Chapter 2 Summary

In Chapter 2, Raju continues to reminisce about his boyhood in Malgudi. The character talks in vivid detail about the arrival of the railway. After Raju calls another boy a foul name, the boy runs and tells Raju's father. When questioned, Raju admits learning the bad word from the workmen who are building the railway. Raju's father decides to send Raju to school the next day. Raju is extremely unhappy with his father's decision. Rather than sending Raju to the more prestigious Albert Mission School, Raju's father chooses for his son to attend a local "pyol" school. The name "pyol" school signifies that the children are taught while sitting on the teacher's "pyol" or front porch.

One day, the boys sneak over the threshold and into the teacher's house and watch him prepare a meal in his kitchen. After chasing the boys from the...