Class 11 English Chapter 1 The Portrait of Lady Question Answer As Per New Syllabus to each Chapter is provided in the list of SCERT, NCERT, AHSEC Class 11 English Unit 1 Question Answer/Class English Unit 1 Question Answer are given so that you can easily search through the different Chapters and select the needs Notes of AHSEC Class 11 English Lesson 1 Question Answer English Medium. covers all the exercise questions in NCERT, SCERT.
Class 11 English Chapter 1 The Portrait of Lady
Class 11 English Chapter 1 The Portrait of Lady Question Answer | Guide for Class 11th English Unit 1 English Medium Also Same NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English In this post we will explain to you what to try If you are a Student of English Medium then it will be very helpfull for you. NCERT/SCERT, AHSEC Class 11 English Chapter 1.
Chapter 1 The Portrait of Lady
PART – A Hornbill
Textual Questions & Answers:
1. Mention three phases of the author’s relationship with his grandmother before he left the country to study abroad.
Ans: (i) In the village where the author lived without his parents, the grandmother took full care of him like waking him up, bathing, making ready and taking to school, etc. They were inseparable buddies.
(ii) In the city, they shared the same room but the granny could not take him to school as he traveled in a bus. Their closeness began to decrease.
(iii) Gradually the author became busy with his school activities, his studies increased and he started using difficult words to his grandmother. She found it uncomfortable with the new topics of studies and hurt to know that there were music lessons in the new school. After that she started being with herself and their friendship became weaker.
2. Mention three reasons why the author’s grandmother was disturbed when he started going to the city school.
Ans: Three reasons:
(i) The grandmother was disturbed because she could not do many things for her grandchild when he went to the new school. She could not accompany him to school and get him bathed or do other things for him.
(ii) The author began to study more and mention some difficult subjects. The grandmother felt unhappy not being able to help him in his studies any more. Moreover, she was angry to know that there were no lessons of God and of the scriptures.
(iii) She was terribly hurt to know that there were music lessons in the city school, she did not like music at all.
3. Mention the ways in which the author’s grandmother spent her days after he grew up.
Ans: Three ways:
(i) The grandmother spent most of her time spinning the wheel.
(ii) She recited prayers, read the scriptures and told the beads of rosary.
(iii) In the afternoon she fed the sparrows in the verandah.
4. Mention the odd way in which the author’s grandmother behaved just before she died.
Ans: When the author’s grandmother had a fever, she said that her death was approaching. Despite everyone’s protests, she kept saying that her illness was because she had missed her prayers the previous evening. She just waited to pray without wasting a moment. She lay peacefully in bed and started praying and telling her beads. Moments after, the rosary fell from her hand and her lips stopped moving. Peace rested on her face, she had died.
5. Mention the way in which the sparrows experienced their sorrow when the author’s grandmother died.
Ans: The grandmother’s corpse was being laid on the ground and covered with a red shroud. It turned to evening when she was taken for cremation. At that time, the usual time for the birds, the sparrows came there but were extremely quiet and patient, they did not make any sound of chirping. When they were given pieces of bread, they did not even look at them. After their old friend was taken away, they too silently flew away. They were grieved immensely.
Talking About The Text:
1. The author’s grandmother was a religious person. What are the different ways in which we come to know this?
Ans: The author’s grandmother was a deeply religious woman. She spent most of her time praying and reading the scriptures. She also was also engaged in telling the beads of rosary. She wished that the young generation should be taught to be religious, she recited the prayers near him when the author was a small child. She felt disgusted to know that there were no teachings about God and scriptures in the new school of the grandson. Even when she fell ill she strongly felt that it was the result of her omission of a prayer and after that she started reciting prayers and telling the beads, Without delay. Thus, she died praying to God and this proves that she was truly devoted.
2. Describe the changing relationship between the author and his grandmother. Did their feelings for each other change?
Ans: In the village the grandmother was the author’s constant friend. She used to wake him up and get ready for school. She accompanied him to his school and brought him back along with her. Besides taking care of her, she helped him with his studies. But in the city he went to an English School and gradually his topics of conversation grew difficult, he began talking about law of gravity, Archimedes, the round shape of the earth etc. So, she could no longer help him in his studies and felt sad.
She felt unhappy for the absence of religious teachings in that school. Most unpleasant for her was the music lessons which she hated. She almost stopped talking to him. But their feelings for each other never changed, the grandmother loved him equally and he too had the same regards for her.
3. Would you agree that the author’s grandmother was a person strong in character? If yes, give instances that show this.
Ans: Yes the grandmother was a strong character. First, she was physically strong in spite of her old age, second she never sat idle, she spun the wheel, recited prayers, fed the birds and maybe did other things of her own. In the village she did everything for the author and took perfect care of him.
Third, She was mentally strong, she never showed too much emotion or weakness; one reason for this was her faith in God. Again she was able to hold back her sadness when the author was going abroad, and even received him at the railway station after five years. She was duty bound and never missed her regular activities of life. She passed on this enthusiasm and zeal to others also. Finally, we got to know from the evening prior to her death that she could enjoy it so well.
4. Have you known someone like the author’s grandmother? Do you feel the same sense of loss with regard to someone whom you have loved and lost?
Ans: My paternal grandparents had died before my birth, but I was blessed with the love of my maternal grandparents. My grandfather was also almost like Khushwant Singh’s grandmother. He was a hardworking, punctual and diligent farmer who never spent a minute idle in his life. He was a strong and stout man, very tall and fair, he left for the fields early in the morning and even after the day’s work used to make things from bamboo like mats, baskets, containers for storing grains etc. and even nets for catching fish.
He scolded his son (my uncle) who is a very lazy person and in no way capable of working hard like his father. Even at the age of 75, my grandfather could climb coconut trees to fetch betel leaves. He was hurt if even a single grain was wasted while eating meals. This way he raised his big family very well and got his six daughters married as well. He passed away last year at 80 and I really miss his loving presence. I do feel his loss as I loved him dearly.
Additional Questions & Answers:
1. At her age, one could never tell.
(i) Who is the ‘her’ referred to?
Ans: The grandmother of the author.
(ii) Why does he say ‘at heritage’?
Ans: The grandmother’s age is what the author is talking about, she was very old.
(iii) What could one not tell.
Ans: At such an old age it can’t be said how long the person would live, maybe for a very short time.
2. “It used to be the happiest half hour of the day for her?”
(i) Who is the ‘her’?
Ans: The grandmother is the ‘her’.
(ii) Which time of the day is meant?
Ans: It means afternoon time.
(iii) Why was it the happiest moment of the day for her?
Ans: The author’s grandmother remained busy throughout the day. In the afternoon she took out some time and spent it with the birds. She gave them bread and loved them very much. That was the happiest moment of the day for her.
3. “The her music had lewd associations.”
(i) Who had lewd associations with music?
Ans: The author’s grandmother.
(ii) Why does he say so?
Ans: He says so because she was disturbed to know that in his English school music lessons were given to the children.
(iii) What were the associations?
Ans: The grandmother felt that only poor people with dirty characters are related to music and good people should stay away from it.
4. “As the years rolled by we saw less of each other”
(i) Who are the ‘we’?
Ans: The author and his grandmother are the ‘we’ hear.
(ii) What is meant by ‘seeing less of’?
Ans: ‘Seeing less of” means not being in close continuous terms.
(iii) Why were they not seeing much of each other?
Ans: The author got busy in his new English school with studies and other activities. The grandmother could not do all the things for him in the city. So, gradually they saw less of each other.
5. “But my grandmother thought differently”
(i) What did she think?
Ans: She thought that her fever was the result of her negligence of prayers in the previous evening.
(ii) Why was it different?
Ans: The doctor had told me that the fever was mild and not a matter of worry. But the grandmother thought it was because she had missed her prayers, so it was different.
Short Types Questions & Answers:
1. How do you know that the grandmother was a kind hearted lady?
Ans: The grandmother loved birds and animals. She used to carry with her stale chapatis to feed the street dogs in the village. In the city she sat in the verandah every afternoon and fed the sparrows. This proves that she was truly kind.
2. Why was it difficult for the author to believe that his grandmother was ever pretty?
Ans: Since the time he could remember, the author had seen his grandmother as a terribly old woman with wrinkled skin and bent waist. Even till her death many years later she was the same. So, it was difficult for him to imagine her as pretty or young ever.
3. The grandmother was very old, but still had an attractive personality, what do you think are the reasons?
Ans: The grandmother was very old, fat and wrinkled with all white hair. But she was not weak, messy or ugly from any angle. She was kind, loving, strong and was charming in her own way. She was beautiful in an eternal way.
4. What was the author’s relation with his grandmother in the village?
Ans: In the village the author was away from his parents and a small boy, his grandmother was his constant friend and companion. From waking him up in the morning to taking him to school and doing everything else for him, she took care of him. It was a really special bond.
5. What was the cause of the change in their relation?
Ans: In the village the grandmother was with the grandson all the time, she did all his work and accompanied to school. She helped him in his studies, taught him prayers etc. In the city, though, the author went to school in a motor bus and learnt difficult topics. She could not do anything for him and hence, their relation changed.
6. Do you think the grandmother was aware of the present day importance of education?
Ans: Yes she was a woman of the present time. She was strong, confident and was conscious of the educational demands of the modern age. That is why, in spite of being upset, she happily sent her grandson abroad for higher studies
7. Give the author’s views about the grandmother’s apprehension for music.
Ans: When one day she learnt from the author that there were music lessons in the new school in the city, the grandmother got frustrated and tense because her notions about music were not pleasant. She believed music to be the business of the beggars, the poor and people of questionable characters-not the good people. So, she disliked music.
8. Do you think the grandmother was a kind of ideal human being?
Ans: Yes, because she was dutiful, true, active, confident, religious, hardworking, playful and very kind. As a good human being she was happy and never sat idle, these qualities teaches us to lead a happy and positive lifestyle.
9. Why did the well off lady suddenly fall ill?
Ans: Out of excitement and happiness at the return of her grandson she sang for many hours. This caused overstraining and she fill ill.
10. Describe the activities of the birds near the grandmother’s corpse.
Ans: The sparrows were strangely quiet and inactive, they were grieved and became so.
11. In the absence of his parents, What was the author’s routine with the grandmother?
Ans: The grandmother woke him up, bathed and served breakfast, went to school and returned together. Both fed the street dogs and stayed attached all the time.
12. Why was the author left with the grandmother? When did his parents sent for them?
Ans: When his parents initially went to live in the city the author was left with the grandmother in the city. When his parents were comfortably settled in the city the author and his grandmother were called from the village.
13. Portray the final moments of the grandmother.
Ans: The grandmother strongly repented for not praying on the previous evening. She felt that death was near to her, but she was not afraid and showed nothing. She started to pray and tell the beads of the rosary quietly. She died in the same position without any suffering or pain.
Long Types Questions & Answers:
1. The grandmother is presented as a deeply religious woman. Mention the occasions to prove this.
Ans: The grandmother was very religious. She is shown as reciting prayers and telling the beads of the rosary. The author says that in the village when she was getting him ready for school she kept reciting prayers to make him interested in the holy songs. At school when the children were taught the alphabets or the prayer in chorus, she sat inside the temple reading the scriptures.
On another occasion when she got to know that the grandson was not given lessons about god or scriptures, she felt unhappy. In the city also she utilized her time spinning the wheel and every time her prayers were on her lips. Even when she went to see off the author at the station and receive him after five years, she was reciting her prayers silently. In fact, before passing away she had declared that she was to die because she had skipped her previous evening prayers.
So, it is clear that she was seriously religious, she lived on her devotion.
2. Why did she start disliking Singh’s new school and its teachings?
Ans: In the village school the grandmother went with the author (singh) and she felt happy when there were lessons on scriptures and prayers were recited in the chorus near the temple. In the new school, though, the author started learning new theories and facts. And when the grandmother learnt that there were no lessons about God, she was depressed. Besides, she was angry that music lessons were imparted in that English school. She viewed music as immoral. So, she began to dislike the new school.
3. Imagine the grandmother in her childhood days.
Ans: When she was so active and confident in such a terribly old age, she was happy and she enjoyed life fully, in her childhood she must have been very enthusiastic. She must have been active, industrious, strong and jolly; she knew many games and was involved in every field of life. She studied at school, visited religious places and took care of animals and birds. She must have taken care of her parents and understood the needs of the time. It appears that she hardly had any complaints against anything in life.
4. Describe her evening before she died.
Ans: That day the author had returned home after five years of higher studies abroad and the grandmother received him at the railway station. Quite enthusiastically, she collected the neighborhood women and started her enjoyment. Till then she was having the same routine of the day but this was an unexpected change.
The change seen in her was that she had omitted her evening prayers for the first time. Replacing that she sang the homecoming of her grandson and beat the drum. She was so happy that the zeal continued for hours, the younger ones had to stop her rejoicing so that she was not overstrained.
The next morning she was caught by a mid fever and she died shortly after. She had the opinion that she was to die because she had missed the prayers.
5. What was the turning point in the relationship between the author and his grandmother?
Ans: When one day she learnt from the author that there were music lessons in the new school in the city, the grandmother got frustrated and tense because her notions about music were not pleasant. She believed music to be the business of the beggars, the poor and people of questionable characters-not the good people. So, she disliked music.
6. Sketch the character of the author’s grandmother.
Ans: Khushwant Singh’s grandmother is depicted by him as a very sweet old woman who seems to be in the same stage forever. Since he had seen her she was old right from his childhood. He says it becomes hard to believe when people say she had been once pretty and young.
The grandmother was very religious, she used to keep praying throughout the day, most of the time silently within herself, her rosary also shows her to be a devotee of God. She was very kind, in the village she used to feed the street dogs everyday, even in the city she continued her kindness, every afternoon she fed the sparrows. She was an active and confident woman. She kept spinning the wheel when free. She was mentally very strong because she was capable of controlling her emotions.
The grandmother was great in the sense that she well-adapted to all the changes and demands of a modern world. Though old, she never stuck to her old traditions and ways. When the author started to change his course of studies in the city school, she adjusted herself after initial disapproval.
Later when he was to go abroad, she didn’t show her sadness and herself saw him off in the railway station.
Thus, the grandmother was a symbol of a perfect ideal because she was a very good human being-simple yet smart, kind, cheerful, religious, active and understanding. She is a lesson of life in herself.
7. How did the grandmother adjust to the city life?
Ans: The author’s grandmother was a person capable of adapting herself to every sort of situation. From a village she had to shift to a city with a married son and his family, but she never showed any apprehension to the new life. She coped well with the new surroundings and a modern lifestyle near her. She shared the same room with the author but could not accompany him to school because he travelled in a bus. Again she could not feed any street dog there, but she took out time in the afternoons to feed the birds. She kept herself busy spinning the wheel during the daytime.
She took care of her grandson but could no longer help him with the studies in English medium, yet she did not feel too bad. Even on learning about the absence of religious teachings in the author’s new school, she adjusted after initial anger. She was very religious and believed that her prayers were very crucial to keep everything fine in their lives. She never interrupted the author’s decisions of studies or of going abroad whatsoever. She hardly had any complaints about the new way of living, and made herself fit for the changing careers of modern city life. She understood the value of time especially in a city, and herself too, did not waste time by sitting idle.
Reference to the context: “People said that she had once been young and pretty and had even had a husband, but that was hard to believe.”
This line occurs in khushwant singing’s essay ‘The portrait of a Lady’. While talking about his grandmother and her old age he makes this remark.
He says that he had heard people saying that his grandmother had been young and pretty long ago and had a husband. But since he had seen her in such a heavily old age that he found it hard to believe. He feels that she seemed to have been in the same old and stooping state from the beginning. Thus, his grandmother’s old age makes the author almost deny that she was ever young or prelty.
8. “Yes, she was beautiful.”
Ans: This line occurs in Khushwant Singh’s essay the point of a Lady’ who finds his grandmother beautiful, though old.
Singh says that his grandmother was old, pale, wrinkled and stooping but she had her own beauty. Her white attire, her religious attitude, her kindness, the loving nature-all these proved her beauty.
The confidence, sense of satisfaction, goodwill and peaceful living made her appear more youthful than a budding rose or an early morning. This is what real beauty is. So, the author rightly says that she was beautiful. She was beautiful in her individual manner.
9. “That was a turning point in our friendship”.
Ans: In the village the grandmother was the author’s constant friend. She used to wake him up and get ready for school. She accompanied him to his school and brought him back along with her. Besides taking care of her, she helped him with his studies. But in the city he went to an English School and gradually his topics of conversation grew difficult, he began talking about law of gravity, Archimedes, the round shape of the earth etc.
So, she could no longer help him in the studies and felt sad. She felt unhappy for the absence of religious teachings in that school. Most unpleasant for her was the music lessons which she hated. She almost stopped talking to him. But their feelings for each other never changed, the grandmother loved him equally and he too had the same regards for her.
10. “She said nothing but her silence meant disapproval”.
Ans: The line is taken from Khushwant Singh’s essay ‘The Portrait of a Lady’. He says this in the context of his grandmother’s dislike for music.
The grandmother was already hurt to know about the absence of religious teaching in the author’s new school, and then she was informed that music lessons were given in that school. She felt really unhappy as she believed that music is the occupation of bad people and good people should not get into it. She did not say anything, but almost stopped talking to her grandson after that.
That is why he says that her silence meant how disturbed she was at that.
11. “My grandmother accepted her seclusion with resignation.”
Ans: This line occurs in Khushwant Singh’s essay ‘The Portrait of a Lady’. He says this while talking about his grandmother’s preoccupation with herself.
In the city the two best friends, the author and his grandmother, went apart from each other for many reasons. But the old lady did not complain or feel sad, she decided and learnt a way to keep herself busy with herself. She spun the wheel, recited the prayers. Told the beads of rosary. In the afternoon she fed the sparrows and again prayed in the evening. She carried on rather well with her secluded life.
The author opines that without disturbing anyone his grandmother created good ways of spending her time and happily accepted her life.
12. “That was the first time since I had known her that she did not pray”.
Ans: This line occurs in Khushwant Singh’s essay “The portrait of a Lady” He makes this remark when he observes his grandmother omit. her evening prayers for the first time.
In the evening when the author returned from abroad the grandmother was so happy that she collected some women from the neighbourhood and started singing and beating an old drum. Her ecstasy was unbelievable. She enjoyed it for many hours and had to be stopped by persuasion. In this way, for the first time in the author’s knowledge, she missed her prayers, maybe unwillingly.
The author was surprised that the evening prayers were omitted by his deeply religious grandmother.
Notes of AHSEC Class 11 English Chapter 1 | English Medium Class 11 English Notes In this post we will explain to you Class 11 English Chapter 1 Question Answer | AHSEC Class 11 English Question Answer Unit 1 If you are a Student of English Medium then it will be very helpfull for you.
Note- If you find any mistakes in this CHAPTER, please let us know or correct them yourself. Thank you.