Q & A for Karma

Q.1 Describe the character of Sir Mohan lal.

            Sir Mohan lal is an Indian gentleman who has studied abroad and is working in the civil services in British India. In the story he is at a railway station to catch a train. He is in the first class waiting room. He gazes at his reflection in the mirror. He admires his look of an English gentleman of a suit with a tie. This tells us how much he adores English culture. He orders a scotch and drinks it while sitting on a chair.

            Sir Mohan lal doesn’t like to hurry as he thinks that it shows one’s low breeding. He thinks of himself very highly as he had studied in Oxford and can talk on any subject in fluent English like any English gentlemen. Here, we can sense his anxiety to change his identity from Indian to English which was dominant force in the British India.

            He has a peculiar habit of showing his  adoration and skills for English culture. That includes him talking to the strangers he meets on the train. He doesn’t show his desperation for it. He uses his Balliol tie or newspaper ‘Times’ for stranger to initiate the conversation. In the story we find that he becomes frustrated not finding any English gentleman in the compartment.

            He rejoices at the prospect of a conversation when he finds two English walking towards his compartment. But they rudely calls him a ‘desi’ and throws him out with his luggage. This insult incapacitates Sir Mohan lal and he stands fixed on the platform with a turmoil in his mind.

Q.2 Who was Lachmi? What distinction her character shows in the story?

            Lachmi was Sir Mohan lal’s wife. She was uneducated, maybe illiterate in contrast to her husband who was an oxford graduate. Lachmi was from a village and had peculiar habits of a villager. We find her sitting beside her luggage on the platform instead of a waiting room. She is eating there in the public. She goes to public tap to rinse her mouth and wash her hands. She is stout and short as author describes it and is in her middle forties.

            She is not trying to be a lady of upper class lie her husband. She has no conscious of status or class like him. She loudly belches in the public, she makes a pan and eats it with a bulge in her cheek. She has no upper class sensibilities as she has been deprived of that kind of education.

            She is wearing a sari, and has tied a knot to store money. Which shows her middle class way still alive after married to an officer. She hires a coolie only because she can’t carry this much luggage herself. She doesn’t even look for first class compartment when the train arrives. She sets herself in an inter-class zanana compartment and starts making pan and sits oblivious to the other people.

            She mainly serves as a contrast to Sir Mohan lal’s adoration for English culture. Here she becomes the other end of the spectrum, the ‘desi’, who doesn’t need to be cultured by English.