Mystery of the Missing Cap Questions and Answers

    Mystery of the Missing Cap

by Mr. Manoj Das 

Q.1 What impression of Sri Moharana do you get from the text?

Ans. Sri Moharana was a well-to-do man. He had a considerable reputation as a conscientious and generous person. He was an exemplary host with two ponds full of choice fish and a number of well cared for cows. He was happy villager.

Also, he had a love for his country as he whitewashed his house on “the eve of India achieving independence.”  Additionally, he respected the patriots and often exercised small amount of fisheries in their honour.

Q.2 Who is Babu Virkishore? How does the narrator describe him?

Ans.  Babu Virkishore was the Honourable Minister of Fisheries and Fine Arts. He belonged to the district of Sri Moharana. He possessed a good reputation in politics and people thought that Sri Moharana should has his blessing for his perfect debut in to politics. Also Babu Virkishore had an exalted image in the society as a Minister which was a very common phenomenon in the early days of ‘Swadeshi ministries.’

Q.3 What idea of narrator do you get from unit of text?

Ans. Before starting to relate the incident, the narrator tell the reader that he is about to recite a story that was actually happened in his childhood. So, now when he is narrating the story, a lot of maturity and understanding come upon him. The narrator keenly observes people and incorporates qualities of patience and morality. He is capable of witty humor as reflected in his description of the arrangement of babu Vikramkishore’s reception and the minister as a person. Also, as a fine writer he has given a very explicit description of the backdrop which provides an edge to the story.

Q.4 How was the narrator recount the preparation for the minister’s reception?

Ans. For the reception of minister, a reception committee was formed. Sri Moharana’s huge ancestral cane chair was laid with a liner cover, upon which the best village seamstress had laced a pair of herons with two big fish in their beaks.

For the fortnight, everyday the children of the village lower primary school devoted the afternoon to the practice of the welcome song, which was composed by the head pundit of the school. Sir Moharana himself looked into all the details and examined and re-examined the things. He also gave up his afternoon nap to look into the arrangements.

Q.5 How does the narrator describe the procession of the minister in the village?

Ans. When the minister’s jeep reached the outskirts of the village, he got down and was profusely garlanded by Sir Moharana. He refused to re-enter the jeep and said that though density had made him great, he liked to keep his feet on the ground.

While he was walking through the street, people shouted in his praise. The half-naked and pot-bellied children of the village were walking parallel to the minister feeling small and guilty.

Q.6 How did Sri Moharana entertain his guest?

Ans. When the minister and his entourage reached Sri Moharan’s house, they were treated with tender coconut juice. Then they were served a sumptuous lunch of twenty dishes with sweetened, ghee-backed rice. After lunch the minister retired to a cabin set apart for him to sleep.

As it was summer time, so efforts were made to keep his cabin cool and airy. Volunteers were posted outside his cabin who ensured that the minister should not be disturbed from sleep by any kind of noise.

Q.7 How did the minister’s cap disappear?

Ans. The minister was asleep in his cabin. Jhandoo, the monkey came from the pond side window where there was no volunteers and quietly stole the cap from the table, near his bed. It disappeared out of the window in a few moments.

Q.8 How did the minister's officials react to the disappearance of the cap?

Ans. There was huge fuss around the house and the minister’s PA. was flitting like a butterfly. The minister’s PA considered the missing of the cap as a mysterious thing. The Public Relations Officer said that the minister would not mind the loss of the cap so much as the way it had disappeared. He called it a deep-rooted conspiracy and feared that it might bring devastating effect on the politics of the country.

Q.9 How did Sri Moharana feel about the loss of the cap?

Ans. On hearing about the loss of the cap, Sri Moharana was shaking and sweating like an ice-cream stick, that it seemed he would melt away in few hours.

Q.10 How did he feel when he came to know the cause of the missing of the cap?

Ans. When he came to know the cause of the missing of the cap from the narrator he “stood dumb for moment” He wiped sweat from his forehead and smiled like a patient whose disease had been diagnosed all right, but was known to be incurable. He then patted the narrator and asked him to keep it strictly to himself and that he would be rewarded later.

Q.11 What was the effect of disappearance of the cap on the ceremony?

Ans. The disappearance of the cap threw a wet blanket on the ceremony. Everyone was filled with anxiety and there was silence all around except the minister coughing. Narrator went to his friend to find that people were full of anxiety. Some said that the thief would be hanged for his crime while others feared that perhaps all the villagers would be thrown into jail. They made their own version of the story related to the incident.

Q.12 How did the narrator's pals react to the situation?

Ans. The narrator's pals were full of anxiety. One of them said that if the thief were caught, the police would hang him on the big banyan tree beside the river. Someone said that all the villagers would be thrown into jail. Some others believed that the ministers cab was a sort of Aladdin’s lamp, that anyone who put it would possess ministerial power.

Q.13 How does the narrator describe the opening ceremony?

Ans. After the minister took his seat on a specially constructed stage, he was garlanded by Sri Moharana’s niece, who was the only high school educated girl of the locality. This was the first-time people saw a grown-up girl garlanding a man, something which they had heard of only in ancient Swayamvaras. Then the students of the lower primary school of the village sang the chorus with the kirtan tune.

The narrator said that close to five thousand people had gathered for the ceremony.

Q.14 How did Sri Moharana explain the reason behind the missing of the cap?

Ans. Sri Moharana made up a story about the missing cap. The narrator had told him what Jhandoo the monkey did. So, Sri Moharana told the audience that a nobleman took away the cap while the minister was sleeping because he wanted to preserve the cap as sacred momento. He took it away secretly because he knew that the humble minister would never allow him to view it as sacred. Bringing out one hundred and one rupees from his pocket, Sri Moharana said that the nobleman had gifted this small amount to the minister to be used for the service of his people.

Q.15 What impression of Sri Moharana do you get from this unit of the text?

Ans. Sri Moharana was a smart person who made use of his intelligence and saved Jhandoo and himself from humiliation. He gave a very good speech to praise the minister and to resolve the mystery at the same time. He proved himself fit to enter the domain of politics Sri Mohrana was a honest and truthful man. So, he was guilty of saying that lie as he “had never uttered a lie” And this he did infront of thousands of people.

Q.16 How did the minister find out the mystery of the missing cap?

Ans. The minister was about to leave Sri Moharana's house when Jhandoo the monkey came and sat between Sri Moharana and the minister. He put the cap once on his head and then took it off and offered it to the minister with a genial gesture. The surprised minister asked, “Er-er-isn’t this one the very cap taken away by the nobleman.” Sri Moharana replied, “Yes, this is the nobleman”.

Q.17 What role did Jhandoo play in the story? Did he bring an anti-climax to the story? Give reason.

Ans. Jhandoo controlled the action in the story, if he didn’t steal the cap, there wouldn’t have been any story of the missing cap. Sir Moharana called Jhanoo a “nobleman” even in front of the minister which proves its importance in the story and in Sri Moharana’s eye. It revealed the hypocricy and sycophancy of characters in the story. Yes, he brought an anti-climax to the story when he returned the cap to the minister.