She died and so her body lay on the bed, lifeless. She didn’t want to waste her time talking to anyone in the family anymore but spend her last hours in reciting her prayers laying on the bed. The doctor said that there was nothing to worry about but she was sure that her end was near. The next morning, she was ill with mild fever. One day, she didn’t recite her prayers but instead collected the women of the neighbourhood, got a drum and started singing. She clasped him within her arms and didn’t say a word. After five years, as he returnedhome, she was there, came to pick him at the station, was still the same as she had been five years ago. She was not sentimental, continuously recited her prayers, her mind lost in the prayers, and she kissed him on the forehead. She came to the railway station to leave him off.
Soon, the author decided to go abroad for further studies. The birds would sit on her legs, her head, some even on the shoulders. Breaking bread into pieces and feeding it to the birds was her daily routine. However, she loved feeding sparrows in the verandah at dawn. She stopped talking to everyone and spent her whole day sitting at her spinning wheel, reciting prayers and moving beads of the rosary with one hand. He had his own room and this made their relationship sour. They saw less of each other.Īs the days passed, he grew older and soon went to the university. She didn’t approve of the new syllabus that he was studying because she thought that they did not teach him about God and the scriptures.
She didn’t understand anything as everything was in another language which she could not understand. She, however, used to ask him about his day and what he had learned. He started going to an English medium school, she no longer accompanied him to his school, and there were no longer stray dogs who roamed around them while walking back home. Though they shared the room, there bond grew apart. As they reached the city, his relationship with his grandmother took a turn. Soon, the parents of the author who went to the city to settle in and called them. They both used to come back home together with stray dogs roaming around them as his grandmother would carry the stale chapattis to feed them. The author along with other children sat on the verandah singing alphabets and morning prayers. She had a routine of reading the scriptures. She used to visit the temple that was attached to the school. She used to pack the things required by him for the day and walked him to school every day. She used to wake him up and get him ready for school. In the initial days, the author and his grandmother had a good relationship. His grandmother used to move around the house in ‘Spotless White’ with her one hand resting on her waist and her other hand counting the beads of her rosary. To the author, his grandfather didn’t seem like a man who could have a wife and children, but someone who could have lots of grandchildren. The author had seen his grandfather’s portrait- an old man with a turban and a long white beard covering his chest. She appeared to be so old that he could not imagine her being ‘young and pretty, someone who had a husband. The author had always seen her like this, for the past twenty years. The grandmother was an old woman with a wrinkled face. Summary of The Portrait of a Lady – The chapter ‘The Portrait of a Lady’ is the story of the author and his grandmother. He explains her appearance which helps create an image in the reader’s mind.
He pens down her daily activities and how she evolved as a character as time passed by.
He describes his relationship with his grandmother over the years. The Portrait of a Lady is the story of the author. The Portrait of a Lady Grammar Exercise.The Portrait of a Lady Question Answers.The Portrait of Lady Lesson Explanation.The Portrait of a Lady Class 11 English Chapter 1
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