The Portrait of a Lady (Khushwant Singh) — Practice

Question 1

How did the grandmother's life change when the family moved to the city?

Accepted Answer

✦ Answer: In the city, the grandmother's role REDUCED. She could no longer walk the narrator to school. The English school taught 'western science' and music lessons — she disapproved ('music was for beggars and courtesans'). She couldn't help with homework — she was illiterate. She retreated into spinning and feeding sparrows. The physical and emotional distance from her grandson grew.

Question 2

Describe the grandmother's character as revealed through the five phases of the story.

Accepted Answer

✦ Answer: The grandmother is portrayed as deeply RELIGIOUS (constant rosary), SERENE ('like the winter landscape'), and DIGNIFIED. In the village: active, nurturing (walked boy to school, fed dogs). In the city: increasingly isolated but never complaining — withdrawing into prayer and spinning. When the narrator goes abroad: she shows NO overt emotion — her farewell is silent, praying, with a moist kiss. Before death: she announces her end CALMLY — 'I don't want to waste time talking.' She dies with rosary beads, lips moving in prayer. The sparrows' silent mourning confirms her connection to NATURE and the sacred. She is a portrait of old-world Indian womanhood: devout, accepting, dignified.

Question 3

Analyse the role and significance of the sparrows in 'The Portrait of a Lady'.

Accepted Answer

✦ Answer: The sparrows serve three functions: COMPANIONSHIP: When the narrator grows distant (city → university → abroad), the grandmother feeds sparrows. They REPLACE the human connection she has lost. The sparrows accept what the modern world cannot offer her: simple, undemanding relationship. SYMBOLISM: The sparrows represent NATURE's connection to the grandmother. Unlike humans (who drift away), nature STAYS. They represent the grandmother's gentleness — she attracts living creatures. THE MOURNING: At her death, thousands of sparrows gather. They sit in ABSOLUTE SILENCE. They IGNORE the bread thrown to them — they came for HER, not food. When her body is removed, they fly away — NEVER TO RETURN. Their silence is the PUREST MOURNING in the story — more profound than human grief rituals. The detail that 'next morning the sweeper swept the bread crumbs into the dustbin' underscores the FINALITY — the grandmother's world has ended, and even evidence of her daily ritual is erased. The sparrows affirm what the whole story suggests: the grandmother belonged to a gentler, older world. Nature recognised her worth when humans could not.

Practice — The Portrait of a Lady (Khushwant Singh)

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