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A Pair of Mustachios – Class 11 English Chapter 2 Notes & NCERT PDF

Class 11EnglishChapter 2NCERT book: Woven Words (Elective) - English Class 11

Notes and a simple summary of Chapter 2 of the NCERT Class 11 English book, with the official chapter PDF, flashcards, an MCQ quiz and an AI tutor for your doubts.

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Chapter 2: A Pair of Mustachios (Short Story)

About the Author

Mulk Raj Anand (1905–2004), one of the most celebrated Indian novelists writing in English, was born in Peshawar and educated at Lahore, London and Cambridge. His novels include Untouchable, Coolie, The Sword and the Sickle, Private Life of an Indian Prince, Seven Summers and Morning Face. His short stories show "a lively sense of humour, a keen eye for the pretensions of the people and a feeling of warm compassion".

Summary

Mustachios as class markers

The narrator explains, with gentle satire, that in his country mustachios mark the boundaries between classes. "With them [the Europeans] clothes make the man but, to us, mustachios make the man." He lists the styles:

  • Lion moustache — rajas, maharajas, nawabs and English army generals.
  • Tiger moustache — the surviving feudal gentry, proud of past glory.
  • Goat moustache — the nouveau riche, the commercial bourgeoisie and shopkeepers; a thin line whose tips turn up or down as the occasion demands.
  • Charlie Chaplin moustache — clerks and the lower middle class.
  • Sheep moustache — coolies and the lower orders; mouse moustache — peasants.

    • Any "poaching" of one class's style by another is fiercely resented.

    The rumpus in the village

    Seth Ramanand, the grocer and moneylender, has profited from the fall in wheat prices by buying peasants' crops cheaply. He twists the tips of his goat moustache upward so that it looks nearly like a tiger moustache.

    Khan Azam Khan claims descent from Afghan noblemen at the Mughal court. He wears a tiger moustache and a faded gold-brocaded waistcoat, though he has no land left and lives in a crumbling Mughal-style house. His pride is "greatly in excess of his present possessions".

    The escalating bargain

  • Khan comes to pawn his wife's gold nose-ring and notices the upturned moustache. "Since when have the lentil-eating shopkeepers become noblemen?" he asks sourly. Ramanand, who believes "the customer is always right", brushes one tip down.
  • As Khan leaves, he sees the other tip still up and demands it be lowered. Ramanand says he will do so the next time Khan does business with him.
  • Khan fetches a necklace handed down through seven generations and pawns it. Ramanand brushes the tip down — but now the other tip has gone up.
  • Enraged, Khan says he would rather lose all his possessions than see the moustache like that. Ramanand offers: sell me all your goods and chattels and I will turn the tip down and keep it flat.
  • A deed is drawn up by the village petition-writer, signed by the five elders (including landlord Chaudhary Chottu Ram), with the priest threatening to excommunicate Ramanand if he breaks his word.

    • The ending

    Ramanand keeps both tips glued down in the goat style — but mutters to the peasants, "My father was a Sultan." They laugh as the Khan gives a special twist to his own tiger moustache, "maintaining the valiant uprightness to the symbol of his ancient and noble family, though he had become a pauper."

    Characters

  • Khan Azam Khan — proud, hot-headed, living in the past; values a symbol more than his family's livelihood.
  • Seth Ramanand — shrewd, calm, cunning and "nothing if he was not amenable"; turns Khan's pride into profit.
  • Chaudhary Chottu Ram (landlord), the priest, the peasants — onlookers who side with money and enjoy the show.

    • Themes

  • Class pride and empty symbols — the absurdity of rigid social markers.
  • Decline of the old aristocracy and rise of the commercial class.
  • Pride versus practical sense — foolish pride ruins the Khan.
  • Satire of social conventions, including comparisons with the English and the British monarchy.

    • Literary Devices & Style

  • Satire and irony — the "expert analysis" linking murders to moustache jealousy; the pauper who still twists his moustache "valiantly".
  • Humour through exaggeration — the whole catalogue of moustache types.
  • Animal imagery — lion, tiger, goat, sheep, mouse; "brought down like a dead fly".
  • Dialogue — makes the story lively and dramatic and reveals character.
  • Indian idiom in English — "seed of a donkey", "lentil-eating shopkeepers", "the pride of generations of his ancestors".

    • Word Power

  • mustachios — a moustache, especially a large one (मूँछें)
  • nouveau riche — people who have recently become rich (नया अमीर वर्ग)
  • bourgeoisie — the middle/commercial class (मध्यम/व्यापारी वर्ग)
  • blue blood — noble birth (कुलीन वंश)
  • the bluff of a rascal — a rogue's pretence (धूर्त का दिखावा)
  • asked sourly — asked bitterly (कड़वाहट से पूछा)
  • goods and chattels — all movable possessions (घर का सारा सामान)
  • amenable — easily persuaded (मान जाने वाला)
  • imperturbable — calm, not easily upset (शांतचित्त)
  • excommunicate — expel from a religious community (जाति/धर्म से बहिष्कृत करना)
  • pauper — a very poor person (कंगाल)
  • inordinately — excessively (अत्यधिक)

    • Exam Focus

  • "How does Ramanand score over Azam Khan towards the end?"

    • Outline: turns Khan's pride into a bargain; gets the nose-ring, a seven-generation necklace, then all household goods for merely lowering a moustache tip; mutters "My father was a Sultan" → wins materially while Khan keeps only an empty symbol.

  • "Identify instances that show Ramanand's business acumen."

    • Buying crops cheap when wheat prices fell; "the customer is always right"; brushing down one tip at a time to extract more; insisting on a signed deed.

  • "What social mores does the author ridicule?"

    • Rigid class markers, false pride, obsession with ancestry, and even the English and the monarchy's own class conventions.

    Language work: French words in English (nouveau riche, bourgeoisie, rendezvous, café…); phrase completion — keep one's word, make/draw up one's will, make ends meet, raise/take a loan, turn a deaf ear to.

    Common Mistakes

  • Saying Ramanand gets a tiger moustache — he only makes his goat moustache look nearly like one.
  • Forgetting the sequence of pledges: nose-ring → necklace → all goods and chattels.
  • Thinking the Khan wins — he keeps his symbol but becomes a pauper; the moneylender gains everything.
  • Missing the final irony of "My father was a Sultan".

    • 💡 Key Learning Points

    • ✓Mustachios are satirised as markers of social class — lion, tiger, goat, Charlie Chaplin, sheep, mouse.
    • ✓Khan Azam Khan's pride in his tiger moustache far exceeds his possessions.
    • ✓Seth Ramanand shrewdly turns the Khan's pride into profit: nose-ring, necklace, then all household goods.
    • ✓The ending is ironic: the moneylender gains everything; the Khan keeps only a symbol and becomes a pauper.
    • ✓Anand uses humour, dialogue and Indian idiom to ridicule false pride and rigid class conventions.

    👨‍🏫 Teaching Tips

    • →Draw the six moustache types on the board with the class each represents.
    • →Make a timeline of the three bargains and what the Khan loses at each step.
    • →Debate: 'Pride is more important than possessions' — argue for and against using the story.
    • →Collect French expressions used in English (nouveau riche, bourgeoisie, café, rendezvous).
    • →Hot-seat Ramanand and Khan Azam Khan: students answer questions in character.
    • →Discuss why the narrator compares Indian and English class conventions.
    • →Share the book's 'Read and Enjoy' piece on the world beard and moustache championship for fun.

    📋 Assessment Questions

    1. What does each moustache style stand for in the story?
    2. List, in order, the possessions Khan Azam Khan gives up.
    3. How does Ramanand show business acumen?
    4. Explain the irony of the final paragraph.
    5. What social mores does the author ridicule?

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    Keep learning

    All chapters in Woven Words (Elective) - English Class 11

    1. 1. The Lament
    2. 2. A Pair of Mustachios
    3. 3. The Rocking-horse Winner
    4. 4. The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
    5. 5. Pappachi's Moth
    6. 6. The Third and Final Continent
    7. 7. Glory at Twilight
    8. 8. The Luncheon
    9. 9. The Peacock
    10. 10. Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds
    11. 11. Coming
    12. 12. Telephone Conversation
    13. 13. The World is too Much With Us
    14. 14. Mother Tongue
    15. 15. Hawk Roosting
    16. 16. For Elkana
    17. 17. Refugee Blues
    18. 18. Felling of the Banyan Tree
    19. 19. Ode to a Nightingale
    20. 20. Ajamil and the Tigers
    21. 21. My Watch
    22. 22. My Three Passions
    23. 23. Patterns of Creativity
    24. 24. Tribal Verse
    25. 25. What is a Good Book?
    26. 26. The Story
    27. 27. Bridges