THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY
INTRODUCTION
The Portrait of a Lady gives us a picture of human relationship in a joint family. It is a realistic account of how the grandparents give all their time, attention and love to the grandchildren. The author’s description about his grandmother is deeply moving with a touch of humour and poetry in it.
SUMMARY
The Portrait of a Lady’ is written in first person and is in the biographical mode. In this story, the writer gives a detailed account of his Grandmother with whom he had a long association.
Appearance of the grandmother
The author recalls his grandmother as a very old lady with a wrinkled face. She appeared so old that it was hard for him to believe that she had once been “young and pretty”. She was short, fat and a little stooped in appearance. The author remembers …
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- Why did Khushwant Singh say that the thought of his grandmother being young and pretty was almost revolting?
- Mention the instances from ‘The Portrait of A Lady’ for Khushwant Singh’s grandmother being called considerate for animals.
- State any one incident from the lesson which shows that the grandmother accepted changes but did not impose them in her own life.
- What poetic words are used by the writer to bring out the physical and spiritual beauty of the grandmother?
- Mention some incidents from the lesson that show that the grandmother loved her grandson intimately.
- Ans: Khuswant Singh said that imagining his grandmother as a young lady was abhorrent. This is because as a child, he had always seen her as an old, dignified and wise soul, and they learnt to love her that way only. So the image of her younger and more immature self didn’t seem appealing to them.
- Ans: When Khuswant Singh was a child, he used to live with his grandmother and attend the village school. When she accompanied him to the school, she used to take a few stale Chapattis with a little butter and sugar to feed the village dogs. In the city, she couldn’t find dogs so she started feeding sparrows and developed a very endearing relationship with them. This shows that she was an animal lover.
- Ans: Khuswant Singh’s parents had left him in the care of his grandmother in the village before they went to the city. There, the author developed a very close relationship with his grandmother. However, when his parents had comfortably settled in the city, they moved in with them, and changes started to emerge. She could no longer accompany him to school, which also led her to start feeding sparrows in the absence of dogs…
A PHOTOGRAPH
SUMMARY
The poet is looking at her mother’s photograph which is indeed an old one. With it she can see how her mother looked when she was a little girl of twelve. The photo shows her on a beach with her two girl cousins who are younger than her, holding her hand. It might have been windy at that time that their hair was flying on their faces when the uncle took the photograph. All the three were smiling through their flying hair. Looking at the photograph, the poet says that her mother had a sweet face, but it was a time before the poet was born. The sea was washing their feet. The poet says that the sea has changed only a little but change has come about who’s feet it was washing.
After twenty or thirty years, the mother would take a look at the photograph. By that time, she was married and had a daughter. She would laugh a little and says “Look at Betty and Dolly, see how they have dressed for the beach”. By now, she can only remember those days. A huge change has come about her and she is no longer that small innocent girl of twelve.
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- What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?
- What has the camera captured?
- The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
- “washed their terribly transient feet” Explain the line. What poetic device was used in this line?
- Explain the line ” the sea holiday as a past, mine is her laughter , Time spares none”
- Ans: The cardboard represents the permanence of inanimate objects in contrast to human life. The cardboard had been used to frame the picture around the same time it was taken. However, the cardboard stood the test of time while the people in the picture no longer lived on the earth. The word ‘cardboard’ denotes the permanence of inanimate objects and has been used to contrast the short life of humans.
- Ans: The camera has captured the scene from their childhood beach holiday where the mother of the poet holds the hands of her two cousins Betty and Dolly while their hairs blew wildly in the breeze.
- Ans: The poet’s mother laughed at their attire in the photograph. This laugh was not comedic, it was rather wistful. She was deeply missing her childhood, and even if she laughed at her dress, she wanted to go back in time and wear that very dress and paddle in the sea with her cousins. Their laughter indicated the youthful spirit.
SUMMAR OF THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE HORSE
INTRODUCTION
This story is about two poor Armenian boys – Aram and Mourad. They belong to a tribe known for its honesty for centuries. Both have an intense longing for horse riding. But they cannot afford to buy a horse. So going against the family reputation, Mourad steals a white horse of a farmer, John Byro. Aram is shocked because it is a stolen horse. But he discounts the charge of stealing and goes for a ride. One day he overhears John Byro telling Uncle Khosrove about his missing horse. He gives the news to Mourad. Then one day John Byro himself confronts the two boys with his horse, but he didn’t accuse the boys keeping their family’s century-old tradition in mind. The next morning the horse is returned to its real owner.
SUMMARY
Aram and Mourad are cousins in the Garoghlanian family – an Armenian tribe which has a reputation for honesty that has been maintained by its family members for hundreds of years. But the tribe is extremely poverty-stricken though they never resort to unfair means to get money. Both boys long to ride a horse but their poverty keeps them from their deepest dream…
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- Why was it difficult for Aram to believe the sight of his cousin Mourad with the beautiful white horse?
- What did the farmer John Byro tell the two boys when one day they accidentally met him with his horse in their custody?
- What points were put forward by Aram in defence of Mourad’s act of stealing the horse?
- Which excuses were given by Aram to himself for taking a ride on the horse despite knowing fully the truth about the theft of the horse by Mourad?
- Why was Aram unwilling to return the horse so soon?
- Did the boys return the horse because they were conscience-stricken or because they were afraid?
- Ans: When Aram looked through the window, he saw his cousin Mourad with a beautiful white horse and it was a sight which was very difficult for him to believe for two reasons: First, the whole of the Garoghlonian family to which the two boys belonged were extremely poor and therefore it was not possible for Mourad to buy that horse. Secondly, in that case, it would mean that Mourad had stolen that horse. But that was also not possible, because the Garoghlonian family was also very much famous for their honesty and therefore Mourad could not steal that horse either.
- Ans: The farmer examined the horse when one morning he found it with the two boys and he told them that he could swear that the horse was his very horse which had been stolen from him many weeks before if he did not know about their parents. He added that the fame of their family for honesty was very well known to him and therefore he liked to say that the horse could be the twin of his stolen horse.
- Ans: Aram argued to himself that stealing a horse for a ride was not the same thing as stealing something else, such as money. And then he went a little ahead by saying that if one was so much crazy about horses the way Mourad and he himself were, it was not stealing at all. It would not become stealing until they offered to sell the horse and he was sure that last thing they would never be doing.
