Direction: Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:

As the rains receded, I got a strange job. Our neighbour, a rich merchant decided to become a politician. His major handicap was that he was illiterate and he offered me the job of accompanying him on trips into interior villages to read and write for him at wages of Rs. 600 a month. I made several trips with Lala Munshiram, as he was called, to the outskirts of the village, sleeping under trees, eating stomach-full meals for once in my life.

In the village, I was astonished at the ignorance and poverty of the children I met. I looked learned and rich against their ignorance and poverty. At night, seated on a bench, I would write down the point dictated to me by Lala Munshiram and then read to him so that they would be fixed in his brain. Many labourers would come to listen to his speeches, which promised them prosperity.

Our trips were tiresome. Travelling by bus, bullock cart, rickshaw, or on foot, we went from house to house and from village to village. I became a machine, recording names and addresses of his supporters, and the listening seemed to be endless. My job seemed to be monotonous - doing the same job, seeing the same people, houses and farms. To a huge crowd, he would talk like a sermon, spitting on the floor to mark off his paragraphs, clapping occasionally and thumping his feet to punctuate his sentences, all of which captivated the simple villagers, who in return shouted slogans promising him their support.

I returned home in March with a pocketful of money that vanished into the bottomless pit of needs of the household. My mother was proud, even Aunt Sarala became friendly, grandmother thought I performed a miracle and my mischievous qualities had, by now evaporated. But little did they know that Lala Munshiram had lost the election, I had lost my job and my status had reverted to the earlier one of being a wayward boy.