The tight calendar had calmed hint, as did the constant exertion of his authority as a judge. How he relished his power over the classes that had kept his family pinned under their heels for centuries – like the stenographer, for example, who was a Brahmin. There he was, now crawling into a tiny tent to the side, and there was Jemubhai reclining like a king in a bed carved out of teak, hung with mosquito netting.
“Bed tea”, the cook would shout “Baaad tee”.
He would sit up to drink.
6.30: he’d bathe in water that had been heated over the fire so it was redolent with the smell of wood smoke and flocked with ash. With a dusting of powder he graced his newly washed face, with a daub of pomade, his hair. Crunched up toast like charcoal from having been toasted upon the flame, with marmalade over the burn.
8.30: he rode into the fields with the local officials and everyone else in the village going along for fun. Followed by an orderly holding an umbrella over his head to shield him from the glare, he measured the fields and checked to make sure his yield estimate matched the headman’s statement. Farms were growing less than ten maunds an acre of rice or wheat, and at two rupees a maund, every single man in a village, sometimes, was in debt to the bania. (Nobody knew that Jemuhhai himself was noosed, of course, that long ago in the little town of Piphit in Gujarat, moneylenders had sniffed out in him a winning combination of ambition and poverty … that they still sat waiting cross-legged on a soiled mat in the market, snapping their toes, cracking their knuckles in anticipation of repayment….) 2.00: after lunch, the judge sat at his desk under a tree to try cases, usually in a cross mood, for he disliked the informality, hated the splotch of leaf shadow on him imparting an untidy mongrel look. Also, there was a worse aspect of contamination and corruption; he heard cases in Hindi, but they were recorded in Urdu by the stenographer and translated by the judge into a second record in English, although his own command of Hindi and Urdu was tenuous; the witnesses who couldn’t read at all put their thumbprints at the bottom of “Read Over and Acknowledged Correct”, as instructed. Nobody could be sure how much of the truth had fallen between languages, between languages and illiteracy; the clarity that justice demanded was nonexistent. Still, despite the leaf shadow and language confusion, he acquired a fearsome reputation for his speech that seemed to belong to no language at all, and for his face like a mask that conveyed something beyond human fallibility. The expression and manner honed here would carry him, eventually, all the way to the high court in Lucknow where, annoyed by lawless pigeons shuttlecocking about those tall, shadowy halls, he would preside, white powdered wig over white powdered face, hammer in hand.
His photograph, thus attired, thus annoyed, was still up on the wall, in a parade of history glorifying the progress of Indian law and order.
4:30: tea had to be perfect, drop scones made in the frying pan. He would embark on them with forehead wrinkled, as if angrily mulling over something important, and then, as it would into his retirement, the draw of the sweet took over, and his stern work face would hatch an expression of tranquillity.
5:30: out he went into the countryside with his fishing rod or gun. The countryside was full of game; lariats of migratory birds lassoed the sky in October; quail and partridge with lines of babies strung out behind whirred by like nursery toys that emit sound with movement; pheasant – fat foolish creatures, made to be shot – went scurrying, through the bushes. The thunder of gunshot rolled away, the leaves shivered, and he experienced the profound silence that could come only after violence. One thing was always missing, though, the proof of the pudding, the prize of the action, the manliness in manhood, the partridge for the pot, because he returned with – Nothing!
He was a terrible shot.
8:00: the cook saved his reputation, cooked a chicken, brought it forth, proclaimed it “roast bastard”, just as in the Englishman’s favourite joke book of natives using incorrect English. But sometimes, eating that roast bustard, the judge felt the joke might also be on him, and he called for another rum, took a big gulp, and kept eating feeling as if he were eating himself, since he, too, was (was he?) part of the fun….
9:00: sipping Ovaltine, he filled out the registers with the day’s gleanings. The Petromax lantern would be lit – what as noise it made – insects fording the black to dive – bomb him with soft flowers (moths), with iridescence (beetles). Lines, columns, and squares. He realized truth was best looked at in tiny aggregates, for many baby truths could yet add up to one big size unsavory lie. Last, in his diary also to be submitted to his superiors, he recorded the random observations of a cultured man, someone
who was observant, schooled in literature as well as economics; and he made up bunting triumphs: two partridge…. one deer with thirty-inch horns….
11:00 : he had a hot water bottle in winter, and, in all seasons, to the sound of the wind buffeting the trees and the cook’s snoring, he fell asleep.
1. Which of the following statements is incorrect?
(a) The judge used to visit the countryside to shoot game
(b) The judge was not a Brahmin
(c) The judge had good command over Hindi and Urdu
(d) The judge owed money to moneylenders in Piphit
Ans: ()
2. What always happened when the judge went to the countryside?
(a) He could not hear any noise and there was only profound silence
(b) He could not manage to hit a single bird
(c) He could not get the proof that the pudding was made from the Patridge
(d) He could not see lariats of migratory birds
Ans: ()
3. People were in “debt to the “bania” because:
(a) Yield per acre did not appear to be very good.
(b) Moneylenders in Piphit were asking all villagers for repayment.
(c) People in the village spent too much time on hunting.
(d) The fields were spoiled when the judge rode around to take measurements.
Ans: ()
Which is the odd one out:
(a) Lariat
(b) Brood
(c) Flock
(d) Flight
Ans: ()
(Source: IIFT-2014)
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