Class 5 English Chapter 8: The Decision of the Panchayat

Can you sell a well and keep the water?

Meera's grandfather tells this story every summer, and he always stops in the middle. A man sells his well. The next morning he stands beside it and says the water inside is still his own. Grandfather looks around the room. Now then, he says, what would you do about that?

A farmer who worked hard

The farmer in the story rose early and stopped late. He owned two small fields. Year by year he put a little money aside. At last he had enough to buy a third field. Things were going well for him, and a person whose life is going well like that has prospered.

A field with a well beside it

The new field had one great advantage. A well stood right next to it. No crop grows without water, so the farmer wanted that well badly. It belonged to the man on the other side of the boundary. The farmer paid him for it and thought the matter was closed.

The neighbour makes a plan

The neighbour was clever in a tricky way. The word for that is cunning. He had taken the money, and now he wanted to keep the water as well. So he thought out a plan that used only words. It needed no lock, no wall and no fight.

Blocked at his own well

Next morning the farmer walked over with his buckets. The neighbour was already standing there. He would not let the farmer draw a single pot. He claimed that the sale had covered the well alone. The water in it, he said, still belonged to him.

The farmer asks for help

The farmer did not shout and did not push. He went to the village chief instead and told her the whole story. She listened. Then she fixed a day for the panchayat to meet. To summon people is to order them to come, and both men were summoned.

Under the banyan tree

On the day, the elders sat under the old banyan tree at the heart of the village. Most of the villagers came too. A quarrel in a village is nobody's secret. Everyone wanted to hear how such an odd claim could possibly be settled.

Both men speak

The farmer told the gathering what had happened. The chief then turned to the neighbour and asked him for his reason. He repeated his claim word for word. Elders and villagers tried to talk sense into him. He would not budge, and a person like that is adamant.

The elders put their heads together

The panchayat members talked quietly among themselves. Then they rose to give their judgment. The villagers rose as well, out of respect. The chief began by agreeing with the neighbour: yes, only the well had been sold. The cunning man smiled.

The ruling turns the trick around

Then came the second half. If the water is yours, the chief said, you cannot store it in another man's well. Take it out today, or use every drop today. Water cannot be carried off like a sack of grain. From tomorrow it belongs to whoever owns the well.

A fine and a sorry

The farmer gave a shout of joy. The neighbour understood at last that his trick had led nowhere. He paid a fine. He also had to apologise, which means to say sorry for a wrong. The villagers went home praising the good sense of their elders.

Why we still tell it

The elders did not call the neighbour a liar. They simply took his own words and followed them to the end. Good sense used like this is called wisdom. The story says something quiet and useful: a trick built out of words can be undone by words.

Scenario:

Ishaan says the panchayat was clever. Rekha says it was fair, which is not the same thing. The seller had sold the well but claimed the water was still his. The elders let his own words stand. If the water is yours, they said, then take it away or pay rent for keeping it in another man's well. Their teacher asks the class about the well itself. A well four metres across and ten metres deep holds about one hundred and twenty thousand litres. The children see why the trick was worth trying. Rekha's point stands. The ruling used the seller's own claim against him.

Analysis:

The elders added no new rule. They agreed with the seller completely, and agreeing with him was what defeated him.

Activity:

Find out how deep a well or borewell near your home is. Write three sentences about who uses it and how.

The banyan is the national tree of India, and one tree can shade a whole meeting.

A banyan drops roots from its branches, and each one thickens into a new trunk.

The four turns of the story — Buy, Block, Ask, Rule — The farmer buys. The neighbour blocks his way. The farmer asks for help. The panchayat rules.

Two tricky words — A cunning fox, an adamant rock — A fox is clever in a sly way. A rock will not move at all, and neither will an adamant person.

A note that went wrong

Ishan left a note for his cousin: meet me the gate lunch. His cousin read it twice and gave up. Which gate? Before lunch or after it? Two tiny words had gone missing. Put them back and the note works: meet me at the gate after lunch. Small words do heavy work.

What a preposition does

A preposition sits in front of a naming word. It pins that thing to a place or to a moment. The bucket is on the wall. The bucket is under the wall. Nothing else in the sentence changed, yet the picture in your head moved.

Words that answer where

In, on, under, beside, near, between and at all point to a place. A frog sits in the bucket. A cat sits on the bucket. A stone lies under it. Try each one with the same bucket and watch the picture change every time.

Words that answer when

Before, after, at, by and during point to a time instead. We ate before the rain. We ran home after the rain. The lights came on at seven. Every one of these answers the question when, not where.

The same word, both jobs

Some of these words work in both places. At the gate is a place. At seven is a time. In the box is a place. In April is a time. So ask the question before you decide: where, or when?

Words that pick their own partner

Certain words insist on one preposition and refuse the rest. We wait for a bus, never wait at a bus. A book belongs to me. Nobody laughs at a kind act. Learn these in pairs, the way you learn the words themselves.

A tiny ending with a big meaning

Now for a different tool. An ending added to a word is a suffix. The suffix less means without. Add it to a root word and you get a fresh word: harm becomes harmless, sleep becomes sleepless, taste becomes tasteless.

Slide in the word without

Here is the test. Put without in front of the root and read it aloud. Spotless equals without spots. Endless equals without end. Homeless equals without a home. If that reading makes sense, you have understood the new word.

One word to be careful with

Priceless does not mean without any price. It means so valuable that no price is big enough. Worthless is its opposite, and means worth nothing at all. A grandmother's ring can be priceless, and a torn note is worthless.

Order words hold a story together

When you retell events, the reader needs signposts. First, then, next, after that and finally are those signposts. They say which thing happened before which. Without them a retelling turns into a heap.

Sorting a jumbled story

Given a jumbled set of events, hunt for clues. Somebody must arrive before they can sit down. A pot must be filled before it is carried. Find the event that could only come first, then follow the chain.

Why all this matters

Prepositions place your facts. The suffix less builds new words out of old ones. Order words guide your reader. Three small tools, and each one makes your writing easier for somebody else to follow.

Scenario:

Devi retells the panchayat story for the school magazine. Her first draft jumps about. The elders decided. The neighbour was greedy. A farmer bought a well. Her teacher asks her to add order words. Devi writes it again. First, a farmer bought a well. Then his neighbour claimed the water. At last, the elders gave their ruling. Now the story moves forward properly. The magazine allows only one hundred words. Devi counts hers and finds one hundred and thirty. She cuts thirty by removing facts she had given twice. She keeps one word she likes, helpless, because less means without.

Analysis:

Order words carry a reader through time. Counting the words is a different discipline, and cutting thirty of them made the retelling sharper.

Activity:

Retell any story you know in exactly one hundred words. Begin three sentences with first, then and at last. Count your words.

Title:

Move the eraser, change the word

What You Notice:

Only the small word changes from sentence to sentence, yet each sentence shows a different picture.

English has about a hundred prepositions, and nearly all of them are very short.

The suffix less is a cousin of the word loose, which once meant free of.

Where or when — Place or clock — Ask the little word a question. If it points to a place, it answers where. If it points to a clock, it answers when.

The meaning of less — Less means without — Slide the word without in front of the root. Sleepless becomes without sleep, and it always works.

Three jobs in one lesson

Something interesting has happened in your street. Now you have three jobs. Tell a friend about it in a letter. Listen while somebody else tells their story, and hold on to the facts. Then speak up about what would be fair. Writing, listening, speaking. Each one needs a little practice.

What a friendly letter looks like

A friendly letter is not a form. It is a voice on paper. Put the date at the top. Greet your reader by name on the next line. Then write your news in short paragraphs. End with a warm line, and sign with your own name.

The middle is the story

The middle carries the events, in the order they happened. Say what began the trouble. Say what each person did. Say how it ended. Two or three short paragraphs are plenty. A reader who was not there should still follow every step.

Feelings belong in a letter too

A letter is warmer than a report. So say how you felt. I was worried. I could not sleep. I shouted with joy. One honest sentence of feeling makes a letter worth keeping.

Speaking: what happens next?

Sometimes a story stops before the end and you are asked to finish it. Look hard at what you already know. Who wants what? Who has the power to decide? Then invent an ending that fits those facts. An ending out of nowhere will not convince anybody.

Speaking: being fair to two friends

Here is a real problem. You have one spare paint box. Two friends both need it. Shouting will not help, and giving it to the louder one is not fair. Think of a rule that both can accept before you decide anything.

Three fair rules

One: share by turns, half the period each. Two: use it together, since one box has many colours. Three: let a slip of paper choose, and take turns next time. A fair rule is one you would accept if you were on the other side.

Listening: two ears, one pencil

When a passage is read aloud you hear it once. So do not try to write every word. Keep your pencil for names, numbers and places. Those are the details that slip away first.

A passage to listen to

Here is one to try. Lakshmi Amma sells vegetables in Kolar. For thirty years she has also settled small quarrels in her lane. Her way is simple. Each person speaks without being stopped. Then she repeats what she has heard, and asks if she has it right. Only then does she suggest something.

Answering the questions

Now test yourself on that passage. Where does she sell vegetables? How long has she settled quarrels? What is the first thing she does? The facts you need were names, a number and an order. That is why you listened for them.

Guessing a hard word

A passage may hold a word you have never met. Do not stop. Read the whole sentence and the one after it. If a passage says the noise faded and then vanished, you can tell that vanished means gone. The neighbours of a word explain it.

Why the three go together

You listen to a quarrel. You speak about what would be fair. Then you write it down so that nobody forgets. In the story of the well, all three happened under one tree.

Scenario:

One summer the open wells around Tekada in Maharashtra went dry. Eleven families were left sharing a single borewell. For a week there were quarrels at dawn. Everybody claimed to have come first. Then the gram panchayat met and tried something plain. Each family was given one slot of twenty minutes. The slots were chalked on a board beside the pump. Households with cattle were given two slots. Animals drink far more water than people do. A retired teacher kept the board. Any family that missed a slot moved to the end. Class 5 children checked the board every evening. They rubbed out the old marks. The quarrels stopped within four days.

Analysis:

Listening to both sides, writing a plain timetable and speaking about it in public turned a daily quarrel into a rule everybody could check.

Activity:

Make a one week timetable for something shared at home, such as a cycle or a shelf. Write it out and pin it up where everybody can see it.

India's postal service carries letters to some villages on foot, by boat and by camel.

A letter that thanks somebody is often kept for years, long after a message is deleted.

The parts of a letter — Greet, Tell, End — Greet your reader by name. Tell what happened, in order. End with a warm line and your own name.

Listening well — Names, numbers, order — Those three are what listening questions ask about almost every time. Catch them first and the rest follows.