The term durwan comes from the Persian word darwān, meaning “door-keeping” or “door-guarding.” Boori Ma is working in this capacity in all but title. After all, as the narrator mentions, being a durwan is “no job for a woman” under normal circumstances. As the residents begin to make changes to the building, Boori Ma’s alleged crime of giving her keys to a thief who removes the wash basin is a perfect excuse for the residents to dismiss her and install a “real” durwan, thus making the building seem nicer. The word “real” here implies that the new durwan would be a man, aligning with the traditional requirements for a durwan.
Durwan Quotes in A Real Durwan
The A Real Durwan quotes below are all either spoken by Durwan or refer to Durwan. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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A Real Durwan
Quotes
In short, over the years, Boori Ma’s services came to resemble those of a real durwan. Though under normal circumstances this was no job for a woman, she honored the responsibility, and maintained a vigil no less punctilious than if she were the gatekeeper of a house on Lower Circular Road, or Jodhpur Park, or any other fancy neighborhood.
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“Boori Ma’s mouth is full of ashes. But that is nothing new. When is new is the face of this building. What a building like this needs is a real durwan.”
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Durwan Term Timeline in A Real Durwan
The timeline below shows where the term Durwan appears in A Real Durwan. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
A Real Durwan
...few thumps of her broom. In many ways, she is a lot like a “real durwan,” despite the fact that durwans are always men, not women. Boori Ma takes her duties...
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...claim she is a habitual liar and should no longer serve the building as their durwan, since the residents “have valuables,” and Mrs. Misra lives alone and has a telephone. Mr....
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