Introduction:-
We often share a strong bond of love and affection with our grandparents. They often turn out to be our best friends. But the urbanization saw rise of nuclear families and with that are perishing our strong bonds with our grandparents.
The author in the chapter "The Portrait of a Lady" depicts his strong bond as a child with his grandmother. The description is commonplace filled with livelihood and humour. The author touches upon the sentimental bond he shares with his grandmother and ends the chapter glumly but by leaving a strong effect on the mind's of the readers.
The author also describes the stark contrast we feel in the life in village as compared to the life in city, how city life, urbanization, modernization can leave the strong emotional bonds shaken.
'Portrait' generally means a painting or a photograph but here it implies the representation and impression of the grandmother.
Gist of the lesson:-
The author thinks that his grandmother was always old and wrinkled so does the grandfather in the portrait. His grandmother was always helpful, kind and compassionate not only to humans but to animals too. She would take care of the author in absence of his parents. Their relationship saw an upturn when they are shifted to the city where the author started to go to an English school. The grandmother did not revolt whereas she accepted the situation and took to feed to sparrows. She did not even show emotions when the author was going abroad. Even after the author's return after five years, he found the grandmother same old and wrinkled. It was in the exalted moment of home-coming of her grandchild that she exerted herself too much by singing and thumping a drum. The exertion took a toll on her as she was taken ill and did not recover. Her last breathe was in the chanting of the name of the almighty. After grandmother's death, when the family went out to arrange for the funeral, thousands of sparrows gathered around the corpse and paid their tribute to the grandmother.
Comprehension of the text:-
Grandfather's portrait:-
- hung above the mantelpiece (place above the fireplace)
- he wore big turban and loose-fitting clothes
- his long, white beard covered his chest
- he looked at least a hundred years old
- looked a sort of person who could only have lots and lots of grandchildren.
Grandmother:-
- had been old and wrinkled for the twenty years that the author had seen her.
- children treated the stories of the games that grandmother played as a child as fables of the Prophets.
- she was short, fat and slightly bent.
- her face was full of wrinkles.
- used to hobble about the house in spotless white with one hand resting on her waist to balance her stoop.
- other hand would be busy counting the beads of a rosary.
- while author would take his lessons, she would sit inside the temple reading scriptures.
Author and grandmother's relation in village:-
- good friends
- would get author up early in the morning and get him ready for school
- while bathing him, she would say morning prayer in the hope that the author would learn it
- would get his school bag ready
- after breakfast of thick stale chapattis, they would start for the school
- she would carry stale chapattis for the village dogs.
The village school:-
- attached to the temple
- village priest would teach them alphabets and morning prayer.
On the way back to home:-
- village dogs would follow them
- they would growl and fight for the chapattis
Turning point in the relationship of the author and the grandmother:-
- shifted to city when author's parents comfortably settled there
- author started going to English school in a motor bus
- grandmother took to feed sparrows
- grandmother felt helpless in aiding in author's study of English words, western science and learning
- she thought there should be study of God
- she disapproved of music lessons being taught to them.
- when author was given a separate room, the common link of friendship was snapped.
Happiest moment of the day for grandmother:-
- she would spend hours on spinning-wheel reciting prayers
- in afternoon- would feed sparrows- hundreds of sparrows would come sit on her head, shoulder and legs. she never shooed them away.
Author's departure for higher studies:-
- author thought grandmother would be upset because he would be out for five years
- he wasn't hoping to see her alive after his return
- she did not show any emotion. her lips moved in prayer and mind lost in prayer
- while bidding farewell, she kissed his forehead
- author cherished the imprint as perhaps the last sign of physical contact between them.
Author's arrival after five years and grandmother's celebration:-
- she looked the same
- even had no time for words as she was busy in her prayers
- she enjoyed feeding sparrows a little longer
- change came over her in the evening
- she gathered neighbouring women and started thumping an old drum and singing songs of home- coming of warriors
-exerted herself too much that family had to stop her.
Grandmother's end
- next day, she was taken ill
- just a mild fever, but she thought differently
- she thought she had committed a sin by omitting to pray at the close of life
- she did not speak to anybody but got busy in praying and counting the beads of rosary.
- before anybody could suspect, a peaceful pallor spread over her face, she was dead.
Sparrows' last tribute to the grandmother:-
- after mourning, the family went out to make arrangements for funeral
- when they came back, they saw thousands of sparrows sat scattered on the floor without making any noise
-Author's mother brought bread and threw the bread crumbs to the sparrows but they took no notice of the crumbs
- they silently flew away when the corpse was carried away for cremation.
Additional Notes:-
Critical Appreciation:-
Children’s fancy about the people whom they have always found the same
-Grandfather did not look the sort of person who would have a wife or children. He looked as if he could only have lots and lots of grandchildren.
-The thought that grandmother was once young and pretty was almost revolting
-She often told us of the games she used to play as a child. That seemed quite absurd and undignified on her part and we treated it like the fables of the Prophets she used to tell us.
Was grandmother different or just another stereotype person?
-We may assume that she was just a kind of other old people. She is highly religious, devoted, caring for her grandchild. She has distaste for the things taught at English school. She hated the music lessons being given to the students. Yes, she was indeed stereotype person who would keep stern stand against anything that was considered lewd at that time. We find old people to be adamant up to some extent. Grandmother seems adamant when she refused to believe that she would recover from her mild fever. She behaved just the way old people would behave when are ignored. She accepted her seclusion with resignation.
-But yes, she was different in some aspects. She had love for animals, birds. She would carry a bundle of stale chapattis for the village dogs. In city, when she would feed sparrows, hundreds of sparrows would gather around her creating a veritable bedlam (real madhouse) of chirrupings. That used to be the happiest half-hour of the day for her. The sparrows mourned the death of the grandmother by assembling in thousands without making a noise (contrary to human beings who can’t suppress their talk in such situations also), they ignored the bread crumbs thrown at them and flew quietly when grandmother’s corpse was carried off for cremation.
- She herself was not formally educated but was serious about her grandson's education. At village she would wake him up and get ready for school and even accompany him to school. In city, she felt helpless to aid him in his studies.
-She celebrated the home-coming of her grandson by beating sagging skins of the dilapidated drum and singing of the home-coming of the warriors. We may say that it was out of her sheer love for her grandson.
-She could never have been pretty but she was always beautiful. Here the author talks about her inner beauty. Her physical appearance is compared to the winter landscape in the mountains as she would wear spotless white (as the widows would wear). Adding to that, she had silver locks.
-But the author carries the notion so far to compare her inner beauty to “an expanse of pure white serenity breathing peace and contentment”. She was, at least for the author, an object of reverence and adoration.
Symbolism:-
The line "The sun was setting and had lit her room and verandah with a golden blaze" shown that the grandmother has been given a place in the heaven. Golden colour which shows inner wisdom has a reverence in Sikhism as regards to Golden Temple. Blazing of room with golden light represents Almighty's grace being showered upon her.
