THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY - BLOG 5

The Portrait of a Lady

-         Khushwant Singh

Good morning dear students. Let us thank God for this wonderful day. Today we continue with our chapter “The Portrait of a Lady”. Before we go deep into the lesson let us look at the learning objectives of this chapter.

The students will be able to

·         know the expressions used in the lesson and their usage.

·         appreciate the bond between the author and his grandmother

·         gain insight into the various phases of author’s life with his grandmother.

·         realize the importance of grandparents in a family.

·         know the worth of any relationship.

·         sympathize with the grandmother and her situations.

·         admire and appreciate the biography of grandmother

admire the divine beauty of the grandmother.

Today in this period we are going to discuss long answer questions and its answers. Write answers in your own words using the given points.

Long Answer Type Questions

Q1. Would you agree that the author’s grandmother was a person strong in character?

•       very religious and conservative lady who hated modern views and ways.

•       had very strong personal likes and dislikes

•       led her own kind of life and never compromised with her principals.

•       loved the narrator deeply but never tried to be sentimental or emotional.

•        had her own thoughts about the learning at school. She considered the teaching of scriptures to be more fruitful than science and music.

•       took to wheel-spinning and feeding sparrows in loneliness and seclusion
appeared composed and did not display any emotion when the author decided to go abroad

•       Ignoring everyone who tried to stop her, she sang for several hours celebrating the home-coming of her grandson.

•       During the last few hours of her life, ignoring the protests of her family members, she stopped talking to everyone and took to reciting prayers and telling her beads.

Q.2 Describe how the bond of friendship between the author and grandmother grew strong and then weak with the passage of time?

·         Both were best friends in the village

·         Grandmother took  care of almost everything for the boy,

·         Went to school with him, sat in the temple

·         Bond was very strong

·         Boy moved to city and bond suffered a crack

·         Grandmother did not accompany him to school anymore

·         She did not like what he learned at school

·         Withdrew herself from the boy

·         Concern and affection was not affected (give instances)

 Q.3 Throw some light on the different phases of relationship which the author shared with his grandmother.

FIRST PHASE –  (Village Life)

•      Took care of all his needs (Examples??)

•      Helped in his lessons

•      Undisputed custodian and mentor of the child

•      Dynamic , agile and active (HOW?)

•      They fed street dogs with stale chapaties on their way to school which was a great fun 

•      It was her realm and she was the queen of her realm

SECOND PHASE  (City Life):-

•      Her role in bringing up the child curtailed a little bit

•      Found herself at a loss – Why?

•      She doesn’t articulate her disapproval – (About what?)

•      Withdrew herself . Retreats with dignity

•      Common nexus of friendship was fading away

•      Contrast with Village life?

•      Differences in both the phases??

Third phase :-

•      Common nexus of friendship – disrupted

•      Her only happy pursuit was….?

•      Lonely and aloof , secluded

•      Held back her emotions

•      Weathered this closing off with grace and dignity

•      Differences from the previous phases? (Point out few examples)