Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
The fog had come down so thick that Imran could not see his own front wheel. He did not need to. Two winters of forty newspapers in Nishatganj had taught him the lanes by ear: the Mishras’ dog, which barked at everything and bit nothing; the hum of the transformer; the pothole after it, which he swerved round without seeing. The air was raw. It crept through his sweater.
He threw the papers over the gates, counting. Thirty-nine. The fortieth went two lanes out of his way, to old Rastogi ji, who had told the agency he would pay nothing extra and had got his way. Imran grumbled about those two lanes every morning. Not once in two winters had he missed them.
A torch beam wobbled out of the grey. Rastogi ji stood at his gate in a monkey cap and two shawls.
“Eleven minutes late.”
“Fog, uncle.”
“There was fog in 1962 also. The paper came at six.” He did not hold out his hand. “What does it say?”
Imran read under the torch: dense fog to continue, forty trains running late. Rastogi ji snorted, as if the fog were a guest who had stayed too long. On the verandah chair behind him lay the tablet his son had sent from Pune, a thin film of dust on its dark screen.
“And the cricket?”
Imran read that too, slowly, to the last run.
“Tomorrow, if it is like this, don’t come,” the old man said brusquely. “I will read it on that machine.”
“Ji, uncle.”
Neither of them believed it. At the corner Imran looked back. The torch was still pointed down the lane, lighting the fog for him until he turned.
The torch that is “still pointed down the lane” as Imran leaves suggests that
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → the old man is lighting the boy’s way, a quiet sign that he cares for him
The torch stays on the lane, “lighting the fog for him until he turned.” Rastogi ji keeps it there so that the boy can see his way in the fog.
- He says nothing kind. He only tells Imran he is late and not to come tomorrow.
- The torch shows what his words do not: he worries about the boy riding off into the fog.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Rastogi ji wants to be sure the boy has really gone before he goes indoors — Incorrect. Wrong reason: The passage says the torch is “lighting the fog for him”. It is for Imran’s sake, not to check on him.
Option 3: Rastogi ji is still annoyed about the late paper and is watching the boy go — Incorrect. Wrong reason: His complaint about the eleven minutes is over. The torch lights the lane for the boy, which is care, not anger.
Option 4: the old man hopes the boy will turn back and read him more of the news — Incorrect. Not mentioned: Imran has already read the news and the whole cricket report. Nothing shows the old man wants more.