Lesson - 1

The Portrait of a Lady

- Khushwant Singh
-
I. Answer the following in 30 – 40 words

1. How did the narrator’s grandfather appear in the portrait?

A. The narrator’s grandfather looked very old. He had a long white beard. His clothes were
loose fitting. He wore a big turban. He appeared too old to have a wife or children. He
looked at least a hundred years old. He could have only lots and lots of grandchildren.

2. The narrator’s grandmother ‘could never have been pretty, but she was always
beautiful’. Explain.
A. The narrator’s grandmother was terribly old to appear pretty. Her face was a criss-cross
of wrinkles. She was short, fat and slightly bent. She was not attractive. However, in her
spotless white dress and grey hair she was a picture of serenity, peace and beauty.

3. The grandmother looked like ‘the winter landscape in the mountains’. Comment.
A. The grandmother was always dressed in spotless white. She had silvery locks which
spread untidily over her pale and wrinkled face. She looked like an expanse of pure
white serenity. She looked like snowy mountains in winter. Her silvery locks and white
dress made her look like the winter landscape in the mountains. She was a picture of
peace and contentment.

4. What led to the gradual distancing of the narrator from his grandmother in the city?
A. When the narrator and his grandmother shifted to the city, he started going to an
English school in a motor bus where she couldn’t accompany him. As he was taught
Western Science, she couldn’t help him with his studies. She was grieved to know that
there was no teaching of God and scriptures. Moreover, he was taught music, which
according to his grandmother was meant only for harlots and beggars and not for
gentlefolk. All these things distanced the narrator from his grandmother.

5. Mention the odd ways in which the author’s grandmother behaved a day prior to her
death.
A. The author’s grandmother was over-excited at the arrival of her grandson after five
years. She celebrated it by gathering all the neighbourhood women. She also collected
an old dilapidated drum and started to sing songs of home coming of warriors. They had
to persuade her to stop to avoid overstraining. She didn’t pray that evening and that
was the first time in her life when she had forgotten to pray.

6. How did the sparrows pay their last homage to the grandmother?
A. Thousands of sparrows came and sat silently in the courtyard and the verandah where
grandmother laid dead. They paid their last homage to the grandmother silently,
without chirruping. They took no notice of the breadcrumbs thrown to them by
narrator’s mother. As soon as the grandmother’s corpse was carried off, they flew away
quietly.

II. Long Answer Type Questions: (120 -150 words)

1. Explain in detail the three phases of the author’s relationship with his grandmother
before he left the country to study abroad.
A. When the author was in village with his grandmother, they were good friends. She woke
him up each morning, bathed him, dressed him, plastered his wooden slate, gave him
breakfast and accompanied him to school. While he sat in the verandah learning, the
grandmother spent her time in the temple reading scriptures. After the school, they
would walk home together.
When they moved to the city, his grandmother couldn’t accompany him to school as he
went by a motor bus. He shared a room with her. She could not help him in his studies
as it was taught in English. She hated Western Science and learning. The fact that they
were not taught about God and scriptures made her unhappy. Khushwant Singh’s
learning music in school disturbed her as she felt it was not meant for gentlefolk. Her
communication with him gradually deteriorated.
When he went to the University, he was given a room of his own and thereby their
common link was snapped. The grandmother accepted her seclusion by spinning wheel,
reciting prayers and feeding sparrows.
These were the three phases of the author’s relationship with his grandmother before
he left the country to study abroad.

2. The author’s grandmother was a religious person. What are the different ways in which
we come to know this?
A. The author’s grandmother was a very religious person as she always recited her
inaudible prayers and counted the beads of her rosary. She visited the temple every
morning and read scriptures. As she bathed him, she would repeat prayers in a sing-
song manner, hoping that he would learn it by heart. She didn’t like English school as
there was no teaching of God and scriptures. She also hated music as it was meant only
for harlots and beggars and not for decent people. Even while spending her time at the
spinning wheel she would recite prayers. She felt guilty when she did not pray on the
arrival day of her grandson from abroad. The next day, when she fell ill, she knew that
her end was near. Before the close of the first chapter of her life, she didn’t want to
waste anymore time left , but continued to recite prayers and count the beads of her
rosary till her last breath.