Iswaran the Storyteller by R.K. Laxman
Quick answer: Iswaran the Storyteller by R.K. Laxman, Class 9 Moments: summary with the ending, Mahendra and Iswaran, the elephant and the ghost, themes and exam answers.
A cook who reads Tamil thrillers by day tells his employer a story every evening, and one of them, about a woman's ghost on full-moon nights, costs the employer his job. R.K. Laxman, the cartoonist behind the Common Man, wrote Iswaran the Storyteller as a comic piece; it sits third in the Class 9 reader Moments.
The story in brief
Mahendra, a bachelor supervisor moved from construction site to site, is looked after by his cook Iswaran, who conjures meals from nowhere and fills the evenings with stories told like the Tamil thrillers he devours. His tale of a mad elephant from a timber yard, which he claims to have felled as a schoolboy with a blow to its third toenail, ends with a nod to Japanese martial arts and no proof.
One night Iswaran says the site was once a burial ground and that on full-moon nights he sees the ghost of a woman with matted hair holding a foetus. Mahendra scolds him but starts checking the window before bed. On a later full-moon night he wakes to a moan and sees a dark shape clutching a bundle. He blames imagination, but next morning Iswaran cheerfully says he heard Mahendra moaning at the ghost. Mahendra resigns that day.
The characters
Themes and meaning
Exams want the power of storytelling and the fragility of scepticism at night. The sharper reading: the elephant story is planted as proof that Iswaran lies for effect, Mahendra knows it, and the ghost story still works on him. Knowing a storyteller exaggerates is no protection once the lights are out.
The craft
The turn is the morning after, when Iswaran claims to have heard Mahendra moaning; that line makes the ghost either real or a servant's joke, and Laxman refuses to say which. The elephant episode is the rehearsal that lets the ending land. Writory's short story contest marks structure among five criteria, and this is what that mark rewards: an early scene that teaches the reader how to read the late one.
For the exam
Summary in 100 words: Mahendra, a bachelor supervisor at construction sites, is looked after by his cook Iswaran, who is also a gifted storyteller. Iswaran narrates everything with suspense, including a tale of felling a mad elephant with a blow to its toenail. One evening he says the site was once a burial ground and describes a female ghost holding a foetus, seen on full-moon nights. Mahendra dismisses the story but grows uneasy. On a full-moon night he wakes to a moan and sees a dark figure at the window. When Iswaran refers to the ghost next morning, Mahendra resigns and leaves at once.
What writers can take from this
- Answer the ghost question with both possibilities and cite the morning conversation as the deciding ambiguity.
- Use the elephant episode to show Iswaran's technique: build-up, climax, no proof.
- For character questions on Mahendra, stress the contrast between his daytime scepticism and his night-time checking of the window.
- Writers: show your unreliable narrator lying about something harmless before you let him talk about something frightening.
- End a ghost story on a line of dialogue, not on the apparition.
Try it yourself
Write a story in which a character who is known to exaggerate tells two tales, one absurd and one frightening, and let the listener's disbelief in the first fail to protect them from the second.
Questions
Why did Mahendra resign from his job in Iswaran the Storyteller?
He saw a dark figure holding a bundle outside his window on a full-moon night, and the next morning Iswaran spoke as if the ghost were real. Shaken, Mahendra resigned and left the site that day.
How did Iswaran describe the elephant incident?
He claimed that as a schoolboy he faced an escaped mad elephant, struck its third toenail with a cane, and the animal collapsed. He credited a Japanese martial art without explaining how it worked.
What is the theme of Iswaran the Storyteller?
The story shows how storytelling can override reason. Mahendra knows Iswaran exaggerates yet still succumbs to fear, and Laxman leaves open whether the ghost was real, imagined or staged.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
Enter a Writory story contest
Enter the Writory Short Story Contest and have your own story read and scored out of 100. Entries close 25 November. That first entry makes you a Writorian.