Read A Tiger for Malgudi for Free Online

the slightest upset and he flounces out, let him... I don’t care. Only animals seem to be fit for his company.’
    He told himself, ‘Women are impossible. Worse than twenty untamed jungle creatures on one’s hands at a time ...’
     
Captain had gone to the Collector’s office to renew some petty licence. He pricked up his ears when he heard the word ‘tiger’. He was about to leave but halted his steps, remembering another of Dadhaji’s injunctions. ‘If you hear the word “tiger”, don’t leave. Stay back and find out.’And he was hearing the word ‘tiger’not once but several times through the babble of four villagers. ‘This is our twentieth visit and you always keep saying, “Come tomorrow” ... Are you playing with us? You are waiting to see us and our cattle eaten by the tiger and digested before you can think of saving us.’
    ‘Every time we have to walk from our homes ten miles for a bus to reach here,’said another.
    The clerk was irritated and said, ‘No one has invited you.’
    ‘Then why did the officer promise help?’
    ‘Ask him. Why should I answer that question?’
    ‘Yes, if we see him. As it is, we meet only the Pujari, not the God in the sanctum, and the Pujari denies what the God promises.’And they laughed at their own quip.
    ‘This is not his only business, he has more important work than listening to your stories.’
    ‘Ah, stories, you think! Come and spend a night in our village and you will know.’
    ‘My boss will inspect your village ...’
    ‘When? After the tiger has had his fill?’
    ‘There is no tiger and he will not eat you,’said the clerk. ‘The officer will come on inspection next month ...’
    ‘Next month! Next month! You have been saying it for months while the tiger is fattening himself on our cattle.’
    ‘You get out of my office! Have you no eyes to see that I am busy now?’He beat his brow in despair. ‘This is a cursed seat. No peace. I’m not allowed to clear these papers. Tomorrow when the boss comes, he will bawl his head off.’He lost his temper suddenly. ‘What do you take me for? Government office is not your nuptial chamber, for you to demand things. I’ll call the police if you are going to be riotous. Mind your manners. The officer will come on inspection to your village and then take necessary steps. Till then you must wait.’
    Captain watched them as they left the place grumbling, but afraid to curse openly. The clerk got absorbed in his files once again, muttering, ‘The officer is always on tour, what can I do if everyone comes and bothers me? Am I the officer drawing a fat salary?’This was addressed to the Captain, who was at the door, and he just said, soothingly, ‘Of course, you are not,’and followed the villagers out.
    He followed them a little distance, and threw out a general question in order to attract their attention, ‘Are you the headman of the village?’At which they turned round and stopped.
    ‘How did you know us, sir?’
    He introduced himself. ‘You see that circus there - that’s mine and I often come to this office on business. Not bad fellows at this office but they delay. That poor fellow, he can’t help it. Only his master has to do things...’
    ‘Every time we come, we bring him some offering - cucumbers or sugar cane, pumpkin, melon, or anything. Never see him bare-handed, and yet he is unhelpful.’
    Captain made himself agreeable by listening to them patiently. All that they seemed to want was a hearing. They did not know who he was, but his dress - trousers, bush shirt and the sun-hat - impressed them, and he spoke to them in Tamil, which endeared him to them. He treated them to coloured drinks from a wayside stall, while eliciting information about the tiger. He invited them to come up and see his circus. ‘I have work to do, next two days, and then I’ll come to your village. If you help me I’ll catch the tiger. You will have to show me where he lives.’
    ‘We don’t know,