Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
In Banaras District, there is a village called Bira in which an old, childless widow used to live. She was a Gond woman named Bhungi and she didn’t own either a scrap of land or a house to live in. Her only source of livelihood was a parching oven. The village folk customarily have one meal a day of parched grains, so there was always a crowd around Bhungi’s oven. Whatever grain she was paid for parching, she would grind or fry and eat it.
She slept in a corner of the same little shack that sheltered the oven. As soon as it was light she’d get up and go out to gather dry leaves from all around to make her fire. She would stack the leaves right next to the oven, and after twelve, light the fire. But on the days when she had to parch grain for Pandit Udaybhan Pandey, the owner of the village, she went to bed hungry.
She was obliged to work without pay for Pandit Udaybhan Pandey. She also had to fetch water for his house. And, for this reason, from time to time the oven was not lit. She lived in the Pandit’s Village, therefore he had full authority to make her do any sort of odd job. In his opinion, if she received food for working from him, how could it be considered as work done without pay? He was doing her a favour, in fact, by letting her live in the village at all.
It was spring, a day on which the fresh grain was fried and eaten and given as a gift. No fire was lit in the house. Bhungi’s oven was being put to good use today. There was a crowd worthy of a village fair around her. She had scarcely any opportunity to draw a breath. Because of the customer’s impatience, squabbles kept breaking out. Then two servants arrived, each carrying a heaped basket of grain from Pandit Udaybhan with the order to parch it right away. When Bhungi saw the two baskets, she was alarmed.
It was already after twelve and even by sunset, she would not have time to parch so much grain. Now she would have to stay at the oven parching until after dark for no payment. In despair, she took the two baskets. One of the flunkeys aid menacingly, ‘Don’t waste any time or you’ll be sorry.’ With this command, the servants went away and Bhungi began to parch the grain. It’s no laughing matter to parch a whole maund of grain. She had to keep stopping from the parching in order to keep the oven fire going. So by sundown not even half the work was done. She was afraid Panditji’s men would be coming. She began to move her hands all the more frantically. Soon the servants returned and said, “Well, is the grain parched?’
Feeling bold, Bhungi said, “Can’t you see? I’m parching it now.’ ‘The whole day’s gone and you haven’t finished any more grain than this! Have you been roasting it or spoiling it? This is completely uncooked! How’s it going to be used for food?
It’s the ruin of us! You’ll see what Panditji does to you for this.’ The result was that that night the oven was dug up and Bhungi was left without a means of livelihood.
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Questions
1. Give the meaning of the following words as used in the passage. One word answers or short phrases will be accepted.
(a) squabbles
(b) flunkeys
(c) maund
2. Answer the following questions briefly using your own words.
(a) How did Bhungi earn her livelihood?
(b) Why was Pandit Udaybhan against paying Bhungi?
(c) Which word in the passage shows that the old woman started working hastily in a disorderly manner out of anxiety?
(d) What did one of the servants of Pandit warn Bhungi?
(e) What does the author mean by ‘She had scarcely any opportunity to draw a breath’?
3. Describe the hard work and the plight of Bhungi, in your own words not exceeding 50.
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Answers
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Answer:
1. Squabbles
B) she was obliged to work without pay for pandit udhyaban Panday.
C) her only source of livelihood was a parching oven.
Explanation:
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