the portrait of a lady

Grandmother: old women w wrinkled face, fat, slightly bent, very religious.

Initial days: author & his grandma had a good relationship. She used to wake
him up, get him ready for school, 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 stray dogs roaming
around them as his grandmother would carry the stale chapattis to feed them.

Turning Point: parents of author called themm to city, their bond grew apart,
author went to english medium school, he went to school by a bus so she
didn’t accompany him to school & also didn’t approve of the new things that
were taught in the school because of lack of teaching about scriptures and
god. Tho, they shared the same room, they saw less of e/o than before.

Author went to university: grandmother spent her whole day sitting at her
spinning wheel, reciting prayers and moving beads of the rosary with one
hand. 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. Even when author went
abroad for further studies, she kissed his forehead and came to station to bid
him adieu.

5 years passed, author came back from abroad, one day she didn’t recite her
prayers but instead got a drum and started singing. next morning, she was ill
with 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 in 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.
 the photograph
the poem is a tribute to the poet’s mother. She’s looking at an old photograph
of her mother which has a frame of cardboard. the picture has 3 girls – it was
her mother when she was 12 years old, beside her, on either sides were her
two cousins, Betty and Dolly, who are holding her hands and are younger than
her. they went for paddling on a beach holiday. her uncle took the photograph
then. the poet could not help but notice her mother’s sweet face. the sea
touched her terribly transient feet which depicted that she changed over the
years and the sea remained the same.
After twenty-thirty years, her mother would laugh at the photograph. She’d
make the poet look at the photograph and tell her how their parents would
dress them up for the beach holiday. the beach holiday was her mother’s
favourite past memories while her laugh was the poet’s favourite memory.
Both of them lost something which they cherished a lot and yet cannot live
that moment again. Now, the poet’s mother had been dead for as many years
as she lived, poet cannot express the grief that she has from her mother’s
absence.

the summer of beautiful white horse

Aram & Mourad were 2 poor boys who belonged to the garoghlanian family
who were known for their honesty since the 11th century.
one early morning when Aram was asleep, his cousin Mourad showed up to
his window w a beautiful white horse. Aram couldn’t believe his eyes, he was
trying to figure out if the horse had been stolen by his cousin as they couldn’t
afford one. mourad had come to invite him for a ride-along and asks him to
make it quick. they rode on the old countryside of the area where they lived –
Walnut Avenue. Aram asked mourad if he had stolen the horse and he got to
know that Mourad had stolen the horse a month ago and was riding it every
morning.
when Aram got his chance of a ride, the horse took him to the vineyard and
threw him off and ran away. after searching for thirty minutes, mourad finally
managed to find the horse and they hid him in a deserted vineyard that had
some oats and alfalfa. mourad had a way with everything, especially horses.
He knew how to handle every type of animal and also humans. every morning
for two weeks, they would take the horse for a ride and then hide it again. one
day, John Byro came to Aram’s house to talk to his uncle Khosrove who was
an irritated and loud man who shouted “it’s no harm, pay no attention to it” at
everything and told him abt how his horse was stolen.
one day on their way back to hide the horse to the hidden spot, they met John
Byro who was going back to the town, he carefully examined the horse &
admitted that the horse looked exactly like the one he had but since he knew
his parents and the honesty of their family, he didn’t believe that they had his
missing horse. He assumed it was a twin horse. The next morning, both of
them took the horse back to Byro’s vineyard and put it in the barn. The dogs
followed them all along quietly and they left the place.
the same afternoon, John Byro came back to his house to tell his mother
about his horse who had come back. He was happy and was astonished to
see the horse’s better temper and it was stronger than ever.

the address
After ringing the doorbell of Mrs. Dorling who lived at Number 46, Marconi
Street, the protagonist was given a cold reception and Mrs Dorling took much
time to recognize her. Mrs Dorling had thought everyone in the protanogist’s
family was dead and asked if anyone else had come along with her. Mrs
Dorling refused to let the protagonist inside her home and told her to come
back sometime later. The protagonist recognized her mother’s green cardigan
which Mrs Dorling was wearing. She decided to go back to the train station
and thought about her mother and how she told her about Mrs. Dorling who
was an acquaintance of hers. During the war, Mrs Dorling would visit their
house and take their possessions with her as she didn’t want them to get lost
if they ever left the place. Mrs. Dorling had a broad back.
The protagonist decided to go to Mrs Dorling’s home to get back their
belongings. When she rang the bell, Mrs. Dorling’s daughter answered the
door. She let her in and asked her to wait in the living room. When they were
crossing the passage, the protagonist noticed their Hanukkah candle stand
that they had never used because it had been unmanageable. When she
reached the living room, she was horrified as she saw all her mother’s things
that were arranged in a tasteless manner. The furniture was ugly and the room
had a muggy smell and it made her disinterested and she wanted to leave the
place. Mrs. Dorling’s daughter offered her a cup of tea and the protagonist
noticed the old table cloth that had a burn mark on it. When the girl was
showing her the silver fork and spoons that actually belonged to the
protagonist, she jumped up and walked out of the house. She decided not to
visit the place again as it brought back memories of the past and hence, she
decided to forget the address.
 Discovering tut: the saga continues
Discovering Tut: the Saga Continues is a chapter that gives us an in-depth
insight of Tutankhamun, the last ruler of the powerful Pharaoh Dynasty in
Egypt. He was a teenager when he died and his death was a mystery. Some
speculated that he was murdered.
He ruled in Egypt and its empire for centuries. In 1922, his tomb was
discovered by Howard Carter, a British Archaeologist. After 80 years, he was
taken from his resting place for CT scan which offers to solve the mystery of
his life and death by creating a forensic reconstruction.
Tut’s father or grandfather, Amenhotep III, was a very powerful Pharaoh who
ruled over a period of forty years. His son, Amenhotep IV, thrived him and
began the strangest period in the history of Egypt.
He promoted the worship of Aten (the sun disk). He changed his name to
Akhenaten meaning servant of the Atens. He also moved the religious capital
from Thebes to the new city of Akhenaten, called Amarna.
Further, he attacked Amun, a god, smashed his images, and closed his
temples. Another mysterious ruler succeeded him who died soon. Next,
Tutankhamun, also known as Tut, sat on the throne and ruled for nine years.
He worshipped god Amun in the old ways. However, he died mysteriously.
When Tut’s mummified body was discovered, he was laid with lots of gold,
wealth and everyday items like a bronze razor, games, clothes, cases of food
and wine. Carter discovered him after searching for many years.
After researching on the treasures, he decided to investigate his three nested
coffins. Some parts of the Tut’s treasures in the tomb were already looted.
His tomb was rock-cut, 26 feet underground, which had wall paintings. On the
outer coffin, Tut’s face was gilded. In the first coffin, he found the garlands of
olives, lotus petals, and cornflowers. It showed that he was buried in the
months of March or April. The third and final coffin put Carter into trouble.
The resins used to cement Tut to the bottom of the solid gold coffin was
hardened enough making it impossible to move. He put the coffin in the sun
for several hours in hope for the resins to loosen up but it didn’t work. Finally,
he removed the resins with the help of chisel and hammer.
Carter felt he didn’t have any other choice as to if he hadn’t cut the mummy
from limb to limb, thieves would have looted the gold. His men first removed
his head, then they cut off every joint. After removing the body parts, they
placed it on the layer of sand in a wooden box and put it at the original place.
In 1968, the mummy was X-rayed by an anatomy professor, revealed few
facts – his breast bone and front ribs were missing.
Later, on January 05 2009, Tut was taken for CT (Computed Tomography)
scan which takes hundreds of X-Rays and creates a three-dimensional image.
The night of the scan, the workmen carried his body from the tomb in a box.
They climbed ramp and stairs and lifted it on a hydraulic trailer that held the
scanner. The scanner stopped working which paused the procedure. After
using a pair of spare fans, the scan was finally done. After three-hours, his
body was taken back to his tomb where his body is resting in peace.