How could the grandmother be ‘beautiful’ without being ‘pretty’?

Which language do you think the author and his grandmother used while talking to each other?

Which language do you use to talk to elderly relatives in your family?

How would you say ‘a dilapidated drum’ in your language?

Can you think of a song or a poem in your language that talks of homecoming?

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.

The word ‘hobble’ means to walk with difficulty because the legs and feet are in bad condition.

Tick the words in the box below that also refer to a manner of walking.

Talk with your family members about elderly people who you have been intimately connected with and who are not there with you now. Write a short description of someone you liked a lot.

What does Khushwant Singh describe in ‘The Portrait of a Lady’?

Was the narrator’s grandmother once young and pretty? If not, why?