Summary of The Portrait of a Lady
The Portrait of a Lady is a short story by Indian writer Khushwant Singh. In this story, he describes how his relationship with his grandmother changed over the years of his life – from childhood to adulthood. He had always seen his grandmother as an old woman and refused to accept any possibilities of a young and lively past. Throughout the story, he presents the serene character of his grandmother. She loses touch with her grandson when he is a grown-up but maintains her daily ritual of praying and feeding animals and other living creatures like dogs and sparrows. The Portrait of a Lady Class 11 Summary given below will give you a detailed explanation of the chapter. Go through it thoroughly to understand the chapter better. You can also refer to BYJU’S CBSE Summary and CBSE Notes to access learning materials and notes for Class 11 CBSE English.
CBSE Class 11 English The Portrait of a Lady Summary
The author briefly describes how his grandmother used to look when he was a child. He describes her appearance to be typical of most grandmothers – she was an old, wrinkled woman. Although he had learned from people that his grandmother had been pretty in her younger days when she had a husband, he found it hard to believe. He then adds that he regarded his grandfather as someone who could not have a wife or children but could have only many grandchildren.
The author had seen his grandmother as an old lady since he was born. He found it against his nature to imagine his grandmother as a young woman – just like he could not believe her accounts of childhood when she used to play games. He could not come to terms with his grandmother being a pretty woman, but he always thought she was beautiful. He compares her to a winter landscape in the mountains – serenely white with her white outfits and silver hair. He found her to be the epitome of peace and contentment.
The author now tells us about the dynamics of his relationship with his grandmother over the years. As a child, his grandmother took care of him since his parents were in the city trying to earn a better life. His grandmother used to wake him up and prepare him for school. They used to go to the school together as it was attached to the temple. He attended classes while his grandmother read scriptures inside the temple. After school, his grandmother would feed stale chapattis to the village dogs, who would follow them home, fighting for the chapattis.
There came a turning point in the author’s life when his parents called him and his grandmother to the city where they had finally settled down. The author started attending an English school, and his grandmother no longer accompanied him to school. There were no dogs in the streets, so she fed sparrows. Their relationship began to change. She would ask him about his school, and he would tell her about the different concepts of western science and learning. The grandmother could not help him with these kinds of lessons at school. It made her unhappy. She became more disturbed to know that there were no lessons on God, and that music lessons were given at school. She became less friendly towards the author after learning this.
When the author went to the university, the friendship between him and his grandmother was broken. He stayed at the university, and his grandmother spent her days sitting at her spinning wheel, followed by afternoons when she would feed the sparrows. When the author decided to go abroad for further education, he expected his grandmother to be upset about it. But to his surprise, she was not. Instead, she accompanied him to the station to see him off and said goodbye with a silent prayer and a kiss on his forehead. He had imagined this to be his last physical meeting with his grandmother.
After five years, when the author returned, he found his grandmother looking the same as she used to years ago – not a day older. She welcomed him with a silent prayer and did not talk. Her happiest moment on the first day of his arrival was during the afternoon she spent with the sparrows. In the evening, she collected some women from the neighbourhood and sang songs about the homecoming of warriors. The author and his family persuaded her to stop, so she did not overstrain herself.
The next morning the author’s grandmother fell ill with a mild fever. While the doctor informed them that it would subside quickly, she was sure that her end was near. She expressed her desire to pray rather than talk to them since she was left with only a few hours of her life. Although the author and his family were reluctant, she paid them no heed. After some moments of praying, she passed away. The family mourned, and she was covered with a red shroud as was customary. Everyone went ahead to prepare for her funeral, and when they returned to her room to take her body away for cremation, they saw hundreds of sparrows scattered around her from her bedroom to the verandah.
Everyone felt sorry about the sparrows, and the author’s mother tried to feed some bread crumbs to the sparrows, but they did not seem to notice the food. When his grandmother was carried away, the sparrows flew away quietly.
Conclusion of The Portrait of a Lady
The Portrait of a Lady Class 11 Summary gives us a detailed picture of the relationship between the author and his grandmother. True to its name, the story draws a character sketch of the grandmother who stays the same over the years. Her thoughts, way of life and activities do not seem to change. While the author seems to go through a lot of change owing to his education in India and abroad, the grandmother just accepts the change. She continues living a life of serenity and simplicity until her death. She does not talk much to the author in his adult years and seems detached and emotionless to him at times. But this concept is challenged by the flock of sparrows that mourn her death.
Understanding the deeper meanings involved in a piece of writing is very important to have a good grasp of literature. Students can find other articles and materials related to CBSE English for better command over the syllabus. They can also find other related topics like grammar and writing on BYJU’S website.
