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.
As used in the passage, the word ‘pointed’ in “with a pointed glance at the crepe sun” means
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → meant to show his disapproval
Here a pointed glance is a look aimed at something on purpose, to show what one thinks of it. Joshi Sir looks at the crepe sun and then says, “In my day we managed with the blackboard.” His look shows that he does not think much of the charts. Example: When Rohan came in late, the coach gave a pointed look at the clock.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: having a sharp tip at one end — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the common sense of the word, used for things. Example: She wore pointed shoes to the wedding.
Option 3: relevant and to the point — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This sense is used for a remark or a question that goes straight to the main issue. Example: The judge asked a few short, pointed questions.
Option 4: brief and casual, given without much thought — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This describes an ordinary quick look. It is not a meaning of “pointed”.