The portrait of a lady (khushwant singh) class 11th chapter 2 | the portrait of a lady summary

The portrait of a lady (khushwant singh) class 11th chapter 2

The portrait of a lady summary

#educationword #class11th The portrait of a lady (khushwant singh) class 11th chapter 2 the portrait of a lady class 11th full chapter explanation in hindi | the portrait of a lady summary

THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY
(KhushwantSingh) 

DETAILED SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER 

Khushwant Singh draws here an interesting portrait of his grandmother. He presents her as a tender, loving and deeply religious old lady. 

Khushwant Singh says that his grandmother was an old woman. She was so old and her face was so wrinkled that it was difficult to believe she could ever have been young and pretty. It appeared unbelievable when she talked of the games she used to play in her childhood. Her hair was as white as snow. She had a little stoop in her back. She could be seen telling the beads of her rosary all the time. The author says, “She was like the winter landscape in the mountains, an expanse of pure white serenity breathing peace and contentment.” 

A picture of the author's grandfather hung on the wall. He appeared too old to believe that he ever had a wife. He appeared to have only lots and lots of grandchildren. 

Khushwant Singh was only a child at that time. His parents had gone to live in the city, leaving him behind in the village with Grandmother. She would wake him up in the morning and get him ready for school. As she bathed and dressed him, she would sing prayers. She hoped that in time, Khushwant Singh would also come to learn it by heart, but he could never do so. 

After a breakfast of a stale chapatti and butter, Grandmother would accompany Khushwant Singh to the village school. The school was attached to the village temple. While the children sat in the verandas singing the alphabet or the prayer in chorus, Grandmother would read religious books in the temple. She would walk back home with Khushwant Singh when the school was over. On their way back, they would throw chapattis to the village dogs. 

When his parents were well settled in the city, Khushwant Singh and his grandmother. Also went to live with them. Khushwant Singh joined an English-medium school. His grandmother didn't like many things taught in this school. Though she still shared her room with Khushwant Singh, she could no longer help him in his lessons. She no longer went with him to his school. 

In due course, Khushwant Singh went up to the University. He was then given a room of his own, and thus the common link of friendship between them now snapped completely. Grandmother began to pass her time at the spinning wheel from sunrise to sunset. Only in the afternoon did she relax a little when she fed sparrows with little bits of bread. The sparrows also seemed to feel quite at home in her company. Some of the birds would sit on her shoulders, and even on her head.

Khushwant Singh decided a want Singh decided to go abroad for further studies. He was to be away for five years Grandmother went to the railway station to see him off. Khushwant Singh felt is grandmother would not live till the time he was to come back. But that was not so.she was there to receive him at the station when he came back. She celebrated his home coming in her own way. She collected the women of the neighbourhood, got an old drum and started singing. She kept singing and beating the drum for several hours. 

Next morning, Grandmother fell ill. The doctor said that it was only a mild fever and would soon go. But Grandmother knew that her end was near. She lay peacefully in bed, of her life in talking to anybody. Quite suddenly, the rosary fell from her hand. She had breathed her last. Her body was placed on the ground and covered with a red shroud. . 

After making preparations for her funeral, they went to her room to fetch her body for the last journey. Thousands of sparrows had already gathered in the verandas and in her room right up to her dead body. The birds were all silent, and there was no chirping. The writer's mother brought some bread, broke it into bits and threw it to them. The sparrows did not pay any attention to the crumbs. When Grandmother's dead body was taken away, the sparrows flew away quietly. 

The Portrait of a ladyLesson-2

Short Questions/Answers

Q1.Whose Portrait hung above the mantelpiece in the drawing room?

Ans. it was the portrait of the authors grandfather that thing above the mantelpiece in the drawing room. He wore a big turban and loose fitting clothes. He had a long white beard. He looked at least years old.

Q2. What according to the author was absurd and undignified on Grandmother's part?

Ans. Grandmother often described the games she used to play in her childhood. It seemed to the author absurd and undignified on her part it was so because as a child the author could not imagine that her grandmother who was so old could ever have been young and pretty.

 Q3. She would say her prayer in a monotonous singing?

Ans. she did so with the hope that the author would listen and get to know it by heart.

Q4. What did they have for breakfast?

Ans. For breakfast, they used to have thick stale Chapatti with Some butter and sugar spread on them.

Q5. Why did Grandmother always go to school with the author?

Ans. Grandmother always went to school with the author because the school was attached to the village temple while the author studied in the school, Grandmother would read the Scriptures in the temple. After the school, grandmother and author would come back home together.

Q6. The children in the village school were taught the alphabet. Did grandmother know the alphabet?

Ans. yes, she know the alphabet she used to read the scriptures in the village temple.

Q7. How did they feed the village dog while returning home?

Ans. Every day in the morning before taking the author to school, Grandmother would pack several stale chapattis for the village dogs. And while returning home after the school, she and the author would feed the village dogs with those chapattis.

Q8. That was turning point in our friendship? What happened to the friendship?

Ans. In village, grandmother used to accompany the author to his school and helped him in his study also .but in the city she could neither accompany him to school not help in his study. Their friendship did not remain as intimate as it was in the village.

 Q9. How did the author go to school in the city?

Ans. In the city the school as very far from the author's home. So he will go to school in motor bus in the city.

Q10. Why was grandmother unhappy about the school education in the city?

Ans. In the city school, the children were taught lessons in science and music only. They were not given any religious education. They were not taught any holy books and prayers. That was the reason that grandmother was unhappy about the school education in the city.

Q11.  Why did she feel disturbed when the author announced that they were being given music Lesson's at school?

         Ans. According to her music had lewd associations - She Consider it the monopoly of harlots and beggars. She believed that music was not meant for gentle folk.so she was disturbed.

Q12. When was the common link friendship between the author and his grandmother broken?

Ans. The common link was broken when the author went to the university. He was given of his own room.

 Q13. What did Grandmother do from sunrise to sunset?

Ans. From Sunrise to sunset, she would sit by her wheel spinning and reciting prayers. She would rarely leave her spinning wheel to talk to anyone.

Q14 what took the place of the village dogs in Grandmother’s life in the city?

Ans. Sparrows took the place of the village dogs. She daily feed sparrows with bread crumbs very lovingly. They collected around her and she never shooed them away.

Q15. What could have been the cause of grandmother falling ill?

Ans. When author came back from abroad she celebrating it by collected the women of her neighbourhood, got a drum and started singing she overs tired herself in thumping the drum and singing. That was why she fell ill.

Q16. How did sparrows show (on the last day) that they had not come far the bread?

Ans. Grandmother was lying dead in her room. A large number of sparrows came and sat all around her. The author mother threw breadcrumbs to them but sparrow did not eat them. When the dead body was carried off far cremation, the sparrows also flew away in silence. It was clearly shows that they had not come for bread.