The Portrait of a Lady Summary and Important Questions for class 11th
The Portrait of a Lady is based on
the author's grandmother's true story. The author goes by Kushwant Singh. His
granny was an elderly woman. The author shares with us the tale of his early
years spent with his grandma. The author has discussed how his relationship
with his grandma has changed over time. He considers what she does on a daily
basis and how her character has developed through time. He makes reference to
her appearance, which helps the reader form an image of her.
The Portrait of a Lady Summary
The author remembers his
grandmother as being short, robust, and a little crooked. Her silver hair was
disheveled and strewn all over her creased face. She used to wear all white
while she strolled around the house. She continued to recount the beads of her
rosary with one hand resting on her waist.
The Portrait of a Lady Summary and Important Questions-Although the writer believes she is
not very attractive, she is always gorgeous. Her serene visage is like the
winter scenery, he thinks. Grandmother got him out of bed in the wee hours of
the morning during their extended stay in the village, plastered his wooden
slate, made his breakfast, and sent him to school. The school has a connection
to the temple. While the kids learned their alphabets, she sat inside and
perused the holy books.
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On their way back to the home she used to give the stale chapattis to the street dogs. A turning point in their beautiful relationship arrived when they went to live in a city. Despite the fact that they shared a room, their relationship started to grow apart. Now, the writer used to go to the city school on a school bus and studied subjects like English, Physics, mathematics and many more subjects that his grandmother could not understand at all.
The Portrait of a Lady Summary and Important Questions-His grandmother could no longer go
to school with him to send him. She felt upset that there was no teaching about
God and scriptures at the city school. Instead, he was given music lessons, but
she said nothing. She thought music was dreadful. It was just good for
prostitutes and beggars, according to her. It was not intended for gentlemen.
The author received a separate room
in his house when he enrolled in a university. Now, the grandma and grandson's
shared relationship was no longer intact. These days, Grandmother hardly ever
spoke to anyone in the house. The writer's grandmother gently came to terms
with her isolation. She rarely spoke to anyone and was always preoccupied with
her spinning wheel and praying. In the afternoon, she had a break. She would
break bread into pieces and feed it to the birds as part of her daily practice.
The birds would sit on top of her head, shoulders, and even on her legs.
The Portrait of a Lady Summary and Important Questions-When the writer was leaving on a
trip abroad for his further studies, his grandmother did not get disturbed at
all. Rather she went to the train station to say goodbye, but she didn’t say
anything and merely kissed his forehead. Her lips were moving in prayer, her
thoughts were consumed by prayer and her fingers were busy reciting the storey
of the beads on her rosary. Seeing her grandmother at this old age, the writer
was thinking that it might be his last meeting with his grandmother. But when
he came back home after a duration of 5 years, his grandmother was there to
welcome him back and he saw her celebrate his return.
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The next morning after the return
of his grandson she got ill. Although the doctor told them that it was a slight
fever and would go away very soon, still she could foresee that her time to
leave this world was near. She did not want to waste her time talking to
someone. Her fingers were busy reciting the storey of the beads on her
rosary.
She went to her bed praying and
telling the beads till her lips stopped moving and the rosary fell down from
her lifeless hand. Her body was discovered on the floor, wrapped in a red shawl
after she died. To grieve her death, thousands of sparrows flew in and sat
dispersed around her body. All the sparrows flew away without making any noise
when the dead body of the old lady was carried away for the last rites.
Characters In The Portrait of a Lady
The Khushwant Singh : It is a narrator
of the story The Portrait of a Lady' was a sensitive and observant person.
Having been entirely brought up under his grandmother's care, he displays a
genteel sensitivity towards her. He cherished the memories of his association
with his grandmother. He has beautifully described the details about many
episodes from his past life that were related to his grandmother. His
description of his grandmother's old age, her movements, her religious beliefs,
her association with sparrows reflect his ability to describe the common things
with sensitive delicacy. He was a great author, grandson, and human being.
The Grandmother: It was an elderly,
formerly young and attractive woman with a wrinkly face. She was chubby, short,
and a little twisted. She is described by the narrator as a "winter
landscape in the mountains" since she wore a white outfit that covered her
face most of the time and her silver hair. She is quite devout and spends a lot
of time counting the beads on her rosary and performing prayers. She feeds the
local dogs on a daily basis and is a compassionate person. She gave pieces of
bread to the birds in the city. She would spend hours discussing her grandson's
academics since she was so devoted to him.
She is conventional, nevertheless,
and disapproves of the new curriculum her grandson is following since, in her
opinion, it fails to teach him about God and the sacred texts. As her grandson
grows older and distances himself from her, their relationship evolves. She
still takes care of him and greets him when he gets home in spite of
everything. She is a straightforward, devoted, and kind woman who lives her
life in accordance with her customs and beliefs.
The Grandfather: The drawing room
mantelpiece had the portrait of the author's grandfather hanging above it. He
had a long white beard that covered the best portion of his chest, and he was
dressed loosely in a large turban. He has been dead for a very long time.
Khushwant Singh's grandfather had never been seen by him. Because of his
advanced age, the author's grandfather appeared to be a guy without a wife or
children but with an enormous number of grandchildren.
The Portrait of a Lady Important Questions and Answers
Khushwant Singh’s grandmother was not pretty but was always beautiful. Explain the meaning of this statement.
Khushwant Singh’s grandmother was
not attractive and good-looking, but she had an extremely gracious personality.
Her serenity and calmness gave her an inner beauty.
What was Khushwant Singh’s and his grandmother’s routine in the village?
The grandmother used to wake
Khushwant Singh up in the morning, bathe him, dress him, and accompany him to
school. While he studied, she sat in the temple and read scriptures. On return,
she fed stale ‘chapattis’ to the village dogs. She used to prepare his wooden
slate by plastering it lightly with yellow chalk.
Describe the changing relationship between the author and his grandmother.
The relationship changed from total
dependency during their village stay to a hint of withdrawal during the city
stay as the grandmother could not comprehend the efficacy of a curriculum based
on science, sans religious instructions. Later, this changed to an overall
affection for the author.
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