ENGLISH

B.A 2nd Year 3rd Sem

A WRONG MAN IN WORKER’S PARADISE

Rabindranath Tagore
About the Author

 Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a Bengali poet, philosopher, artist,

playwright, composer and novelist.
 India’s first Nobel laureate, Tagore won the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature for his
seminal work “Gitanjali”.
 He composed the text of both India’s and Bangladesh’s respective national anthems.
 His body of literature is deeply sympathetic for the poor and upholds universal
humanistic values.
 As a visionary educationist, he founded the experimental school and named it
“Shantiniketan” and was given the honorific “Gurudev” by Mahatma Gandhi.
 While for the western world, Tagore was the voice of India’s spiritual heritage.
 For India, he was a great living institution.
SUMMARY

 The author begins the story by describing the protagonist as a man

who never believed in mere utility. He had no useful work and so he
indulged in mad whims and impulses. He painted and made little
pieces of sculptures, men, women and castles and ended up wasting
his time on all useless and needless things.
 Thus, people laughed and jeered at him. He spent his life on earth
in doing useless work. But fate and destiny (“moving finger”) had
inadvertently penned his permanent abode as paradise after death
on this earth.
 Just like students who hardly study end up passing the exam, so this man ends up in
paradise having done nothing useful and productive in life.

 The gates of heaven opened wide for him and he was sent to the “Workers’ Paradise”.
But the newcomer did not fit in well with the atmosphere in Workers’ Paradise. He
lounged in the streets absentmindedly and was jostled by the hurrying men, who were
happy to be busy. He lay in the green meadows or close to the fast flowing stream.

 A girl went hustling-bustling every day to a silent torrent (silent since in the Workers’
Paradise even a torrent wouldn't waste its energy singing) to fill her pitchers. Her
movements were like the rapid movements of a skilled hand on the strings of a guitar.

 She seemed to be in a tearing hurry all the time to finish her undone tasks. The girl of
the silent torrent felt that to be idle was sin and one had to be busy all the time doing
some work.
 The girl on watching the relaxed man doing nothing useful and wasting his
precious time feels pity for him and asks him about his work. He informs
that he has not a moment to spare for work while the girl surprisingly has
not a moment to spare on account of work.
 The girl, who never understood what he said, was quick enough to say that
she would be happy to spare some work for him if he would like to which
he happily responds saying that he had been waiting there only to take
some work from her.
 On asking about his choice of work, he requests for one of her pitchers
that she can spare for him.
 She wanted to know if the purpose was to draw water from torrent or for
some other purpose and is annoyingly baffled by his response, when he
says that he would like to draw pictures on her pitcher. She departs by
saying that she has no time to waste on such futile things.
 The girl was very firm in her decision of not yielding to the man’s request
to give her pitcher to him. But the man persists and prevails over the busy
person and she finally gives in.
 The girl stares in amazement at the colourful pictures on the pitcher when he
hands it over to her and asks the purpose of those colourful lines. The man
laughs and says that a picture never has any meaning and it never serves any
purpose.
 In the confines of her home, away from the prying eyes of others, she scans the
painting from all angles and is awe-struck with its beauty although it had no
purpose or meaning. She was fascinated with the man’s skill in painting and saw
newer possibilities open-up before her.
 From that day on, the hastening girl never hurried anymore as she started
having thoughts that had no meaning or no purpose. She was attracted by art
and was trying to rearrange priorities.
 The meaningless was slowly becoming meaningful. The man asks for some more
work the next time and this time he agrees to weave a coloured ribbon for her
hair without any purpose.
 When the wrong man offered to make ribbons for her, the girl was eager to
know why he would make a ribbon for her hair. But once he offered the
coloured ribbons, she started spending a lot of time tying the ribbon around her
hair and a new joy had awakened in her mind.
 Much of her usual work remained unfinished. Work in paradise began to
suffer as many people who had been active before were now indulging
in useless things such as painting sculptures and wasting their precious
time.
 The anxious elders called for a meeting as this never-before
phenomenon was turning the people into idlers.
 It is then, that the aerial messengers appears and confesses regarding
the mistake made by bringing the wrong man in the worker’s paradise.
 The idler-man is summoned and asked to quickly depart from the place
to his utmost relief.
 The girl immediately agrees to accompany the wrong man to which the
elders gasp in surprise as never before a thing such as this had taken
place – a thing that had no meaning and no purpose at all
 The line “the man never believed in mere utility” means that the man never believed that he
should do anything just because it is useful and productive.

 He was of the opinion that it is not necessary that something should be done only if it is valued
and useful. The girl, who only knew and believed in mere work and utility, became a
completely transformed person under the influence of the man who was an artist.

 She was ready to leave her work and place just to follow the man, who had such an influence
on her. At the end of the story, there is a complete change in the girl’s attitude to life.

 The credit should go to the idler, who as an artist was committed to his craft. He loved the
talent he possessed more than anything else.

 Even after coming to a place, where everyone was working and no one had any liking for his
art, he did not give up. Sometimes, though we have many capabilities, we fail to recognize
and nurture it.
 But in this case, the man succeeded in not only recognizing it from within but was also
successful in having it impact the girl of the silent torrent first and everyone else later.
Many a times, there are no takers for our talents.

 But in this story, although the girl did not show any interest in the artistic values of the
man, slowly she becomes open-minded and realizes that the art has some meaning and
purpose and accepts it wholeheartedly.

 Initially, before the artist had his impact on the men in worker’s paradise, the attitudes
of the men and the artist towards duty were diagonally opposed to each other.

 The men believed that one had to do some work which is useful and not waste time on
other activities, but the wrongman, who was an artist continually engages in his so-called
“purposeless and futile’ work which was quite different from the work of the men.

 According to him, any work which gives joy to our mind and makes this world appear
beautiful is quite significant.
 There are two worlds in the story: the world of the idler – artist and the
world of the hustlers – people in paradise. Both the worlds are equally
important.
 The world of the idler – artist is important because it makes our mind
happy. It is the world, where all of us forget our sorrows and take delight in
the activities of our life.
 That world of the aesthetic makes our life colourful, though it appears like
having no meaning or purpose at all superficially. Similarly, the world of
the inhabitants of the workers’ paradise is also equally significant.
 This is the world, which helps us to survive. The physical work, undertaken
in this world, can only feed our mouths, if not we will be starved to death.
 In this way, both these worlds are complimentary to each other – one takes
care of the mind and the other our body
QUESTION AND ANSWERS
There are two worlds in the story: the world of the idler-
artist and the world of the inhabitants of the Worker’s
paradise. Which world is better ? Why?
 The world of the idler – an artist is a world where the man has no time to
spare for any work.
 He spends his time standing by a stream or painting some object which has
no meaning or purpose.
 On the other hand, in the world of Worker’s Paradise ,men are best at work.
 They have no time to spare for recreation or painting.
 To them time is precious and they have too much to do. Neither world is
good .
 A life of idleness does not do any good.
 Working all the time with no breaks or entertainment is not good either.
 We should opt for a world where work and recreation are balanced.
What is the effect of the man’s creations on
the girl and others in Workers’ Paradise?

 The busy girl of Workers’ Paradise started spending a long time every
day in trying the coloured ribbon made by the man.
 She wasted such a lot of time in trying the ribbon that time passed
unnoticed. Much work was left unfinished.
 Gradually, the work of others also started suffering.
 Many persons, who were active, now became idle, wasting their
precious time on unnecessary things such as painting and sculpture
Explain the gradual changes that come
in the girl’s attitude towards the man.
 Initially, the girl was reluctant and annoyed when the man asked her to give
him her pitcher for drawing pictures on it.
 But when the man asked her everyday persistently, she had to yield and give
it.
 For the first time, the girl started showing interest in something that had no
meaning and no purpose at all.
 Subsequently, she agreed to the man’s request to weave a coloured ribbon for
her hair.
 The busy girl slowly started admiring and enjoying something which has no
purpose but sheer pleasure.
Describe the author’s view of the
“scheme of things” in Workers’
Paradise.
 The author does not like the “scheme of things”.
 The routine work done by the people (everyday) of the Workers’
Paradise is like a drudgery.
 The author seems to suggest that life becomes boring, dull and
monotony, if there is only work and no recreation.
 Indirectly, the author takes the side of “the man”.
The author presents the man as an idler and calls the other place
“paradise”. Are we supposed to take his words literally or does he
mean something different? Irony is a way of using words and tone to
mean something quite opposite to what is actually being said. Discuss
the author’s use of irony in the story

 The author presents the man as an idler and calls the other place “Paradise” in an
ironic manner.

 Tagore is of the opinion that human beings need to have some recreation.

 After working for some time in this simple and humorous narrative, he very subtly
attacks the people in the “Workers’ Paradise” whose obsession is “work” and “work”.

 Broadly, Tagore also attacks those writers and poets who think that art should have a
purpose, thereby trying to convey the idea that art is valuable as art and the only
objective of art is the pursuit of pure beauty and pleasure.
What does the line “the man never
believed in mere utility” mean?
 The man did not give importance to weigh the usefulness
of his activities but he did what had given him pleasure
What changes occur in the girl’s
behaviour/attitude at the following stages of the
story:
A. Before she agreed to give her pitcher to the
wrong man.
B. After she gave her pitcher to the wrong man.
C. When the wrong man offered to make ribbons
for her
D. When she followed the wrong man out of the
worker’s paradise.
A. The girl of the silent torrent felt sorry for the man because he did not have any
work to do and he was wasting his time. She was still hard working in the sense of
the worker’s paradise.

B. The idler had drawn few lines and colored her pitcher, the girl was fascinated with
work of that man and she spent lot of time in finding meaning. When she asked
the idler about that pitcher then he replied it has no meaning and no purpose.

C. The girl in the beginning, hesitated to give ribbons to idler, later she gave him.
The one who was so attentive and doing her work regularly now she had been
wasting her precious time in those ribbons.

D. The girl had fallen in love with the art and her attitude to life had changed. She
realized there was something worthy beyond those things
THANKYOU