PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

ATTEMPT THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS IN YOUR REGISTER.

1.The grandmother had a divine beauty. How does the author bring it out?
Answer:
The grandmother was not pretty but had a divine beauty. She was dressed in
spotless white. Her silver locks were scattered untidily over her pale, puckered
face, and her lips constantly moved in an inaudible prayer. The author describes
her “like the winter landscape in the mountains, an expanse of pure white
serenity, breathing peace and contentment. The aura of the grandmother was
divine and she was a very pious soul with a humanitarian spirit to serve others
selflessly.

2. What proofs do you find of friendship between the grandmother and

grandson in the story?
Answer:
The grandmother and grandson were good friends and had a lot of love and
affection for each other. In the village, they were constant companions of each
other. She got him ready for school and accompanied him to school and stayed
in the temple till the school finished and finally they returned home together. In
the city, they shared a common bedroom. The author’s grandmother bid him
adieu silently by kissing him on his forehead, when he went abroad and
celebrated his return five years later by collecting the women of the
neighbourhood and singing the songs of the homecoming of the warriors.

3. Describe the author’s grandfather as he looked in his portrait.

Answer:
In the portrait, the grandfather was dressed in loose-fitting clothes with a big
turban. His long white beard covered the best part of his chest and he looked at
least a hundred years old. He looked grandfatherly to the author; someone who
could never have been young and could only have grandchildren.

4. When the grandmother was taken ill, how were her views different from the
doctor’s?
Answer:
When the grandmother was taken ill, the doctor felt it was mild fever and would
go. But the grandmother thought differently. She felt her end was near. She
refused to waste any more time talking instead she wanted to spend her time
only praying to God.
5. Gradually the author and the grandmother saw less of each other and their
friendship was broken. Was the distancing deliberate or due to
the demands of the situation?
Answer:
When the author was a young boy, his parents shifted to the city leaving him
with his grandmother. They were good friends. She was with him throughout
the day and even accompanied him to school and stayed in the temple till his
school got over. They both were each other’s only companions in the village
and shared an admirable bonding with each other.

6. When his parents had settled in the city, they sent for them. This proved to be
a turning point in their friendship. The only thing that remained unchanged was
their common bedroom. She could not accompany him to school as he went by
the school bus. He was now in an English school, where they taught science.
She could not understand English and did not believe in science and was thus
unable to help him with his homework. The fact that they were not taught about
God and scriptures made her unhappy. His music lessons in school made her
feel worse as she felt that it was the monopoly of harlots and beggars. It was
when he went to the university and got a separate room and that their ties were
severed further. This was not deliberate, but the situations adversely affected
their relationship. As a repercussion, the grandmother in a dignified manner
accepted her seclusion and took to spinning the wheel and feeding the sparrows.

7. Give a brief account of the grandmother’s friendship with the sparrows in the
city.
Ans. The grandmother was a very generous, loving and compassionate woman.
In the village, she fed the street dogs and in the city she took to feeding the
sparrows in the afternoon. She threw small bits of bread to the birds who even
sat on her shoulders and her head. After her death, the sparrows also grieved for
her. Thousands of them made a circle round her. There was chirruping as they
sensed that something was wrong. They refused to eat the crumbs offered to
them and flew away only after her dead body was taken away. This
substantiates the fact that love has a universal language and we can even
establish a bond with birds and animals.

 8. Describe In brief how the old lady died peacefully.

Ans. The grandmother had overstrained herself when she enthusiastically
collected the women of the neighbourhood and sang the songs of the
homecoming of the warriors. As a result she fell ill and announced that her end
was near. So, she declined to talk to anybody. She wanted to spend the last
moments of her life praying and telling the beads of her rosary. Then slowly her
lips stopped moving and the rosary fell from her lifeless fingers. Thus, she died
peacefully.