The Portrait of a Lady

Q1. Describe the changing relationship between the author and his grandmother. Did their feelings for
each other change?

A1. When the author was a child, he lived with his grandmother in the village where all his activities
were guided and instructed by HER. But later, when they were called by the author’s parents to live in
the city house, the schedule of their life was totally changed; the author went to school by motor bus
whereas in the village, his grandmother used to drop him. Now he studied in an English school where
there was no teaching of God and scriptures whereas in the village, the main focus was on such
education.

So, because of all these changes in the author’s life, the author became busy and distant from his
grandmother. But mentally they remained close so their feelings for each other never changed.

We’re not afraid to die . . . if we can all be together

Q2. What difference did you notice between the reaction of the adults and the children when faced with
danger?

A2. When the unfavourable situation occurred during the voyage, everybody including the children did
their best and showed their courage. When the elders were engaged in a fight with the waves, children,
Jonathan of 6 and Sue of 7 was also very courageous. Sue was hurt and her head was swelled but she
did not worry about it. Jonathan encouraged his father by saying ‘we are not afraid to die . . . if we can
all be together’. Later for making the environment unpressurized, Sue drew some caricatures on a card
with the message to keep hope. So, in this way, where adults battled with enormous waves and
weather children too fought as per their capacity.

Discovering Tut: the saga continues

Q3. Describe how the CT scan of King Tut’s mummy was carried out on 5 January 2005.

A3. At 6p.m. on 5 January 2005, a scanner was taken in a trailer to the sandy area near Tut’s tomb. An
angry wind stirred up ghostly dust devils as King Tut was taking from his resting place in the ancient
Egyptian cemetery known as ‘Valley Of The Kings’. The world’s most famous mummy glided head first
into a CT scanner brought there to probe the lingering medical mysteries of this little understood young
ruler who died more than 3300 years ago. The CT machine scanned the mummy head to toe, creating
1700 digital X-ray images in cross section. Tut’s body was scanned in 0.62 millimetre slices. The CT scan
produced clear images of Tut’s head, neck vertebrae, ribcage, hands and skull. Thus Tut’s entire body
was successfully scanned and some mysteries were unfolded.

Landscape of the soul

Q4. What is the concept of ‘Shanshui’?

A4. The concept of ‘shanshui’ expresses literally mountain-water which used together represent the
word landscape. More than two elements of an image, these represent two complementary poles,
reflecting the Daoist view of the universe. The mountain is ‘Yang’ reaching vertically towards heaven,
stable, warm and dry in the sun, while the water is ‘Yin’, the receptive, feminine aspect of universal
energy, and its counterpart ‘Yang’, active and masculine, is of course a fundamental notion of Daoism.
The third element is Middle void where their interaction takes place and the man also finds a
fundamental role and becomes the conduit communication between both poles of the universe.

The ailing planet: the green movement’s role

Q5. Explain the loss of forests and its reasons.

A5. In poor countries, local forests are being decimated in order to procure firewood for cooking. In
some places, firewood has become so expensive that “what goes under the pot now costs more than
what goes inside”. In the words of Dr. Myres, “The tropical forests are the powerhouse of evolution”.
Several species of life face extinction as a result of its destruction.

It has been well said that forests precede mankind follow; deserts follow. The world ancient patrimony
of tropical forest is now eroding at the rate of forty to fifty million acres a year, and the growing use of
dung for burning deprives the soil of an important natural fertilizer. So the cutting of forests to acquire
fuel wood is the main reason behind it.