The Boy who Broke the Bank by Ruskin Bond (Summary & Analysis)

 

The Boy

who Broke the Bank

by Ruskin Bond

(Summary & Analysis) 

 

Ruskin Bond was born in 1934 in Himachal Pradesh. He went to school at Bishop Cotton School, Shimla. He started his career as a writer at 20. His first novel, ‘The Room on the Roof’ was published in 1956. This novel won him Llewellyn Rhys Memorial prize. ‘The Neighbour’s Wife’ and other stories (1968) is his fictional work. The movie ‘Junoon’ is based on one of his stories. He has written many books for children. He was fiction editor of Imprint for many years. He lived in Mussoorie for twelve years, and loved the mountainous environment

Summary

In this story “The Boy who Broke the Bank”, Nathu, a central character, is working as Sweeper in Pipalnagar bank, which is owned by Seth Govind Ram. Nathu belonged to middle class family and still he has not been paid his payment by the manager of the bank. How this news spreads and what are the consequences caused by this news, is the story.

Seth Govind Ram owns a bank at Pipalngar town. The bank is financially very sound and has won the trust of the depositors. Nathu is a sweeper in the bank. One day, while sweeping the steps of the bank, he grumbles about the irregular payment of his salary by the bank authorities. Sitaram, the washer man’s son learns about Nathu’s complaints and tries to get him a new job. His customer named Mrs. Srivastava needed a sweeper. On hearing the fact not properly, Mrs. Srivastava gossiped that the bank was not able to give the salary to the boy.

Mrs. Srivastava tells her friend Mrs. Bushan that the bank hasn’t been paying salaries to its employees. Mrs. Bhushan adds her own share of color to the news and tells her husband Mr. Bhushan. She tells him about the poor condition of the bank by saying, Seth Govind Ram’s bank cannot pay its employers.

Mr. Bhushan reveals this talk to Mr. Kishore, who owns a photographic shop and Mr. Kishore feels happy after hearing this as he does not have any account in the bank but he informs his neighborhood Deepchand, who is having a barber shop. He says to Deepchand, that “The Pipalnagar bank is about to collapse and also suggested him, if he had account in that bank than get it as soon as possible.”

Deepchand, a barber, was shaving an old gentle man and was shocked and out of the shock he cuts the right ear of his customer. The customer was in pain because of two reasons, out of that one was, that Deepchand cut his ear and he was worried about the bank as soon as he heard. He rushes out to the merchant shop to dial the number of Seth Govind Ram but Seth Govind ram was not at his home. He was in holidays and in Kashmir. Deepchand was informed by the old gentle man, when came to know about Seth Govind Ram’s status.

One incident adds more humor in the situation. The beggar namely old Ganpath when heard this news, he started leaping to his feet. This sight surprised everyone because no one had ever seen Ganpath walking on his foot with the speed. He started running and the great surprise, is he had been begging to the village people for so many years so he had thousand rupees in savings.

Now everyone started gathering in front of the bank and started hurling on the glass windows of the bank. The manager pleased to the village people to come on the next day and stated, that the bank has enough amounts to pay them but they did not stop and damaged the most parts of the bank. Nathu arrives to the bank on the next day and finds everything demolished and his last dialogues are “Who would have thought the bank would collapse!” but still, he is waiting for his salary, believing, that it would be paid so soon and started to curse the customers of the bank who made it damaged.

Analysis

Through the story “The Boy Who Broke the Bank” Ruskin Bond tries to convey the appropriate way of listening and at the same time, he teaches the best way to cultivate listening skill. The message, which he wants to deliver through this story is ‘Listening is the beginning of the understanding.’  If the manager had listened to the problem of Nathu, the entire mess would have never happened.

Suspense and humour are of the prominent literary devices employed by Ruskin Bond in the story ‘The Boy Who Broke the Bank’. Suspense is one of the distinctive features of detective fiction. In this story, suspense is not created for the readers because the readers know an unintentional murmuring of Nathu, a bank sweeper. It is created for the characters belonging to the story. The characters in the story do not know the real cause of non-payment of Nathu’s salary. This leads them to think otherwise. All are misled and a sound bank collapsed. Ruskin Bond also employs humour, which emerges out of misunderstanding.