[O] Supplementary Reader - Summary

 1. How the Camel Got His Hump

The world was new. Animals had begun to work for man. The Camel refused to work. He lived in the middle of the Howling Desert He said “Humph” to anyone who spoke to him The Horse went to the Camel on Monday morning. He asked him to trot like as he did. “Humph” said the Camel to the Horse. The Horse told the man about it. In the same way the Dog and the Ox came and went away. They too got the same reply.

The Man called the Horse, the Dog and the Ox. They were asked to work double time in order to make up the Camel’s work. The three of them got very angry.

They complained to the Djinn against the Camel. The Camel did not work. The Djinn, master of all Deserts assured them that he would set the camel right. The Djinn found the Camel looking at his reflection in the pond water in the Desert. The Djinn asked him to work but the Camel said “humph” only.

The Djinn puffed up the Camel’s beautiful back which turned to be very ugly.  It was his own hump which the Camel had brought upon him by not working. The Djinn ordered the Camel to work. He refused to work.

His hump was a big hurdle. The Djinn told the Camel about the purpose of the hump. The Camel would always be able to work for three days without eating. He could live on his hump. The Djinn asked the Camel to behave properly. The Camel went away to join the three animals. The Camel always has a hump from that day. He has not caught up with his three days. He had missed them at the beginning of the world. He has not yet learnt to behave.

2. Children at Work

Velu, an eleven year old boy, runs away from home.

He wanders around for hours and gets on a train to Chennai without a ticket.

He got off the train at Chennai Central and sat on a bench on the platform.

Tired and hungry, he doesn’t know where to go.

He met Jaya, the ragpicker, who called him roughly.

Velu thought that she was his only hope and followed her.

They walked through the busy streets and saw the Central Jail and reached an auditorium where a wedding was going on.

Velu and Jaya got a vada and a squashy banana to eat.

They walked for half an hour and reached a row of the strangest huts he had ever seen.

Jaya went around to one of them and dumped her sack of paper, plastic and bottles and picked up an empty one.

She threw a pair of old shoes and pushed a sack and a stick into his hands.

In confusion, he asked her “Are there any farms in the city?” and got the answer that there are no farmers here.

He decided to be a ragpicker thinking that he would do it till he finds a better job.