I see no sign that I shall again receive the same pension which the British government formerly granted me. And so I sell the clothes and bedding to keep body and soul together, and a man might say that where others eat bread, I eat cloth. I go in fear and when all the cloth is eaten I shall die naked and hungry. Of the servants who had long been with me there are some few who even in this tumult did not desert me. These too I must feed, for in truth man may not turn his back on man and I too need them to serve my needs. Besides, there are those suppliants who in former days laid claim to a share in the gleanings of my harvest. Even in these bad times they cry to me and their cry, more unwelcome than the cock’s untimely crow, pierces my heart and adds to my distress. And now that these raging sicknesses and sorrows which oppress my body and soul have sapped all my strength and spirit, the thought comes suddenly to my mind. “How long can I occupy myself adorning this toy I call a book?” – Mirza Ghalib.
(a) (i) What did Ghalib not hope to get again from the British Government?
(ii) What do you mean by this statement, “I eat cloth?” Explain it in one sentence.
(iii) In addition to himself and his wife who else depended on Ghalib for their bread?
(iv) Who is the narrator here?
(v) Is it true that Ghalib was as worried about his servants as about himself and his wife?
(b) Make nouns from the following verbs :
(i) add,
(ii) cry,
(iii) oppress,
(iv) desert,
(v) die,
(vi) adorn
