The Portrait of a Lady

-Khushwant Singh
Practice Questions:
1) What do you mean by, “As for my grandmother being young and pretty, the thought was
almost revolting”.
2) Why did the grandmother go to the city to live?
3) What is the significance of the title “The Portrait of a Lady”?
4) Draw a comparison between village school education and city school education.
5) Draw a character sketch of grandmother.
6) Why didn’t the grandmother like city education?
i) She can’t teach her grandson
ii) He was taught about science
iii) He was not taught about god and scriptures
iv) All the above
7) Grandmother was against the teaching of music because-
i) It was meant for gentlefolk
ii) It was the monopoly of harlots
iii) It was sublime
iv) It was against Indian culture
8) What was the turning point?
i) Shifting to the city
ii) Change of room
iii) Change of school
iv) None of the above
9) Why would grandmother accompany the author to his school?
i) To keep an eye on him
ii) To wait for him to take him back to home
iii) Because of the temple attached to school
iv) She wanted to meet villagers
10) What did the grandmother do in her final hours?
i) Talked to everyone in the house
ii) Worried about everyone
iii) Silently praying and telling her beads
iv) Went to temple

Questions of creative and critical thinking:

1) The narrator loved his grandmother from the core of his heart. Justify your answer with
reasons.
2) Grandmother feeds the dogs in the village and later feeds the sparrow in the city. This is
part of ancient Indian culture where the householders used to take care of flora and
fauna. Do you approve of such practices? If ‘yes’, then how can this be cultivated in
children and if ‘no’ then why not?