Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
On her first morning Hema reached the school before the peon. The gate still stuck at the same place, and she still had to lift it on its hinge, as she had at nine. Inside, the Class Five room smelt of wet chalk and phenyl. Someone had painted the walls a hopeful green since her time. The map of India still said Bombay.
She pinned up her charts, paper planets and a sun of yellow crepe, and stepped back. They looked smaller than they had on her hostel bed in Pune.
Joshi Sir came in at ten past eight, as he always had, the register under one arm. He was headmaster now, and greyer, but he still cleared his throat before he spoke.
“Very colourful,” he said, with a pointed glance at the crepe sun. “In my day we managed with the blackboard.”
“Children remember what they can see, Sir.”
“Children remember what they are made to repeat.” He set the register on her table, squared it with the table’s edge, and left. Hema found she was standing very straight, hands behind her back, as she used to at nine.
The children rushed in, then went quiet, watching her. A thin girl in the front row put up her hand before anyone had asked anything.
“Madam, the last madam stayed one year. Will you also go back to the city?”
A few of them giggled. Hema laughed too, a moment late. She had an answer ready. She had practised it on the bus. Now it seemed to her the kind of thing one says to visitors.
“Open your books,” she said instead, “to page twelve.”
Outside, the gate banged shut on its old hinge.
What does Hema’s exchange with Joshi Sir show about her?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Divided: she defends her own way of teaching but still acts like his pupil
Hema stands up for her charts in words. But her body behaves as it did when she was his student.
- Joshi Sir says they “managed with the blackboard”. Hema replies that children remember what they can see. She does not give up her view.
- After he leaves, she is standing very straight, “hands behind her back”, as she did at nine. Part of her is still his pupil.
- Divided means pulled two ways at once.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Defiant: she makes fun of her old teacher’s faith in the blackboard — Incorrect. Overstated: Defiant means openly refusing to obey or respect someone. Hema answers him politely and even calls him “Sir”. She does not mock him.
Option 3: Humbled: she gives in at once and agrees that his old method is better — Incorrect. Contradicted: She does not agree with him. She gives her own reason for using the charts.
Option 4: Indifferent: she cares little about what the headmaster thinks of her work — Incorrect. Contradicted: Indifferent means not caring at all. She answers him at once, and she stands up straight like a schoolgirl before him. His opinion matters to her.