Question Details

Read the given passage and answer the six questions that follow.


When I was in my late teens and still undecided about which language I should write in, he told me that the language one is born into, one’s mother tongue, can be the only possible medium of creative expression. For most of his life, my father, Sripat Rai, had been a Hindi editor and critic. Off and on, he translated writings into English from Hindi. He was fond of saying that a failed writer becomes a critic. The weight of his literary expectation came, eventually, to rest on me. He seemed happy that I was showing an inclination for writing.


“She will go far,” he told my mother after reading the first story that I sent him from Melbourne. My father’s pronouncement on the mother tongue stayed with me when I later started writing fiction in Hindi. Another thing that I barely acknowledged even to myself was that I felt something like shame whenever I thought of writing in English. It seemed wrong for a granddaughter of Premchand even to be thinking so. Our family had a certain linguistic pride. I knew that Premchand was famous, but I had not at that time realised the extent of his popularity. The fact that I was the granddaughter of Premchand, followed me everywhere.


Everyone had a story to tell about their personal engagement with his fiction — the shopkeeper, the long time cook in my father’s Delhi house, a tea vendor, etc. The list was long, for there was practically no one who had not read something by him that had moved them. However, it was this very ubiquity, the reverence and love that he inspired in people, that made of him something too large for me to comprehend in the early years of my life. It led also to the strange feeling that, without having read him and just by being related to him, I had somehow inhaled his writing. The reading happened much later.


Q)  “Inhaled his writing” refers to______.

Options

A

imbibing his style subconsciously

B

being compelled to write like him

C

being influenced by what people said about him

D

her father’s expectation from her

Show Answer

Correct Answer :

Option A

imbibing his style subconsciously

Solution :

The correct option is imbibing his style subconsciously.


Step-by-step Explanation:


1. Locate the phrase in the passage: The phrase "inhaled his writing" appears at the end of the third paragraph: "It led also to the strange feeling that, without having read him and just by being related to him, I had somehow inhaled his writing."


2. Analyze the context: The author describes growing up surrounded by Premchand's immense popularity, where everyone around her had a story to tell about engaging with his fiction. Even before she actually read his work ("The reading happened much later"), she felt that his literary presence and influence were so omnipresent that they entered her system naturally and effortlessly, simply by virtue of being related to him.


3. Understand the metaphor: "Inhaling" is an involuntary, subconscious biological process. By using "inhaled his writing," the author metaphorically expresses that she absorbed, integrated, or imbibed his literary essence, influence, and style subconsciously into her own creative makeup, without any deliberate study or conscious effort at the time.


4. Evaluate the options:
imbibing his style subconsciously: This perfectly matches the metaphor of "inhaling" (absorbing naturally/unconsciously) his writing without having read it yet.
being compelled to write like him: Incorrect, as the passage mentions no force or external compulsion to copy his style.
being influenced by what people said about him: While people's stories created the atmosphere, "inhaled his writing" specifically relates to absorbing the writing/literary style itself, not just reputation.
her father’s expectation from her: Incorrect, as her father's expectations are a separate topic discussed earlier in the passage.

Unlock Our Free Library

Access expert-curated educational resources and study materials—completely free.

Discover more resources

You may also like

Mock Tests

View All
  • CLAT
  • intermediate
  • 2 hours
  • current affairs, english, general knowledge, legal reasoning, logical reasoning, quant

  • CLAT
  • intermediate
  • 2 hours
  • current affairs, english, general knowledge, legal reasoning, logical reasoning, quant

Ask AI Tutor
5 left
Q1 View Question & Options
AI Tutor is solving this question...
Reading question context & options...