Glory at Twilight 



UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT

1. Give reasons for the following

a. Satyajit attending the village wedding.

b. Satyajit’s recollection of the forgerer when he was on the

train.

c. Srinath and his family members’ eager expectation of

Satyajit’s arrival.

d. Srinath’s disappointment with Satyajit.

e. Satyajit’s feeling that he was an impostor.

f. Satyajit not disclosing his present financial status to his

uncle.

Answer: 


2. Describe the cycle of events in Satyajit’s life that brought him

back to where he began.

Answer: 


TALKING ABOUT THE TEXT

Discuss in pairs

1. It is difficult to adjust to a fall from glory.

Answer: 


2. ‘Failure had a tempo faster than success.’

Answer: 


3. Satyajit should have revealed his predicament to his uncle.

Answer: 


4. The author’s comment on crime and punishment.

Answer: 


APPRECIATION

1. How is Satyajit’s financial crash introduced to the reader?

Answer: 


2. Comment on the way in which the story is narrated from

Satyajit’s perspective.

Answer: 


3. How has the author used the episode of the bank theft to

comment on Satyajit’s success in his career?

Answer: 


4. How do these lines capture the essence of the story:

 ‘Glory was all overlaid with dark shame. Glory was dead.’

‘… let him be wrapped a while in the lingering twilight splendour

of departed glory’.

Answer: 


LANGUAGE WORK

1. Notice this description

Tall, thin, near forty, he had sharp features, the hair receding

on his temple in wide shiny patches. His eyes hated glare and

he wore smart eye-glasses to shield them. His mouth, thinlipped,

would tighten in response to a line that suggested strength of

will but might have only been pride.

Look at the padding of adjectives. Notice how physical features

are related to mental qualities.

a. Pick out other such descriptions of people from the story.

b. Try writing out a description of a person you have observed

closely.


2. Notice these expressions

‘We bask in your benediction. Our life-spark itself is held in

your fist.’

‘This is her day. Let Beena alone wash and wipe the reverent

feet. All her life she will remember this honour befalling her

on her auspicious day of her marriage.’

♦ How do they capture the Indian idiom?

♦ Underline other such expressions.


3. Notice these fragments in para three of the lesson

a. The banking establishment of which he had attained control.

b. The amazing tempo of it all.

These are not complete sentences but serve to capture the

character’s train of thought. Such devices are often used in

creative writing.


SUGGESTED READING

1. An Astrologer’s Day and other Stories by R.K. Narayan


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