NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English
The Portrait of a Lady NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 1
The Portrait of a Lady NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers
The Portrait of a Lady About the Author
Khushwant Singh (born Khushal Singh, 15 August 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write Train to Pakistan in 1956 (made into a film in 1998), which became his most well-known novel.
Born in Punjab, Khushwant Singh was educated in New Delhi, and studied law at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and King’s College London. He was appointed a journalist at All India Radio in 1951, and then moved to the Department of Mass Communications of UNESCO at Paris in 1956. These last two careers encouraged him to pursue a literary career. As a writer, he was best known for his trenchant secularism, humour, sarcasm and an abiding love of poetry. He served as the editor of several literary and news magazines, as well as two newspapers, through the 1970s and 1980s. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award in India.
The Portrait of a Lady Main Theme
‘The Portrait of a Lady’ is an affectionate account of the warm relationship that existed between Khushwant Singh and his grandmother, spanning over twenty years. His earliest memories are of his stay in the village with his grandmother. To the child, she could never have been young, she was always old. The grandmother was a religious woman, always dressed in white, turned the beads of her rosary. She looked serene as a white winter landscape. She used to dress him, take him to school, all the time praying silently. On return, she fed stale chapattis to the village dogs.
Some time later, the grandmother and the grandson were called to the city. The grandmother’s life changed. She could no longer go to the school with him. She did not approve of what he studied—English, science and, most disliked of all, music. She started feeding bread-crumbs to sparrows, as no dogs were around. Khushwant was given a room of his own when he joined the university. This increased the old woman’s loneliness but she did not complain.
She spent her time praying, spinning the wheel or feeding the sparrows. Khushwant went abroad for higher studies, half afraid that he might not see her again. But she was there at the station to receive him, praying all the time. That evening, she sang of the homecoming of warriors. Next day she had fever and knew that her end had come. She continued to pray till her last breath. Thousands of sparrows came and silently bade farewell to their gentle pious friend.
The Portrait of a Lady Understanding the text
Question 1.
The three phases of the author’s relationship with his grandmother before he left the country to study abroad.
Answer:
At first, the author-grandmother relationship comprised his earliest years and were marked by close intimacy as the two lived together in the village. She woke him up, readied him for school, bathed and dressed him, also put together his slate and writing materials.
The second phase began with the author’s shift to the city. The intimacy of their relationship decreased as he now went to an English-medium school and the grandmother took to feeding sparrows instead of preparing his breakfast. The third phase marked his entry into university. They no longer shared a room. Despite the physical separation, the relationship was still rock solid, though devoid of outwardly frills. She came to see him off at the station at his departure for studies abroad and celebrated his return by singing ditties about the homecoming of warriors.
Question 2.
Three reasons why the author’s grandmother was disturbed when he started going to the city school.
Answer:
The grandmother was unhappy as she could no longer help the author with his lessons. As he had started learning the rudiments of science, she became distressed at the absence of scriptural studies at school. She disapproved of his learning music which she considered lewd and befitting beggars and harlots.
Question 3.
Three ways in which the author’s grandmother spent her days after he grew up.
Answer:
From sunrise to sunset, the grandmother was at her spinning wheel, reciting prayers alongside. In between she relaxed by feeding sparrows with breadcrumbs and spending half an hour in their midst. She also counted the beads of her rosary prayerfully.
Question 4.
The odd way in which the author’s grandmother behaved just before she died.
Answer:
Despite the doctor’s pronouncement to the contrary, the grandmother insisted that her end was near. She took to praying, saying she would spend the last hours praying instead of talking to the family. Despite protest^, she lay in bed praying and telling her beads.
Question 5.
The way in which the sparrows expressed their sorrow when the author’s grandmother died.
Or
How did the sparrows express their grief when the author’s grandmother died?
Answer:
Hundreds of sparrows crowded the verandah and the grandmother’s room, right up to where her body lay. There was no chirruping. When the author’s mother broke breadcrumbs for them, they ignored it. When the corpse was carried away, they flew off quietly.
The Portrait of a Lady Talking about the text
Talk to your partner about the following.
Question 1.
The author’s grandmother was a religious person. What are the different ways in which we come to know this?
Answer:
The grandmother constantly prayed. Her lips mumbled in silent prayers, her fingers moved the rosary. When she bathed and dressed the child, she recited prayers hoping that he would learn. While the author studied, she sat in the temple and read scriptures. Later in the city, she was unhappy that there was no religious teaching at school. In her last moments, she preferred praying to talking to the family.
Question 2.
Describe the changing relationship between the author and his grandmother. Did their feelings for each other change?
Answer:
Theirs were a very intimate relationship when the author was a child. They shared all the activities. Grandmother got him ready, took him to school and walked back; taught him subjects; prayed aloud so that he might learn the prayers. The relationship changed when they shifted to the city. They still shared the room but she did not take him to school or teach him. Some distance crept into their relationship. Their togetherness suffered a big blow when the boy went to the university and was given a separate room. Through these phases, they spent less and less time with each other, but their love remained strong and deep.
Question 3.
Would you agree that the author’s grandmother was a person strong in character? Justify it with instances from the text.
Answer:
The Grandmother displayed exemplary strength by undertaking strenuous parental responsibilities while fulfilling her surrogate role when her grandson was left with her, in the absence of his parents. Her strong moral fibre was succinctly imbibed into her little charge as she sang religious prayers while bathing and dressing him.
She adjusted to the changed city lifestyle with ingenuity, taking to feeding sparrows, spinning, and telling the rosary beads. Even when disaproving of the instructions and cultural orientations of the English school, her protests were never vocal. She remained affectionate without being overly demonstrative. She came to see off her grandson when he was leaving for England, without emotional scenes and organized a zesty musical soiree on his return. She had a strong intuitive streak and had premonitions of her end, a quality restricted to personalities with insightful strength.
Question 4.
Have you known someone like the author’s grandmother? Do you feel the same sense of loss with regard to someone whom you have loved and lost?
Answer:
Yes, I have known my grandmother like the author’s grandmother. I feel the same sense of loss with regard to her but death has nothing to do with our love; it has to take away its victims, leaving us alone, sad and dejected. I loved my grandmother immensely. My parents did not stay with me. But my grandmother was always there to look after me. She knew my likes and dislikes very well. She took care of my needs. She was a teacher, a philosopher as well as a guide to me. Time flew and I entered the college. I came back to my parents as my grandmother along with other family members was shifting to a new house.
We were crying bitterly as departure is always tragic. I kept on visiting her on Sundays. Her health was falling. Now I started feeling insecure as the fear of her approaching end was always haunting me. And one day she left all of us, especially me. Time is a great healer but some wounds never heal. Her death has created a permanent void in my life. I miss her at every step of my life. Whenever I feel alone, I close my eyes and try to recall the moments I spent with her. She is not with me physically but she is always in my heart.
The Portrait of a Lady Thinking about language
Question 1.
Which language do you think the author and his grandmother used while talking to each other?
Answer:
Punjabi – informal and casual.
Question 2.
Which language do you use to talk to elderly relatives in your family?
Answer:
Accept various answers.
Question 3.
How would you say ‘a dilapidated drum’ in your language?
Answer:
Accept various answers in Hindi, Punjabi or your regional language.
Question 4.
Can you think of a song or a poem in your language that talks of homecoming?
Answer:
Traditional folk songs expressing the joy at the return of dear ones. ‘Kesariya Balam’ in Rajasthani. Film songs too can be asked.
Working With Words
I. Notice the following uses of the word ‘tell’ in the text.
(a) Her fingers were busy telling the beads of her rosary.
(b) I would tell her English words and little things of Western science and learning.
(c) At her age one could never tell.
(d) She told us that her end was near.
Given below are four different senses of the word ‘tell’. Match the meanings to the uses listed above.
(a) make something known to someone in spoken or written words
(b) count while reciting
(c) be sure
(d) give information to somebody
Answer:
(a) Telling the beads (b) count while reciting
(b) Tell her English words (a) make something known to
(c) One could never tell (c) be sure
(d) Told us (d) give information to somebody
II. Notice the different senses of the word ‘take’.
(a) to take to something: to begin to do something as a habit
(b) to take ill: to suddenly become ill Locate these phrases in the text and notice the way they are used.
Answer:
‘take’ — as explained in the textbook
III. The word ‘hobble’ means to walk with difficulty because the legs and feet are in bad condition. ‘ Tick the words in the box below that also refer to a manner of walking.
| haggle | shuffle | stride | ride | waddle | wriggle | paddle | swagger | trudge |
Answer:
Words referring to walking
shuffle, stride, waddle, wriggle, swagger, trudge
Noticed Form
Notice the form of the verbs italicised in these sentences:
(i) My grandmother was an old woman. She had been old and wrinkled for the twenty years that 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.
(ii) When we both had finished, we would walk back together.
(iii) When I came back, she would ask me what the teacher had taught me.
(iv) It was the first time since I had known her that she did not pray.
(v) The sun was setting and had lit her room and verandah with a golden light.
These are examples of the Past Perfect forms of verbs. When we recount things in the distant past, we use this form.
Answer:
(i), (iv) examples of the use of past perfect tense to show events that happened a long time ago.
(ii), (iii) sequence of tenses; the Past Perfect shows the event which took place earlier. The simple past shows the more recent event.
(v) shows a task completed in the past.
