The portrait of a Lady

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Lady Khushwant Singh’s

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Pen – Portrait of Grandmother In ‘The portrait of a Lady’ Khushwant Singh draws a pen-portrait of his grandmother. His grandmother was like everybody’s grandmother. She was quite an old woman. It was hard to believe that once she had young and pretty. The thought itself was ‘revolting’ . His grandfather’s picture hung above the mantelpiece in the drawing room. He looked at least a hundred years old.

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Looked Terribly Old Khushwant Singh’s grandmother was a short lady. She was flat and slightly bent. She had a wrinkled face. She looked very old. She looked same for twenty years. She couldn’t walk straight. She hobbled about the house in spotless white clothes. She had to keep one hand on her waist. It was to balance her stoop. She held a rosary in the other hand. She was always telling beads. Her silver locks scattered over her pale face. Her lips constantly moved. She always prayed to herself. She gave a picture of peace and contentment.

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As Close Friends The narrator and his grandmother were good friends. His parents had left him her in the village. They were always together. She used to wake him up in the morning. She got him ready for school. She said her morning prayer in an unchanging sing-song. She would wash his wooden slate and plaster it with yellow chalk. She would take an earthen inkpot and a red pen. She would tie them in a bundle and hand it to him. She would give him a thick stale chapatti with a little butter and sugar spread on it. She carried several stale chapattis with her for the village dogs.

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Went to School with the Narrator The grandfather always went to school with the narrator . The school was attached to the temple. There the priest taught the children the alphabet and morning prayer. The children sat in rows on either side of the verandah. They sang the alphabet and the prayer in the chorus. The grandfather sat inside the temple. She spent her time in reading holy books. She would back home with him. The village dogs would gather at the temple door. They growled and fought for chapattis thrown to them.

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A Turning Point in Relationship The narrator’s parents sent for them in the city. It was a ‘turning-point in their friendship’. They shared the same room. His grandmother no longer went to school with him. The narrator went to an English school in a motor bus. There were no dogs in the streets. The grandmother took to feeding the sparrows. Years rolled by. The grandmother and her grandson saw less of each other now. She hated English and science. She felt sad that there was no teaching about God and the scriptures at the new school. She didn’t like music lessons being given in the school. To her music had ‘lewd associations’. It was good only for prostitutes and beggars.

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Bond of Friendship Broken The narrator went up to University. He was given a room of his own. The common link of their friendship was broken. The grandmother accepted her loneliness quietly. She busied herself with her spinning – wheel. She talked rarely. She relaxed only in the afternoon. She enjoyed herself while feeding the sparrows. She would sit in the verandah. She broke the bread into little bits and threw them to the sparrows . Hundreds of sparrows collected round her. They created hell of noise. Some came her and sat on her legs. The others perched on her shoulders. She never drove them away. Feeding the sparrows was the happiest half hour of the day for her.

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Narrator Goes Abroad The narrator decided to go abroad for higher studies. The grandmother was upset. She came to leave him at the railway station. She didn’t show any emotion. She kissed his forehead silently. The narrator thought that it was last sign of physical contact between them.

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Celebrated the Homecoming of Her Grandson The narrator returned home after five years. The grandmother did not look a day older. In the evening a change came over her. She didn’t pray. She collected all the women of the neighborhood. She took an old drum and started singing. She continued thumping the old drum for several hours. She sang of the homecoming of warriors. They had to persuade her to stop. Singing and beating of the drum could make her tried. For the first time she forget to pray.

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Grandmother’s Death The next morning she fell ill. She declared that her end was near. She didn’t want to waste any more time talking top them. She lay peacefully in bed. She continued praying and telling her beads. Then her lips stopped moving. The rosary fell down from her lifeless fingers. She was dead. She was laid on the ground. Her dead body was coverd with a red shroud.

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Mourning of sparrows It was evening. The sun was setting. They brought a wooden stretcher. They stopped half way in the courtyard. Thousands of sparrows sat near her dead body. They did not chirrup. Everyone felt sorry for the birds. The narrator’s mother brought bread and broke it into little crumbs. She threw those crumbs to them. The birds took no notice of them. When they carried her dead-body outside, the sparrows flew away quietly.

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Vocabulary Mantelpiece : shelf above a fire – place Terribly : (here) too much Lewd : (here) incident

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About Author : Khushawanth Singh (Born in Hadali Punjab, to a Sikh family) is a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, “With Malice towards One and All", carried by several Indian newspapers, is among the most widely-read columns in the country. An important Indo-Anglian novelist, Singh is best known for his trenchant secularism, his humor, and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioral characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit. He served as editor of several well-known literary and news magazines, as well as two major broadsheet newspapers, through the 1970s and 1980s.