Extract I
i)Something very small. Kritam was probably the tiniest of the seven hundred villages in India as it was a microscopic dot on the survey map.
ii)The Answer of his question is out of Syllabus so mark it as wrong question.
iii)It is ‘probably the tiniest’ of India’s seven hundred villages. It is a village that consists of ‘fewer than thirty houses, only one of them built from brick and cement.’ There are four streets in the village, with a shop for foodstuff and other items in the third street.
iv)Kritam in Tamil meant ‘ coronet’ or ‘crown’ on the brow of the Indian subcontinent. Muni lived in the last house in the fourth street in the village, beyond which stretched the fields.
v)The Big House, unlike other houses was built with brick and cement. It was painted yellow and blue all over with carvings of gods. The other houses were of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other unspecified materials.
Extract II
i) He would take his sheep and goats everyday to the highway to graze around.He carried a crook at the end of a bamboo pole to collect foliage from the avenue trees to feed his flock.
ii) In his prosperous days Muni had owned a flock of forty sheep and goats. Gradually, Muni’s fortunes declined and his flock of forty was reduced to only two goats.
iii) Muni’s wife would give him salted millet flour in boiled water for breakfast. For midday meal, she would give him the same raw onion. This shows their poverty as they could not afford anything else.
iv)This was done so that his two goats could graze only within a set radius and not wander off and get lost. Although no one could say precisely who owned the tree, the only claim Muni had was that he lived in its shadow.
v)He once lived a prosperous life and reared a flock of forty, but now he was left wit two goats. Muni wanted to enjoy life, but now he had lost his riches, he had no option but to remember his past with regret. He remembered the time when he smoked cigarette, chewed betel leaves and bhang in a hut in the coconut grove with the famous butcher from the town. Even today, he craved to chew the drumstick out of sauce but failed to obtain the food items prepare it, on credit from the shopkeeper.
Extract III
i)He was tired of eating drumstick leaves alone. He wanted to relish them with sauce for a change.
ii)His wife agreed thinking that next year, Muni might not be alive to ask for anything. She asked him to bring a few food items including a measure of rice or millet.
iii)To attract the attention of the shopkeeper, Muni kept clearing his throat, coughing and sneezing. Muni responded appropriately at the shop man’s jokes. This helped him win the shop man over.
iv) Muni would go and sit outside the shop. He would make polite sounds by cleaning his throat, coughing and sneezing until he caught the attention of the shop man. He would humour the shop man by appropriately responding to his jokes and then request the food items he needed.
v)The Answer of his question is out of Syllabus so mark it as wrong question.
Extract IV
i)Change the question. Explain what has happened earlier because of which the shopkeeper is reluctant to give on credit.
Muni had been in the habit of coming to the shop, humoring the shop man and requesting for one or two items of food with the promise of repaying later. This time the shop man was not in good mood so he lost his temper at Muni for daring to ask for credit.
ii) Muni said that his daughter would be sending him money soon for his fiftieth birthday.
iii)According to Muni, he was fifty-years old. He calculated his age from the time of great famine.
iv)According to the shop man, Muni was seventy years old. Muni might be referring to himself as fifty years old since past few years.
v)Muni had told the shop man that his daughter had sent word that she would be sending him money for his fiftieth birthday.
Extract V
i) The shop man is referred to as scoundrel. Muni was annoyed because the shop man mocked at his habit of mentioning his birthday time and again toprocure things on credit.
ii)Muni did not argue because he knew that if he obeyed his wife she would somehow conjure up some food for him in the evening. Muni trusted her as far as his welfare was concerned. He knew by taking up occasional jobs in the big house, she would earn some money to keep dinner ready for him in the evening.
iii)She would go out and work-grind corn in the Big House, sweep or scrub somewhere, to earn enough money to buy foodstuff.
iv)When Muni was passing through the village, he avoided looking at anyone. He even ignored the call of his friends.
v)Muni was worried about his wife as he was seventy years old and might die soon. He also was pondering about the absence of progeny.
Extract VI
i) The statue was life-sized made of burnt brightly coloured clay. It stood with its head held high and its forelegs in the air.
ii)The warrior beside the statue is depicted as a man of strength through his description as a warrior with ‘scythe-like mustachios, bulging eyes, and aquiline nose.”
iii)Nobody from the village noticed its existence. Even Muni, who spent all his days at the foot of the statue, never bothered to look up.
iv)Muni didn’t go back home early because he wanted to give his wife time to cool off her temper and feel sympathetic enough to arrange some food for him.
v) Muni was an old man residing in the Kritam village. He once lived a prosperous life and reared a flock of forty, but now he was left with two goats. Muni wanted to enjoy life, but now he had lost his riches, he had no option but to remember his past with regret. He was a man who lived more in the past, than in the present.
The red faced man represents a typically wealthy American. He is polite and courteous as he offered Muni a cigarette and though he did not understand Muni, he listened to him attentively. He was a typical American tourist who wished to take back home the statue as a souvenir.
Extract VII
i) The red faced foreigner entered the story in a strange yellow vehicle. He stopped it, got down and went around it, poked under the vehicle because his car ran out of gas.
ii) He looked up at the clay horse and cried, “ Marvelous.”
iii)As soon as Muni met the foreigner his first impulse was to run away but his age did not allow him. He assumed the foreigner to be a policeman or a soldier inquiring about the rumored murder.
iv_)The foreigner was wearing khaki clothes. it made Muni think that he was a policeman or a soldier. To put Muni at ease, the other man pressed his palms together, smiled, and said, “ Namaste!”
v)Muni said that his name was Muni and the goats belonged to him. The village was full of slanderers who would claim what was not theirs.
Extract VIII
i)The foreigner was a tourist in India. He was a rich American businessman who dealt in coffee.
ii)The foreigner’s polite behaviour on meeting Muni for the first time. As a courtesy he offered Muni a cigarette. Muni, being a Tamil speaking man could not understand the foreigner, and used the only English words he knew, i.e., “yes,no.”
iii) Muni remembered the cigarette the shop man had given him on credit. He recalled how good it had tasted. When the foreigner flicked the light open Muni was confused about how to act so he blew on the light and put it out.
iv)Muni started coughing. It pained him yet he felt it was extremely pleasant.
v)Muni feared that the business card was an arrest warrant and he moved back.
Extract IX
i)A mutilated dead body had been found thrown under a tamarind tree at the border between Kritam and Kuppam a few weeks ago. Mini feared that the khaki-clad foreigner was a policeman inquiring about the murder. The man spoke to Muni and offered him a cigarette. Muni realized he could not run and spoke in a fearful tone to talk his way out of trouble.
ii) The horse was made long before Muni was born i.e., it was made sometime when Muni’s grandfather’s grandfather was a young boy.
iii)Muni mistook the foreigner’s khaki dress and thought the foreigner was a policeman who was investigating the case of a ’mutilated body thrown under a tamarind tree a few weeks before.”
iv)It is an apt title. Though the hero of the story is Muni who drives the story forward, the major part of the story is a dialogue between the American and Muni concerning the house statue. From the beginning of the story it is observed that Muni is left with two goats. It is only when the goats are being taken to graze near the highway, that Muni’s chance encounter with the American takes place. Muni who is sitting on the pedestal of the statue is assumed to be its owner by the American. Muni, on the other hand does not understand what the foreigner says. When the American gives Muni a hundred rupee note as the price for the statue, Muni gets confused. He assumes it to be the price of his two goats.
v)On one hand, Muni is the representative of typical Indian native; who is poor, rural and uneducated. He doesn’t know English and is striving to make a living. On the other hand, we have the American who knows no Tamil but expects Mini to understand English. He is wealthy, urban and educated and is only interested in a business deal with Muni.
Extract X
i)The foreigner said that Tamil to him ‘sounds wonderful’ and he got a kick out of every word Muni uttered. The foreigner assumed Muni to be engaging in sales talk and told him that he already appreciated the article and was ready for a better sales talk.
ii) Pongal is a four-day festival celebrated in Tamil Nadu. During Pongal Muni and father would cut the harvest. Muni would then go out and play with others at the tank.
iii)State what Muni hints at the caste and class distinction between the rich and the poor in Kritam. Muni had no formal education. He grew up as a member of a lower caste when only the Brahmins, the highest caste, could attend school. he has not traveled beyond his village and he likes to watch trucks and buses go by on highway a few miles away so that he can have ‘a sense of belonging to a larger world.’ He has some knowledge of the two major religious texts the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which he has learned by acting in plays and by listening to preachers at the temple.
iv) English. Learned people and officers in Muni’s country know Parangi language. But children in the foreigner’s country know it.
v)Child marriage was prevalent as in the case of Muni and his wife. Women were honored as seen as nurturers but they needed a man to support them. Muni knew his wife would garner the raw materials and prepare his drumstick gravy. He was worried what would happen to her after his death.
Extract XI
i)Muni mistook the foreigner’s khaki dress and thought the foreigner was a policeman who was investigating the case of a ’mutilated body thrown under a tamarind tree a few weeks before.”
ii)Kali Yuga is the last of the four stages the world goes through as part of the cycle of the ages. At the end of kali yuga, this world and all other worlds will be destroyed, and the Redeemer will come in the shape of a horse called kalki and save all good people while evil ones will perish.
iii)Their different languages do not let them understand each other. They converse, though in reality, they are both speaking on entirely unrelated subjects. The foreigner is concerned about the price of the statue, Muni when through gestures realizes that he is being asked for the statue, rumbles on about its religious value, and how it has stood for generations. The foreigner, owing to the language barrier, assumes Muni as a salesman and offers him a hundred rupee note in exchange for the statue. Since Muni could not understand English, he assumes that the money offered is the exchange price for his goats.
iv)The living room of the foreigner has a large bookcase filled with volumes of books. There are books piled up too.
v)The foreigner assures Muni that he would keep the statue with utmost care in his living room in his house in the USA.