The Portrait Of A Lady - Class 11- Chapter- 1st ( Hornbill )- Easy Summary And Most Important Question Answer

Introduction 

• Khushwant Singh Was One Of The Prominent Indian Writers .
• In The Story The Author Draws A Pen Portrait Of His Grandmother.
• He Has Beautifully Written An Account Of His Relationship With Her Grandmother. 

Pen Portrait Of Grandmother 

• Khushwant Singh Draws A Pen Portrait Of His Grandmother .
• Old Woman 
• Its Hard To Believe That Once  She Had Been Young And Pretty
• His Grandfather’s Picture Hung Above The Mantelpiece 
• He Looked At Least A Hundred Years Old 

Appearance of grandmother 

• Old, Short, Fat, Slightly Bent 
• Wrinkled Face 
• She Looks The Same For Last Twenty Years 
• She Couldn’t Walk Straight  
• She Wears White Clothes And Roam In The House .
• She Keeps Her One Hand On Her Waist To Balance Herself.
• She Held A Rosary In The Other Hand. 
• Her Silver Locks Scattered Over Her Pale Face.
• Her Lips Constantly Moved.
• She Always Prayed To Herself.

Close Friends 

• Narrator And His Grandmother Were Good Friends.
• His Parents Had Left Him With Her In The Village.
• She Used To Wake Him Up In Morning. 
• She Got Him Ready For School 
• She Used To Wash His Wooden Slate And Plaster It With Yellow Chalk.
• She Take An Earthen Inkpot And Red Pen Tie Them In The Bundle And Hand It To Him. 
• Prepared His Breakfast (Thick Stale Chapatti) Little Butter And Sugar Spread On It.
• She Also Carry Some Chapattis For Village Dogs

Went To School With The Narrator.

• Grandmother Always Went To School With Him.
• Because School Was Attached To The Temple.
• There A Priest Taught The Children Alphabet And Morning Prayer.  
• Grandmother Sat Inside Temple 
• Spent Her Time Reading Holy Books 
• She Would Walk Back Home With Him 

Turning Point In Relationship 

• Turning Point Came In Their Relationship When His Parents Call Both To The City 
• Narrator And His Grandmother Shared The Same Room. 
• Now Grandmother Don’t Go To His School, And She Didn’t Like The English School.
• Nor Did She Like Science And Music Being Taught At The New School.
• There Was No Teaching Of God 
• There Were No Dogs In Streets
• Grandmother Took To Feeding The Sparrows.
• Now They Saw Less Of Each Other.

Bond Of Relationship Broken 

• Their Common Link Broken When The Narrator Went To The University.
• Grandmother Accepted Her Loneliness Quietly.
• She Used To Set On Her Wheelchair And Recite Prayers.  
• At Afternoon She Used To Feed The Sparrows
• She Broke The Bread Into Little Bits And Threw Them To The Sparrows.
• Hundreds Of Sparrows Collected Around Her. 

Narrator Goes Abroad 

• Narrator Went Abroad For Higher Studies.
• Grandmother Came To Drop Him At Railway Station. (Kissed Forehead)
• Narrator Thinks Its His Last Meeting With Her.
• Narrator Returned Home After Five Years.
• She Collected The Neighborhood Women And Celebrated His Homecoming.

The Grandmother’s Death 

• Next Morning, She Fell Ill .
• She Declared That Her End Was Near.
• She Continued Praying And Telling Her Beads , Then Her Lips Stopped Moving The Rosery Fell Down And She Was Dead . 
• Evening time, sun was setting
• Thousands of sparrows sat near her dead body.
• They did not chirrup.
• Narrator’s mother brought some bread and broke it into little piece, but birds took no notice. 
• When They Carried Her Dead Body Outside, The Sparrows Flew Away Quietly……… 

MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION ANSWER

1- Describe How Common Bond Of Friendship Was Broken When The Narrator’s Parents Sent For Them In City.

2- What Was The Turning Point Of Their Friendship ?

3- Why Was The Author’s Grandmother Unhappy With The City Education ?

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