Question 1
Read the following passage and answer the given subquestions
Sir Mohan Lal looked at himself in the mirror of a first-class waiting room at the railway station. The mirror was obviously made in India. The red oxide at its back had come off at several places and long lines of translucent glass cut across its surface. Sir Mohan smiled at the mirror with an air of pity and patronage.
The mirror smiled back at Sir Mohan. “You are a bit of all right, old chap,’ it said. ‘Distinguished, efficient-even handsome. That neatly trimmed moustache-the suit from Saville Row with the carnation in the button-hole-the aroma of eau de cologne, talcum powder, and scented soap all about you! Yes, old fellow, you are a bit of all right.’
Sir Mohan threw out his chest, smoothed his Balliol tie for the umpteenth time and waved a goodbye to the mirror.
Outside the waiting room Sir Mohan Lal’s luggage lay piled along the wall. On a small grey steel trunk Lachmi, Lady Mohan Lal, sat chewing a betel leaf and fanning herself with a newspaper. She was short and fat and in her middle forties. She wore a white sari with a red border. On one side of her nose glistened a diamond nose-ring and she had several gold bangles on her arms. She had been talking to the bearer until Sir Mohan had summoned him inside. As soon as he had gone, she hailed a passing railway coolie.
‘Where does the zenana stop?’
‘Right at the end of the platform.”
The coolie flattened his turban to make a cushion, hoisted the steel truck on his head, and moved down the platform. Lady Lal picked up her brass tiffin-carrier and ambled along behind him. On the way she stopped by a hawker’s stall to replenish her silver betel-leaf case, and then joined the coolie. She sat down on her steel truck (which the coolie had put down) and started talking to him, ‘Are the trains very crowded on these lines?’
‘These days all trains are crowded, but you’ll find room in the zenana.’
‘Then I might as well get over the bother of eating.’
Lady Lal opened the brass carrier and took out a bundle of cramped chapatties and some mango pickle. While she ate, the coolie sat opposite her, drawing lines in the gravel with his finger. ~Karma - Khushwant Singh
Sir Mohan smiled at the mirror with an air of pity and patronage. Here the word air means _____.
Gas
Impression
Refresh
Both Impression and Refresh
