SUBJECT-ENGLISH -XI

(The Portrait of a Lady)

NCERT –LONG QUESTIONS
Talking about the text
1. The author’s grandmother was a religious person. What
are the different ways in which we come to know this?
 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 everyday.
 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.
2. Describe the changing relationship between the author
and his grandmother. Did their feelings for each other
change?
 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 the 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 afterwards and would spend her day alone while chanting
prayers.
 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 the time, a
distance developed between them.
3. Would you agree that the author’s grandmother was a
person strong in character? If yes, give instances that
show this.
 She had her own thoughts about schools and their teachings. She
considered learning scriptures a better thing than studying science or
English.
  She didn’t like music as according to her, music was for low-level
people.
 When the author went to the university, didn’t shed tear,in seclusion,
she would spin the wheel, chant prayers, tell beads and feed bread
crumbs to the sparrows.
 When she sang the homecoming of the warriors for hours and didn’t
stop even when her family tried a million times.
 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.

Understanding the text

Mention
1. The three phases of the author’s relationship with his
grandmother before he left the country to study abroad.
2. Three reasons why the author’s grandmother was
disturbed when he started going to the city school.
3.Three ways in which the author’s grandmother spent
her days after he grew up.
4. The odd way in which the author’s grandmother
behaved just before she died.
5. The way in which the sparrows expressed their sorrow
when the author’s grandmother died.
EXTRA –SHORT QUESTIONS(ASSIGNMENT)

1. How does Khushwant Singh describe his old

grandmother??
2.Give a pen-picture of the narrator’s grandfather as he
appeared in the portrait.?
3.What could the narrator not believe about his
grandparents?
4.Why did the narrator’s grandmother give the
impression of ‘winter landscape in the mountains’?
5. How did the old lady look after the narrator in the
village?
6. Why did the grandmother feed dogs and birds in the
village and then in the city? What did the habit tell about
her nature?
7. How can you say that the grandmother was a deeply
religious-minded lady?
8. The thought was almost revolting. What was that
thought ?
9. My grandmother and I were good friends. When was
the friendship cemented and broken?
10. Why did the grandmother accompany the narrator to
the school?
11. What made the grandmother unhappy in the city?
12. What was the grandmother’s attitude towards English
education and music lessons at school?
13. What was the common link of friendship between the
narrator and his grandmother and when was it broken?
14. How did the old grandmother keep herself busy in the
city home?
15. Give a brief account of the grandmother’s friendship
with the sparrows in the city.
16. And at her age, one could never tell. What was it that
one could never tell?
17. Give a brief account of how the grandmother saw the
narrator o at the station and then celebrated his
homecoming.
18. Only once did the grandmother not pray. When and
why did she break that routine?
19. Describe In brief how the old lady died peacefully.
20. How and why did the sparrows mourn the death of the
old grandmother?