Chapter 9

Question 0

If anyone were to touch them,

Answer 0

Their magic would somehow be defaced

Question 1

(The cards) are so

Answer 1

Loving and bright with goodwill and friendship

Question 2

Their avid curiosity and

Answer 2

Disapproval would prevent her

Question 3

The furniture

Answer 3

Looms up around her, threateningly

Question 4

Two probing

Answer 4

White eyes: MamaPapa are back

Question 5

MamaPapa were actually

Answer 5

A little perturbed

Question 6

The wedding was a

Answer 6

Splendid one - not like Uma’s drab, cut-rate affair

Question 7

Managing to strike

Answer 7

Her head so that it was cut open dramatically

Question 8

(Uma) ‘I should

Answer 8

Be locked up. Lock me up!’

Question 9

No one mentioned Ramu, he was

Answer 9

Not considered for for society anymore

Question 10

Dr Dutt was known for

Answer 10

Her abrupt ways and was forgiven because she was a doctor.

Question 11

And Aruba was whisked away to

Answer 11

A life that she had said would be ‘fantastic’ and was.

Question 12

Uma does not bathe Aruna’s children because

Answer 12

She’s too scared of them in their ‘expensive and unsuitable clothing’

Question 13

‘Why do you still wear your hair

Answer 13

In a pigtail, like a schoolgirl?’

Question 14

The thought of having her hair cut, like … Made her …

Answer 14

A film actress

Giggle

Question 15

Mama and Uma are awed by

Answer 15

The amount of temper the small thing could contain and release

Question 16

Papa’s reaction to Uma needing new glasses

Answer 16

‘Harumph. No need, no need. Why waste money?’

Question 17

Being even more afraid of his … Than his…

Answer 17

Words

Silence

Question 18

Every trace of her roots was

Answer 18

Obliterated and overlaid by the bright sheen of the metropolis

Question 19

Clearly Aruna had a vision

Answer 19

Of a perfect world in which all of them were flaws she was constantly uncovering and correcting

Question 20

Uma felt pity for her…

Answer 20

Certainly is brought her no pleasure

Question 21

Aruna’s reaction to a specialist optician

Answer 21

‘Do you know what that would /cost/?’

Question 22

Uma simply sprang off the prow and plunged in, as if this were

Answer 22

What she had been preparing to do all her life

Question 23

It was not … She felt, or …

Answer 23

Fear

Danger

Question 24

These were only what edged something

Answer 24

Much darker, wilder, more thrilling, a kind of exultation - it was exactly what she had always wanted

Question 25

The saving was

Answer 25

What made her shudder and cry