Games at Twilight's Heart-Games at Twilight-Anita Desai-Summary-Qs-Ans

Detailed Summary of Games at Twilight by Anita Desai

Anita Desai's short story "Games at Twilight" takes place on a hot afternoon, where a group of restless children are finally allowed to play outside after being cooped up inside all day. As soon as their mother drops them off, they run outside with pent-up energy, eager to begin a game of hide and seek. The setting of the story is ‘ek bageeche me hai’ which highlights the oppressive (cruel) heat and lifelessness.

 

The environment itself seems tired from the hot summer day, which reflects the children's struggle against the restrictions of being indoors. The children quickly decide to play hide and seek, and through a process of removal, Raghu, the eldest and strongest of the children, is chosen to be "It". While the rest of the children scatter to find a hiding place, Ravi, one of the younger children, is nervous and feels insecure.

 

He hides behind an old shed, sneaks (slips)  in through a small opening in the door, and tucks himself into a dark corner inside the damp space. The shed is full of old and useless objects, which frightens him, but his desperation to avoid being caught by Raghu outweighs (exceeds) his fear.

 

From his hiding place, Ravi listens to the sounds of the game outside, sometimes even hearing Raghu's movements. He remains absolutely silent, without moving, and trembles with both fear and excitement, determined to outwit his elder brother.

As time passes, he begins to realise that he can actually win the game. He imagines the thrill of being the last man standing, and ‘apne aap ko vijayi man se lag jata hai.’ Ravi's resolve (decision) to stay hidden grows stronger.

 

However, as the evening falls and the garden grows dark, Ravi suddenly realizes that he has forgotten a crucial part of the game: touching the "den" and declaring himself the winner. He bursts out of the shed and runs across the yard, but when he reaches the veranda and yells, "Den! Den! Den!" he is met with a shocking sight.

 

The other children are no longer playing hide and seek. They have completely moved on, are engrossed in new games, have already found all the other players. Ravi, ‘ke bare me ve sab bhul chuke the’. Now there was no point in him trying and hiding.

 

The children look at him in confusion, and even his mother, who is worried by his crying, does not understand his discomfort. ‘Ravi ka plan chaupat ho ho gaya’. He tries to claim his victory, shouting that Raghu didn't find him but the others dismiss him. They have already changed games several times, eaten fruits from the garden, and even chatted with their parents. His absence has gone unnoticed, and the game that meant so much to him has long been over in the eyes of everyone else.

 

The children continue their new game, sing a sad poem, and exclude Ravi, and leave him to grapple with his sense of insignificance. Feeling completely humiliated, Ravi collapses on the lawn, overwhelmed by a "terrible sense of insignificance".

Qs-Ans: Games at Twilight-Anita Desai

Long Answer-type Qs

Q1. Why did Ravi want to defeat Raghu in the game of hide and seek? Give reasons.

Ans. Ravi hid himself in a shed, where no one could find him out. In the beginning, he was scared of the darkness spread around it. But then he longed for becoming the champion of the same by defeating Raghu, a football champion.  

He wanted to catch every one’s attention by winning hide and seek. As a reward, he would get a whole piece of chocolate by his uncle and in addition, a free pony ride. These are the reasons that motivated Ravi to win the same.

Q2. Describe the place where Ravi had hidden himself during the game ‘hide and seek’?

Ans. The shed in which Ravi hid himself remained locked almost for the whole year. One may imagine what kind of creatures could be seen inside the shed. The door was big with its colour green. It was locked from outside, but there was an opening between two parts of the door. Ravi had entered through it. The hinges of the door were rusty. 

It was full of broken pieces of furniture and rolls of matting, etc. It smelt of dampness, rats, mud-hills, and dust and spider webs. There was frightening darkness inside it and light peeped only through the cracks in the door.

Q3. What game did Ravi play with his siblings? What were his feelings towards others?

Ans. Ravi played ‘hide and seek’ game with his siblings. In the beginning, Ravi’s feelings were the same as a sibling feels. But, when he was ignored and forgotten by them, his feelings were bitter towards his siblings. He felt that they thought him unimportant and so, they forgot to find him out.

Q4. Suppose you are Ravi. Describe your experience of the game and how you felt after being ignored by your siblings.

Ans. One afternoon, we all the siblings decided to play the game ‘hide and seek’. Raghu was to play as ‘It’ and he would find out us all to declare us dead or caught. My siblings hid themselves at several places of the garden. I hid myself in a shed that remained closed for the whole year.

There was a fearful atmosphere inside it. In the beginning, I was able to listen to the sound made by Raghu’s movements, But after that, all sounds died down. During this time, I was imagining that Raghu would not be able to find me out and it was true. I thought myself to be the winner of the game. I started feeling the great moments of victory when all of his siblings would be surprised to see me as a winner. 

But suddenly, I realised that Iwould have to touch the pole and cry out ‘den, den, den’. So, I came out to declare myself the winner. I cried aloud ‘den, den, den’. But all of my siblings had forgotten to find me out. They had started playing other games. It made me feel isolated, ignored and disappointed.

Q5. What impression do you form of Ravi after study the text of the short story ‘Games at Twilight’?

Ans. Ravi is a very sensitive boy among his siblings. He is very much conscious of his self-esteem. He thinks himself as important as his other siblings and, so, he cannot bear that others may ignore him. His brother Raghu is a foot ball champion. He also thinks to become a champion even of a small game like ‘hide and seek’.  When his sibling forgot to find him out in the game, he feels hurt and ignored. 

His heart was full of resentment and wounded feelings. That was why, he started crying loudly and hid his face into the grass of the lawn. His brothers and even his mother could not understand his odd behaviour. Raghu calls him foolish and advises him to forget all that. Later on, Ravi also realised his mistake of feeling so much sentimental at such a small issue.

Q6. What impression do you form of Raghu on the basis of your study ‘Games at Twilight’?

Ans. Raghu is the eldest of his siblings, strongly built having long hairy legs of a footballer as Ravi thinks him to be. He is very straight forward in what he says. When Ravi kept crying at the end of the story, he tells him to stop it as it was his foolishness to behave like that. 

He is a bully-type of a boy and we may say that his siblings scared of him. In the game also, he tries to bully the hiders by striking his stick on the objects here and there. He was not ready to become ‘It’ in a wrong way. He was in favour of a fair selection for that. But, finally, he has to perform his part of becoming “it’.

 Q. Describe how Ravi was forgotten to be found out by Raghu and how he felt hurt.

Ans. Ravi was one among the prominent names of his siblings like Raghu, Manu. All of them hid themselves at several places while playing hide and seek game. Raghu was to discover them. Ravi hid himself in a dark shed, that was full of foul smell. He remained there for a long time despite the fearful atmosphere inside it. In the beginning, he was able to listen to the sound made by Raghu’s movements, But after that, all sounds died down. During this time, Ravi was imagining that Raghu would not be able to find him out and it was true. He thought himself to be the winner of the game. 

He started feeling the great moments of victory when all of his siblings would be surprised to see him as a winner. But suddenly, he realised that he would have to touch the pole and cry out ‘den, den, den’. So he came out the hiding place, touched the pole and cried out ‘den, den, den’. But no one was there to recognise his victory. 

Raghu and his other brothers had forgotten to find out Ravi and now, they were busy playing other games. He felt ignored and unimportant. It all made him disappointed. He started crying, lay down flat on the ground and hid his face into the grass. Thus the moments of his victory were totally destroyed by his siblings.