Chapter Notes and Summary
Part I Jumman Shaikh and Algu Chowdhry were very good friends. They looked after each other’s family in absence of either of them.
Jumman’s old aunt lived with him. She had transferred all her property to him on condition that he would look after her as she stayed with them. After some time, Jumman’s family got tired of her and Jumman too stopped showing concern.
The old aunt bore insults for some time. One day, she asked Jumman to assign her a monthly allowance to set up a separate kitchen. When Jumman refused, she decided to take her case to village panchayat. She went to villagers seeking their support.
Part II During panchayat, Jumman promised to abide by Panch’s decision. old lady nominated Algu as head of Panch and requested him to be fair with his decision.
After cross-examining Jumman and his aunt, Algu came to conclusion that Jumman’s aunt must be given a monthly allowance or returned her property. This upsetted Jumman to extent that he became an enemy to Algu and seeked revenge.
Part III Days passed and a misfortune struck Algu who lost to death one of his fine pair of bullocks. other pair was sold to one Samjhu Sahu, a cart driver of village. price of bullock was to be paid in a month’s time. However, his misery saw bullock no end and other bullock too passed away.
After some time, Algu reminded Samjhu to pay him due amount to which samjhu strictly refused.
The matter was taken to Panchayat and Samjhu skillfully nominated Jumman as Panch head as he thought that Jumman would take revenge on Algu and this would save him his money.
After Jumman was made Panch, he realised responsibility that come with power given to him. Both Algu and Samjhu stated their cases and were cross-examined. In end, Jumman passed Judgement in favour of Algu. Algu expressed his happiness and declared that God lived in voice of Panch.
Algu and Jumman’s friendship was restored and their tears as they embraced washed away misunderstanding between them.