"The Lost Child" by Mulk Raj Anand

 

The short story “The Lost Child” was written by Mulk Raj Anand. He is one of the important Indian writers in English. The story narrates a festival, the location, the crowd, a boy's attraction towards the shops and finally the transformation of his preferences. The story has an open ending, where the readers have the liberty to decide the climax of the story.

The story begins with the description of the festival of spring. A large group of people were moving towards the fair. Some people walked, some rode on horses and some travelled on bamboo and bullock carts based on their economic condition. A small boy was going to the festival with his parents happily. The boy was attracted by the toys on the way and his parents hurried him when he slowed down. Unable to control his desire, the boy expressed his wish for the toys, knowing well his parents would not buy them for him. His father looked at him angrily; his father's cruel look and his mother's affectionate distraction distracted him from the toy.

They entered into a mustard field and which looked like a melting gold under the morning sun, as the field lasted for several miles. The boy ran towards his parents happily, and soon he was attracted by insects and worms. The parents asked the boy to rush up and rest under the shade of the trees. The place was sheltered with banyan, jack, jaman, neem, champak and scrisha trees. The boy was collecting the falling petals and was immediately attracted by the doves. The parents again hurried the boy to follow them and they entered into a footpath which led to the fair.

On the way to the temple, many shops attracted the boy. The vendor of sweets hawked the list of sweets. The child looked longingly at the ‘burfi’, his favourite sweet and, knowing his parents' denial and blaming him as greedy, he refrained from asking for the sweet.  There was also a seller of multi- coloured flowers and the boy looked at a garland with wonder. Next to him, there was a balloon-seller who sold colourful balloons. He again controlled himself without asking, as they would say that he was too big to play with.  A snake charmer was playing a flute to a cobra, which swayed its head to the music, but he moved away, thinking that his parents would scold him for listening to the forbidden music.

A merry-go-round was spinning and people enjoyed the ride by making joyful sounds.  The boy, unable to control his desire, finally, with courage, asked his parents to allow him to take a ride. As he did not receive any reply, he searched for his parents and realised that he had been separated from them. He suddenly felt abandoned, and he ran here and there looking for his parents. He tried to enter the crowded temple in search of his parents. Someone picked up the boy from the crowd and asked about his parents. The question left the boy in tears, and he started crying, "Father! Mother!”

That man took the boy near the shops to console him. He moved towards the juggler and wanted the boy to listen to the music and forget his sadness. Again, the child rejected the offer and cried, "Father! Mother!” He then moved to the balloon shop and offered to buy balloons, but the boy rejected them. When the man offered to buy flowers and ‘burfi’ to make the child calm, the child only began crying more and more, asking for his parents. The author shows that the very things the child wanted to buy earlier were not more important than his parents.