Affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi

ACADEMIC SESSION 2022-2023

ENGLISH PROJECT

TOPIC:_________________________

SUBMITTED BY

NAME:
CLASS:
EXAM NO:
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to MRS.ANJURANI (PGT

ENGLISH), MR.LEO RAMPAL (PGT ENGLISH), MRS. RAJANIMOL (PGT

ENGLISH) for their invaluable guidance, constant encouragement and constructive

comments which has sustained my efforts at all stages of this project work.

I would like to express my gratitude to the honourable Principal Mr. ROHIT SATISH

for his guidance, motivation and whole hearted cooperation during the project.

I truly acknowledge the contribution from my school, PAAVAI VIDHYASHRAM

SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL, in the form of the facilities provided for this

project work.

Any attempt at any level cannot be satisfactorily completed without the support and

guidance of my parents and friends.

I would like to thank my parents who helped me a lot in gathering different information,

collecting data, and guiding me from time to time in making this project, despite of their

busy schedules, they gave me different ideas in making this project unique.
 CERITIFICATE

This is to certify that the project work entitled ------------------ is a record of

bonafide work carried out independently by ___________ Register no

____________ in the subject English laid down in the regulations of CBSE for the

purpose of practical examination in class XI to be held in Paavai Vidhyashram,

Namakkal, Tamil Nadu on __________ during the academic year 2022-2023.

Internal Examiner

External examiner

Date
THE PORTRAIT OF
THE LADY

PAAVAI VIDHYASHRAM

BY
D JEEVAN RAAJ

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 INDEX
About the author

Summary

Analysis of character

Analysis of theme

Title justification

Message

Values highlighted

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Khushwant Singh (born Khushal Singh, 2 February
1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author,
lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His
experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired
him to write Train to Pakistan in 1956 (made into
film in 1998), which became his most well-known
novel.

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 an LL.B. from 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

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 SUMMARY

The Portrait of a Lady summary is a real story

of the writer’s grandmother. The name of the
writer is Kushwant Singh. His grandmother
was an old lady. The writer tells us the story
of the childhood that he had spent with his
grandmother. The writer has explained his
relationship with his grandmother over the
years. He thinks about her daily activities and
how she grew as a character over time. He
mentions her appearance, which assists in
creating a mental impression of her in the
reader’s mind.

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 ANALYSIS OF CHARACTER

Grandmother – This is the only character in the

story as this whole story revolves around the
author’s grandmother. She is old yet graceful. The
author’s grandmother is short, feeble, fat and
always bent due to her age. He describes her as
old and feels she must have been old for a long
time. The author denies the fact that she was
young once and would have played games as
children do since he had never seen her that way.

She seems to be so old that she couldn’t grow

older but should remain the same forever. The
old lady accepts the changes of life and has her
way of dealing with it. She loves to feed birds
and spend time praising the Lord. She enjoys her
solace and had accepted the busy lives of her
children and grandchildren.

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 ANALYSIS OF THEME
In The Portrait of a Lady by Khushwant Singh,
we have the theme of innocence, friendship,
love, connection, kindness, selflessness, respect
and acceptance. The image of the grandmother
emerges from the portrait of a lady is very
religious. She believes in teaching scriptures
and about God in school. She had tremendous
mental stability, and that's why she accepted
the separation. 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. After the return of
the author, the grandmother celebrated his
homecoming for an entire night and
consequently fell ill. However, she could not
recover from her illness, and she died chanting
the name of God, with the rosary in her hand

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 TITLE JUSTIFICATION
The Portrait of a Lady is a very appropriate title
for the story as in the complete story, the author
keeps on talking about his grandmother. Whether
the start, where she is dressing the author and
singing prayers or at the near end when the lady
started feeding the birds in the balcony.

Every branch of the plot in the story highlights the

attribute of the old lady. Moreover, we can notice
that not once did the writer trace anything other
than the life of his grandmother. So, more easily,
we can state that the whole story is like some
drawing of the writer's grandmother.

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 MESSAGE
In 'The Portrait of The Lady' by Kushwant Singh, when
the author Kushwant and his grandmother move to the
city the turning point occurs in their lives. As a child, he
was completely dependent upon his grandmother but
when they move to a city, the grandmother no longer
accompanied the narrator till the school and she was
unable to help him with his studies.

The story is the author's grandmother's pen portrait. It

determines the fact that a person who is truly religious
stays composed and calm, generous and kind-hearted.
Grandmother was a truly religious person and had
compassion for all.

The author through grandmother hits at the generation

gap as referred by the grandmother. She opposed the
idea of no teaching of scriptures and to the music she
had her particular antipathy.

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 VALUES HIGHLIGHTED
We learn a number of values of life from this lesson.
The grandmother of the author teaches us many
lessons. First of all, there should be a great and firm
belief in God. We should not forget that Godliness
brings happiness in the family. Benevolence is another
value we learn. We should always feed the animals and
birds and love them. The grandmother’s love and care
for her grandson tell us how our grandparents love us.

She is disturbed to know that the English school did not

teach children about God and scriptures. In her
opinion, every child should be taught about them. The
behaviour of the sparrows on the death of the
grandmother shows us that if we love and care for
animals and birds, in return, they also ‘love us and
show their feelings. In all the grandmother is seen as a
very religious and down-to-earth lady who believes in
values of life.

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THANK YOU !

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