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Question
Narrate the humorous incidents that happened in the author’s home before and after the arrival of the chair.
Solution
There was only a three-legged stool in the narrator’s home when the story begins. The woeful thing about the stool was that if one didn’t place one’s weight exactly above the legs, the stool would topple over. Their family friend, a sub-judge paid a visit to their home one day. He was provided with a stool to sit on. Before he was given a caution, he sat on it and fell down with a thud, and rolled over.
This incident made the family members giggle for a long time. After the arrival of the chair, there arose a different scenario. The chair was asked by the villagers whenever there was a death in the village. It was used to prop up the corpse. Whenever the mourners came for the chair, the family members felt very sad which was misinterpreted by the mourners. The family members had feared sitting on the chair after that incident. They persuaded their visitors to sit on it and made fun that they were rehearsing for their death. When they started to sit on the chair again it would be asked for by the mourners. Thus the witty incidents continued.
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Para 15
For a few moments, I lay regaining
my breath, and for the first time really
felt the fierce determination that nothing
now could stop us from reaching the top. I took
a firm stance on the ledge and signaled
to Tenzing to come on up. As I heaved
hard on the rope, Tenzing wriggled his
way up the crack, and finally collapsed at
the top like a giant fish when it has just
been hauled from the sea after a terrible
struggle.
Para 16
The ridge continued as before:
giant cornices on the right; steep rock
sloped on the left. The ridge curved away
to the right and we have no idea where the
top was. As I cut around the back of one
hump, another higher one would swing
into view. Time was passing and the ridge
seemed never-ending.
Para 17
Our original zest had now quite
gone, and it was turning more into a grim
struggle. I then realized that the ridge
ahead, instead of rising, now dropped
sharply away. I looked upwards to see a
narrow snow ridge running up to a snowy
summit. A few more whacks of the ice-ax
in the firm snow and we stood on top.
The ridge had taken us two and half hours, but it seemed like lifetime. Why? (Para 15 to 17)