Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Halku came in and said to his wife, ‘Sahna is at the door. Come on, give me the money you have. Let me pay him and be rid of the noose.’

His wife, Munni, was sweeping the floor. She turned her face towards him and said, ‘Three rupees is all I have. If we give these up, how shall you buy a blanket? How’ll you face the winter nights guarding the crop. Tell him, we shall pay at the time of harvest. Not now.’

Halku stood quietly for a moment, unsure of himself. The month of Poos, the peak of winter, was at hand and he won’t be able to sleep out in the field without a blanket. But Sahna won’t relent. He will threaten and curse. It was better to face the winter somehow and be rid of this trouble. Halku , carrying his heavy weight (which disproved his name which meant ‘light- weight’), moved towards his wife and said in a cajoling voice, ‘Come on, please give me the money. Let me get rid of this. I shall find a blanket somehow.’

Munni moved away from him, arching her eyes. ‘What’ll you do?  Will someone give you a blanket in charity? God knows how much more we owe him. There’s no end to it. I say, stop tilling the land. Kill yourself toiling, and when the harvest is ready, hand it over to him. That’s the end. We’re born to remain under debt. And then slave as a labour to fill our stomach. What use is this tillage? I won’t give you the money. I won’t.’

‘So I should face the insults?’ Halku said in a melancholy tone.

‘How can he insult you? Is he the king?’ shouted Munni.

But the taut eyebrows were lowered just as she uttered these words. There was a bitter truth in Halku’s words that stared at them like a fierce animal.

She went up to the niche in the wall, took out the rupees and placed them on Halku’s palm. ‘You stop tilling the land. We shall feed ourselves through our daily labour peacefully. And we won’t have to face the insults. What sort of tilling is this? Earn something by labouring and push that too into this fire. And over and above, this bullying.