NCERT Book Class 11 English (Woven Words) Short Stories 7 Glory at Twilight

Glory at Twilight 85

7 Glory at Twilight
Bhabani Bhattacharya

F Look for these expressions in the story and guess the meaning
from the context

brusquely attuned himself
queer rhythmic frenzy wrenching
flush of prosperity daze of bewilderment
wide-eyed wonder and eager homage
talking animatedly tremulous deliberation
on terms of a perpetual feud

The slow, narrow-gauge Indian train with its awkward freak
of an engine had a way of making unauthorised stops for
no good reason, between fields of corn or at the foot of a
village—it was said that the guard signalled a halt to pluck
a pumpkin or ripe melons from its stem or to buy fistfuls of
green gram from a peasant. Some of the passengers
grumbled and sat with drawn brows, composing in their
minds angry letters to Authority, or to the Press, but others
seized the chance to slip merrily out of doors for a breath
of air and a view of the green fields.
Satyajit, languid on the cushioned bench now vacated
by the other occupants, reached out for his cigarettes but,
on second thought, withdrew his hand brusquely. That won’t
do, he told himself with a stern shake of his head. His
smoke was rationed. He had attuned himself in the past
month to a fast-growing list of denials, large and small,
and this was one. How can he afford the unrestricted luxury
of chain smoking? Life lay sharpening to realities that still
had the semblance of an undreamable dream.
He winced, the turning wheel of fortune in his unhappy
eye, as always. Along the orbit of reminiscence he went