Not only did he pass, but with second-class honors. In his excitement, he leaps into the river. His body and suicide note are discovered the next day. A story about a sculptor who finishes a statue after five years of labor. It is a statue of the god Nataraja, and everyone insists its form is perfect; so perfect that if the people saw it, the glory of the god would consume them. The priest asks the sculptor to break off its little toe so that it will be safe to view, but the sculptor won't do it. The priest thus refuses to consecrate it in the temple. The sculptor turns his house into a temple to have it consecrated there. The god then comes to life and rattles the region with every kind of natural disaster. The people beg the sculptor to mar the statue's perfection after so many lives were lost, but he won't. He ran to the overflowed lake to drown himself as an offering to the god, but on the way, a tree falls on his house. He returns to see the statue was unharmed except for a severed little toe. The imperfect statue is consecrated at the temple, and the sculptor gives up his trade. A story about Swami, a character from his first novel "Swami and Friends". Swami oversleeps on Monday and convinces his mother to let him stay home from school. His father insists he still go to school with a "headache," so Swami lies and says his teacher Samuel beats children severely for lateness or any small offense. His father writes a letter for Swami to deliver to the headmaster and sends him to school. The letter will surely get Samuel fired, maybe even imprisoned. At school, Swami provokes Samuel to do something deserving of getting fired. But Samuel only canes his hands a few times, which Swami doesn't even react to. When he tries to deliver the letter to the headmaster, he is on leave all week. The assistant headmaster could accept it, but it's Samuel. Swami runs home without delivering the letter. His father thinks he was lying about the headmaster being on leave and says he deserves Samuel. A story about the Talkative Man. A group of men leave a concert hall having enjoyed the performance, but the Talkative Man looked tortured. He says taste has sunk and tells his story. He studied the bamboo flute with a master musician (who is so obscure his name is unknown, of course).