it means a
collapse.’ And then he dashed out of the shop, making a
beeline for his office and cheque book.
 The News and the Beggar
The news spread through the bazaar with the rapidity of
forest fire. From the general merchant’s it traveled to the
shop, circulated amongst the customers, and then spread
with them in various directions, to the betel-seller, the
tailor, the free vendor, the jeweler, the beggar sitting on
the pavement.
Old Ganpath, the beggar, had a crooked leg. He had
been squatting on the pavement for years, calling for
alms. In the evening someone would come with a barrow
to take him away. He had never been known to walk. But
now, on learning that the bank was about to collapse,
Ganpath astonished every one leaping to his feet and
actually running at top speed in the direction of the bank.
It soon became known that he had a thousand rupees in
savings!
 The Manager and the Crowd
By noon the small bank had gone through all; its ready cash,
and the harassed manager was in a dilemma. Emergency
funds could only be obtained from another bank some thirty
miles distant, and he wasn’t sure he could persuade the crowd
to wait until then. And there was no way of contacting Seth
Govind Ram on his houseboat in Kashmir.
People were turned back from the counters and told to return
the following day. They did not like the sound of that. And so
they gathered outside, on the steps of the bank shouting ‘Give
us our money or we’ll break in! and fetch the Seth, we know
he’s hiding in a safe deposit locker!’ Mischief makers, who
didn’t have a paisa in the bank, joined the crowd and
aggravated their mood. The manager stood at the door and
tried to placate them. He declared that the bank had plenty of
money but no immediate means of collecting it; he urged them
to go home and come back the next day.
 Closing
‘How’s that?’ Said Nathu.
‘Haven’t you heard? Well, you’d better wait here until half
the population of Pipalnagar arrives to claim their money’.
And he waved cheerfully – he did not have a bank
account – and sped away on his cycle.
Nathu went back to sweeping the steps, muttering to
himself. When he had finished his work, he sat down on
the highest step, to await the arrival of the manager. He
was determined to get his pay.
‘Who’d have thought the bank would collapse!’ he said to
himself, and looked thoughtfully into the distance. ‘I
wonder how it could have happened…
 Nathu
• The titular character
• A sweeper boy
• Does not get his pay even on the 20th day of the month
• Shows his frustration through raising the dust
• Shares his difficulties with Sitaram
• Ignored by the bank manager
• Looks for a better job
• Unwittingly becomes the cause for the breakdown of the
bank
 Thematic Contrast
• Employee and Manager/Owner
• Servant and Master
• Livelihood and Luxury
• Truth and Falsehood (Rumor)
• Help and Harm
• Knowledge and Ignorance
• Listening and Speaking
• Appearance and Reality
• Friendship and Hostility
 Formal Analysis
• Point of View: Third Person Narrative
• Plot: One event
• Time: Less than two days
• Location: Pipalnagar; a house, the bazaar and the bank
• Mode: Realistic
• Characters: Types
• Story Development: Description and Dialogue
• Aim: Humor
 Linguistic Analysis
• Simple but sophisticated diction
• Visual picture through the right words: grumbled,
banged, making a bee line, the rapidity of forest fire, the
bird has flown, harassed, hurtled, smote
• Conversational speech patterns
• Even the poor boys speak an elegant language
• Use of “and” 34 times in the story.
• Questions:
• Who would think a bank would hold up a poor man’s
salary? (Beginning)
• Who’d have thought the bank would collapse? (Ending)
 Literary Analysis
• Situational Irony and Humor
A sweeper boy breaks the bank by doing nothing
He is not paid but he gets more work.
A half-shaven old gentleman runs across the street to
make a phone call.
A beggar has saved Rs.1000 in the bank.
A man who was never seen walking runs at top speed.
The manager proves the people’s assumptions by
admitting that he cannot pay them when they demand
their money back.
People who don’t have any account in the bank throw
bricks and break the bank literally.
 Human Relationships
• Good friendship between two boys
• Poor relationship between an employee and a manager
• Social interactions between a dhobi boy and a lady of
the house
• Friendly relations between two wives
• Strained relations between a husband and a wife
• Amiability between two shop owners
• Collegiality among the townspeople
• People want to appear important in their relationship
with others by giving or withholding information/ money/
things.
 Reflections on Life
• Why does the manager delay the payment of salary to
the poor sweeper boy, even after the twentieth day of the
month?
• How do we think we can ignore poor people?
• Why do people try to help each other whatever the
circumstances may be?
• Why do they also cause harm in the name of help?
• How can we live our life well by simply fulfilling our
responsibilities appropriately?
• How does listening with understanding play a vital role in
our everyday interactions?
• How do we share relevant information to prevent
gossip/rumor mongering?
 Takeaways
• Listen to your employees and do what is needed for
them at the right time.
• Treat people with respect irrespective of their status.
• Take appearance with a pinch of salt.
• Don’t offend people by your careless attitude.
• Check if everybody is fine within your organization.
• Attend to people who may have some difficulties, which
may lead to resentment, rebellion, and finally collapse of
the organization.
• Beware of people who don’t have any direct business
with you.
 Summary
• Objectives
• Ruskin Bond’s Life and Writings
• “The Boy Who Broke the Bank”
• Characters
• Thematic, Formal, Linguistic, and Literary Analysis
• Human Relationships
• Reflections on Life
• Takeaways
 References
• Dhanavel, S. P. 2012. English and Soft Skills. Vol.1
Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan.
• Chatterjee, M. 2019. “Bond with the Best: Exploring
India's Ruskin Bond as a Writer of Children's
Literature.” Bookbird: A Journal of International
Children's Literature, 57 (1): 50-52.
• Heyman, M. 2003. “The Life and Works of Ruskin Bond”
[Review]. Children’s Literature Association
Quarterly, 28 (4): 253-254
• Mirza, S. H. and Bond. R. 2004. “Shabir Hussain Mirza
in Conversation with Ruskin Bond.” Indian
Literature, 48 (5): 152-160.