The Portrait of a Lady - Khushwant Singh

What change came over the grandmother on the evening her grandson arrived?

A change came over her in the evening, she did not pray.

How was the grandmother described in her death bed after she died?

A peaceful pallor spread on her face and they knew that she was dead.

What did the author incorrectly understand as the LAST SIGN OF PHYSICAL CONTACT BETWEEN US(them)?

A silent kiss on his forehead by his grandmother. He CHERISHED the MOIST IMPRINT as the last sign of physical contact between them.

When the family stopped halfway if the courtyard with the crude stretcher, how were the sparrows scattered?

All over the verandah and in her room right up to where she lay dead and stiff wrapped in the red shroud, thousand of sparrows sat scattered on the floor.

How was life different for the grandmother in the city when they had just shifted?

Although she shared a room with her grandson, she no longer came to school with him, the author went to school in a motor bus. There were no dogs on the streets so she TOOK to feeding the sparrows in the courtyard of their city house.

How did the author's friendship with his grandmother change when they moved to the city?

As the years rolled by, they saw less of each other. For some time the grandmother continued to wake him up and get him ready for school and ask him what the teacher had taught him when he came back.

What did the author learn at the English school?

English words, little things like western science and learning the law of gravity, Archimedes' Principle, and the world being round.

What did the grandmother thump?

For several hours, she thumped THE SAGGING SKINS OF THE DILAPIDATED DRUM.

The author's grandfather's portrait hung above the mantlepiece in the drawing room, how is the grandfather described?

He wore a big turban and loosely-fitting clothes. His long, white beard covered the best part of his chest and he looked at least a hundred years old. He did not look like a person who could have a wife or children but rather like a person with many grandchildren

What kind of wrinkles did the grandmother have on her face?

Her face was a criss-cross of wrinkles running from everywhere to everywhere.

What was the happiest moments of the grandmother's day even on the first day the author arrived from abroad?

Her happiest moments were with her sparrows whom she fed longer and with FRIVOLOUS REBUKES.

What was the grandmother doing while bidding farewell to her grandson at the railway station?

Her lips moved in prayer, her mind was lost in prayer. Her fingers were busy telling the beads on her rosary.

What decision did the author think would surely upset his grandmother?

His decision to go abroad for further studies, he would be away for five years and at her age one could never tell if she would be alive by the time he came back. But the grandmother could tell.

What is customary when someone had just died?

Lift them off the bed, lay them on the ground and cover them with a red shroud. After a few hours of mourning, leave the body alone to make arrangements for the funeral. In the evening, return to room with a crude stretcher to take body to be cremated.

What did the grandmother do the evening her grandson arrived from further studies?

She collected the women of the neighbourhood, got a old drum and started to sing of the home-coming of warriors.

Why did the English school education make the grandmother UNHAPPY?

She could not help him with his lessons. she did not believe in the things they taught at the English school, and was distressed that there was no teaching about God and the scriptures.

What was the grandmother like at the station when the author returned after five years?

She did not look a day older. She still had no time for words. While she clasped him in her arms he could hear her reciting her prayers.m

What did the author feel certain about with regards to his grandmother?

She had always been old, so terribly old that she could not have grown older, and has stayed the same age for twenty years.

What did the grandmother look like?

She had always been short and fat and slightly bent. Her silver locks scattered untidily over her pale, puckered face, and her lips constantly moved in inaudible prayer.

What did the author find hard to believe about his grandmother's past?

She had once been young and pretty and had even had a husband.

What was special about the author's grandmother's gait?

She hobbled about the house in spotless white with one hand resting on her waist to balance her stoop and the other telling the beads on her rosary.

How was the grandmother described in her death bed before she died?

She lay peacefully in bed praying and telling her beads, even before they could suspect her lips stopped moving and the rosary fell from her lifeless fingers.

What did the grandmother do when the author went up to University and she became lonely?

She rarely left her spinning-wheel to talk to anyone. From sunrise to sunset she sat by her wheel spinning and reciting prayers.

What did the grandmother do in afternoon when the author had went up to University?

She relaxed for a while to feed the sparrows. She sat in the verandah breaking bread into little bits, hundreds of little birds collected around her creating a VERITABLE BEDLAM OF CHIRRUPING.

In what manner did the grandmother say her morning prayer while bathing and dressing the author and why?

She said her morning prayer in a monotonous sing-song hoping that he would listen and get to know it by heart. He never bothered to learn it by heart but listened anyways since he loved her voice.

What did the grandmother's silence mean when she heard that the author was being given music lessons at school?

She said nothing and her silence meant disapproval . She rarely talked to him after that.

What was the odd way in which the author's grandmother behaved just before she died?

She said she had only a few hours before the close of the last chapter of her, she had omitted to pray, she said that she was not going to waste any more time talking to them. She ignored their protests.

What was the grandmother's reaction when her grandson decided to go abroad for further studies?

She was not even sentimental. She came to leave him at the railway station but did not talk or show any emotions.

Why could the grandmother never have been pretty but beautiful nonetheless?

She was not pretty to look at but she was like the winter landscape in the mountains, AN EXPANSE OF PURE WHITE SERENITY breathing peace and contentment. She had a spiritual beauty of calmness, compassion, and kindness.

What school equipment did the grandmother arrange for the author every morning while they were in the village?

She would fetch the wooden slate she had washed and plastered with yellow chalk for him, a tiny earthen ink-pot, and a red pen, and tie them all together in a bundle.

How were the birds arranged around the grandmother when she fed them in the afternoon?

Some came and perched on her legs, other on her shoulders. Some even sat on her head. She smiled but never shooed them away.

What thought was almost revolting for the author?

The author found the thought of his grandmother being young and pretty almost revolting. She had always been old and wrinkled to him.

What breakfast did the author have in the village and to whom was this a snack?

The author had a breakfast of a thick, stale chapatti with a little butter and sugar spread on it. His grandmother carried several stale chapattis for the village dogs. After school, the village dogs met them at the temple door and followed them home growling and fighting with each other for the chapattis that were thrown to them.

The COMMON LINK OF FRIENDSHIP WAS SNAPPED, why?

The author went up to University and was given a room of his own. The grandmother ACCEPTED HER SECLUSION WITH RESIGNATION.

What did the author treat like the fables of the Prophets his grandmother taught him about?

The author's grandmother often told him of the games she used to play as a child. He thought that this was quite absurd and undignified for her.

Where did the parents live and when did they send for the grandmother and their son?

The author's parents left him with his grandmother in the village to live in the city. They sent for them when they were comfortably settled in the city.

What was life like for the hapless mourning bread?

The family felt sorry for the birds and the author's mother fetched it. She broke it into little crumbs the way the grandmother used to, and threw it to them. Next morning, the sweeper swept the bread crumbs into the dustbin.

What happened the next morning after the day the author arrived from further studies?

The next morning, the grandmother was TAKEN ill. It was a mild fever and the doctor said it would go bu she thought differently. She told them that her end was near.

What evidence is there that the grandmother took great care of her grandson while they were in the village?

The pair were good friends and were constantly together. She woke the author up for school in the morning, got him ready for school, bathed him, dressed him.

What did the author learn at the village school?

The priest taught them the alphabet and the morning prayer in a chorus.

Why did the grandmother accompany the author to his village school and back?

The school was attached to the temple. She sat inside reading the scripture while the children recited prayer and the alphabet. They would walk back home together when both had finished.

What was the grandmother's room looking like in the evening of her death?

The sun was setting and had lit her room and verandah with a blaze of golden light.

What did the family do when the grandmother began to sing with the neighbourhood women?

They had to persuade her to stop singing to avoid overstraining. This was the first time since the author had known her that she did not pray.

How did the sparrows mourn her death?

They scattered on the floor and there was no chirruping. They took no notice of the bread thrown to them, they flew away quietly when the corpse was carried off.

Why was the grandmother very disturbed on hearing that the author was being given music lessons?

To her music had lewd associations. It was the monopoly of harlots and beggars and not meant for gentlefolk

How long had the author know his grandmother?

Twenty years

What used to be the happiest half-hour of her day?

When she fed the birds in the afternoon and relaxed a little while doing so.

What did the author call the moment when he and his grandmother moved to the city.

When they moved to the city to live with the author's parents, the author called the moment a turning point in their friendship.