Summary:
An anonymous narrator tells the story in the first person. He claims that someone who owned Gaiety Land visited Malgudi a while back. From all across Madras, different store owners arrived at Gymkhana Grounds throughout the night. Through games and slide displays, the fair offered a variety of entertainment.
The entrance fee to the store was two annas. The types of performances on display there were shooting ranges, lotteries, performing parrots, and the looping loop in the Dome of Doom. One area of the fair quickly gained much attention. At the fair, numerous prizes were up for grabs, including cameras, sewing machines, pin cushions, and even a road engine. The narrator bought a ticket with the number 1005, so he won a road engine.
It was a prize that he could only take home with first setting up a storage space. After learning about the situation, Gaiety Land's owner consented to keep the road engine until the fair was over. He made it plain that after the fair, the narrator would need to plan to remove the road engine.
The narrator got a notification from the municipality telling him to take the road engine away or face paying rent for it when the fair was over, and the owner packed up the shops. Despite being poor, the narrator paid Rs 30 at Rs 10 per month to keep the road engine in the Gymkhana Grounds. To pay the bills, the narrator was required to hold one or two of his wife's jewels in pledge.
The only thing the narrator can do because he has no use for a road engine is to hold out hope that someone will buy it from him or that he might be able to give it away to someone. He went to the cosmopolitan club's secretary in his community to sell him the road engine. The club's administration declined to purchase the tennis court, even though it had to be rolled every morning. The narrator also approached the municipal chairman, but even though a road engine was required for several municipal projects, the chairman declined to buy it from the narrator.
The road engine wastes the narrator's money on rent while serving no useful purpose. Similar to how his marriage is beginning to deteriorate, the narrator's troubles with the road engine are causing problems for him. Making matters worse, the municipal chief wants the road engine moved, which gives the narrator more trouble as cattle show on the Gymkhana Ground is being organized.
The narrator grows restless. He intends to drive the road engine to a field that belongs to his friend; he requires a driver to deliver the engine to the location. He makes this request to each bus driver he comes across. Apart from them, he requests assistance from a postal engine driver. However, his efforts could have been more successful. Finally, the local temple's priest consents to give the narrator the elephant if it can help him.
The narrator accepts the priest's proposal. He needs a few guys to push the road engine, so he assigns 50 coolies. As a result, the narrator is forced to squander the money he has saved. Additionally, he employs Joseph, who was a bus driver who had been fired from his position. On the condition that he cannot start the road engine, Joseph agrees to operate the engine.
The road engine is being pushed from behind by fifty coolies, the temple elephant is fastened with sturdy ropes, and Joseph sits in the driver's seat. Many people remain to observe what occurred. The vehicle's engine gets going. The narrator thinks it is the most magnificent time of his life. The road engine starts to act once it gets to the road normally.
The road engine is propelled in one direction by the elephant, Joseph makes irregular steering movements, and the road engine is pushed by fifty coolies at will. All of these seem beautiful, but suddenly because of the zig-zag movement of the road engine, it strikes the compound's wall on the opposite side, and some of it is reduced to powder. The crowd roars vigorously in response to this.
The elephant does not like how the humans act, so it yells, presses against the wall, rips the rope, and kicks at the wall, breaking down a section of the broken wall. The fifty coolies fled out of panic, the crowds caused mayhem, and the police arrived and detained the narrator.
The narrator discovers that he must perform certain tasks after being released from prison after a few days. These tasks include fixing a few yards of the wall, paying the fifty coolies' wages, paying Joseph's wages even though he was unable to control the engine, and providing medicine for the temple elephant's injured knee as a result of the injury sustained while the elephant was kicking and breaking the wall. After all, the temple administration would ignore that he didn't use the temple elephant to break the wall.
The narrator becomes very perplexed and cannot find any way out to pay the bills. When people encounter him on the street, they poke fun at him. The narrator then sends his wife to his father-in-law's house and leaves Malgudi on a dry night. A Swamiji appears in Malgudi and demonstrates the actions that might be performed through yoga.
He ate glass utensils, lay on boards with nails pointing up, swallowed sharp nails after biting them, licked hot iron rods, stopped breathing, and kept himself alive underground, among other things. Now he says he may have been run over by a road motor while remaining unharmed. The Swamiji's aide appeared skilled in operating any road motor.
The narrator wishes to capitalize on that particular circumstance. In exchange, he asks Swamiji's aide to drive his road engine to his chosen location. He is ready to lend the Swamiji his road engine. However, the narrator's plans do not pan out because of the limitations placed on the Swami by the magistrate. The narrator has experienced frustration with people in power a second time.
The magistrate decided that the Swamiji could not consume potassium cyanide or drive a road motor over his chest. The Swamiji departs the area, infuriated by the command. The aide goes after him. Then, while still holding the assistant's hand, the narrator pleads with him to drive the road engine to the friend's field. The assistant rejects the narrator's request.
The story's conclusion is equally intriguing. The narrator finally receives assistance; this time, much to his astonishment, it comes from nature. That evening, an earthquake strikes the region. Doors and windows shook, and the mattresses toppled to the ground. The next morning, the narrator visits the location to examine the road engine. He witnesses the unimaginable. The road engine is nowhere to be found.
Out of despair, he yelled. People search for the vehicle's powerplant. After a while, the road engine is discovered in a defunct well. The mouth of the engine was down when it entered the well. The narrator prays to God that he wouldn't encounter any more issues. Nevertheless, when the owner of the abandoned well realized what had transpired, he discovered a humorous aspect.
He made a signal to the narrator to answer. He acknowledged that the narrator had been of great use to him. He said the municipality had repeatedly advised him to close the well since its water was the worst. He added that the cost had prevented him from acting in this area. The road engine, he said, "fits the well like a cork." He merely asked the narrator to keep the road engine in its current location.
The narrator is still determining the proposal. The owner of the road engine then consents to release the narrator from all legal duties and commits to fixing the damaged wall. The fact that he wants the road engine retained in his well is still remembered. These, according to the owner, are adequate compensation.
The road engine has also resulted in a few other expenses; the narrator informed the well's owner. The well's proprietor agreed to cover these costs. The narrator eventually passed by the route after a few months. He turned to face the well. The well's mouth had been sealed, he discovered. He was quite content.
