The Portrait of a Lady

Kushwant Singh

1. Justify the title of the chapter.

The author, Khushwant Singh, describes his grandmother, painting a word-portrait for the reader. To
him, with her pious, kind, understanding and caring persona, she is the true embodiment of the term,
‘lady’. According to the author, the grandmother may not have been pretty, but her inner beauty shone
through her persona making her beautiful.

2.The narrator and his grandmother were good friends. Discuss with examples from the text.

Grandson and grandmother: The grandson and his grandmother shared a close bond. Initially, the
grandson stayed with his grandmother in the village. She took care of his daily needs and even
accompanied him to school. She was pious and religious and hoped to pass on her faith to Khushwant as
well.

3. Despite her physical appearance, the grandmother has been called beautiful. Why?

Khushwant describes her as beautiful like the winter landscape in the mountains, serene and content.
She might old and wrinkled but her spiritual aura, simplicity, calmness and general contentment with
her life made her beautiful to Khushwant’s eyes.

4.How did the move to the city prove to be the turning point of the grandmother-grandson
relationship?

When the grandson and grandmother moved to the city, they stayed in separate rooms and the
grandmother no longer accompanied him to school. The distance grew further when she came to know
that he was taught music, science and English in his school. She did not trust these subjects and was
distressed that there was no teaching about God or scriptures.

5.Why do you think the grandmother was not upset when the narrator left to study abroad for five
years?

Although the generation gap widened in the city, they still loved one another. Singh went up abroad for
higher studies which were for 5 long years. She silently lent him support when he went to study abroad.
After 5 years he came back, incredibly he was welcomed y his grandmother who was not grown  a single
day older. She celebrated the return of her grandson y collecting some women of neighbourhood and
beating drum for several hours.

6.What differences does the story bring out between the village school and the city school?

The village school was attached to a temple and the grandmother-grandson duo would walk to reach it.
The teacher was a priest and prayers were taught along with the alphabet. Rote learning, wooden slates
lathered with yellow chalk, ink pots and ink pens were used to facilitate learning.

In the city school, the grandson travelled by a motor bus. The grandson learnt English, Science and
Music. There was no teaching of God or the scriptures.
7.Discuss the spiritual and/or religious nature of the grandmother as evident in the story.

The grandmother’s spiritual nature and devotion to the Almighty defines her personality. She prays daily
and almost constantly. She wishes to pass on the same devotion into her grandson. The only day she did
not pray was the day her grandson returned from abroad and the very next morning, she fell ill. She
prayed from then up to the point of her death passing away with the same spiritual calmness on her
face that she had possessed when alive.

8.The grandmother loved animals. We see this at two points of the story. Which are these points?

The grandmother was a kind woman who often fed stray animals on her way back from the village
school. In the city, there were no stray dogs but she spent some time every day feeding the sparrows on
the verandah. These sparrows came to her even on the day she passed away and sat silently near her
body. They took no notice of the food offered by Khushwant’s mother and flew away after a while. It
was evident that they came to bid her a final good bye.

9.When the grandmother was carried away to the cremation ground, the sparrows flew away and the
bread crumbs were later swept into the dustbin. Do you think these lines are important? Why or why
not?

In the morning, grandmother’s health deteriorates and she reveals that she was nearing her end. So she
decides that she is not going to waste a single moment by talking so she prayed. Quite suddenly, the
rosary falls from her hand and she exhaled her last breath and it was clear that she was no more. After
making the preparations for the funeral, the family members went to fetch her body for the last journey.
The golden blaze of light of the setting sun glittered her room. And to pay the last homage to the
grandmother, thousands of sparrows gathered in and around her room. The sparrows never  cheered
nor did they do anything normal. They didn’t even bother to notice the bread pieces thrown at them.
Along with her funeral, the sparrows flew away.

With them flying off and later, with the sweeping away of the bread crumbs, the poet indicates that with
time, the pain of the loss would also be swept away and only sweet remembrance shall linger.
 The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse

William Saroyan

1. Why was it difficult for Aram to believe the sight of his cousin Mourad with the beautiful white
horse?

When Aram looked through the window, he saw his cousin Mourad with a beautiful white horse and it
was a sight which was very difficult for him to believe for two reasons:

First, the whole of the Garoghlonian family to which the two boys belonged were extremely poor and
therefore it was not possible for Mourad to buy that horse. Secondly, in that case, it would mean that
Mourad had stolen that horse. But that was also not possible, because the Garoghlonian family was also
very much famous for their honesty and therefore Mourad could not steal that horse either.

2. What did the farmer John Byro tell the two boys when one day they accidentally met him with his
horse in their custody?

Answer: The farmer examined the horse when one morning he found it with the two boys and he told
them that he could swear that the horse was his very horse which had been stolen from him many
weeks before if he did not know about their parents. He added that the fame of their family for honesty
was very well known to him and therefore he liked to say that the horse could be the twin of his stolen
horse.

3. What did John Byro tell Aram’s mother and Uncle Khosrove when he got his horse back?

Answer: After John Byro got his horse back mysteriously one day, he came to Aram’s house and told
Aram’s mother and Uncle Khosrove that he did not know what to think about the whole matter. It was
because the horse was stronger that ever and was better tempered too and therefore he thanked God.

4.What were the two things for which the Garoghlonian family was famous?

Answer: The Garoghlonian family was famous for the following two things

1. Their poverty

2. Their honesty

5.What points were put forward by Aram in defense of Mourad’s act of stealing the horse?

Answer: Aram argued to himself that stealing a horse for a ride was not the same thing as stealing
something else, such as money. And then he went a little ahead by saying that if one was so much crazy
about horses the way Mourad and he himself were, it was not stealing at all. It would not become
stealing until they offered to sell the horse and he was sure that last thing they would never be doing.

6.Which excuses were given by Aram to himself for taking a ride on the horse despite knowing fully
the truth about the theft of the horse by Mourad?
 Aram dismissed stealing a horse as much grave a crime as stealing money. Secondly, he believed that if
it was something like a horse for which both he and his cousin were crazy then it couldn’t be stealing.
Additionally, it was not going to become stealing until they offered to sell the horse.

7.Why was Aram unwilling to return the horse so soon?

Aram was crazy for horse and he wanted to learn horse riding at all costs. The horse would not let him
to ride over it and hence he was unwilling to return the horse at least till he would learn to ride it.

1.Why did the two boys ultimately return the horse all of a sudden although they had planned to keep
it at least for six months?

Although the two boys had planned to keep the horse for at least six months, they returned it all of a
sudden the morning after they accidentally met the farmer John Byro from whom Mourad had stolen
the horse. The farmer examined the horse and told them that he could swear that the horse was his
very horse which had been stolen from him many weeks before if he did not know about their parents.
He added that the fame of their family for honesty was very well known to him and therefore he liked to
say that the horse could be the twin of his stolen horse. What John Byro told them served as an eye
opener for the two boys especially Mourad and they became conscious how precious and strong their
family’s fame for honesty was and therefore they did not want to tarnish that name and prestige and
immediately returned the horse.

2.Mourad was the natural descendant of the crazy streak of uncle Khosrove. Explain the statement
giving instances from the story, ‘The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse’.

Uncle Khosrove was considered in the Garoghlanian tribe as one of the craziest persons. It was also
believed that the tribe that Mourad was the natural descendant of the crazy streak in their tribe. Uncle
Khosrove’s craziness was out of the world. He had the largest moustache in the surrounding. His talk
was not less than roaring, which was but natural for him. Once when his son came running to tell him
about his house on fire, he simply said, ‘It is no harm; pay no attention to it’. The barber who reminded
him that it was his own house also got rebukes.

Khosrove also asked John Byro not to worry about the horse or the loss of money or even for his paining
legs and answered in the same way.

Mourad was considered the natural descendant of this man though not a biological descendant mainly
because of the crazy acts he was involved in. The act of stealing a horse because he was crazy about it is
an example to prove the same. Like the punch line of uncle khosrove i.e. ‘It is no harm; pay no attention
to it’ Mourad used to say that he had a way with the things, animals and even people. Thus Mourad said
that he had a way with the horse, with the dogs and with the farmers too.
 A Photograph

Shirley Toulsen

1) What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?

Ans: The cardboard means a very stiff and thick paper, here the cardboard is a part of the frame that
keeps the photograph intact. It’s use in poem is ironical  It keeps the photograph of that 12 year old girl
safe who herself was terribly transient  The player’s mother had died some years ago.

2) What has the camera captured?

Ans: The camera had captured all the three girls alive in it. It has captured the pretty face of the poet’s
mother who as a girl of twelve at that time. It has also captured the smiling faces of the two girl cousins
Betty and Dolly. They are holding the hands of the poet’s mother.

3) What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?
Ans: The sea has not changed over the years. It rings out the transient nature and its object. Time spares
none. The pretty faces and the feet of the three girls are terribly transient or moral when compared to
the ageless and unchangeable sea.

4) The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
Ans: The poet’s mother laughs at the snapshot which was taken years ago. In the photograph, she as
well as her two little cousins stood at the each. She laughed at the ay all of them were dressed up for the
beach. Perhaps they looked funny. Their laughter indicated the youthful spirit.

5) What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease or loss”
Ans: Both the mother and the poet suffered a great sense of loss. The mother has lost her
childhood innocence and joyful spirit that the photograph has captured some years ago. For the poet,
the smile of her mother has become thing of the past. She has silently resigned to her faith.
Ironically both labour to bear their loss with ease.

6) What does “this circumstance” refer to?

Ans: The circumstance refers to the death of the poet’s mother. The photograph of her dead mother
brings sad nostalgic feelings in the past. But the poet has nothing to say at all about the circumstance.
The silence of the poet makes the silence prevailing their still deeper.

7) The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?
Ans: In the first stanza, the poet’s mother is shown as a twelve year old girl with pretty smiling face.
Then she is paddling with her two girl cousins. This face is before the poet’s birth. The second face
describes the middle aged mother laughing at her own snapshot. The third face describes the chilling
pale of silence that the death of her mother has left of the past.

 8) How does the poet contracts the girls terrible transience with the scene?

Ans: All the girls standing at the each have a terribly transient existence. They are mortal and suffer
physical change with the passage of time. THe mother’s sweet face and her smile has
already disappeared for the last twenty or thirty years. But the vast sea remains unchanged or seemed
to have less changed in their comparison.

9) “Both thrive with the laboured ease of loss” Describe the ironical situation.

Ans: Both the mother and the daughter suffer a sense of loss. The mother has lost her care free
childhood. She can’t have these moments of enjoyment again that she once experienced at the beach.
She can’t be a sweet smiling girl of twelve again. This is considered as the poet’s loss too. She can’t see
the smiling face and experience the laughter again in life. The irony of the situation is that both of them
struggle to ear the loss with tolerable ease.

10) Explain the line ” the sea holiday as a past, mine is her laughter , Time spares none” .

Ans: Gone are the childhood days of mother and the sea holiday has become her past, the photograph
flashes back to the scene that was captured about 30 years ago. Gone is a carefree laughter of the
mother which was love at one time. But now, the laughter of her mother has eventually become a thing
of past for the poet. She has silently resigned herself to the fate.

POETIC DEVICES:

Allusion: Allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, representation of a place, historical
event, literary work, myth, or work of art. Allusions can be direct references or implications.

 ‘The cardboard shows me how it was’

as the cardboard’s lack of durability hints at the lack of permanence of human life.

Alliteration : Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each other, usually on
the same or adjacent lines. 

‘stood still to smile’, ‘terribly transient’, ‘laboured loss’, ‘silence silences’

Transferred Epithet:

‘Washed their terribly transient feet.’

Human life itself is temporary not the feet. When the adjective for one noun like life is transferred to
another noun like feet, it is called transferred epithet

Oxymoron: The coming together of two opposite ideas to describe the same entity.

‘With the laboured ease of loss’

‘Laboured’ and ‘easy’ are opposite words describing the same entity ‘loss’. The loss of the holiday and
the laughter was easy because these things have to be accepted as a part of life. They are merely a
part of the past and cannot be brought back or relived. However, precisely because they cannot be
relived, there will always be a tinge of difficulty letting them go completely. They will always be seen
as loss.