The Lost Child: and Other Stories [Jan 30, 2005] Anand, Mulk Raj by Mulk Raj Anand

The Lost Child: and Other Stories [Jan 30, 2005] Anand, Mulk Raj Reviews

• 
  Niradhip

  The Lost child is a short story about a child and his aspiration, demands and realization. The story is mainly focused on the awareness for parents. The message is, we really don’t understand the true value of parents and take them as granted. The significance of parents is only revealed once they are out of sight and we realize the world is upside down. This is what the little child realized once he got lost in fair. The ending is somewhat bizarre as the reader keep on guessing whether the lost child finally found his parents or not.
• 
  Nihal

  This is a good book for reading if you are a person who enjoys reading the same types of books every time. I had this in my ninth-grade English reader, published by NCERT. Now if NCERT wanted us to read this book, they should've given it to us either fifth or sixth grade. But this is certainly not a book for teens.
  
  So the title of the story makes the plot look simple. There is a poor kid and his family, and they have gone to a fair. The child wants everything in the fair, and his parents won't let him. He gets lost in his own thoughts and ultimately, in the fair. A simple, common plot that depicts the child's affection for his parents over toys. A story even a child could tell. The plot was stretched to make the hundred-word story into a hundred-sentence story.
  
  The second problem I found out was that there were many unnecessary new words. I mean, it wasn't tough to understand, but the additional words and metaphors were just too irritating.
  
  Overall rating - 2.5 stars. Not sure if everyone will like it or hate it, but in my opinion, it is an extended story with an average outcome.
  
  
  
  
  
  If you want to read it click here -
  https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php?iem...
  
• 
  Sneh Pradhan

  It's Beautiful ... the genre of short stories from Indian writers ... Leaves a lump of Sweet longing and tugs at your Heartstrings . Reminded me of the atmosphere of another brilliant short story by Premchand , "Chimta " . Although this story could have a more satisfactory ending ... it succeeds in evoking the poetry of the atmosphere and childhood .
• 
  Rohan Kalia

  I hate to put down the very harsh words I’m about to put down for one of my most beloved authors, no less for one of his most popular books (‘The Lost Child' invariably appears in every anthology I’ve seen with his works in it).
  
  These were some of the most uninteresting and poorly written stories that I’ve read from the author. Especially ‘The Terrorist’, which prompted me to write this negative review. The story, which is clearly about Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt, puts them in very poor light and for no reason at all; I could find no artistic expression in the narrative whatsoever. The author goes out of his way to bend well-known facts (or maybe they were not as well known back then?) - like that the explosive was not intended to kill or the effect the pamphlets and the slogans had on the audience. I could not find literature to shed light on the author’s views of the revolutionaries and the HSRA as I was very heartbroken after reading this story and wished there was some error in my reading. I still hope to be corrected on my reading of what the author tried to express here.
  
  That said, it is unfair to judge a book by one of its stories. It does contain some gems from the author. I thoroughly enjoyed both ‘Lottery’ and ‘Mahadev and Parvati’, which I would individually give a 5-star rating each. And ‘Lullaby’ is probably my favourite of all the short stories I’ve ever read, though I’d already read it long back in the ‘Greatest Short Stories’ anthology of his stories.
• 
  Halin

  I chose this short story for my literature assignment. I had to analyse this short story as a modernist one. It was great, as in this work is laden with modernist features such as materialism, alienation, and a variety of symbols and imagery. Most importantly, the story gives the message that man's desires and needs keep changing every day just like passing pleasures. The story was published in 1934, and Mulk Raj Anand has done a good work in not giving a fairytale like story with a moral in the end. He rather has written a realistic story that portrays the world as it is, seen through the eyes of a small child.
• 
  Anagha Jahgirdar

  The Story the lost child, is a great read because it has many emotions, hidden in balloons and the ways the child walks, but where? Anarchical urban politics can bring the same trauma of losing a parent/s and finding one's own way being back to child's mind. Everyone has to go through that. At some point in their life. In India's fairs in every village perhaps this is the example given to the other lucky kids. Never lose hope or? Get lost? Where? Just with parents or? someone's love about those mountains and forests? Or just self identity crisis or quarter life crisis, i got a dog pup, it gets lost and comes back to me. What is this?
• 
  Hajerah Umar

  tugs at your heartstrings - the only thing you want when you can have everything is the people who could give it all to you.
• 
  Sagarika Shrote

  A beautiful story with a beautiful moral :)
• 
  Tushar Mondal

  The lost Child