Sunday, February 7, 2010

THE RED HANDKERCHIEF

Premise:This is no personal experience or persuasion about anything.Its merely a story ,which was a lesson for standard-II kids by NCERT during the year,as i retrieve.. 1994-95.


The story sets about with,a doctor getting an emergency call at midnight from the hospital saying that a young lad is injured very badly on his head.The
night was shuddery as it was raining intemperately.To exasperate,heavy rain played along with thunder and lightening..rather a voilent storm.Though unwilling to go out of the house in that dreadful condition,the solemn promise that he had taken few years back suddenly kind of evokes his
professional-ethical- moral sense.The doc takes out his car and starts driving towards the hospital.As anticipated,it becomes almost impossible for him to drive when he sees that he has
covered half the distance nearly at 2 'o' clock.Somehow,he manages to drive another half km and applies break abruptly when he realises that someone is
standing in middle of the road gesturing him to stop.Though imperceptible by the eye with those spoilt street lights,the doc could make out that the person
wore a RED HANDKERCHIEF around his neck,had a lil scar on his forehead,and a knife showing which ;he pulls out the doc outside and takes his car
away,without even giving anytime to the doc to explain his situation.On top of that he robs all the money,watch,chain and leaves the place.Poor doc starts walking towards the hospital and reaches there early morning.The nurse comes running and says "Alas!! the boy is dead; doctor"..To give a
confirmation,doctor checks the boy's state..When he comes out to talk to his parents he realises that the boy's father was none other than 'the man with the
red hand kerchief'..
The boy's father is suppose to be a thief.Now,its thought provoking whether to give a statement that people who do bad deeds have to undergo the
consequence of that..since the parental love for his child somewhere comes in between..


“Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge" (Plato)

28 comments:

  1. I wonder if the children even understood any of it back then... but great story.. :D

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  2. You know what?? I Googled 'The Red Handkerchief' because I suddenly remembered school days! I even remember the picture for this lesson in the text book. I found your blog! Thanks a million for sharing this! A brilliant story!

    Thanks again!

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    1. thank you so much for goin thr' my blog!

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    2. I vividly remember this story I have been searching on the net for this. Now I am 25, I studied it in my 2nd standard but still remember it. Please post author name also.

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    3. Same here , randomly remembered the name and googled it... I'm 33 btw

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  3. yeah, remembered my school days. But forgot the writer. Will you plz post the Authors name, for reference.

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    1. sorry! i too don't remember the author's name..

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    2. Soo true.even I read this in school days and googled it as I was just curious about this story.it seemed soo intriguing back then.

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  4. @ all- i have replied to comments way too late! sorry! i had almost stopped blogging.. somehow remembered my 1st blogging venture.. n came back to look at it :)

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  5. I am yet another guy, getting nostalgic about the old stories we read. I believe this one was not in an NCERT book. I think it was in a series of books called "The Gulmohur Reader". We read it till class VI in our school and came across some wonderful stories and poems in it. The book used to have binary photos made of tiny dots, some of which (to be frank) were rather scary looking to me.

    Those stories and poems that I can remember now are "St. Francis and the Wolf", "Hiawatha", "The Highway Man", "The Brook"... I don't think we were even aware back then, but our minds were being molded into what we eventually turned out to be. And now, we find ourselves looking for subtle ways to remember the magic of those days.

    Thanks for keeping the memories alive.

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    1. You are absolutely right. It was The Gulmohar Reader. I remembered the name of the story and the illustration, but nothing else. I couldn't find the story anywhere and thus started googling the description. Came across this post. I would love to come across those stories again. I would also like to share them with all. It's not just nostalgia, those stories were special and indeed made the person we are today...

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  6. Thank you brother for putting it here.

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  7. The gulmohar book stories were so impactful that they have stayed with us in a way that all of us are googling it.This shows that the real purpose if the story was indeed achieved.

    I remember few more stories like the paper palace,the pigmie,stone soup etc.It would be nice if aayone can share the names or the stories of what they remember from the Gulmohar book.

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    1. The Thunderstorm, Christ bread loaf, the red handkerchief, lincoln's beard, Alexander's Horse, The Black Beauty, The great escape, Pip, sindbad, Jim corbett, sweetest love i do not go, the fun they had, the blue carbuncle, the luncheon, Dinosaurs, palanquin bearers, the tiger in the tunnel, the art of packing, maggie cuts her hair, the solitary reaper

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    2. can anyone share the story of paper palace? what happens in the end? I am looking if i can get this book..seems not possible

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  8. write the grade of the gulmohar book from which it is.

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  9. Read the full story here

    https://books.google.co.in/books?id=OsPanavUeB0C&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=the+red+handkerchief+doctor&source=bl&ots=7nvRPnNZpM&sig=K7LACWCzQwCVZ0WsIyrbmMBM22M&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjNwL2t5qzcAhVKOI8KHfO4CykQ6AEwC3oECAEQAQ#v=onepage&q=the%20red%20handkerchief%20doctor&f=false

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  10. I remember this story I was 6 that time when our teacher summarized it to us..

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  11. I remember you sir brian.it will never erase.i recall and feel school time

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  12. Can't tell you how happy it makes me to read it once again.. I have been looking for it so long. Same here I first read it in my Grade 2 text book(Gulmohar)

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  13. If I remember it well, it was from gulmohar reader. It also has a story of yellow river, a poem "I remember" and "David is lost" kind of story. Can some one please suggest or share the PDF if any. Love from Nepal

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    1. David is lost was the first chapter in gulmohar reader as I can recall. I am 44 years right now but still have a good memory of the story where this Little chap moves to a new house with his mother and then goes to school and forgets his way back Luckily people help him reach his home and also make him remember his address henceforth

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  14. I don't know why but this story has always been on my mind for like ages now i remember reading this in class 2 or 3 but this story... I remember every detail of it leading up to the end, i really love this story as it also reminds me of my childhood.

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  15. Suddenly after so many years (25years), yesterday I was able to recall this story with its title out of nowhere and when I googled it I found this blog. Surprised to see so many people reading this even today. Its overwhelming :)

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  16. Can you please share story of 'The paper palace', I googled the name but cannot find anywhere.

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