BOUNCERS
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
1.Saturday night at a city mall. Youngsters gleefully troop to the third level of the mall and a series of nightclubs. But first, they have to pass through a wall of muscle. Three beefy square-jawed bouncers almost identically clad in jeans and arms the size of their thighs, stand before a sign ‘Drugs and ammunition prohibited’ and impassively regard them before rubber-stamping their hands with the entry pass.
2. The bouncers outside have one thing in common. All of them are from twin urban villages in North India. Over 200 youngsters from these villages, with a population of 50,000, provide the muscles that protect bars and nightclubs in the national capital, secure private colleges and guard businessmen. ‘Bouncer’, as they call it, is a perfectly respectable profession in these villages.
3. “Think of us as protectors without whom you can’t run a business,” says Vijay 40, aka Pehalwan. “We are possibly the wealthiest villages in the North,” says Vijay Pehalwan. “Our boys don’t smoke, drink or watch dirty movies,” he claims. Lean is an expletive in the villages of brawn, where boys see muscles as a ticket to fame. Where the Enfield Bullet is not only the official ride but also lifted in impromptu contests to show off strength. Where adequacy is measured by the breadth of your bicep, and weight is how much you can bench.
4. No one is quite sure when the bouncer surge from these villages began, but Vijay Pehalwan has a story. Fifteen years ago, when he was muddying his legs in the village akhara, a pub owner paid him Z 10,000 to bring five boys to guard a wedding function in Delhi. The money was a terrific allurement for the village’s small group of recreational wrestlers with little to look forward to except farming or low paying government jobs.
5. As the economic boom of the mid-1990s fuelled malls, and nightclubs, the owners needed more than skinny security guards to keep the peace. The boys from Asola and Fatehpur Beri filled the void. Classified ads now routinely ask for bouncers. Musclemen are a must have for weddings, film shoots, malls and even schools, colleges and hospitals. The only prerequisites, for a bouncer who gets paid ? 1,500 a day, are an impressive physique and no criminal record. Vijay Pehalwan, the trendsetter, now has boys coming to him, touching his feet and asking for career advice
6. The gym, a 3,000 sq.ft. cement structure lined with weights and machines where youngsters grunt and grind for that pump, displaced the akhara as the single-most important village hangout a decade ago. The new age meeting place is less muddy and the machines help build muscles. It opens its creaky doors at 4 a.m. and closes only at 10 p.m. “Our boys are the best in Delhi,” says its proprietor, Raj.
7. You can tell where the bouncers work judging by the time they come in for their workouts: Those with day jobs come in early, the nightclub crowd comes in around mid-day after they’ve slept off their late-night shifts. Each of them spends about 300 a day on food, wolfing down, on an average, boiled chicken, 10 egg whites, a dozen bananas and 10 litres of milk (the milk is free because most of them own buffaloes). A bouncer earns between 30,000 and 50,000 per month.
On the basis of your understanding of the above passage answer each of the questions given below with the help of options that follow:
(a) The wall of muscle mentioned in the text refers to………
(i) the Bouncers who guard the entry to a nightclub
(ii) the muscles of the guards at the nightclub
(iii) the entry gate of the nightclubs
(iv) none of the above
(b) Bouncers refer to…………..
(i)Any security guard who stands at the gate of the nightclubs at the mall
(ii) All strong muscular men from the villages of India
(iii) the muscular men who provide security at clubs/ bars/private colleges
(iv) the men who are champions at weightlifting and wrestling
(c) The writer says that the muscle is their ‘ticket to fame’ meaning……….
(i) strong muscles help some men to make a lot of money
(ii) strong men who participate in competitions to show their strength gain a lot of popularity
(iii) men are respected for their strength
(iv) having strong muscles gives the Bouncers a career where these men can earn money as well as respect for their strength
(d) The most important trait of a Bouncer is his
(i) muscles (ii) strength
(iii) no criminal record (iv) none of the above
Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:
(e) How do the Bouncers ensure that their profession is respected?
(f) What do these men often use their motorcycles for?
(g) What are the other professions open to these men apart from being Bouncers?
(h) What is the reason for the popularity of Vijay Pehlwan?
(i) Why has the gym replaced the akhara in the villages of North India?
(i) How do the Bouncers maintain their physique?
(k) Find words from the passage which mean the same as each of the following:
(i) unemotionally (pars 1)
(ii) a spontaneous gesture (para 3)
ANSWERS:-
(a) (i); (b) (iii);
(c) (iv); (d) (ii)
(e) The bouncers ensure respect for their profession as they provide protection to bars and nightclubs across the national capital.
(f) They often use their motorcycles not only for transport but as weights in weightlifting contests.
(g) Apart from working as bouncers, these men can also take up wrestling, along with providing security for private schools and colleges, weddings, film shoots, malls and hospitals, and guarding businessmen.
(h) Vijay Pehalwan was one of the first people to use his training as a wrestler to take up a bouncer’s job. Therefore, many people come to him looking for career advice.
(i) The gym has become more popular as it has different weights and machines to help build muscles, and is not muddy like the akhara.
(j) Bouncers maintain their physique by exercising and working out at the gym regularly, and in addition, they eat a rich diet including chicken, 10 egg whites, a dozen bananas, and about 10 litres of milk every day.
(k) (i) Impassively; (ii) Impromptu
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