Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 1 Question Answer | The Portrait of a Lady
Welcome to HSLC Guru, your trusted companion for ASSEB Class 11 (HS 1st Year) English study material. On this page you will find the complete question-answer guide for Hornbill Chapter 1 – “The Portrait of a Lady” by Khushwant Singh. The notes below have been carefully prepared as per the latest ASSEB / Assam Higher Secondary syllabus and follow the prescribed Hornbill textbook prepared by NCERT. You will find the textbook exercises (Understanding the Text, Talking about the Text, Working with Words, Noticing Form, Things to Do), additional short and long answer questions, MCQs, extract-based questions, character sketches, themes and a complete summary in English and Assamese – everything an HS 1st Year student of Assam needs to score full marks in this chapter.
About the Author
Khushwant Singh (2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was one of the best-known and most widely read Indian writers in English of the twentieth century. Born in Hadali, in the Khushab District (now in Pakistan), he was educated at Government College, Lahore, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and King’s College, Cambridge before being called to the Bar at the Inner Temple, London. He served as a lawyer at the Lahore High Court, joined the Indian Foreign Service after Independence, worked as a journalist with All India Radio and UNESCO, and finally turned to full-time writing.
Khushwant Singh edited many of India’s most influential periodicals – Yojana, The Illustrated Weekly of India, The National Herald and The Hindustan Times. His novel Train to Pakistan (1956) is considered a classic of Partition literature, and his two-volume A History of the Sikhs remains a standard work on the subject. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974 (which he later returned in protest against Operation Blue Star) and the Padma Vibhushan in 2007. Renowned for his earthy humour, candid honesty, secular outlook and sharp social commentary, Khushwant Singh’s autobiographical writings – such as The Portrait of a Lady – are loved for their warmth, gentle irony and tender depiction of human relationships.
Summary of The Portrait of a Lady
“The Portrait of a Lady” is a deeply moving autobiographical sketch in which Khushwant Singh paints an unforgettable picture of his grandmother and traces the changing relationship that he shared with her – a relationship that forms one of the most cherished prose pieces in the ASSEB Class 11 English Hornbill textbook and beautifully illustrates the timeless bond between a grandmother and her grandson. The author begins by describing how it was difficult for him to believe that his grandmother had ever been young and pretty. To him she had always been old, short, fat and slightly bent, with a face criss-crossed by countless wrinkles. She moved about the house in spotless white, one hand resting on her waist to balance her stoop and the other telling the beads of her rosary, her lips constantly murmuring silent prayers. She looked, the author says, like the winter landscape in the mountains – serene, peaceful and beautiful.
The narrator describes three distinct phases of his life with his grandmother. In the first phase, when he was a child living with her in the village while his parents lived in the city, the two were inseparable. She woke him up every morning, got him ready for school, plastered his wooden slate, prepared his breakfast of stale chapatti with butter and sugar, and walked with him to the village school which was attached to the temple. While he learned the alphabet and the morning prayer, she sat inside reading the scriptures. On the way back, they fed the village dogs with chapattis. The second phase began when both moved to the city to live with his parents. Although they still shared a room, the friendship was strained: the narrator now travelled to an English school by motor-bus, and his grandmother could no longer help him with his lessons in science, English or music – subjects she disapproved of, particularly the music lessons, which she considered fit only for beggars and harlots. The third and final phase came when the narrator went up to university and was given a room of his own. The common link of friendship was snapped, but the grandmother accepted the change with her usual serenity, spending her hours at the spinning wheel, in prayer, and in feeding the sparrows that gathered around her each afternoon – the happiest half hour of her day.
When the narrator left for higher studies abroad, the grandmother went to the railway station to see him off. He was afraid she would break down, but she remained completely composed, her lips silently moving in prayer and her fingers telling the beads of her rosary. She kissed his forehead, and he treasured that final touch as perhaps her last sign of physical affection. After five years he returned, and she received him at the same station, again murmuring her prayers, again kissing his forehead. To his great surprise, however, that very evening she did something she had never done in fifty years of his memory – she did not pray. Instead, she collected the women of the neighbourhood, got hold of an old, sagging drum and began to sing songs of the home-coming of warriors. The family had to persuade her to stop lest she over-strain herself.
The next morning she was taken ill. She knew that her end was near and refused to waste any more time talking to people. She lay peacefully in bed, telling her beads, and her lips continued to move in prayer until they suddenly stopped and the rosary fell from her lifeless fingers. A pallor spread over her face. The most extraordinary scene followed: thousands of sparrows came and sat in mournful silence, scattered around her body, all over the verandah and in her room. The narrator’s mother brought them bread, but the sparrows took no notice of the crumbs. When the corpse was carried away for cremation, the birds flew away quietly. They had paid their last silent homage to the lady who had loved them so dearly. Through this gentle, dignified portrait, Khushwant Singh shows that true beauty lies in inner serenity, devotion and selfless love – qualities that bind not just human beings but even the smallest of creatures to a noble soul.
সাৰাংশ (Assamese Summary)
“The Portrait of a Lady” খুচৱন্ত সিঙৰ এক হৃদয়স্পৰ্শী আত্মজীৱনীমূলক ৰচনা য’ত লেখকে নিজৰ আইতাৰ এক মৰ্মস্পৰ্শী ছবি অংকন কৰিছে। লেখকৰ মতে তেওঁ আইতাক কেতিয়াও যৌৱনৱতী বুলি ভাবিব পৰা নাছিল – তেওঁৰ মনত আইতা সদায় বৃদ্ধা, চুটি, মোটা, অলপ কুঁৱালী আৰু চেহেৰাত অসংখ্য জোঙা ভাঁজ থকা এগৰাকী মহিলা আছিল। শুভ্ৰ বগা পোছাক পিন্ধা, এক হাতে কঁকালত ভৰ দি আৰু আনহাতে ৰচাৰিৰ পুঁথি গণি প্ৰাৰ্থনা কৰি কৰি তেওঁ সদায় ঘুৰি ফুৰিছিল। লেখকে তেওঁক “শীতকালত পাহাৰৰ দৃশ্য”ৰ সৈতে তুলনা কৰিছে – শান্ত, সুন্দৰ আৰু সৌম্য।
লেখকে তেওঁৰ আৰু আইতাৰ মাজৰ সম্পৰ্কৰ তিনিটা পৰ্যায় বৰ্ণনা কৰিছে। প্ৰথম পৰ্যায়ত গাঁৱত আইতাৰ সৈতে থাকোঁতে দুয়ো অভিন্ন সঙ্গী আছিল – আইতাই নিজে তেওঁক সাজু কৰি স্কুললৈ লৈ গৈছিল, মন্দিৰৰ স্কুলত শাস্ত্ৰ পঢ়িছিল আৰু ঘৰলৈ আহোতে কুকুৰক চাপাটি দিছিল। দ্বিতীয় পৰ্যায় চহৰলৈ অহাৰ পিছত আৰম্ভ হ’ল – বাছেৰে ইংৰাজী স্কুললৈ যোৱাৰ ফলত আইতাই তেওঁৰ পঢ়াত সহায় কৰিব নোৱৰা হ’ল আৰু সংগীত শিক্ষা পদ্ধতিক তেওঁ ভাল নাপাইছিল। তৃতীয় পৰ্যায়ত বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ত পৃথক কোঠা পোৱাৰ পিছত দুয়োৰে শাৰীৰিক সংযোগ ছিন্ন হ’ল। তথাপি আইতাই কেতিয়াও অভিযোগ কৰা নাছিল – তেওঁ চৰকা চলাই, প্ৰাৰ্থনা কৰি আৰু চৰাইৰ জাকক চাউল-পিঠা খুৱাই দিন কটাইছিল।
লেখক বিদেশলৈ ওলাই যাওঁতে আইতাই কান্দা নাছিল, কেৱল ৰচাৰি গণি প্ৰাৰ্থনা কৰিছিল আৰু কপালত চুমা খাইছিল। পাঁচ বছৰৰ পিছত উভতি অহাৰ দিনাই আইতাই জীৱনত প্ৰথমবাৰৰ বাবে প্ৰাৰ্থনা নকৰি ঢোলৰ তালত যুদ্ধাবিজয়ী বীৰৰ ঘৰলৈ ঘূৰি অহাৰ গীত গাইছিল। পিছদিনাই তেওঁ পীড়িত হ’ল, নিজে নিজৰ মৃত্যু আগজানি প্ৰাৰ্থনা কৰি কৰি শান্তিৰে মৃত্যুক আকোঁৱালি ল’লে। অন্ত্যেষ্টিৰ সময়ত হাজাৰ হাজাৰ চৰাই নিৰৱে আহি তেওঁৰ দেহৰ চাৰিওফালে বহি ৰ’ল – ৰুটিৰ টুকুৰাও তেওঁলোকে নাখালে। দেহ লৈ যোৱাৰ পিছতহে চৰাইবোৰ নিৰৱে উৰি গ’ল। এই মৰ্মস্পৰ্শী দৃশ্যই আইতাৰ কোমল হৃদয়, ভগৱদ্ভক্তি, পশু-পক্ষীৰ প্ৰতি প্ৰেম আৰু আত্মিক সৌন্দৰ্য্যৰ চিৰন্তন প্ৰমাণ দিছে।
Understanding the Text
1. Mention the three phases of the author’s relationship with his grandmother before he left the country to study abroad.
Answer: The author’s relationship with his grandmother passed through three distinct phases before he left the country.
- Childhood in the village: The narrator’s parents lived in the city while he stayed in the village with his grandmother. She was the centre of his life. She woke him up every morning, got him ready for school, plastered his wooden slate, prepared his breakfast and walked with him to the village school attached to the temple. While he studied the alphabet and morning prayer with the priest, she sat inside reading the scriptures. They fed the street dogs together on their way back. This was a phase of inseparable companionship.
- Boyhood in the city: When his parents called them both to the city, the narrator and grandmother shared a room, but their friendship suffered. He now went to an English school by motor-bus and the grandmother could not help him with his lessons. She did not believe in the science taught at the English school and was deeply distressed by the music lessons. They saw less of each other.
- Early youth at university: When the author went up to the university he was given a room of his own. The common link of friendship was finally snapped. The grandmother accepted the loneliness silently and turned to her spinning wheel, prayer and the sparrows.
2. Mention three reasons why the author’s grandmother was disturbed when he started going to the city school.
Answer: The grandmother was disturbed for the following three reasons:
- The English school did not give any religious education. The teachers did not teach about God and the holy scriptures, which she considered the only true knowledge.
- She was deeply distressed when she learnt that they were given lessons in science. She believed that western science offered no place for God and was therefore unsuitable.
- She was most upset by the music lessons. To her, music had a lewd association; it was meant for beggars and harlots, never for gentlefolk. She therefore disapproved of it being taught in a respectable school.
3. Mention three ways in which the author’s grandmother spent her days after he grew up.
Answer: After the author grew up and was given a separate room at the university, his grandmother accepted her loneliness with great calm and dignity. She spent her days in three quiet but meaningful ways:
- She seldom left her room. She sat at her old spinning wheel from sunrise to sunset, spinning yarn and reciting prayers.
- For only a short while in the afternoon she relaxed to feed the sparrows. She would take crumbs of bread to the verandah, and hundreds of little birds would gather around her, on her shoulders, lap and head, creating a “veritable bedlam of chirrupings”. This was her happiest half-hour of the day.
- The rest of her time was spent in prayer, telling the beads of her rosary, hardly ever asking for anything for herself.
4. The grandmother had a divine beauty. How does the author bring this out?
Answer: The author admits that his grandmother could not be called “pretty” in the conventional sense. She was short, fat, slightly bent and her face was a criss-cross of countless wrinkles. Yet, he insists, she was “beautiful” – beautiful in a divine, almost saintly way. He compares her to the “winter landscape in the mountains”, an expanse of pure white serenity. Her spotless white clothes, her silver hair scattered untidily over her pale wrinkled face, her lips constantly moving in silent prayer, her hand telling the beads of her rosary, and the gentle peace that surrounded her – all combined to give her a serene, almost spiritual beauty. Her purity, devotion, calmness, kindness to dogs and sparrows, and unshakeable faith made her radiate an inner light. The collective grief of the thousands of sparrows at her death is the final proof of her divine beauty – a beauty of soul that even birds could feel.
5. Describe the changing relationship between the author and his grandmother. Did their feelings for each other change?
Answer: The relationship between the author and his grandmother passed through three clear stages of growing physical distance. In the village, she was his companion every moment of the day. In the city, the bus, the English school, the science and music classes pushed them apart. At university, a separate room broke the last shared link. Yet their love and affection for each other never changed. The grandmother continued to pray for him daily, kept his memory alive in her heart, and silently watched over his progress. The narrator, despite the distance, always treasured her presence. When he went abroad she did not weep or speak; she only kissed his forehead silently. Five years later she received him at the same station with the same calm prayer and the same kiss. The astonishing scene of singing songs of warriors’ homecoming on the night of his return, and the silent mourning of the sparrows on the day of her death, prove beyond doubt that the love between grandmother and grandchild remained as deep, as pure and as unchanging as ever – only the outward form of their companionship had changed.
6. Would you agree that the author’s grandmother was a person strong in character? If yes, give instances that show this.
Answer: Yes, the author’s grandmother was undoubtedly a woman of very strong character. The following instances clearly show her strength:
- She was deeply religious and never deviated from her routine of prayer, scripture-reading and telling her beads, no matter where she lived – village or city.
- She accepted the breakdown of their close friendship with quiet dignity. She never complained when the author went to an English school, and never complained when he was given a separate room at the university.
- She faced her grandson’s departure abroad without shedding a single tear. While he himself feared she would break down, she remained absolutely calm, her lips moving in prayer.
- She showed great compassion for animals – feeding the dogs in the village and the sparrows in the city.
- On her grandson’s return she shed her usual reserve and celebrated his home-coming by singing for the first time in fifty years – showing the depth of feeling she controlled all those years.
- She faced her own death with serene courage. She told the family she would not waste her last hours talking; she would meet her Maker with a prayer on her lips. The rosary fell from her fingers only when life itself had left her.
7. Have you known someone like the author’s grandmother? Do you feel the same way about them?
Answer: (Sample answer for ASSEB students.) Yes, I have known an elderly relative very much like the author’s grandmother – my own paternal grandmother who lived in our ancestral village in Assam. Like Khushwant Singh’s grandmother, she was always dressed in spotless white, told the beads of her tulsi mala morning and evening, and read the Naam Ghoxa and Bhagavata every day. She was the one who fed me, told me old folk-tales of Tejimola and Krishna, walked me to the satra, and treated every stray dog and bird in our courtyard as her own family. Like the lady in the lesson, she was short, slightly bent and full of wrinkles, but to me she was the most beautiful person in the world – serene, wise and full of love. I feel exactly the way Khushwant Singh feels about his grandmother: a deep sense of loss mingled with gratitude that such a pure, selfless soul once shaped my childhood.
Talking about the Text
1. The author’s grandmother was a religious person. What are the different ways in which we come to know this?
Answer: Religion was the very air the grandmother breathed. We come to know of her deep religiosity in a number of ways:
- Her lips were almost always moving in silent prayer; her fingers were almost always telling the beads of her rosary.
- She always wore spotless white – the colour of purity and renunciation.
- In the village she went to the temple every morning to read the scriptures.
- The village school she sent the narrator to was attached to a temple; while the priest taught the children, she sat inside reading the scriptures.
- She was disturbed by the English school because there was no religious teaching there.
- She disapproved of music as it had no place in the lives of “gentlefolk” of her religious tradition.
- In the city she spent her days at the spinning wheel reciting prayers.
- She fed dogs, sparrows and beggars – an act of religious charity (daana).
- She faced her death with prayer on her lips and the rosary in her hand. Even in her last moments she would not waste time on idle conversation; she preferred to meet her Maker reciting His name.
2. Describe the changing relationship between the author and his grandmother. Did their feelings for each other change?
Answer: Their relationship did change in form, but their feelings never changed. In the village they were inseparable. In the city the motor-bus, the English school and the new subjects of science and music drove a wedge between them. At the university the separate room ended the last bit of physical closeness. The grandmother gradually withdrew into prayer, the spinning wheel and her sparrows, while the narrator was absorbed in his own modern, secular world. Yet underneath this growing physical distance, mutual love continued undiminished. Her silent kiss on his forehead at the railway station before he sailed abroad, her composed prayers, and her unprecedented song-and-drum welcome on his return after five years all show how strongly she still loved him. The narrator, on his part, always remembered her with the deepest affection. The story is therefore not about the death of love but about love that survives all change of place, age and circumstance.
3. Would you agree that the author’s grandmother was a person strong in character? If yes, give instances that show this.
Answer: Yes, she was a remarkably strong woman. Strength of character is shown not by physical force but by quiet steadfastness, and the grandmother had this in abundance. She kept her religious routine without break for fifty years; she accepted modernization without bitter complaint; she did not weep when her grandson sailed abroad; she met death calmly with prayer; and she even celebrated his return with songs of warriors. She was patient, devout, kind to all living creatures, dignified in suffering and serene in death. Few people show such inward strength.
4. Have you known someone like the author’s grandmother? Do you feel the same way about them?
Answer: Yes, almost every Indian – and certainly every Assamese – child has known a grandmother like the one in the lesson: a woman who is the soul of the household, who keeps the family bound together by tradition, prayer and love. My own grandmother is such a person. I feel about her exactly the way Khushwant Singh feels about his – a love mixed with awe, gratitude and the painful awareness that such pure souls leave a void no one can ever fill.
Working with Words
1. Notice the following uses of the word “tell” in the text.
- I would tell her English words and little things of Western science and learning.
- Then a strange thing happened. She told us not to disturb her with our prayers.
- I tried to persuade her not to bother about going to the railway station to see me off but she would not listen.
- The sparrows took no notice of the bread. When we carried her out to be cremated, they flew away. I told my mother about it.
Match the following uses of “tell” with their meanings:
| Use of “tell” | Meaning |
|---|---|
| tell + (somebody) | order or instruct (e.g. “She told us not to disturb her”) |
| tell + (something) | narrate or relate (e.g. “I told my mother about it”) |
| tell about | inform about (e.g. “I would tell her English words”) |
| tell + the beads (of a rosary) | count off the beads of a rosary while praying |
2. Notice the different uses of the word “take” in the text.
- She took to feeding sparrows in the courtyard. – started doing it as a habit.
- The next morning she was taken ill. – fell ill suddenly.
- The sparrows took no notice of the bread. – did not pay attention to.
- She took my mother to the temple. – led/accompanied.
3. The word “hobble” means to walk with difficulty (limp). Pick out other words from the text which mean the same thing.
Answer: “Hobbled about”, “shuffled”, “shuffling steps”. Other related words for ways of walking are listed below.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Hobble | Walk awkwardly with stiff or unsteady steps, as if injured. |
| Shuffle | Walk dragging the feet without lifting them. |
| Stride | Walk with long, decisive steps. |
| Waddle | Walk with short steps swaying side to side, like a duck. |
| Swagger | Walk with great pride or arrogance. |
| Trudge | Walk slowly and heavily, especially when tired. |
| Limp | Walk unevenly because of an injury to one leg. |
| Stagger | Walk unsteadily as if about to fall. |
| Stroll | Walk in a leisurely way for pleasure. |
| Saunter | Walk slowly in a relaxed manner. |
Important Word Meanings
| Word / Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Portrait | A painting, drawing or word-picture of a person. |
| Revolting | Disgusting; causing revulsion. |
| Expanse | A wide continuous area of something. |
| Serenity | State of being calm and peaceful. |
| Hobbled about | Walked with short, unsteady steps. |
| Telling the beads | Reciting prayers while moving fingers along a rosary. |
| Rosary | A string of beads used by religious people to count prayers. |
| Spotless | Absolutely clean. |
| Criss-cross of wrinkles | A face full of overlapping lines and folds of skin. |
| Plastered the wooden slate | Coated the wooden writing slate with a thin layer of yellow chalk paste. |
| Stale chapatti | Bread that is no longer fresh. |
| Frugal | Simple and inexpensive. |
| Mosque | A Muslim place of worship. |
| Monotonous | Boringly repetitive. |
| Sullenly | In a silent, ill-tempered manner. |
| Distended belly | A swollen stomach. |
| Veritable | Real; genuine; absolute. |
| Bedlam | A scene of noisy uproar and confusion. |
| Sagging drum | A drum with loose, hanging skin. |
| Dilapidated | Old and in a state of disrepair. |
| Lull | A temporary period of quiet or inactivity. |
| Pallor | Unhealthy pale appearance. |
| Sobered up | Became serious and quiet. |
| Mournful | Feeling or expressing sorrow. |
| Cremate | Burn a dead body as a funeral rite. |
| Shroud | A piece of cloth wrapped around a dead body. |
| Bier | A movable platform on which a corpse is placed before burial or cremation. |
| Frivolous | Not serious; lacking weight. |
| Harlot | A prostitute (used in the disapproving traditional sense). |
| Lewd | Crude or offensive in a sexual way. |
Noticing Form
1. Notice how the author uses the past perfect tense (had + past participle) to talk about events that happened before another event in the past.
From the lesson:
- “My grandmother, like everybody’s grandmother, was an old woman. She had been old and wrinkled for the twenty years that I had known her.”
- “People said that she had once been young and pretty and had even had a husband, but that was hard to believe.”
- “My grandfather’s portrait hung above the mantelpiece in the drawing room. He wore a big turban and loose-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 the sort of person who would have a wife or children.”
2. Notice how the author uses the simple past tense for the main story line and the past perfect for events that happened earlier. This shifting between past and past perfect helps to create a layered sense of memory – which is exactly what the lesson is: a layered memory of a beloved grandmother.
3. Underline the verbs in this short passage and identify which are simple past and which are past perfect.
“When I came home in the evening, I found her sitting by her bed. The doctor had already left. She had told my mother that she would not waste any more time talking to people. She lay quietly with the rosary in her hand.”
- Simple past: came, found, lay
- Past perfect: had left, had told, would not waste (would + verb is the past form of will; had told is past perfect)
Things to Do
1. Write a short composition titled “My Grandmother” or “A Person I Loved Who Has Passed Away”.
Answer (sample paragraph): My grandmother was the most loving person I ever knew. She lived with us in our village in Nalbari district until she breathed her last at the age of eighty-two. Like Khushwant Singh’s grandmother, she was always dressed in white, her fingers always busy with the tulsi mala, her lips always reciting the holy names of Krishna. She woke up before sunrise, swept the courtyard, lit the earthen lamp before the family altar and started cooking my breakfast of jolpan. After feeding me she would walk me to the village school. In the afternoon she sat in the verandah feeding the pigeons and the squirrels. The day she died, the squirrels did not come; the pigeons sat in silence on the roof. To me, she was not just my grandmother – she was my first teacher, my first friend, my first mother. Even today, whenever I close my eyes, I can hear the soft clicking of her rosary and feel her wrinkled hand on my forehead.
2. List five characteristics that you associate with the typical Indian grandmother as portrayed in the lesson.
- Deeply religious – constantly praying and reading the scriptures.
- Always dressed in spotless white.
- Loving and caring towards her grandchildren.
- Kind to animals and birds.
- Quietly accepting of all the changes that life brings, never complaining.
Additional Short Answer Questions
1. Why was it difficult for the author to believe that his grandmother had ever been young and pretty?
Answer: The author had known his grandmother as old and wrinkled for the twenty years of his life. She was short, fat, slightly bent and her face was a criss-cross of innumerable wrinkles. To imagine her young, pretty and playing games like other children seemed almost impossible to him. The very idea of her being young, he says, was “an indecent thought”.
2. How does the author describe his grandfather’s portrait?
Answer: The grandfather’s portrait hung above the mantelpiece in the drawing room. The grandfather wore a big turban and loose-fitting clothes. His long white beard covered most of his chest and he looked at least a hundred years old. He did not look the sort of person who would have a wife or children; he looked as if he could only have lots of grandchildren.
3. How did the grandmother and the narrator spend their days in the village?
Answer: In the village the grandmother woke the narrator early in the morning, got him ready for school and prepared his frugal breakfast. While he ate, she fetched his wooden slate which she had earlier washed and plastered with yellow chalk. She walked with him to school – the school was attached to the temple. While the priest taught the children the alphabet and the morning prayer, the grandmother sat inside the temple reading the scriptures. On the way back, they fed the village dogs with chapattis.
4. What was the happiest half-hour of the grandmother’s day in the city? Why?
Answer: In the city, the happiest half-hour of the grandmother’s day was the afternoon when she fed the sparrows. She would sit in the verandah breaking bread into little pieces, and hundreds of sparrows would come and crowd around her – on her shoulders, lap, head and feet. She would smile at them but never shoo them away. Surrounded by the chirping birds, she found a peaceful, almost spiritual joy. It was her happiest time because, having lost daily companionship with her grandson, the sparrows became her family.
5. Why did the grandmother dislike music so much?
Answer: The grandmother belonged to an older, conservative tradition in which music had a “lewd” association. In her view music was something practised only by beggars and harlots, never by gentlefolk or in respectable households. Therefore, when she learnt that her grandson was being given music lessons in the English school, she was deeply distressed and could not bring herself to approve of his education.
6. Describe the scene at the railway station when the narrator was leaving for abroad.
Answer: The narrator was certain that his grandmother would be too upset to come and see him off, but he was wrong. She came right up to the platform, her lips silently moving in prayer and her fingers continuously telling the beads of her rosary. Showing not the slightest emotion, she kissed his forehead. He treasured that kiss, for he believed it might be the last sign of physical contact between them.
7. How did the grandmother welcome the author after his return from abroad after five years?
Answer: When the author returned after five years, his grandmother received him at the same railway station, calm as ever, kissing his forehead with the same silent prayer on her lips. But that very evening she did something she had never done before in fifty years – she did not pray. Instead, she gathered the women of the neighbourhood, found an old, sagging drum and began to sing songs of the home-coming of warriors. The family had to literally beg her to stop lest she over-strain herself.
8. What unusual things happened on the grandmother’s last day?
Answer: On the night of the narrator’s return she sang, drummed and broke her fifty-year prayer routine – something quite unusual. The next morning she was taken ill. She announced that her end was near and refused to waste her last hours talking to others. She lay quietly with the rosary in her hand, her lips moving in prayer, until they suddenly stopped and the rosary fell from her lifeless fingers. The most unusual sight followed: thousands of sparrows came in absolute silence and sat scattered all around her body. They refused to eat the bread the narrator’s mother offered them. After the body was carried away for cremation, they flew off quietly, leaving the crumbs behind.
9. How did the sparrows show their grief at the grandmother’s death?
Answer: Thousands of sparrows came and sat in mournful silence all around the dead body of the grandmother – on the verandah and in her room. There was no chirruping, no fluttering of wings. The narrator’s mother brought them bread; they took absolutely no notice of it. When the corpse was carried away, the birds flew away silently. They paid the lady their last silent homage – proof that even tiny birds could feel the loss of so loving a soul.
10. What did the narrator mean when he said his grandmother was like the “winter landscape in the mountains”?
Answer: By comparing his grandmother to the winter landscape in the mountains the narrator wanted to bring out two qualities. First, just as the snow-covered mountain appears to have lost the colour and freshness of summer yet possesses an austere, white, breath-taking beauty, so the grandmother’s old, wrinkled body had lost youthful prettiness yet possessed a serene, dignified, almost divine beauty. Secondly, the comparison emphasizes her purity, calmness and unbroken peace – qualities of a snow-covered peak.
Long Answer / Essay Questions
1. Trace the changing relationship between the author and his grandmother through the three phases of his life.
Answer: Khushwant Singh’s relationship with his grandmother passed through three clearly identifiable phases. The first phase belongs to his childhood in the village. His parents lived in the city while he stayed with his grandmother. She was the centre of his life: she got him out of bed, washed him, plastered his slate, gave him his breakfast of stale chapatti with butter and sugar and walked him to the temple-school. While he learned the alphabet and the morning prayer, she sat inside reading the scriptures. They returned home together, feeding the village dogs with chapattis on the way. The two were inseparable companions, and their bond was strengthened by shared daily activities and a common world of religion and rural simplicity.
The second phase began when both moved to the city to live with the narrator’s parents. They still shared a room, but the deep companionship of the village days was strained. The narrator now travelled to an English school by motor-bus. The grandmother could no longer help him with his lessons because the school taught science, English and even music – subjects she neither understood nor approved of. She was specially distressed by the absence of religious teaching and by the music lessons. Their conversation grew shorter; their walks together stopped.
The third phase began when the narrator went up to university and was given a separate room. The common link of friendship was finally severed. She quietly accepted the loneliness, sat day after day at her old spinning wheel reciting prayers and adopted feeding the sparrows in the courtyard as her happiest pastime. When the narrator went abroad she did not weep; only kissed his forehead silently. Five years later she received him back with the same calm – but that very evening, in an outburst of joy that was uniquely hers, she gave up her prayers, beat an old drum and sang songs of warriors’ homecoming. The next day she was taken ill and died with her rosary in her hand. Despite the gradual, almost inevitable widening of the physical distance between them, the love that bound grandmother and grandchild remained pure, deep and unchanging until – and even after – her last breath.
2. Draw a detailed character sketch of the grandmother as presented in “The Portrait of a Lady”.
Answer: Khushwant Singh’s grandmother is one of the finest portraits of an Indian grandmother in English prose. Physically she was short, fat and slightly bent, with a face criss-crossed by innumerable wrinkles and silver-white hair that fell untidily over her pale, peaceful face. She always wore spotless white. The author admits that she could not be called pretty, yet he insists she was beautiful – beautiful in a serene, divine way, like a winter landscape in the mountains. Spiritually, she was extraordinarily devout. Her lips were almost always engaged in silent prayer, her fingers in telling the beads of her rosary. She read the scriptures every day, attended the temple in the village and disapproved of everything in the city school that she felt threatened religion – science, music, the absence of the holy books. She possessed a mother’s heart for animals and birds: she fed the village dogs with chapattis and the city sparrows with bread crumbs every afternoon. Emotionally she was reserved but not cold; she did not weep when her grandson sailed abroad, yet kissed his forehead with all the tenderness she felt. She was a woman of extraordinary dignity and acceptance: she took every change of fortune – village to city, near to distant, companion to forgotten elder – without a single complaint. On the day of her grandson’s return she suspended fifty years of prayer to sing songs of warriors’ homecoming, showing the depth of feeling she habitually concealed. She faced death calmly, refused to waste her last hours on idle conversation, and met her Maker with His name on her lips. Even the sparrows mourned her death by sitting in absolute silence around her body. In short, she is a portrait of inner beauty – piety, kindness, dignity, love and acceptance – the eternal Indian grandmother.
3. “The Portrait of a Lady” is more than a personal reminiscence; it is a study of the conflict between tradition and modernity. Discuss.
Answer: Behind the gentle, affectionate description of an old grandmother lies a deep social commentary on the conflict between tradition and modernity that began to shape Indian middle-class life in the early twentieth century. The grandmother represents the world of tradition – village India, religion, scripture, the spinning wheel, the temple, simple food, prayer, charity to dogs and sparrows, white sari and rosary. The narrator, on the other hand, represents the new India – the English school, the motor-bus, science, music, the university and finally the journey abroad. The two worlds cannot meet, and so each phase of the narrator’s growth (city school, university, going abroad) becomes a stage in the silent retreat of the grandmother from active participation in his life. Yet Khushwant Singh’s tone is never one of judgment. He shows that modernity brings knowledge, opportunity, even foreign travel, but it also brings a certain spiritual loneliness; tradition brings deep peace but cannot keep up with a changing world. The grandmother accepts the change with quiet dignity – never opposing his progress, never demanding her old place. The narrator, on his side, never rejects her either. The story therefore is not a quarrel between tradition and modernity; it is a tender lament for the loss of something precious that modernization inevitably claims as its price.
4. Discuss the significance of the sparrows in “The Portrait of a Lady”.
Answer: The sparrows are the silent commentators of the entire story. In the village, the grandmother’s compassion was expressed by feeding the village dogs. In the city, when the narrator went away to school, that compassion was redirected to the sparrows. They came to her in their hundreds every afternoon, perching on her shoulders, head and lap, creating a “veritable bedlam of chirrupings”. Feeding them was her happiest half-hour. The sparrows therefore represent (i) her boundless love for all living creatures, (ii) her capacity to find new objects of affection when older bonds are broken, and (iii) the mutual recognition between a pure soul and innocent nature. The most striking moment comes after her death: the same sparrows arrive in their thousands and sit in mournful silence around her body. They refuse the bread offered by the narrator’s mother and fly away only after the body is taken for cremation. By giving the birds the role of mourners, Khushwant Singh elevates a private family loss to something almost sacred. The sparrows tell us, without words, that the grandmother was a saintly soul whose goodness was felt even by the smallest creatures of God’s creation.
5. Bring out the elements of pathos and humour in “The Portrait of a Lady”.
Answer: Khushwant Singh, the master of gentle irony, mixes humour and pathos in this lesson with great skill. The humour appears in the early descriptions: the grandfather’s portrait of a hundred-year-old man who “could only have grandchildren”, the absurd thought of the grandmother having ever been young or having played games, her remark that English school music is fit only for “beggars and harlots”, her stoic disapproval of science, and the description of her as “an old, bent, fat woman with a criss-cross of wrinkles”. The humour is never cruel; it springs from the narrator’s affectionate amusement at his grandmother’s traditional ways. The pathos, on the other hand, develops slowly. It begins as a thin shadow in the second phase, when the friendship is strained, and deepens in the third phase, when the grandmother is left alone with her spinning wheel. The silent kiss on the forehead at the railway station, the unprecedented song-and-drum welcome on his return, the announcement that she would not waste her last hours talking to anyone, the rosary falling from her lifeless fingers, and the silent mourning of the sparrows together produce one of the most moving endings in modern Indian English prose. The skilful blending of these two strains – gentle humour and quiet sorrow – is what gives the story its lasting beauty.
6. Comment on the title “The Portrait of a Lady”.
Answer: The title is highly suggestive. A “portrait” is a painted image of a person; here it is a word-portrait painted by an affectionate grandson. The author uses the word in the literal sense (he begins by describing his grandfather’s actual portrait on the wall) and immediately turns to the symbolic sense – his own verbal portrait of his grandmother. Calling her a “lady” – a word usually reserved for fashionable women – is a small but significant act of respect: by using it for an old, wrinkled village grandmother, the author insists that true ladyhood lies in dignity, kindness and inward grace, not in youth or fashion. The title therefore prepares us for both the visual quality of the description (every paragraph paints another stroke of the portrait) and for its deeper meaning – that an old Indian grandmother is no less a “lady” than any society beauty, indeed she is much more so.
7. Describe the role and importance of religion in the grandmother’s life.
Answer: Religion was the very foundation of the grandmother’s existence. Her day began before sunrise with prayer; she went to the temple every morning to read the scriptures; she taught the narrator the morning prayer in his childhood; she chose for him a school attached to the temple. In the city she sat at the spinning wheel from dawn to dusk muttering prayers; she fed the sparrows as a religious act of charity; she disapproved of any worldly subject – music, science, English – that did not have God at its centre. Her clothes (always spotless white), her posture (one hand at her waist, the other on the rosary), and her silent muttering of God’s name made religion not just a daily practice but the air she breathed. Even on her death-bed she chose to die with His name on her lips rather than waste her last hours in idle conversation. Religion was therefore not a separate part of her life – it was her life, the source of her strength, dignity, peace and the universal love that drew dogs, sparrows and her grandson alike to her.
8. The grandmother showed remarkable strength of character. Justify with examples.
Answer: Strength of character does not always mean shouting or fighting; sometimes it means quietly carrying on. The grandmother had this quiet strength in abundance. She accepted the move from the village to the city without complaint. She accepted the breakdown of her old companionship with her grandson without making him feel guilty. She bore the long evenings alone in her room, content with her spinning wheel and her sparrows. She did not weep when he sailed abroad – an act of self-control rare even in much younger people. She received him back five years later with the same calm dignity, then in a single unprecedented evening expressed all the joy she had stored up. She knew the moment of her death and met it on her own terms, refusing to be distracted from her prayer. Through all the changes of her long life her values – piety, kindness, charity, dignity, devotion to family – never wavered. This unshakeable inward consistency is the truest proof of her strength of character.
9. How does the description of the death of the grandmother and the sparrows’ behaviour become the climax of the story?
Answer: The closing pages of the lesson are without doubt its emotional climax. After the surprising celebration of the previous evening, the grandmother falls ill the next morning and announces that her end is near. She refuses to waste her last hours in talk. She lies in bed, quietly telling her beads, until her lips suddenly stop moving and the rosary falls from her lifeless fingers. A pallor spreads over her face. The family begins the customary preparations of bathing and shrouding the body when the most extraordinary thing happens: thousands of sparrows arrive silently and sit scattered all around her – on the verandah and in her room. There is no chirruping, no fluttering of wings. The narrator’s mother offers them bread, but they take no notice of it. Only when the body is carried away for cremation do they fly away silently. By this single image Khushwant Singh raises a private family loss to something almost holy. The sparrows give the grandmother a tribute that no human eulogy could give – the wordless grief of innocent creatures, proof of a goodness so pure that even birds could feel it.
10. What lessons can a young reader learn from the life of the grandmother?
Answer: The life of the grandmother offers many quiet but profound lessons to a young reader. First, true beauty lies not in the body but in the character of a person. Second, faith, prayer and devotion can give one strength to face every change life brings. Third, kindness must extend not only to fellow human beings but to animals, birds and the helpless. Fourth, age is not a curse if one has cultivated inner peace; it can be the most beautiful season of one’s life. Fifth, love expressed in small daily acts – a kiss on the forehead, a chapatti for a stray dog, a few crumbs for a sparrow – is more lasting than any grand gesture. Above all, the grandmother teaches us that life should be met with dignity, accepted with grace, and left with prayer.
MCQs
1. Who is the author of “The Portrait of a Lady”?
(a) R.K. Narayan (b) Mulk Raj Anand (c) Khushwant Singh (d) Ruskin Bond
Answer: (c) Khushwant Singh
2. What was hung above the mantelpiece in the drawing room?
(a) The grandmother’s portrait (b) The grandfather’s portrait (c) A picture of God (d) A family photograph
Answer: (b) The grandfather’s portrait
3. The grandfather, in the portrait, looked about how old?
(a) Sixty years (b) Seventy-five years (c) A hundred years (d) Fifty years
Answer: (c) A hundred years
4. The grandmother’s appearance is compared to:
(a) A summer field (b) The winter landscape in the mountains (c) An autumn forest (d) A spring garden
Answer: (b) The winter landscape in the mountains
5. The grandmother always wore clothes of which colour?
(a) Yellow (b) Black (c) Spotless white (d) Red
Answer: (c) Spotless white
6. The village school was attached to:
(a) A mosque (b) A temple (c) A church (d) A library
Answer: (b) A temple
7. Who taught the children in the village school?
(a) The grandmother (b) The narrator’s father (c) The village priest (d) An English teacher
Answer: (c) The village priest
8. What did the grandmother prepare for the narrator’s breakfast in the village?
(a) Rice and curry (b) Bread and butter (c) Stale chapatti with butter and sugar (d) Idli
Answer: (c) Stale chapatti with butter and sugar
9. Whom did the grandmother feed in the village on their way home?
(a) Cows (b) Goats (c) Sparrows (d) Village dogs
Answer: (d) Village dogs
10. The grandmother was disturbed by the city school because:
(a) It was too far (b) The bus was crowded (c) There was no religious teaching, science was taught and there were music lessons (d) The teachers were rude
Answer: (c) There was no religious teaching, science was taught and there were music lessons
11. To whom, in the grandmother’s opinion, did music belong?
(a) Saints (b) Beggars and harlots (c) Kings (d) Children
Answer: (b) Beggars and harlots
12. In the city, the grandmother’s happiest half-hour was spent in:
(a) Reading the newspaper (b) Talking to her grandson (c) Feeding sparrows (d) Cooking
Answer: (c) Feeding sparrows
13. After the narrator went up to the university, the grandmother spent her days:
(a) Visiting friends (b) Sitting at the spinning wheel and reciting prayers (c) Watching films (d) Walking in the park
Answer: (b) Sitting at the spinning wheel and reciting prayers
14. Where did the narrator go for higher studies?
(a) Mumbai (b) Calcutta (c) Abroad (d) Madras
Answer: (c) Abroad
15. How long did the narrator stay abroad?
(a) Two years (b) Three years (c) Five years (d) Ten years
Answer: (c) Five years
16. At the railway station, before leaving for abroad, the grandmother:
(a) Cried bitterly (b) Did not turn up (c) Silently kissed his forehead while telling her beads (d) Refused to come
Answer: (c) Silently kissed his forehead while telling her beads
17. On the evening of the narrator’s return, the grandmother:
(a) Went to the temple (b) Read the scriptures (c) Did not pray, beat an old drum and sang songs of warriors (d) Slept early
Answer: (c) Did not pray, beat an old drum and sang songs of warriors
18. The grandmother’s reaction when she fell ill was to:
(a) Send for a doctor (b) Refuse to waste her last hours and tell the beads of her rosary (c) Cry for her grandson (d) Make a will
Answer: (b) Refuse to waste her last hours and tell the beads of her rosary
19. What fell from her lifeless fingers when she died?
(a) Her shawl (b) The rosary (c) A book (d) A photograph
Answer: (b) The rosary
20. After her death, who came in their thousands and sat in silence around her body?
(a) Crows (b) Pigeons (c) Sparrows (d) Mynahs
Answer: (c) Sparrows
21. The sparrows refused:
(a) To fly away (b) To enter the room (c) To eat the bread offered by the narrator’s mother (d) To sing
Answer: (c) To eat the bread offered by the narrator’s mother
22. The grandmother’s hand was usually resting on:
(a) Her head (b) A walking stick (c) Her waist to balance her stoop, telling the beads of her rosary with the other (d) Her grandson’s shoulder
Answer: (c) Her waist to balance her stoop, telling the beads of her rosary with the other
23. “Bedlam of chirrupings” refers to:
(a) The temple bells (b) The noise of motor-buses (c) The noise of the sparrows around the grandmother (d) The school children
Answer: (c) The noise of the sparrows around the grandmother
24. The story “The Portrait of a Lady” is essentially a:
(a) Detective story (b) Fairy tale (c) Personal autobiographical sketch / reminiscence (d) Travelogue
Answer: (c) Personal autobiographical sketch / reminiscence
25. The dominant theme of the lesson is:
(a) Patriotism (b) The unbreakable bond of love between a grandmother and her grandson, and the inner beauty of a religious old woman (c) Industrialization (d) War
Answer: (b) The unbreakable bond of love between a grandmother and her grandson, and the inner beauty of a religious old woman
Extract-Based Questions
Extract 1:
“My grandmother, like everybody’s grandmother, was an old woman. She had been old and wrinkled for the twenty years that I had known her. People said that she had once been young and pretty and had even had a husband, but that was hard to believe. My grandfather’s portrait hung above the mantelpiece in the drawing room. He wore a big turban and loose-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 the sort of person who would have a wife or children. He looked as if he could only have lots and lots of grandchildren.”
(i) What does the narrator find hard to believe?
Answer: The narrator finds it hard to believe that his grandmother had ever been young, pretty and had a husband, because he had always known her as old and wrinkled.
(ii) Where did the grandfather’s portrait hang and how did he look?
Answer: The grandfather’s portrait hung above the mantelpiece in the drawing room. He wore a big turban and loose-fitting clothes. His long white beard covered most of his chest and he looked at least a hundred years old.
(iii) What gentle humour does the author use in this passage?
Answer: The author humorously remarks that the grandfather did not look the sort of person who would have a wife or children – he looked as if he could only have lots and lots of grandchildren.
(iv) Find a word from the passage which means “marked with lines and folds of skin”.
Answer: “Wrinkled”.
Extract 2:
“She often told me of the games she used to play as a child. The story seemed so absurd that I almost smiled. It was hard to imagine her as a little girl. She was like the winter landscape in the mountains, an expanse of pure white serenity, breathing peace and contentment.”
(i) Why did the story of her childhood games seem absurd to the narrator?
Answer: Because he had always seen her as old, fat, bent and wrinkled, the idea of her once being a little girl playing games seemed completely unreal to him.
(ii) What is the grandmother compared to and why?
Answer: She is compared to “the winter landscape in the mountains”. The comparison stresses her serene, white, austere beauty and the sense of peace and contentment that she radiated.
(iii) What two qualities does the comparison highlight?
Answer: Purity (whiteness, innocence) and serenity (calmness, peace).
(iv) Identify the literary device used in “an expanse of pure white serenity”.
Answer: Metaphor – the grandmother is metaphorically described as an expanse of pure white serenity.
Extract 3:
“In the evening she relaxed for a while to feed the sparrows. While she sat on the verandah breaking the bread into little bits, hundreds of little birds collected round her, creating a veritable bedlam of chirrupings. Some came and perched on her legs, others on her shoulders. Some even sat on her head. She smiled but never shooed them away. It used to be the happiest half-hour of the day for her.”
(i) Where and when did the grandmother feed the sparrows?
Answer: In the evening she sat on the verandah of their city house and fed the sparrows there.
(ii) What does “a veritable bedlam of chirrupings” mean?
Answer: It means a real, absolute uproar of cheerful chirping by the hundreds of sparrows that gathered around her.
(iii) Why was this the happiest half-hour for her?
Answer: Because, having lost her companionship with her grandson, the sparrows had become her family. Surrounded by the chirping birds she felt a deep, almost spiritual joy that filled the loneliness of her old age.
(iv) What does this scene tell us about the grandmother’s character?
Answer: It shows her boundless love for living creatures, her deep patience and her ability to find peace and joy in simple, charitable acts.
Extract 4:
“Then a strange thing happened. She told us not to disturb her with our prayers. She lay peacefully in bed praying and telling her beads. Even before we could suspect, her lips stopped moving and the rosary fell from her lifeless fingers. A peaceful pallor spread over her face and we knew that she was dead.”
(i) What was “strange” about the grandmother in her last hours?
Answer: She refused to be distracted from her prayer even by the prayers of others. She had decided to die with God’s name on her lips and would not waste her last hours on anything else.
(ii) How did she die?
Answer: She died very peacefully – telling the beads of her rosary, her lips moving in prayer, until the lips suddenly stopped and the rosary fell from her lifeless fingers.
(iii) What does her manner of dying tell us about her?
Answer: It tells us that she was a deeply religious woman of extraordinary inner strength, who met death with the same calm dignity and faith with which she had lived.
(iv) Find a word in the extract which means “unhealthy paleness”.
Answer: “Pallor”.
Extract 5:
“Thousands of sparrows sat scattered on the floor. There was no chirruping. We felt sorry for the birds and my mother fetched some bread for them. She broke it into little crumbs, the way my grandmother used to, and threw it to them. The sparrows took no notice of the bread. When we carried her out to be cremated, the sparrows flew away quietly.”
(i) Why did thousands of sparrows gather and what was unusual about their behaviour?
Answer: They had come to mourn the death of the grandmother who used to feed them every day. Their unusual behaviour was that they sat in absolute silence – there was no chirruping at all.
(ii) What did the narrator’s mother do for the birds?
Answer: The narrator’s mother brought some bread, broke it into little crumbs the way the grandmother used to and threw it to the sparrows.
(iii) Why did the sparrows take no notice of the bread?
Answer: Because their grief at the loss of the lady who had loved them was deeper than their hunger. They had not come for food but to pay her their last silent homage.
(iv) What is the literary significance of this scene?
Answer: The silent mourning of the sparrows raises a private family loss to a near-spiritual level and confirms that the grandmother’s love and goodness reached even the smallest of God’s creatures.
Character Sketch
Character Sketch of the Grandmother
The grandmother is the central character of “The Portrait of a Lady”. Physically she was short, fat, slightly bent, with silver hair scattered untidily over her pale, wrinkled face. She always wore spotless white, one hand on her waist to steady her stoop and the other constantly telling the beads of her rosary. Although she was not pretty in the conventional sense, the narrator insists that she was beautiful – beautiful with the serene, austere beauty of a winter landscape in the mountains. She was deeply religious: she read the scriptures every morning, recited prayers from sunrise to sunset, and disapproved of any subject – science, music, English – that did not have God at its centre. She was kind to all living creatures: she fed the village dogs with chapattis and the city sparrows with crumbs every afternoon. Emotionally she was reserved but full of love. She did not weep when her grandson sailed abroad, but kissed his forehead silently. She accepted every change of life – village to city, near to distant – with quiet dignity. On the evening of his return she suspended fifty years of prayer to sing songs of warriors’ homecoming, showing the depth of feeling she habitually concealed. She faced death with the same calm courage with which she had lived – telling her beads till her last breath. Even thousands of sparrows mourned her death in absolute silence. She is the eternal Indian grandmother: pious, kind, dignified, accepting, and deeply loved.
Character Sketch of the Narrator (Khushwant Singh as a young man)
The narrator – Khushwant Singh himself as a young boy and student – is the silent observer of the entire story. As a child in the village he is completely dependent on his grandmother: she wakes him, feeds him, walks him to school and shapes his early world. As a city schoolboy he begins to drift away from her – he travels by motor-bus, learns science and music, and slowly enters a world she cannot share. As a university student he is given a separate room, and the last visible link of friendship is broken. Yet he never stops loving her: he treasures the kiss on his forehead at the railway station, returns to her after five years with deep feeling and remembers, in the final pages, even the smallest detail of her appearance and habits. He is observant, sensitive, gently humorous, deeply attached to his grandmother and slightly self-critical (he admits, for instance, that he treats her like an old element of furniture). His narration is calm, ironic and tender – the voice of a grateful grandson trying, through words, to paint the most accurate possible portrait of the lady who shaped his life.
Themes
1. The Bond between Grandmother and Grandson
The most prominent theme of the lesson is the deep, unbreakable bond between a grandmother and her grandson. Although the physical distance between them grows from village to city to university to abroad, the love remains pure and constant – proved by her silent kiss at the railway station, her unprecedented song-and-drum welcome on his return, and his lifelong tender memory of her.
2. Inner Beauty versus Outer Prettiness
The lesson clearly distinguishes between “pretty” and “beautiful”. The grandmother is not pretty by conventional standards – she is short, fat, bent and wrinkled – yet she is “beautiful” in the deepest sense. Her white sari, peaceful face, gentle voice and serene devotion give her a divine, almost saintly beauty. The lesson reminds us that real beauty lies in character, kindness and inner peace.
3. Tradition versus Modernity
The grandmother represents the world of tradition – the temple, the spinning wheel, the rosary, the village, the scriptures – while the narrator represents the new modern India of motor-buses, English schools, science and journeys abroad. The slow drifting apart between them is also the drifting apart of two ages of Indian life, but the lesson refuses to choose one over the other; it laments only what is lost in the transition.
4. Faith and Religion as a Way of Life
For the grandmother, religion is not a separate compartment of life but life itself. Her prayers, her rosary, her temple visits, her white clothes, even her acts of charity are all expressions of an unshakeable faith. Her ability to face every change of life – including her own death – with calm dignity is a direct result of this faith.
5. Compassion for All Living Creatures
The grandmother’s love is not limited to her own family. She feeds the village dogs and the city sparrows with the same affection. The thousands of sparrows that mourn her death in silence are a moving tribute to her boundless compassion.
6. Old Age, Loneliness and Acceptance
The lesson is also a quiet meditation on old age. The grandmother accepts the loneliness of her last years with extraordinary grace. She does not complain, does not demand attention, does not blame the changes of life; she fills her days with prayer, the spinning wheel and her sparrows. Her example tells us that old age can be a season of dignity and inner light, not of bitterness.
7. Death as a Spiritual Completion
Finally, the lesson presents death not as a tragedy but as a serene completion. The grandmother chooses how to die – with God’s name on her lips. The rosary falls from her lifeless fingers, a peaceful pallor spreads over her face, and even thousands of sparrows pay silent homage. Death, in her case, is not a defeat but the natural, dignified end of a life lived in faith and love.
We hope this complete ASSEB Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 1 “The Portrait of a Lady” question-answer guide from HSLC Guru helps every HS 1st Year student of Assam to understand and revise the chapter thoroughly. For more chapters and subjects of ASSEB Class 11 and Class 12, keep visiting hslcguru.com.