Hornbill

Chapter 1 - The Portrait of a Lady

by Khushwant Singh

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Khushwant Singh (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an
Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician.

Born in Punjab, Khushwant Singh was educated in Modern School, New Delhi, St.
Stephen's College, and graduated from Government College, Lahore. He studied at
King's College London and was awarded LL.B. from the University of London. He
was called to the bar at the London Inner Temple. After working as a lawyer in
Lahore High Court for eight years, he joined the Indian Foreign Service upon the
Independence of India from British Empire in 1947. He was appointed journalist in
the All India Radio in 1951 and then moved to the Department of Mass
Communications of UNESCO in Paris in 1956. These last two careers encouraged
him to pursue a literary career.

As a writer, he was best known for his trenchant secularism, humour, sarcasm, and
abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioural characteristics of
Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit. He served as the editor of several
literary and news magazines, as well as two newspapers, through the 1970s and
1980s. Between 1980-1986 he served as a Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha,
the upper house of the Parliament of India.

(His English has been simple – Indian English and millions have loved him for this
truthful, blunt, and bold writing.)

Khushwant Singh was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974; however, he returned
the award in 1984 in protest against Operation Blue Star in which the Indian Army
raided Amritsar. In 2007 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second-
highest civilian award in India.

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Among the several works he published are a classic two-volume history of the Sikhs,
several novels (the best known of which are Delhi, Train to Pakistan, and The
company of women), and a number of translations and non-fiction books on Delhi,
nature and current affairs. The Library of Congress has ninety-nine works on and by
Khushwant Singh.

Introduction of the Lesson

The Portrait of a Lady is the story of the author. He describes his
relationship with his grandmother over the years. He pens down her daily
activities and how she evolved as a character as time passed by. He explains
her appearance which helps create an image in the reader’s mind.

The Portrait of a Lady- Summary

The chapter ‘The Portrait of a Lady’ is the story of the author and his grandmother.
The grandmother was an old woman with a wrinkled face. The author had always
seen her like this, for the past twenty years. She appeared to be so old that he could
not imagine her being ‘young and pretty’, someone who even had a husband. She
was short, fat, and slightly bent. The author had seen his grandfather’s portrait- an
old man with a turban and a long white beard covering his chest. To the author, his
grandfather didn’t seem like a man who could have a wife and children, but
someone who could have lots of grandchildren. His grandmother used to move
around the house in ‘Spotless White’ with one hand resting on her waist and her
other hand counting the beads of her rosary.
In the initial days, the author and his grandmother had a good relationship. She
used to wake him up and get him ready for school. She used to pack the things
required by him for the day and walked him to school every day. She used to visit
the temple that was attached to the school. She had a routine of reading the
scriptures. The author along with other children sat on the verandah singing
alphabets and morning prayers. They both used to come back home together with

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stray dogs roaming around them as his grandmother would carry the stale chapattis
to feed them.
Soon, the parents of the author went to the city to settle in and called them. As
they reached the city, his relationship with his grandmother took a turn. Though
they shared the room, their bond grew apart. He started going to an English
medium school, she no longer accompanied him to his school, and there were no
longer stray dogs who roamed around them while walking back home. She,
however, used to ask him about his day and what he had learned. She didn’t
understand anything as everything was in another language which she could not
understand. She didn’t approve of the new syllabus that he was studying because
she thought that they did not teach him about God and the scriptures. They saw
less of each other.
As the days passed, he grew older and soon went to university. He had his room,
and this made their relationship sour. She stopped talking to everyone and spent
her whole day sitting at her spinning wheel, reciting prayers and moving beads of
the rosary with one hand. However, she loved feeding sparrows in the verandah at
dawn. Breaking bread into pieces and feeding it to the birds was her daily routine.
The birds would sit on her legs, her head, some even on the shoulders.
Soon, the author decided to go abroad for further studies. She came to the railway
station to leave him off. She was not sentimental, continuously recited her prayers,
her mind lost in the prayers, and she kissed him on the forehead. After five years,
as he returned home, she was there, came to pick him up at the station, and was
still the same as she had been five years ago. She clasped him within her arms and
didn’t say a word. She still used to feed her sparrows.
One day, she didn’t recite her prayers but instead collected the women of the
neighbourhood, got a drum, and started singing. The next morning, she was ill with
a mild fever. The doctor said that there was nothing to worry about, but she was
sure that her end was near.
She didn’t want to waste her time talking to anyone in the family anymore but
spend her last hours reciting her prayers laying on the bed. She died and so her
body lay on the bed, lifeless. As they prepared for her funeral, they saw all the
sparrows sitting in the verandah around her, mourning her death.

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 Questions from the Chapter
(NOTEBOOK WORK: Attempt the Question in RED -in Your Own Words,
language, and understanding)

1. Mention the three phases of the author’s relationship with his

grandmother before he left the country to study abroad.
Ans: The three phases of the author’s relationship with his grandmother
before he left the country to study abroad are as follows:

1. First Phase: The period of his early childhood when he used to live with
her in the village. His grandmother used to wake him up and get him ready
for school. They both would walk to school together and come back home
together. They had a good friendship with each other.

2. Second Phase: In this phase of boyhood, the author and his grandmother
shifted to the city as the author’s parents settled well in the city. Although
they shared the same room, this was the turning point of their friendship.
Now, they saw less of each other.

3. Third Phase: In his early youth, when the author went to the university,
he was given a room of his own. This made their friendship bond weaker as
the common link between them ‘the same room’ snapped. She became
quieter and private and kept the spinning wheel all day long. She would feed
the sparrows once a day and this was the only thing that made her happy
now.

2. Mention three reasons why the author’s grandmother was

disturbed when he started going to the city school.

Ans: When the author used to live in the village with her, they both had a
good friendship. She used to wake him up, got him ready, and would also

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accompany him to school. All this changed when they moved to the city. The
grandmother was disturbed for the following reason:

1. She could no longer help him in his lessons. As he started going to the
English medium school.

2. There were no teachings about God and the scriptures.

3. She didn’t like him taking the music lessons. According to her, music was
only for beggars and harlots.

3. Mention three ways in which the author’s grandmother spent her

days after he grew up.

Ans: His grandmother changed a lot since he grew up. She would spend her
day at the spinning wheel, chanting prayers and feeding sparrows.

4. Mention the odd way in which the author’s grandmother behaved just
before she died.

Ans: She didn’t pray the evening before dying. She collected the women from
the neighbourhood and started singing homecoming of the warriors with the
help of the drum. The next morning when she fell ill, she said her end was
near. She started praying peacefully while laying on her bed. She refused to
talk to anyone during her last hours.

5. Mention the way in which the sparrows expressed their sorrow when
the author’s grandmother died.

Ans: The grandmother used to feed the sparrows in her verandah each day.
She developed a special relationship with them. When she died, thousands
of sparrows expressed their sorrow by sitting in a scattered way around her
in the verandah. They didn’t chirrup and there was complete silence. The

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author’s mother tried to feed them by breaking the bread and throwing it in
front of them. But they didn’t eat anything. When the family carried their
grandmother’s corpse, they all flew away quietly.

6. The author’s grandmother was a religious person. What are the

different ways in which we come to know this?

Ans: When she lived in the village with the author, she used to sing prayers
in a monotonous sound while getting him ready each morning. She used to
walk the author to his school and then visit the temple attached to the school
every day. She would sit and read scriptures. Later when they moved to the
city, she would carry the beads of the rosary with her all the time. She would
continuously chant her prayers and her hand remained busy in telling the
beads. When the author went to study at the university, she went into
seclusion and spent her whole day in chanting prayers.

7. Describe the changing relationship between the author and his

grandmother. Did their feelings for each other change?

Ans: In the early days, they both shared a good bond. She would get him
ready for school, accompany him, and would come back with him later in the
day. She would help him with his studies and would teach him prayers by
singing in a monotonous tone every morning. When they moved to the city,
their relationship was strained. He started going to an English medium
school. She would no longer accompany him to school or could not help him
with the lessons. She didn’t like his new school as they never taught him
about God or scriptures. Later, when he started taking music lessons, she
disapproved of it as she thought that music was only for beggars or harlots.
She stopped talking to him afterward and would spend her day alone while
chanting prayers.
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When the author went to university and then abroad, their bond weakened.
She would spin the wheel the whole day and chant her prayers. She
accepted the seclusion.

No, their feelings for each other didn’t change but during that time, a distance
developed between them.

8. Would you agree that the author’s grandmother was a person strong
in character? If yes, give instances that show this.

Ans: Yes, the grandmother was a strong person in character. The instances
to show this are as follows:

1. She had her own thoughts about schools and their teachings. She
considered learning scriptures a better thing than studying science or
English.

2. She didn’t like music as according to her, music was for low-level people.

3. When the author went to the university, in seclusion, she would spin the
wheel, chant prayers, tell beads and feed breadcrumbs to the sparrows.

4. When she sang the homecoming of the warriors for hours and didn’t stop
even when her family tried a million times.

5. During her last time, she didn’t want to waste any time talking to anyone,
so she lay silently on her bed and chanted her prayers till she died.

9. Which language do you think the author and his grandmother used
while talking to each other?

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Ans: The author and his grandmother used to talk to each other in their
mother tongue. As the author belongs to the Punjab state, they would talk in
the Punjabi language.

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The Portrait of a Lady Long Answer Type Questions

Question 1:
Describe the friendship ‘between Khushwant Singh and his
grandmother.
Answer:
Khushwant Singh’s grandmother was closely involved in bringing him up
when the author lived with her in the village during his early life. She used
to wake him up early in the morning. While bathing and dressing him, she
sang her prayers. She hoped that the young boy would learn it by heart.
She then gave him breakfast—a stale chapatti with butter and sugar. Then
they would go together to the temple school. While the author learned his
lesson, the grandmother would read holy books. They returned home
together.
A turning point came in their friendship when his parents called them to the
city. Although they shared a room, she could not help him much. She hated
music, Science, and Western education. The common link of their
friendship was gradually snapped.

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Question 2:
What image of the grandmother emerges from ‘The Portrait of a
Lady’? or Character sketch of the grandmother.
Answer:
Khushwant Singh’s grandmother has been portrayed as a very old lady.
She was short-statured, fat, and slightly bent. Her face was wrinkled, and
she was always dressed in spotless white clothes. She was a deeply
religious lady. Her lips were always moving in silent prayer. She was
always telling the beads of her rosary. She went to the temple and read the
scriptures.
The grandmother was a kind lady. She used to feed dogs in the village. In
the city, she took to feeding the sparrows. She had great affection for her
grandson. She looked after him in the village. She could not adjust herself
to the Western way of life, Science, and English education. She hated
music and was distressed to know that there was no teaching about God
and holy books at Khushwant’s new English school. On the whole, she was
a nice, kind-hearted, and religious lady.

(Content Curated from Web)

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