Describe the changing relationship between the author and his grandmother. Did their feelings for each other change?

Solution

Circumstances did have a bearing on the relationship between the author and his grandmother. They had most intimate relationship when they were in the village. They were ‘good friends’. His parents left him with her when they went to live in the city. They were constantly together. She used to wake him up in the morning. She got him ready for school. After a breakfast of a thick, stale chapatti with a little butter and sugar, they went to school. She always went to school because the school was attached to the temple. While the narrator was at the school, the old lady sat in the temple reading scriptures.

A turning point came in their relationship. The narrator’s parents sent for them in the city. Now she couldn’t go to school with him as he went there in a motor bus. In the new English school, she couldn’t help him in studies. She hated English, science and music. As the years rolled by they saw less of each other. When he went up to university, the common link of their friendship was snapped. When he went abroad she came to see him off at the station and kissed his forehead.

No, their feelings for each other didn’t change. The grandmother was very much excited when the narrator returned from abroad. She celebrated the homecoming of her grandson. For several hours she sang and thumped the drum. She tired herself and fell ill.

Some More Questions From The Portrait of A Lady Chapter

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?

Notice the following uses of the word ‘tell’ in the text:
1. Her fingers were busy telling the beads of her rosary.

2. I would tell her English words and little things of Western science and learning.

3. At her age one could never tell.

4. She told us that her end was near.

Given below are four different senses of the word ‘tell’. Match the meanings to the uses listed above.

1. make something known to someone in spoken or written words

2. count while reciting

3. be sure

4. give information to somebody

Notice the different senses of the word ‘take’.

to take to something: to begin to do something as a habit

to take ill : to suddenly become ill
Locate these phrases in the text and notice the way they are used.

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The Portrait Of A Lady

Describe the changing relationship between the author and his grandmother. Did their feelings for each other change?

Some More Questions From The Portrait of A Lady Chapter

The author’s grandmother was a religious person. What are the different ways in which we come to know this?