The Lost Child Summary

Author : Mulk Raj Anand

Type: literary Story

Subject: The Lost Child is the story of a small child who gets lost in a fair.He had gone with his parents to the fair but loses them when he gets engrossed in looking at a roundabout swing.

The story highlights the bond of love and affection that the child shares with his parents. Before losing them he had been demanding different things like sweets, balloons, flowers, swings, etc.Once he loses them, he is picked up by a stranger.The stranger tries to quieten the child by offering him all these things that he had demanded from his parents but the child does not want them anymore. He wants his parents first.

Charcters: Child, Mother, Father

Summary

In this story, a child visits a spring fair with his parents.The place was crowded with people, and there were different kinds of stalls set up at the fair.The child was overjoyed when he saw the toys in the shops and pleaded with his parents to buy him a toy.But his father gave him a stern look upon hearing his request.Meanwhile, his mother asked him to see the mustard field, which looked like a field of gold.A group of dragonflies were fluttering their colourful wings over the mustard flowers.The child tried catching one of those colourful insects, but his mother called him to the footpath, and he ran towards his parents gaily. He heard the cooing of doves and picked up some petals in the grove.But again, as his parents called him, he made his way towards them while he was running around the banyan tree.

When the child reached the fair with his parents, he saw a sweetmeat seller calling out ‘gulab-jamun, rasagulla, burfi, jalebi’.His mouth watered seeing the tasty sweets, and he asked his father to buy him a sweet.But no one paid heed to his request.As he went ahead with his parents, he heard a flower-seller selling ‘a garland of gulmohur’.He saw the basket of flowers and wanted to buy a garland.However, he knew his parents would not buy him the flowers, so he moved on with them.Then, he noticed a balloon-man selling rainbow-coloured balloons. He wanted to buy those balloons but he knew that his parents would refuse, considering he was comparatively older to play with those colourful balloons.Hence, he walked past the balloon-man with his parents.

As he moved forward, the child noticed a snake-charmer who was playing the flute to a snake coiled in a basket.He went closer to the snake-charmer, but he knew his parents would disapprove of his listening to such coarse music. So, he walked further and saw a merry-go-round. He observed that many people were enjoying the ride and called out to his parents that he wanted to take a ride.But there was no reply from them. When he turned around, he couldn’t find his parents nearby.The child desperately looked out for his parents, but they were nowhere to be found. He understood that he was lost, so he started sobbing.

The child gave out a loud, deep cry, and tears started rolling down his eyes as he searched for his parents everywhere.He cried loudly and ran to and fro, but he couldn’t find his parents anywhere.The place was very crowded, and he ran to the shrine to see if he could find them there.Unfortunately, he was lost, and as he was little, he went ahead, crossing many people who were huge in size.

Suddenly, a man heard his cry and lifted him up in his arms.The child was fortunate that he was picked up by an affectionate man.The kind man asked him about his parents, but the child replied sobbingly, not knowing their whereabouts. The man tried to pacify the child and asked him if he would like to take a ride on the merry-go-round. But the child replied that he wanted his parents only.Soon, the man took the child to the balloon-man, sweet shop and flower-seller and asked if he would like to buy any of those, but the young boy refused.He was adamant that he wanted nothing but his parents. The child turned his face away from all those things which he wanted to buy earlier.The child only shouted, ‘I want my mother, I want my father!’