class xi English Chapter A pair of mustachios wooven words
CLASS XI
SUBJECT :- ENGLISH
CHAPTER :- A PAIR OF MUSTACHIOS
BOOK :- WOOVEN WORDS
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
❓ 1. What do you understand of the natures of Ramanand and Azam Khan from the episode described?
🔹 20 Words: Ramanand is clever and calm. Azam Khan is proud and emotional. Their conflict shows class pride and personal ego.
🔹 40 Words: Ramanand is smart, polite, and a good businessman who avoids fights. Azam Khan is proud of his royal past and gets angry easily. Their clash over moustache style shows how pride and ego lead to unnecessary conflicts in society.
🔹 60 Words: Ramanand is a clever, patient moneylender who handles situations calmly. He adjusts his behaviour to benefit in business. Azam Khan, on the other hand, is proud and emotional, holding on tightly to his family pride. Their fight over moustache styles reflects deep-rooted social pride. While Ramanand is flexible, Azam Khan is rigid and ruled by outdated beliefs.
🔹 80 Words: Ramanand, the moneylender, is a smart and practical man. He values business over ego and handles Azam Khan’s anger with clever tricks. Azam Khan is proud of his ancestry and sees the moustache as a symbol of status. He becomes furious when Ramanand imitates his tiger moustache. This shows how people can be blinded by pride and class. While Ramanand wins through wit and patience, Azam Khan loses his possessions due to his emotional and pride-driven actions.
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❓ 2. Identify instances in the story that show the business acumen of Ramanand.
🔹 20 Words: Ramanand stays calm during the conflict, uses clever talk, and turns Azam Khan’s pride into profit by buying his valuables.
🔹 40 Words: Ramanand is wise and polite. He tricks Azam Khan by adjusting only one side of his moustache. He patiently listens and uses Azam Khan’s pride to his advantage, buying his nose-ring and necklace at low rates. He always thinks like a businessman.
🔹 60 Words: Ramanand shows his business skills in many ways. He calms the angry Khan by pretending to adjust his moustache. He cleverly keeps one end up, making Khan return with more jewellery. Ramanand buys everything at cheap prices. Even when insulted, he remains patient and uses the situation for profit. His clever handling of people proves he is a smart businessman.
🔹 80 Words: Ramanand’s business skills are shown throughout the story. He remains calm when Khan insults him and cleverly lowers just one tip of his moustache. This irritates Khan so much that he brings more jewellery to make him lower the other tip. Ramanand patiently listens, bargains well, and buys all of Khan’s belongings at cheap prices. Even when threatened, he doesn’t panic and makes a legal agreement to seal the deal. His smart thinking and patience make him a successful businessman.
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❓ 3. Both Ramanand and Azam Khan seem to have very fixed views. How does Ramanand score over Azam Khan towards the end of the story?
🔹 20 Words: Ramanand is calm and clever, while Azam Khan is emotional. Ramanand wins by tricking Khan and gaining his possessions.
🔹 40 Words: Ramanand is flexible and clever, while Azam Khan is rigid and proud. Ramanand uses smart words and tricks to make Khan angry and buy his belongings. In the end, Ramanand wins the situation, showing how cleverness can defeat ego.
🔹 60 Words: Ramanand and Azam Khan both have strong views. But Ramanand wins because he is clever and calm. He doesn’t react emotionally like Khan. Instead, he cleverly uses Khan’s pride to buy his jewellery and property. He even gets a legal deed signed. While Khan loses everything for his pride, Ramanand gains much through smart thinking and patience.
🔹 80 Words: Ramanand and Azam Khan are both strong-minded, but their personalities are very different. Ramanand is practical, calm, and clever, while Azam Khan is proud, emotional, and stuck in the past. Ramanand cleverly tricks Khan by keeping one side of his moustache up, making Khan bring more valuables just to prove a point. Eventually, Khan gives up all his possessions to protect his pride. Ramanand, through patience and smartness, gains more than he loses, showing how intelligence wins over stubborn pride.
TALKING ABOUT THE TEXT
❓ 1. The episode has been narrated in a light vein. What social mores does the author seem to ridicule?
🔹 20 Words: The author mocks pride in social status, class divisions, and people’s obsession with outward appearances like moustaches and false honour.
🔹 40 Words: Mulk Raj Anand humorously criticizes how people stick to outdated class systems. He shows how pride in symbols like moustaches can create serious conflicts. The story laughs at how silly social rules and pride in ancestry still control people’s actions.
🔹 60 Words: The story uses humour to highlight how society clings to meaningless traditions and status symbols. It ridicules how something as small as the style of a moustache can cause anger and pride. The author mocks the upper-class obsession with honour, outdated social divisions, and the foolishness of holding on to lost glory in modern times.
🔹 80 Words: The author cleverly uses a light tone to show how society still clings to old ideas of class and status. He makes fun of people who care too much about their family pride, moustache styles, and imaginary superiority. The story shows how upper classes try to maintain old honour, while clever businessmen like Ramanand use it to their advantage. The focus on moustaches shows how people fight over silly symbols instead of adapting to new realities.
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❓ 2. What do you think are the reasons for the references made to the English people and the British monarchy?
🔹 20 Words: The references show how Indians imitated British styles and status symbols to look powerful, losing their own cultural identity.
🔹 40 Words: The author refers to the British to show how Indians copied their ways to appear modern or powerful. It highlights the influence of colonial rule on Indian society and how class pride, just like in British aristocracy, remained strong even after independence.
🔹 60 Words: References to the English and the monarchy show how Indians followed British class systems and status symbols. The author shows that people tried to look noble by copying their rulers, even if they had no real status. This reflects colonial influence and how people cared more about appearance and imitation than real values or progress, even after gaining freedom.
🔹 80 Words: The references to English people and monarchy show how colonial rule affected Indian minds. Indians started copying British traditions and class behaviours to feel powerful or respectable. Moustaches, like British top hats or coats, became symbols of pride. The story highlights how such imitation led to fake honour and ego. The author criticizes how Indians, instead of breaking free, held on to class divisions and proudly followed the very rulers they once wanted to remove.
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❓ 3. What do you think is the message that the author seems to convey through the story?
🔹 20 Words: The story teaches that ego, pride, and meaningless social symbols like moustaches lead to foolishness and personal loss.
🔹 40 Words: Mulk Raj Anand wants to show that clinging to old traditions, pride, and symbols like moustaches is foolish. Through humour, he teaches that pride in class or status can make people blind and cause them to lose everything important in life.
🔹 60 Words: The message is that blind pride in social status and class symbols like moustaches is harmful. The author shows that people ruin their lives and wealth just to maintain fake honour. Through Azam Khan’s downfall, we learn that sticking to outdated pride makes us weak, while clever people like Ramanand use such pride for their own benefit.
🔹 80 Words: Mulk Raj Anand conveys that pride in social class, outdated traditions, and symbols like moustaches is senseless in the modern world. He uses humour and irony to show how Azam Khan loses all his wealth just to protect his pride. The story teaches us to be flexible, practical, and not let ego control our actions. Real honour comes from values and actions, not from appearances or class. The message is timeless: let go of fake pride to move forward in life.
APPRECIATION
❓ 1. Comment on the way in which the theme of the story has been introduced.
🔹 20 Words: The story begins humorously with different moustache styles, cleverly introducing social divisions and pride based on class and appearance.
🔹 40 Words: The author starts the story with a funny yet sharp description of various moustaches worn by different classes. This light beginning quickly hints at deep social issues, like pride and class divisions, which later form the main theme of the story.
🔹 60 Words: The story begins with a humorous look at moustaches, showing how they represent different social classes. This funny introduction smoothly leads to serious themes like class pride, outdated traditions, and ego. The clever use of moustaches as symbols grabs the reader’s attention and sets the stage for the conflict between Ramanand and Azam Khan, making the story engaging from the start.
🔹 80 Words: Mulk Raj Anand introduces the theme of class pride in a unique and humorous way. By describing various moustache styles worn by different social groups, he highlights how even facial hair is used to mark class differences in India. This quirky yet symbolic start grabs the reader’s attention and sets up the central conflict. It cleverly foreshadows the struggle between tradition and change, ego and practicality, preparing readers for a deeper message hidden in a light-hearted tale.
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❓ 2. How does the insertion of dialogue in the story contribute to its interest?
🔹 20 Words: The dialogues bring the characters alive, show their emotions, and add humour and drama, making the story engaging and realistic.
🔹 40 Words: The use of direct dialogue makes the story lively and realistic. It reveals the strong emotions and personalities of Ramanand and Azam Khan. Their conversations add tension, humour, and drama, keeping the readers interested and helping them understand the deeper themes.
🔹 60 Words: Dialogue adds colour, energy, and realism to the story. Through their sharp, emotional, and witty exchanges, the characters become more relatable and vivid. Azam Khan’s pride and Ramanand’s cleverness come out strongly through what they say. The arguments over the moustache, filled with dramatic and funny dialogue, keep readers entertained while also highlighting the theme of pride and class conflict.
🔹 80 Words: The dialogues in the story play a key role in making the characters and situations lively and dramatic. Azam Khan’s proud outbursts and Ramanand’s calm replies reveal their personalities more effectively than narration alone. These exchanges keep the tone humorous yet meaningful, making the story easy to follow and enjoy. The dialogues help highlight key ideas like pride, class struggle, and ego while maintaining a light and entertaining narrative, ensuring readers stay hooked till the end.
LANGUAGE WORK
❓ 1. Nouveau riche and bourgeoisie are French words. Collect from newspapers, magazines, and other sources some more French words or expressions that are commonly used in English.
🔹 20 Words: Common French words in English: déjà vu, faux pas, café, RSVP, fiancé, cliché, elite, buffet, genre, silhouette.
🔹 40 Words: Many French words are commonly used in English. Some examples include: déjà vu, café, RSVP, fiancé, silhouette, elite, genre, faux pas, cliché, and ballet. These words add elegance to English and often describe feelings, art, food, or relationships.
🔹 60 Words: French words are often used in English to express ideas of art, fashion, food, or feelings. Examples include: déjà vu (a feeling of repetition), faux pas (social mistake), buffet (meal style), genre (type or category), and silhouette (outline). These words are stylish and precise, which is why newspapers and magazines use them often in writing.
🔹 80 Words: The English language uses many French words, especially in newspapers, fashion, and lifestyle sections. Words like déjà vu (a familiar feeling), RSVP (please respond), faux pas (a mistake), cliché (an overused idea), and genre (a type or style) are often seen. Others include silhouette, café, elite, and fiancé. These words are short, expressive, and elegant, which is why they are easily adopted into daily English, enriching vocabulary and style in both speaking and writing.
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❓ 2. Locate expressions in the text which reflect the Indian idiom. For example, ‘the pride of the generations of his ancestors’.
🔹 20 Words: Indian idioms in the story: "seed of a donkey", "lentil-eating", "pride of generations", "goods and chattels", "wring your neck".
🔹 40 Words: Some Indian idioms and expressions in the story are: "pride of the generations of his ancestors", "seed of a donkey", "lentil-eating shopkeepers", and "wring your neck". These reflect the emotional, cultural tone of Indian speech and everyday expressions.
🔹 60 Words: Expressions like “seed of a donkey”, “lentil-eating shopkeepers”, and “pride of generations” clearly reflect Indian idiom. Such phrases show deep cultural roots, respect for ancestry, and strong language use common in rural India. The tone and emotional depth in these idioms add local flavour, making the story feel authentically Indian and full of life and personality.
🔹 80 Words: The story uses many expressions that reflect the Indian way of speaking. Phrases like “seed of a donkey”, “lentil-eating shopkeepers”, “pride of generations”, and “wring your neck” come from traditional Indian speech and show the dramatic, emotional tone of conversations. These idioms express anger, respect, and sarcasm in a way that's true to Indian culture. They help the reader connect with the characters and make the language feel rich, authentic, and rooted in real Indian settings.
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❓ 3. We ‘draw up a deed’. Complete the following phrases with appropriate words:
a. Keep one’s word
b. Make one’s will
c. Make ends meet
d. Take a loan
e. Turn a deaf ear to
🔹 20 Words: a. Keep one’s word
b. Make one’s will
c. Make ends meet
d. Take a loan
e. Turn a deaf ear to
🔹 40 Words: Here are the correct phrases:
a. Keep one’s word – to stay true to a promise
b. Make one’s will – to write a legal paper for property
c. Make ends meet – to manage expenses
d. Take a loan – to borrow money
e. Turn a deaf ear to – to ignore someone
🔹 60 Words: Here are the correctly completed phrases with meanings:
a. Keep one’s word – to fulfil a promise made
b. Make one’s will – to prepare a legal document about property
c. Make ends meet – to manage within one’s income
d. Take a loan – to borrow money for needs
e. Turn a deaf ear to – to ignore or pretend not to hear
🔹 80 Words: a. Keep one’s word means to honour and fulfil a promise.
b. Make one’s will means to prepare a legal document for how property will be shared after death.
c. Make ends meet means to survive or manage with the available income.
d. Take a loan means to borrow money, usually from a bank or moneylender.
e. Turn a deaf ear to means to purposely ignore something, often advice or warnings.
EXTRA QUESTIONS
✅ 1. Why are moustaches important in the story?
🔸 20 Words:
Moustaches symbolize social class. Each style shows the wearer’s caste, pride, and position in society.
🔸 40 Words:
In the story, moustaches are not just facial hair. They represent class divisions. Every style is linked with a social group. Changing moustache styles can upset the social order, leading to pride conflicts, as seen between Ramanand and Azam Khan.
🔸 60 Words:
Moustaches are used as symbols of class, power, and pride. The story shows how each class has a unique moustache style. When someone imitates a higher-class style, it is seen as an insult. Azam Khan’s anger shows how seriously people take such appearances. The moustache, though small, carries deep social meaning in this story.
🔸 80 Words:
In the story, moustaches are not just about style—they represent the social system. Different moustache styles are linked with specific social classes, such as rajas, merchants, and peasants. The conflict begins when a lower-class man tries to copy an upper-class moustache, hurting the pride of a nobleman. The story shows how even small things like moustaches can reflect deeper class divisions and old traditions that people hold on to with pride and emotion.
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✅ 2. What kind of moustache does Azam Khan wear?
🔸 20 Words:
Azam Khan wears a tiger moustache, a proud symbol of his noble ancestry and high social status.
🔸 40 Words:
Azam Khan proudly wears a tiger moustache. It represents his belief in royal blood and old honour. He sees it as a family symbol of nobility. He gets angry when others try to imitate it, as he sees it as a direct insult.
🔸 60 Words:
The tiger moustache worn by Azam Khan is more than just hair—it symbolizes his royal heritage and pride. It stands for strength, dignity, and a noble family background. When the moneylender twists his moustache like Khan’s, it deeply offends him. To Khan, the moustache is a sacred mark of honour passed down through generations.
🔸 80 Words:
Azam Khan wears a tiger moustache, which is a traditional mark of nobility, strength, and royal blood. It reflects his belief in his family's high status during the Mughal era. Though he has lost his wealth, he clings to the moustache as a sign of honour and identity. He becomes furious when someone like the moneylender dares to copy this style, as he feels it insults not only him but also the generations of ancestors who proudly wore it.
✅ 3. What kind of person is Azam Khan?
🔸 20 Words:
Azam Khan is proud, emotional, and deeply attached to his family’s old honour and social status.
🔸 40 Words:
Azam Khan is shown as a proud and emotional man who values his royal heritage. Even though he has lost wealth, he fiercely defends his dignity. His attachment to the tiger moustache reflects his obsession with status and social respect.
🔸 60 Words:
Azam Khan is a traditionalist who believes in his noble past. He is proud of his heritage and wears his tiger moustache as a symbol of honour. Though poor, he refuses to give up his pride. He becomes angry when someone lower in status tries to imitate his appearance, showing how emotionally tied he is to outdated social symbols.
🔸 80 Words:
Azam Khan is a proud man from a once-noble family. Even though he no longer has wealth or power, he strongly holds on to his royal identity. He expresses this through his tiger moustache, which he sees as a badge of honour. When a shopkeeper copies his moustache style, Khan sees it as a deep insult. His reactions are emotional, even extreme, showing how much he values pride over material things. He would rather lose everything than compromise his sense of honour.
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✅ 4. How does Ramanand handle Azam Khan’s anger?
🔸 20 Words:
Ramanand remains calm, smartly lowers one side of his moustache, and cleverly turns Khan’s anger into a business opportunity.
🔸 40 Words:
Ramanand stays cool when Khan gets angry. He gently lowers one side of his moustache to avoid conflict. Later, he uses Khan’s pride to his advantage, cleverly getting jewellery and household goods from him in exchange for lowering the other tip.
🔸 60 Words:
Ramanand proves to be a smart businessman. He never argues or gets angry. When Khan threatens him, he calmly lowers part of his moustache and waits. He understands that Khan’s pride is stronger than logic. Slowly, he uses Khan’s obsession with honour to gain his valuables. Ramanand’s patience and cleverness help him turn the situation into profit.
🔸 80 Words:
Ramanand is clever, calm, and knows how to deal with proud people like Azam Khan. Instead of reacting to Khan’s threats, he carefully lowers one tip of his moustache, giving the illusion of respect. But he keeps the other side up, forcing Khan to return again and again, each time bringing more items to pawn. Ramanand never loses his cool and uses smart tactics to turn Khan’s pride into profit. This shows his deep understanding of human emotions and business.
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✅ 5. What is the goat moustache, and who wears it?
🔸 20 Words:
The goat moustache is thin and flexible. It is worn by shopkeepers and the new rich class who show false pride.
🔸 40 Words:
The goat moustache is a simple style worn by merchants and nouveau riche people. It can be turned up or down to show either pride or humility, depending on the situation. It's a symbol of flexible, often fake, social behaviour.
🔸 60 Words:
The goat moustache is not stiff or strong—it’s thin and can be styled up or down as needed. This style is worn by the new rich class and shopkeepers. They use it to act proud with the poor or humble with the rich. It shows their changing behaviour, lack of true status, and desire to appear more powerful than they are.
🔸 80 Words:
The goat moustache represents the merchant class—people who have recently become rich. It’s thin and flexible, allowing the wearer to adjust it based on who they are dealing with. This moustache reflects a fake pride. Shopkeepers use it to look strong in front of peasants and humble before powerful customers. In the story, Ramanand wears this style but tries to twist it into a tiger moustache, which leads to conflict with Azam Khan. It symbolizes social ambition and pretence.
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✅ 6. Why did Azam Khan visit Ramanand’s shop?
🔸 20 Words:
Azam Khan went to Ramanand’s shop to pawn his wife’s gold nose-ring, as his family was struggling financially.
🔸 40 Words:
Azam Khan needed money and went to Ramanand’s shop to pawn his wife’s nose-ring. His family was facing hardship. During the visit, he noticed Ramanand’s moustache, which led to a conflict about pride and class.
🔸 60 Words:
Azam Khan, once noble but now poor, visited Ramanand’s shop to pawn his wife’s nose-ring. His family was in need of money. While there, he noticed the upward twist of Ramanand’s moustache, which looked like his own tiger moustache. This insulted his pride and started a heated argument between them about class and social identity.
🔸 80 Words:
Azam Khan visited Ramanand, the moneylender, to pawn his wife’s gold nose-ring. His family was going through financial trouble. While completing the transaction, he noticed that Ramanand had twisted the tips of his moustache upwards, imitating the tiger moustache—a symbol of nobility. This angered Azam Khan, who believed Ramanand had no right to copy the proud symbol of his class. What began as a simple business exchange soon turned into a matter of honour and identity for Khan.
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✅ 7. Why did Azam Khan object to Ramanand’s moustache?
🔸 20 Words:
Azam Khan felt insulted because Ramanand, a lower-class man, styled his moustache like Khan’s noble tiger moustache.
🔸 40 Words:
Azam Khan believed the tiger moustache belonged only to noble families. When he saw Ramanand, a shopkeeper, copying the style, he felt disrespected. For Khan, it wasn’t just hair—it was a sign of pride, heritage, and class superiority.
🔸 60 Words:
Azam Khan was proud of his tiger moustache, which represented his noble lineage. When he saw Ramanand twisting his moustache tips to look similar, he saw it as a deep insult. Khan believed that lower-class people should not imitate upper-class symbols. This sparked a serious conflict between the two, based on pride, honour, and social boundaries.
🔸 80 Words:
The tiger moustache symbolized Azam Khan’s ancestral pride and noble status. So, when Ramanand, a moneylender of lower status, styled his moustache in a similar way, Khan felt his honour was mocked. In his eyes, a lentil-selling merchant had no right to imitate the look of a nobleman. This imitation threatened his identity and legacy. Khan’s anger wasn’t just about appearance—it was about the deep-rooted class system and his struggle to protect what was left of his family pride.
✅ 8. What did Azam Khan do to protect his pride?
🔸 20 Words:
Azam Khan sold his wife’s jewellery and finally all his belongings, just to make Ramanand lower his moustache.
🔸 40 Words:
To protect his pride, Azam Khan pawned his wife’s nose-ring, then a family necklace, and later all his possessions. He gave them to Ramanand in exchange for lowering his moustache, proving how far he would go for honour.
🔸 60 Words:
Azam Khan was deeply hurt by Ramanand’s moustache style. To protect the honour of his tiger moustache and family pride, he first gave away jewellery, then even sold all his household goods. His emotions and pride mattered more than wealth. This shows how obsessed he was with status and tradition, even if it meant becoming completely poor.
🔸 80 Words:
Azam Khan was ready to lose everything to protect the honour symbolized by his tiger moustache. He first gave away his wife’s gold nose-ring, then his ancestral necklace, and eventually all his household possessions. He signed a legal deed transferring everything to Ramanand just to ensure the moneylender wouldn’t imitate his moustache style. His actions reflect how pride in status and tradition can overpower reason, making a person give up everything for symbols of past glory.
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✅ 9. How does the story show the clash between old values and new thinking?
🔸 20 Words:
Azam Khan represents old values and pride, while Ramanand represents modern thinking, practicality, and clever business tactics.
🔸 40 Words:
The story contrasts Azam Khan’s outdated pride in ancestry with Ramanand’s modern, practical mindset. Khan lives in the past, valuing honour over wealth, while Ramanand uses smart thinking to grow rich. This highlights a clash between tradition and changing times.
🔸 60 Words:
Azam Khan is stuck in old values like pride, honour, and family status, even though he’s poor. He can’t accept change. On the other hand, Ramanand represents new thinking—he’s clever, flexible, and focuses on business success. The story clearly shows how pride in traditions can be harmful, while adapting to the present helps people move forward in life.
🔸 80 Words:
The story presents a strong contrast between traditional pride and modern practicality. Azam Khan represents people who are emotionally tied to their past, honour, and status, even if they have no money. Ramanand represents a new generation that values smart business over social pride. The moustache conflict becomes a symbol of this clash. While Azam Khan loses everything to protect his outdated pride, Ramanand gains more through logic and strategy. This shows that adapting to change leads to survival and success.
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✅ 10. What does the ending of the story suggest?
🔸 20 Words:
The ending shows that emotional pride can lead to loss, while cleverness and calm thinking help one succeed in life.
🔸 40 Words:
The story ends with Azam Khan losing everything just to protect his moustache’s honour. Ramanand wins through patience and strategy. The ending suggests that pride in empty traditions leads to downfall, while smart thinking brings success, even without status.
🔸 60 Words:
In the end, Azam Khan gives away all his belongings to make Ramanand lower his moustache. But the moneylender quietly mocks him by claiming royal roots. This ironic ending shows how emotional pride destroys people, while cleverness wins. It teaches that clinging to meaningless traditions leads to failure, and success comes to those who adapt smartly to changing times.
🔸 80 Words:
The ending is both humorous and sad. Azam Khan, blinded by pride, gives up all his possessions to protect a symbol—the moustache. Ramanand, with calmness and smart tricks, gets everything he wants. In the end, he even mocks Khan by claiming royal blood himself. This ironic twist shows the foolishness of holding on to hollow traditions. The story ends by teaching that those who adapt, stay calm, and use wisdom will win, while those stuck in the past will lose everything.
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✅ 11. What role does humour play in the story?
🔸 20 Words:
Humour makes the story light and enjoyable while exposing serious issues like class pride, ego, and meaningless social traditions.
🔸 40 Words:
The author uses humour to discuss serious issues. Funny moustache descriptions, silly arguments, and exaggerated pride make the reader laugh. But behind the humour, the story shows how people blindly follow traditions and destroy themselves over things that don’t really matter.
🔸 60 Words:
Humour is used to highlight the absurdity of social pride and ego. The story makes readers laugh at the strange importance given to moustaches and the petty quarrels between characters. This light tone keeps the story entertaining while delivering serious messages about class division, outdated beliefs, and how foolish pride can lead to downfall. Humour helps readers understand without feeling burdened.
🔸 80 Words:
The story is filled with humorous situations, like the arguments over moustache styles and the extreme steps Azam Khan takes. These moments make the reader smile but also think. The humour makes the story engaging and memorable, while the deeper meaning slowly unfolds. It exposes how people fight over silly symbols of pride and status. By using light comedy, the author criticizes class divisions and social egos, making a strong point without sounding too serious or preachy.
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✅ 12. How does the moustache become a symbol of pride and identity?
🔸 20 Words:
In the story, the moustache shows class and honour. It represents each man’s social position, pride, and personal identity.
🔸 40 Words:
The moustache is more than facial hair. Each style represents a social class. For Azam Khan, his tiger moustache symbolizes noble blood and family pride. When others copy it, he feels insulted. Thus, it becomes a mark of identity and honour.
🔸 60 Words:
The moustache in the story is a clear symbol of pride and identity. Each class wears a unique style, showing their role in society. Azam Khan’s tiger moustache stands for his royal heritage. When a lower-class man copies it, he feels deeply insulted. The moustache becomes a symbol of social honour, pride, and personal worth in the story.
🔸 80 Words:
Throughout the story, the moustache is shown as a powerful symbol of status, identity, and pride. Every social group has a specific style. For Azam Khan, the tiger moustache is not just a look—it’s a symbol of his noble heritage. When Ramanand, a moneylender, imitates it, Khan feels as though his identity is stolen. This small detail becomes the cause of a big conflict. It shows how outward symbols often matter more to people than real character or values.
✅ 13. What does the phrase “lentil-eating shopkeepers” suggest?
🔸 20 Words:
It mocks lower-class merchants like Ramanand, suggesting they lack nobility and are unworthy of imitating upper-class symbols like moustaches.
🔸 40 Words:
The phrase “lentil-eating shopkeepers” is used by Azam Khan to insult Ramanand. It means he belongs to a lowly class of people who deal with common goods. Khan believes such people have no right to copy noble symbols like the tiger moustache.
🔸 60 Words:
Azam Khan angrily calls Ramanand a “lentil-eating shopkeeper” to insult his status. The phrase suggests that Ramanand belongs to a humble, working class that deals with everyday items, unlike the noble, royal background Khan claims. It highlights the deep-rooted class prejudice in society and shows how certain professions are looked down upon despite their success or intelligence.
🔸 80 Words:
“Lentil-eating shopkeepers” is a sarcastic and insulting phrase used by Azam Khan to belittle Ramanand. It reflects class snobbery and prejudice, where merchants and moneylenders are considered socially inferior, no matter how wealthy they are. Azam Khan, despite his poverty, still clings to the pride of his royal past and feels that someone like Ramanand has no right to copy his moustache. This phrase emphasizes how people judge others based on occupation and perceived lineage rather than present-day values.
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✅ 14. What shows that Azam Khan is emotionally weak?
🔸 20 Words:
He loses control over a small issue, sacrifices all his belongings, and is ruled by pride rather than logic or need.
🔸 40 Words:
Azam Khan’s emotional weakness is clear when he gets furious over a moustache. He gives up jewellery and property just to protect his pride. His decisions are ruled by ego and emotion, not practical thinking or family needs.
🔸 60 Words:
Though Azam Khan once had wealth and status, he is unable to control his emotions. He lets a simple imitation of his moustache turn into a battle for honour. He pawns jewellery, sells household items, and ruins himself financially just to win a prideful argument. His inability to balance emotions and needs shows his emotional weakness and rigid thinking.
🔸 80 Words:
Azam Khan’s pride makes him emotionally weak. When Ramanand copies his moustache style, instead of ignoring it or discussing it calmly, Khan reacts with intense anger. He forgets his family’s needs and pawns all his jewellery, even household items, just to win a silly battle over moustache style. His actions show he’s unable to control his emotions and chooses pride over well-being. This emotional weakness eventually leads to his downfall and loss of everything he owns.
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✅ 15. Why did the villagers not support Azam Khan?
🔸 20 Words:
The villagers feared Ramanand, who had power and money. They didn’t want to upset him by supporting Azam Khan.
🔸 40 Words:
Though Azam Khan was proud of his noble past, the villagers remained quiet. They depended on Ramanand for loans and help. Supporting Khan could mean angering the moneylender, so they stayed neutral or laughed behind Khan’s back.
🔸 60 Words:
The villagers didn’t support Azam Khan because they were either afraid of Ramanand or didn’t believe in Khan’s royal claims. Ramanand had money and power, and many villagers owed him loans. They couldn’t afford to take sides against him. Some villagers quietly laughed at Khan, showing they didn’t take the moustache conflict seriously and saw Khan’s pride as foolish.
🔸 80 Words:
Azam Khan’s anger and pride didn’t gain much sympathy from the villagers. Most of them were poor and dependent on Ramanand, the moneylender, for financial support. Speaking against him might affect their own situation. Also, they found Khan’s obsession with moustache style a little silly. His royal pride felt outdated, and many didn’t believe in his noble lineage. Their silence and quiet laughter suggest that they didn’t want to get involved in his emotional drama or lose favour with Ramanand.
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✅ 16. What does Ramanand mean when he says, “My father was a Sultan”?
🔸 20 Words:
Ramanand mockingly says he is of royal blood to tease Azam Khan, showing that such claims have become meaningless.
🔸 40 Words:
When Ramanand says, “My father was a Sultan,” he is making fun of Azam Khan’s pride. It shows that anyone can falsely claim royal heritage, proving that such status symbols like moustaches or noble lineage no longer carry real value.
🔸 60 Words:
Ramanand’s remark, “My father was a Sultan,” is sarcastic. It mocks Azam Khan’s obsession with his royal ancestry. By saying this, Ramanand shows that in today’s world, anyone can claim to be noble without proof. It reflects how pride based on family history has become a joke and has no real meaning in modern, practical life.
🔸 80 Words:
When Ramanand says, “My father was a Sultan,” he is not speaking the truth but making a sarcastic comment. He mocks Azam Khan’s constant boasting about his noble heritage. Through this statement, the author shows how meaningless these titles have become. In today’s world, wealth, cleverness, and action matter more than old family pride. Ramanand, a smart businessman, uses humour to show that people shouldn’t take such claims seriously, especially when they have no practical use or truth behind them.
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✅ 17. What makes Ramanand a strong character?
🔸 20 Words:
Ramanand is calm, smart, and never loses control. He uses cleverness and patience to win over emotional and proud people.
🔸 40 Words:
Ramanand never reacts in anger, even when insulted. He stays polite and patient, turning every situation to his benefit. His business sense, quick thinking, and ability to understand people make him a strong and successful character in the story.
🔸 60 Words:
Ramanand is a calm and intelligent man who understands emotions but doesn’t let them control him. He handles Azam Khan’s threats with clever responses and uses the conflict to increase his wealth. His strength lies in staying composed, thinking ahead, and using his words wisely. He represents the modern, practical man who succeeds through patience, strategy, and understanding human behaviour.
🔸 80 Words:
Ramanand stands out as a strong character because of his calmness, patience, and clever thinking. He never argues or gets emotional like Azam Khan. Instead, he listens, pretends to agree, and turns the situation to his advantage. Even when insulted, he stays polite and business-minded. His ability to handle pressure, use humour, and read people’s weaknesses makes him powerful. Ramanand doesn’t fight over pride—he focuses on smart gains. He represents a modern, practical mindset that values actions over appearances.
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✅ 18. What do the different moustache styles represent in society?
🔸 20 Words:
Different moustache styles show class divisions. Each style reflects a person’s status, pride, and the society’s deep-rooted class system.
🔸 40 Words:
In the story, moustache styles are symbols of different social groups. Nobles wear the tiger moustache, merchants the goat style, and peasants have simpler ones. These styles help people recognize social class, showing how society judges by outward appearance.
🔸 60 Words:
Moustache styles in the story represent clear boundaries between social classes. Nobles wear bold, upright tiger moustaches to show pride and power. The merchant class wears thin, flexible goat moustaches that reflect their changing behaviour. Peasants and coolies have very simple styles. These moustache types are like uniforms of class, showing how deeply appearance controls respect and identity in society.
🔸 80 Words:
Moustache styles are powerful symbols in the story. Each type reflects a specific class—nobles, merchants, peasants. The tiger moustache stands for nobility and pride, the goat moustache shows the flexible identity of businessmen, and the peasant styles represent lower social status. These styles act like visual class markers. If someone tries to copy a higher class style, it causes anger and conflict. The story uses these moustaches to mock how seriously people treat social divisions and how appearances shape their identity.
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✅ 19. How does the author use irony in the story?
🔸 20 Words:
The author uses irony to show how people fight over small things like moustaches while ignoring bigger issues like poverty.
🔸 40 Words:
Irony appears throughout the story. Azam Khan clings to pride while losing everything, and Ramanand, pretending to obey, actually mocks him. The contrast between appearance and reality creates humour, showing how ego and pride often lead to foolishness.
🔸 60 Words:
The story is filled with irony. Azam Khan thinks he is noble but ends up poor because of his pride. Ramanand, whom Khan insults, outsmarts him and gains his property. Even when Ramanand finally lowers his moustache, he mocks Khan. The irony lies in how people value symbols over substance, making the story both funny and thought-provoking.
🔸 80 Words:
Irony is a powerful tool in the story. Azam Khan, despite his noble claims, loses all his belongings to protect his moustache’s style. Ramanand, whom Khan calls low-class, cleverly tricks him while pretending to agree. In the end, Ramanand still mocks Khan by claiming royal blood himself. The true irony is that Khan loses everything for a symbol, while the one he insults gains everything by staying calm. This sharp contrast between appearance and reality makes the story both humorous and meaningful.
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✅ 20. What lesson does the story teach us?
🔸 20 Words:
The story teaches that pride in fake symbols leads to loss, while intelligence, patience, and practicality lead to success.
🔸 40 Words:
The story gives a clear message—ego and blind pride lead to destruction. Azam Khan loses everything because of his moustache obsession. In contrast, Ramanand’s cleverness helps him win. It teaches us to value wisdom, not social appearance or pride.
🔸 60 Words:
“A Pair of Mustachios” teaches that pride based on old traditions and symbols can ruin lives. Azam Khan clings to his moustache’s honour and ends up with nothing. Meanwhile, Ramanand uses calm and cleverness to gain more. The story suggests we should let go of meaningless pride and focus on practical, respectful living that values understanding over appearance.
🔸 80 Words:
The story teaches a powerful moral lesson: never let pride and ego control your actions. Azam Khan’s obsession with honour, based on a mere moustache, leads him to lose all his possessions. In contrast, Ramanand uses intelligence, patience, and wit to come out ahead. The message is clear—symbols of pride, like moustaches or status, are meaningless without wisdom. True strength lies in self-control, flexibility, and the ability to think smartly in any situation. Let go of false pride, and you’ll live better.
✅ 21. What is the role of the landlord in the story?
🔸 20 Words:
The landlord watches the conflict and supports Ramanand. He mocks Azam Khan and adds to the humour in the story.
🔸 40 Words:
The landlord plays a side character who observes the events silently. He mocks Azam Khan’s pride and supports Ramanand during the moustache argument. His comments show how people enjoy such drama and reflect the passive attitude of society toward class pride.
🔸 60 Words:
The landlord in the story is a quiet observer who represents society’s response to pride and status battles. Though he has risen from humble roots, he sides with Ramanand and laughs at Azam Khan’s extreme pride. He agrees to witness the deed for lowering the moustache and adds subtle humour to the scene. His role reflects society’s changing support.
🔸 80 Words:
The landlord serves as a background character who adds depth to the social setting. He doesn’t directly interfere in the moustache conflict but watches and supports Ramanand when needed. Though he himself once rose from a lower class, he mocks Azam Khan’s outdated pride. He even acts as one of the elders who witness the legal deed. Through him, the author shows how society often shifts support toward wealth and practicality rather than honour and tradition.
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✅ 22. Why did Azam Khan ask for a legal deed?
🔸 20 Words:
Azam Khan demanded a legal deed to ensure Ramanand would keep both moustache tips down permanently, respecting their agreement.
🔸 40 Words:
To make sure Ramanand wouldn’t trick him again, Azam Khan insisted on a legal deed. He wanted proof that the moustache would remain in the goat style forever. The legal document gave him a sense of control and public honour.
🔸 60 Words:
After being tricked before, Azam Khan wanted to be absolutely sure Ramanand would keep his moustache down. So, he asked for a deed to be drawn in the presence of village elders. This legal step shows Khan’s seriousness about the moustache and his desperation to protect his pride—even if it meant legally giving up everything he owned.
🔸 80 Words:
Azam Khan had already been fooled once by Ramanand’s partial lowering of the moustache. To make sure he wouldn't be tricked again, he demanded a legal agreement. He wanted a written and signed deed, verified by the village elders, stating that Ramanand would keep both tips of his moustache down in the goat style forever. This shows Khan’s intense concern for honour and his attempt to protect his pride using law—even at the cost of losing everything.
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✅ 23. How does the story show the failure of class pride?
🔸 20 Words:
Azam Khan’s pride in his noble status makes him lose everything. It shows that outdated class pride leads to ruin.
🔸 40 Words:
Azam Khan clings to his noble pride but ends up poor and mocked. His obsession with status and symbols like the tiger moustache leads to loss. The story shows how rigid class pride cannot survive in a changing world.
🔸 60 Words:
Azam Khan’s downfall is caused by his refusal to accept social change. He values pride over practical needs and loses everything just to protect his status symbol—a moustache. Meanwhile, Ramanand, from a lower class, succeeds with cleverness. The story shows that class pride, without wealth, respect, or adaptation, becomes meaningless. It leads to loss and humiliation rather than honour.
🔸 80 Words:
The story is a clear example of how outdated class pride leads to failure. Azam Khan is so deeply attached to his noble background and tiger moustache that he sacrifices all his wealth for it. In doing so, he loses everything and is left mocked by those he once looked down upon. His pride blinds him to reality. The story teaches that without real power or adaptability, social pride becomes empty and harmful, leading to personal and social downfall.
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✅ 24. How does Ramanand use psychology in the story?
🔸 20 Words:
Ramanand understands Azam Khan’s pride and emotions. He uses this to manipulate him and gain all his possessions.
🔸 40 Words:
Ramanand smartly reads Azam Khan’s mind. He knows Khan values his moustache more than money. By playing on Khan’s pride, he tricks him into pawning jewellery and goods. His calm, clever mind uses emotions for profit.
🔸 60 Words:
Ramanand acts like a quiet psychologist. He listens carefully, pretends to agree, and lets Khan’s pride guide his decisions. He never forces anything but creates situations where Khan offers valuables to protect his moustache’s honour. Ramanand’s deep understanding of human emotion—especially pride—helps him turn conflict into opportunity and profit. This shows how powerful calm thinking and psychological tricks can be.
🔸 80 Words:
Ramanand uses psychology masterfully. He watches Azam Khan closely and realizes his biggest weakness is pride in his moustache. Instead of fighting, Ramanand stays calm, lets Khan feel superior, and then slowly uses his emotional weakness to gain wealth. He knows exactly when to agree and when to resist, pulling Khan deeper into the conflict. His patience and understanding of human behaviour make him a winner in the story. This shows how emotional intelligence can be more powerful than status or strength.
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✅ 25. What does the story say about appearances and reality?
🔸 20 Words:
The story shows that appearances like moustaches may not reflect real power. Reality depends on intelligence, not status symbols.
🔸 40 Words:
Azam Khan’s moustache shows pride and nobility, but in reality, he’s poor. Ramanand, though from a lower class, has real power and wealth. The story teaches that appearances can be false and reality is shaped by action and smart thinking.
🔸 60 Words:
In the story, the tiger moustache appears as a symbol of nobility and pride. But Azam Khan, who wears it, is poor and helpless. Meanwhile, Ramanand, a shopkeeper with a goat moustache, is smart and successful. This contrast shows that appearances can be misleading. Real power lies in intelligence and adaptability, not in outdated symbols or looks.
🔸 80 Words:
The story sharply contrasts appearance and reality. Azam Khan holds on to the appearance of honour through his tiger moustache but lacks real wealth or control. Ramanand, who is supposedly from a lower class, has the money, business skills, and social power. The moustache becomes a fake badge of pride, while real strength lies in wit and practicality. This shows that society often values symbols over substance, and people get judged by appearance rather than true ability or reality.
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