KSEEB Class 10 · English (1st language) · KTBS Revised 2024-25
The Wrong Man in Workers' Paradise
Chapter summary, hard words and model exam answers for Karnataka Board Class 10 English.
Free online summary and notes (Karnataka Board Class 10 English). Read it here, no PDF download needed.
About the author
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), Nobel laureate poet and storyteller. This allegorical prose piece contrasts a joyless utilitarian Workers' Paradise with the human need for beauty, idleness and art.
Summary
In Workers' Paradise nobody speaks an unnecessary word or wastes a moment. People believe that only labour is holy and that beauty, play and idle dreaming are sins against time.
In Workers' Paradise nobody speaks an unnecessary word or wastes a moment. People believe that only labour is holy and that beauty, play and idle dreaming are sins against time.
A young man washed ashore does not fit this world. He loves sunsets, songs and flowers. The elders call him the wrong man in Workers' Paradise because he cannot treat life as a machine.
A young man washed ashore does not fit this world. He loves sunsets, songs and flowers. The elders call him the wrong man in Workers' Paradise because he cannot treat life as a machine.
A girl is sent to keep him from corrupting others. Instead, he teaches her to linger - to listen to a lute, to wear blossoms, to let minutes pass without counting them as loss.
A girl is sent to keep him from corrupting others. Instead, he teaches her to linger - to listen to a lute, to wear blossoms, to let minutes pass without counting them as loss.
She plucks flowers that Paradise forbids as useless. She delays her tasks. For the first time she feels joy that is not measured in finished work. The elders notice that Paradise is changing.
She plucks flowers that Paradise forbids as useless. She delays her tasks. For the first time she feels joy that is not measured in finished work. The elders notice that Paradise is changing.
The council decides the artist must leave before he ruins the discipline of the land. He is told to depart on a boat at dawn. Paradise chooses efficiency over the heart.
The council decides the artist must leave before he ruins the discipline of the land. He is told to depart on a boat at dawn. Paradise chooses efficiency over the heart.
Before he sails, the girl comes to him. She has learned that a world without beauty is barren. She chooses to follow the wrong man - because he is right about what makes a human life worth living.
Before he sails, the girl comes to him. She has learned that a world without beauty is barren. She chooses to follow the wrong man - because he is right about what makes a human life worth living.
Hard words & meanings
| Paradise | Workers' Paradise - a land imagined as perfect through endless labour |
| utilitarian | judging everything only by practical use or output |
| shipwrecked | saved from a wrecked boat onto the shore |
| forbidden | banned by the rules of Paradise |
| discipline | controlled habit of work without deviation |
| corrupting | leading others away from accepted rules |
| barren | lacking growth, beauty or feeling |
| allegorical | a tale whose characters and places stand for ideas |
| idleness | rest or activity not aimed at production - valued by Tagore here |
Model exam answers, grammar & audio
You have read the summary. The board-ready model answers, grammar notes, one-touch audio and writing practice for this chapter are part of Lipi.
Sign in to unlockSee it, understand it, hear it read aloud, then write the exam answer with confidence, for a fraction of a tutor cost.