Q75Comprehension2 Marks13 Apr 2025
Passage
Read the following passage and answer the given subquestions:
The dog was sleeping nearby. He was stirred by the smell of food. He got up, came out of his shelter and stood before the blind man, wagging his tail and gazing expectantly at the bowl, as he was eating his sparse meal. The blind man swept his arms about and asked, 'Who is there?' at which the dog went up and licked his hand. The blind man stroked its coat gently tail to ear and said, 'What a beauty you are. Win threw a handful of food, which the dog ate gratefully. It was perhaps an auspicious moment for starting a friendship. They met every day there, and the dog cut off much of its rambling to sit up beside the blind man and watch him receive alms morning to evening. In course of time, observing him, the dog understood that the passers-by must give a coin, and whoever went away without dropping a coin was chased by the dog; he tugged the edge of their clothes by his teeth and pulled them back to the old man at the gate and let go only after something was dropped in his bowl. Among those who frequented this place was a village urchin, who had the mischief of a devil in him. He liked to tease the blind man by calling him names and by trying to pick up the coins in his bowl. The blind man helplessly shouted and cried and whirled his staff. On Thursdays this boy appeared at the gate, carrying on his head a basket loaded with cucumber or plantain. Every Thursday afternoon it was a crisis in the blind man's life. A seller of bright-coloured but doubtful perfumes with his wares mounted on a wheeled platform, a man who spread out cheap storybooks on a gunny sack, another man who carried coloured ribbons on an elaborate frame—these were the people who usually gathered under the same arch. On Thursdays when the young man appeared at the eastern gate one of them remarked, 'Blind fellow! Here comes your scourge—'
Extract from: The Blind Dog by R.K. Narayan.
A man sold storybooks on a gunny sack.