The Portrait of a Lady (Hornbill) — Important Questions
25 questions
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SUMMARY: "The Portrait of a Lady" by Khushwant Singh is a narrative that reflects on the author's relationship with his grandmother and the changes in their bond over time. KEY TOPICS: Khushwant Singh, grandmother's description, village life, urban transition, grandmother's daily routine, author's childhood memories, grandmother's religious devotion, impact of modernization, grandmother's death, themes of nostalgia and change.
Where did the author live with his grandmother as a child?
AIn England
BIn a village in Punjab
CIn Mumbai
DIn Calcutta
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Correct answer: Option 2 — In a village in Punjab
Q31 Mark
What was the grandmother's daily companions in Delhi after the author began going to an English school?
AThe cows in the courtyard
BThe sparrows that came to her
CHer old village friends
DThe neighbour's children
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Correct answer: Option 2 — The sparrows that came to her
Q41 Mark
Why did the relationship between the author and his grandmother begin to weaken in the city?
AShe fell ill
BHe went to an English school where she could not help him with lessons
CShe had to live in another house
DShe lost interest in him
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Correct answer: Option 2 — He went to an English school where she could not help him with lessons
Q51 Mark
How did the sparrows respond on the day after the grandmother's death?
AThey sang loudly
BThey flew away in alarm
CThey sat silently around her body without eating the bread crumbs
DThey never returned
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Correct answer: Option 3 — They sat silently around her body without eating the bread crumbs
Short Answer Questions5 questions
Q63 Marks
Describe the physical appearance of the grandmother as the author remembers her.
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The grandmother is described as short fat and slightly bent. She had a wrinkled face that was always serene. Her silver locks were scattered untidily over her pale puckered face and her lips constantly moved in inaudible prayer. She looked like a winter landscape in the mountains - an expanse of pure white serenity. The author calls her appearance the very picture of peace and contentment.
Q73 Marks
How did the relationship between the author and his grandmother change once he went to an English school in the city?
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Earlier in the village the grandmother used to wake the author bathe him take him to school and feed him. In the city this changed. He went by bus alone and she could not help him with English lessons or with the music and science she did not understand. She especially disliked his lessons on Western music. The shared moments of childhood gradually disappeared and the warm physical companionship gave way to a quiet emotional distance.
Q83 Marks
How did the grandmother feed the sparrows? Why was the activity important to her?
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Every afternoon the grandmother fed crumbs of bread to the sparrows that gathered in the verandah. Hundreds of them would come and perch on her - on her shoulders her head and even her lap. She would smile but never shoo them away. After the author's family moved to the city she had no temple to visit no village children to talk to and no farm work to do; the sparrows became her only daily companions and the act of feeding them gave her a sense of purpose love and quiet companionship.
Q93 Marks
Describe the grandmother's reaction when the author returned from England after five years.
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For the first time in years the grandmother broke her usual quiet routine. She did not pray. Instead she gathered the women of the neighbourhood took an old drum and sang of the homecoming of the warriors. The author and his family had to persuade her to stop because she might overstrain her heart. Her unusual joy showed the depth of her unspoken love for him.
Q103 Marks
What was unusual about the sparrows' behaviour after the grandmother's death? What does it suggest?
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On the day of her funeral when the author's mother brought a basin of bread crumbs as usual the thousands of sparrows that normally crowded around her did not eat. They sat silently scattered around her dead body. When the corpse was carried away they flew off without making a sound. The author's mother emptied the bread crumbs into the dustbin. The sparrows' silent vigil suggests that the bond between the grandmother and the birds was not merely about food - it was a mutual affection that the birds also felt the loss of.
Long Answer Questions5 questions
Q116 Marks
Describe the three phases of the relationship between the author and his grandmother as portrayed in 'The Portrait of a Lady'.
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The story moves through three distinct phases. PHASE ONE - VILLAGE - The author and his grandmother are inseparable. She wakes him gives him a bath dresses him and walks him to the village temple-school carrying his slate and stale chappatis. She listens to the priest teach the alphabet and prayers and feeds the village dogs on the way back. Their bond is warm physical and constant. PHASE TWO - CITY - The family moves to a city. The author starts going to an English school by bus. The grandmother no longer accompanies him. She cannot help him with English Western music or science. She gradually withdraws into prayer and the daily ritual of feeding sparrows. The shared world dissolves; their bond becomes silent. PHASE THREE - SEPARATION AND RETURN - The author leaves for university in England for five years. On his return the grandmother breaks her usual silence and celebrates by singing and drumming with the women of the neighbourhood. That very evening she falls ill and dies the next day. The phases trace the universal arc of childhood - intimacy gradual distance and a final reunion that comes too late. The story is also a portrait of how affection across generations endures even when daily companionship does not.
Q126 Marks
How does the author use the grandmother's relationship with the sparrows to symbolise her inner life and her death?
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Khushwant Singh's portrait of his grandmother is layered with quiet symbolism and the sparrows are the most powerful image. As long as she is alive the sparrows arrive every afternoon in the hundreds. They perch on her shoulders her head and her lap. She smiles silently and feeds them broken bread. This daily ritual mirrors her own life - solitary undemonstrative deeply loving and self-sufficient. The sparrows are the only friends her city life allows her; through them the reader understands her quiet generous spirit and her isolation. When she dies the sparrows arrive as usual - but they do not chirp. They do not eat. They sit scattered around her body in silent grief. When the corpse is carried away they fly off without noise. The author's mother throws the bread crumbs into the dustbin - a small act that signals the end of an era. The sparrows have become a community of mourners. Their silent vigil universalises the grandmother's death; if even the sparrows have noticed her absence then the world has lost something quietly precious. The bird imagery transforms a personal grief into something almost mystical - a shared sorrow shared by even the birds of the air.
Q136 Marks
'The grandmother in the story is the very picture of Indian womanhood.' Discuss with reference to her qualities and lifestyle.
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The grandmother in 'The Portrait of a Lady' embodies many qualities considered ideal in traditional Indian womanhood. RELIGIOUS DEVOTION - She moves her lips constantly in inaudible prayer telling beads of her rosary all day; even in old age her mind is on God. KINDNESS TO ANIMALS - She fed stray village dogs on the way back from school in childhood and continued the ritual in the city by feeding hundreds of sparrows daily. SELFLESSNESS - She quietly gave up her place in the author's daily life when he moved to the English school never complaining about being sidelined. SERENITY - Her face was always peaceful unmoved by the changing circumstances of life. COURAGE AND CHEERFULNESS - On the author's return from England after five years she organised a celebration with neighbourhood women - drums and songs of warrior-homecoming - showing she had not become a passive figure. CARE FOR THE NEIGHBOURHOOD - Her relationship with women of the area suggests a network of care typical of Indian families. PHYSICAL DIGNITY - Even in old age she walked steadily and prayed. Khushwant Singh's portrait however does not romanticise her; he honestly notes the gradual silence between them as he became an English-educated boy. The honest tribute makes her stand for not just Indian womanhood but for the universal grandmothers whose love is rarely fully recognised in life.
Q146 Marks
Compare the village and city phases of the grandmother's life as shown in the story.
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In the village the grandmother is at the centre of the household. She wakes the author dresses him takes him to the temple-school listens to the priest teach the alphabet feeds the village dogs and runs the rhythms of daily life. The temple is her social anchor; the priest is the author's teacher; the dogs are her companions on the walk home. The world is small predictable and full of small responsibilities that give her meaning. In the city this entire world dissolves. The author goes to an English school by bus alone. The grandmother cannot accompany him. She does not understand his English lessons or Western music or his science books. The temple is replaced by an indifferent urban space; the dogs are replaced by sparrows in the verandah; her social network shrinks to a few neighbourhood women. She withdraws into prayer feeds the sparrows and waits. The contrast is poignant - the city has not given her a new life; it has emptied her of the old one. Yet she does not complain. Her silent acceptance and the warmth she still carries in her heart make the city phase even more moving than the village phase. The story quietly suggests that what cities take from older generations is rarely fully returned.
Q156 Marks
Why is 'The Portrait of a Lady' considered a moving portrayal of an unspoken bond? What makes the story emotionally powerful?
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The story is a moving portrayal of an unspoken bond because it captures relationships sustained without grand gestures. Khushwant Singh and his grandmother rarely speak of their love. The bond is held together by small rituals - the morning bath the shared walk to school the bread crumbs for the village dogs. As the author grows up these rituals fall away one by one yet the love does not. The author goes to an English school then to England for university; the grandmother withdraws into prayer and sparrows. They do not write moving letters or share conversations - their bond is felt rather than spoken. The story's emotional power comes from how Khushwant Singh observes and recognises this silent love. He notices that she did not pray on the day he returned - that she sang and danced and overstrained her heart. He notices that when she died the sparrows did not eat. He notices the small acts of love that an ordinary narrator would have missed. By recording them in clean unsentimental prose he turns a personal tribute into a universal one. Every reader recognises in his grandmother an elder figure of their own - someone whose love was always present and only fully felt after their death. The story teaches us to look closely at the quiet love that surrounds us before it is too late.
Assertion–Reason Questions5 questions
Q161 Mark
Assertion (A): The grandmother always carried a string of beads in her hand and her lips moved in prayer.
Reason (R): Her religious devotion was the central organising principle of her daily life and gave her serenity in old age.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
Q171 Mark
Assertion (A): The relationship between the author and his grandmother weakened after they moved to the city.
Reason (R): She could not help him with the new English curriculum and the daily rituals of village life ended.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
Q181 Mark
Assertion (A): The sparrows did not eat the bread crumbs after the grandmother's death.
Reason (R): Their silent vigil suggests an emotional bond between her and the birds beyond the act of being fed.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
Q191 Mark
Assertion (A): The grandmother sang and drummed with neighbourhood women on the day the author returned from England.
Reason (R): Her unexpected celebration revealed the depth of her quiet love for him.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
Q201 Mark
Assertion (A): The narrative voice of the story is honest and unsentimental.
Reason (R): The author resists romanticising the grandmother and instead lets her actions and the sparrows' grief speak for themselves.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
Statement-Based Questions5 questions
Q211 Mark
Statement 1: The grandmother used to walk the author to and from the village temple-school.
Statement 2: She also fed the village dogs the stale chappatis on the way back.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both statements are true.
Q221 Mark
Statement 1: The grandmother is described as short fat and slightly bent with a wrinkled face.
Statement 2: The author compares her serenity to a winter landscape in the mountains.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both statements are true.
Q231 Mark
Statement 1: In the city the grandmother spent her time spinning prayer beads and feeding sparrows.
Statement 2: Her social circle shrank to a few neighbourhood women and the daily ritual with the birds.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both statements are true.
Q241 Mark
Statement 1: The grandmother died on the evening of the day the author had returned from England.
Statement 2: The doctors were told her heart had given way after the unusual exertion of celebrating his return.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both statements are true.
Q251 Mark
Statement 1: The story is a tribute to a quiet generous and undemonstrative grandmother.
Statement 2: It also reflects on how city life and modern education quietly weaken bonds with elder generations.
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Correct answer: Option 1 —
Both statements are true.
