The Portrait of a Lady

-Khushwant Singh

Prepared by K T Prasad, PGT English, JNV, Karimnagar Dist., TS

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 About the writer
- Famous writer in English
- Born in 1915 in Hadali (in Pakistan now)
- Educated in the Government College, Lahore, and
at King’s College, Cambridge University, & The
Inner Temple in London
- Practised law at Lahore High Court for several
years
- Founder editor of ‘ Yojana’ (1951-53), the
‘Illustrated Weekly of India’ (1979-80), Chief Editor
of New Delhi (1979-80), and editor of the
‘Hindustan Times’ (1980-83)
- Saturday column ‘With Malice towards One and
All’ in the ‘Hindustan Times’ - one of the most
popular columns of the day 2
(contd…)
- a self-proclaimed agnostic - against
organised religion - evidently inclined towards
atheism -
- “One can be a saintly person without believing in
God and a detestable villain believing in him. In
my personalised religion, There Is No God!"
- "I don't believe in rebirth or in reincarnation, in
the day of judgement or in heaven or hell. I
accept the finality of death."
- died of natural causes on 20 March 2014 at his
Delhi residence, at the age of 99.

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The Portrait of a Lady
- Lady - a woman of good social position
- Portrait - a painting, drawing, photograph, or
engraving of a person, especially one
depicting only the face or head and
Representative portrait of
shoulders. an old woman
- The Portrait of a Lady - Khushwant Singh’s
grandmother
- Simple and exemplary

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Our love for grandmothers
- What is very special about grandmothers?
- Are their lives worth recording?
- Do they make the stuff that is required for A representative image
writing a story?
- Do they interest readers?
- Very dear to all
- Loved and adored more than parents

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Khushwant Singh’s grandmother

“My grandmother, like everybody’s

grandmother, was an old woman.”

(A representative picture of a Punjabi old woman) 6

What the grandmother looks like

- Face - a crisscross of wrinkles

- Back bent
- Prayers on lips
- Telling the beads of a rosary
- A winter landscape in the mountains A representative picture of two Punjabi old
people
- ‘An expanse of pure white serenity’

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Khushwant Singh’s childhood in the village with
his grandmother
- Left to the care of his grandmother
- A constant companion in the childhood
- Prepared him for school
- Accompanied him to school
- Village school attached to the temple
- The alphabet and prayer sung
- Village dogs fed with chapatis by the grandmother

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Shifting to the city -
a turning point in the relationship
- A motor bus to school
- An English medium school
- Enthusiasm of the grandmother in the initial days
(A modern day school bus
- Feeding sparrows in the city house courtyard in the background)
- Dislike for education without religion
- Prejudices about music lessons
- A final resignation
- Silent acceptance of changes in life

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University days - link of friendship snapped
- A room of his own
- Grandmother accepting her seclusion with
resignation
- The happiest house of the grandmother
- Feeding the sparrows in the courtyard
- The sparrows creating a veritable bedlam of (A representative image of an
chirrupings old woman with sparrows)

- Birds given frivolous rebukes

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Khushwant Singh going abroad for studies

- Farewell at the railway station

- Grandmother unsentimental
- Khushwant’s fears about his grandmother
- Grandmother lost in prayer
- A kiss on the forehead A representative image
- last sign physical contact ?

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Return from England
- Received warmly by the grandmother at the railway station
- Hardly any noticeable in her
- Evening spent in feeding the birds as usual
- Unusal Change in the routine that evening
- Women from the neighbourhood gathered
- The singing of song celebrating the home-coming of warriors
- Pryers ignored for the first time temporarily

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(A representative image of women gathering for a song)
The death of a grand old lady
- The grandmother taken ill the next day
- The doctoor’s assurance
- The grandmother predicting her death (A representative image of
- Her request to leave her alone to offer an ailing woman)
prayers
- The family’s objections
- The grandmother breathing her lost
during the course of prayers

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The mourning of sparrows
- Grandmother covered with a red shroud
- Laid on the ground
- Sparrows visiting the house as usual in thousands
- Observation of unusual silence
(A representative image of a
- Khushwant’s mother offering them bread corpse being carried off)
- The sparrows not taking any food
- The grandmother’s corpse carried off for cremation
- The sparrows leaving the house in silence
- The bread crumbs swept into the dustbin

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A simple but adorable grandmother
- A lady with no formal education
- Unimposing, kind and caring
- No preacher
- Orthodox and religious A representative picture
- Prejudices about music lesson
- Belief in religious education
- Never a liability
- Concern for dogs and sparrows
- Simple life with minimum needs
- A lady of few words

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 Acknowledgements
The pictures used in the preparation of this PPT were taken from different
websites and they are only representative ( except the two images of Khushwant
Singh). My acknowledgements are due to NVS RO, Hyderabad for entrusting me
with the E-content work and helping learn a few new things in its preparation,

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Thank you!

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