Indigo : Short Answer Questions
Question 1 : What information does Aniruddha Bose share with the readers in the beginning?
Answer : In the beginning of the story, the main protagonist Aniruddha Bose introduces himself that he is twenty nine years old bachelor working in an advertising agency in Calcutta. He also tells about his family background that his father was a well known physician in Monghyr where he was born. His brother is five years older than him, he studied medicine in England and is now settled in England. After the death of his father , Aniruddha shifted to Calcutta with his mother. He also mentions his desire to go on long drives. Since he bought an Ambassador car, he plans to visit his friend Pramode in Dumka, about two hundred miles away from Calcutta.
Question 2: Why did Aniruddha Bose consider himself an expert on indigo plantation ?
Answer : Aniruddha Bose considered himself an expert on indigo plantations because for the last few months he had been reading a lot about indigo plantation in Bengal and Bihar in nineteenth century. He believed that he has something of an “authority on the subject” on – how the “British exploited the poor peasants”; how ” the peasants rose in revolt” ; and how with the invention of synthetic indigo in Germany, the cultivation of indigo was wiped out from our country.
Question 3 : Who was Pramode ? Why did Aniruddha Bose want to visit Dumka ?
Answer: Pramode was Aniruddha’s classmate in school in Monghyr. Pramode was posted in the Forest Department in Dumka. He invited Aniruddha Bose to take a week’s leave and come over to Dumka. Thus Aniruddha wanted to vist Dumka.
Question 4 : Which snags does Aniruddha mention that came initially?
Answer: The initial snag mentioned by Aniruddha are – his father’s old friend uncle Mohit suddenly turned up after ten years. He had to offer him tea and listen to him chat for over an hour. After he left, his neighbour Bhola babu stopped him to ask many questions satisfying him somehow, he started his car at ten minutes past eleven. As he started his journey at Panagarh military camp he had a flat tyre and he get out of the car to fix it. Just a few miles later he encountered a “norwester”, a furious thunderstorm. A little later, another trouble was awaiting Aniruddha, another tyre of his car burst. He was in a very difficult situation. In the pouring rain he took a wrong turn and reached a dead end.
Question 5: What happened when Aniruddha took a wrong turn ?
Answer: When Aniruddha took a wrong turn, he reached a dead end and at that time another tyre of his car burst. A truck driver honked continuously as Aniruddha’s car was in the middle of the road and had blocked the road making it difficult for the truck to pass. Then the Sikh driver and his helper came out and helped in pushing the car to one side.
Question 6: Why could not Aniruddha forget the twenty seventh of April ?
Answer: Aniruddha could never forget the twenty seventh of April as this was the day he had the terrifying and haunting experience of transforming into an English indigo planter while spending the night at the planter’s bungalow.
Question 7 : What is norwesters ? How could Aniruddha face norwesters?
Answer: Norwesters are the violent winds that blow in a north west direction. They are accompanied by heavy rainfall and lightening and thunderstorms and generally occur during summer season in eastern parts of India. When caught in a norwester storm Aniruddha had to drive very slowly and carefully keeping the car windows rolled up.
Question 8: How did the truck driver react at Aniruddha’s car standing in the way ?
Answer: When the truck driver found that Aniruddha’s car was in the middle of the road and had blocked the road, he blew the horn repeatedly and angrily. But when he realised that his tyre had got punctured the Sikh driver, his helper and Aniruddha pushed the car to one side of the road.
Question 9: Who was Sukhanram ? What help did he render to Aniruddha ?
Answer: Sukhanram was a “stocky”, middle aged man with thick moustache. He was the watchman of the Dak bungalow where Aniruddha spent the night. He offered Aniruddha shelter for the night at the Dak bungalow and he also provide him coarse chapatis and urad – ka – dal him by his wife ; to eat.
Question 10 : What kind of bungalow did Aniruddha spend the night in ?How did it affect him ?
Answer: The Dak bungalow, where Aniruddha spent the night belonged to an English indigo planter. The bungalow was constructed during the time of the British Raj. The bedroom was large and the ceiling was high. The furniture consisted of a charpoy, a table set against the wall on one side, and a chair with broken arm.
The old bungalow gave Aniruddha a cold and eerie feel. Spending a night in the bedroom of the Englishman and sleeping on his bed, led Aniruddha to have a terrifying experience of re – living the last moments of the Englishman just before his suicide.
Question 11 : How did Aniruddha feel himself transformed?
Answer: While sleeping in the indigo executive’s bedroom, Aniruddha felt many shocking changes around and in him. At midnight he suddenly woke up, feeling his body has transformed into the Englishman’s body completely. He felt his hands had become pale and his voice was like that of an Englishman, the clothes he was wearing were also changed. Though his consciousness was still of his own, yet his body was not acting of his own accord.
Question 12: What do you learn about indigo planter ? What kind of person was he ?
Answer: From Aniruddha’s paranormal experience we learn that the tax collector was not not at all at peace with himself because he had not led an honest and just life. He felt lonely as his wife and son had died and his friends had left for their country but he had stayed behind in India out of his greed. He had been guilty of harassing the poor indigo plantation workers. As he wrote in his letter he was not at all at peace in his last moments so he expected no one would mourn his death. His real worry was his pet Rex, he wanted to do something about Rex.