Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
The attic smelt of mothballs and old rain. Meera had brought masking tape and a marker, and by noon every carton carried one word: KEEP, KABADI or ASK. The taxi to Kalka was booked for four. She did not mean to miss it.
Tara was slower. She held each thing up to the skylight as if it might explain itself: a cracked thermos, a brass school bell, a cardigan darned at both elbows in three different colours of wool.
“Bua could have bought a new one,” Meera said. “She had a pension. She just didn’t like spending it.”
Everyone in the family said so. Kamla Bua was close with money. One crisp five-rupee note in every Diwali card, for forty years.
Under the eaves stood a tin trunk. Inside were letters, hundreds of them, tied in bundles with rubber bands that snapped at a touch.
“Love letters,” Tara breathed.
“Kabadi,” said Meera, and reached for the tape.
Tara had already opened one. Respected Madam, I have passed my B.Ed. The fee you sent for the last term… She opened another, and another. A nurse in Solan. A bank clerk in Mandi. A teacher in Rampur. Each one thanked her for a term’s fees, a hostel bill, a set of books. Many began by saying sorry for writing at all: I know you said thanks are a waste of a stamp.
Meera sat down on the KABADI carton. She read four letters without a word. Outside, a monkey thudded across the tin roof, and neither of them looked up.
“Five rupees,” Meera said at last, to no one.
At half past three she rang the taxi and asked for six o’clock. Then she peeled the label off the trunk.
Which of the following statements reflect the theme of the passage?
(A) What a person lets others see of herself may hide a larger truth.
(B) Generosity can be real even when it asks for no thanks or notice.
(C) Sorting a dead relative’s things is a task best done quickly and without feeling.
(D) A family’s settled opinion of someone is seldom far from the truth.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → (A) and (B) only
Each statement is checked against the passage.
(A) What a person lets others see of herself may hide a larger truth. — Correct.
- The family saw only the five-rupee notes and the darned cardigan.
- The letters show that Bua spent her money on other people’s education.
(B) Generosity can be real even when it asks for no thanks or notice. — Correct.
- Bua told them that “thanks are a waste of a stamp”, and her own family never knew what she did.
(C) Sorting a dead relative’s things is a task best done quickly and without feeling. — Incorrect.
- Meera starts out this way, but she ends by putting off the taxi to read the letters.
(D) A family’s settled opinion of someone is seldom far from the truth. — Incorrect.
- “Everyone in the family” thought Bua was close with money.
- The trunk proves them wrong.