describe the grandmother 's approach when the author left for the university
class 11 english hornbill
chapter 1 the portrait of the lady
Answers
Answer:
Section C – Literature
1
Hornbill
Chapter 1: The Portrait of a Lady
Answers to Text Book Questions
Understanding the text
1. The three phases of the author's relationship with his grandmother before he left the country to
study abroad.
Ans. (a) Early childhood or a phase of admiration and friendship. When author was in the village
with his grandmother, they were good friends. She woke him up in the morning and got
him ready for the school. She waited for him in the temple while he was in the school and
then walked him back. The author described her as winter landscape in the mountains an
expanse of pure white serenity.
(b) Childhood or shifted to city. Now grandmother could not accompany author to school as
he went school by bus. Grandmother could not help author in studies as now he was in an
English school, where they taught English, Science, and Music. She could not understand
English and did not believe in Science and she felt that Music was not meant for gentle
folk. She felt unhappy when she learnt that city school did not teach about God’s scriptures.
(c) Adulthood or went to university. When author went to the university he got a separate
room and even the last link of a shared room was snapped. The grandmother kept to her
spinning wheel, feeding the sparrows and telling the beads of rosary rarely talking to
anyone.
2. Three reasons why the author’s grandmother was disturbed when he started going to the city
school.
Ans. The author’s grandmother was disturbed when he started going to the school because in city
school he learnt English words and western science and learning the law of gravity, Archimedes’
principles. She was distressed that they were not taught about God and the scriptures. Author’s
grandmother was very disturbed about the fact that he was given music lessons. To her music
had lewd associations.
3. Three ways in which the author’s grandmother spent her days after he grew up.
Ans. The three ways in which the author’s grandmother spent her days after he grew up; she accepted
her seclusion without complaining to anyone and did not interact much with the author. She
rarely left her spinning wheel to talk to anyone, from sunrise to sunset she sat by her spinning
and reciting prayers. In the afternoon she relaxed for a while to feed the sparrows.
4. The odd way in which the author’s grandmother behaved just before she died.
Ans. When the author returned from abroad, she was delighted to see him back in the evening.
She collected the women from the neighbourhood and sang for the hours of the homecoming
hours. The next day she developed mild fever, the doctors believed that she would recover, the
grandmother knew that her end was near. She said that since only a few hours before the closeof the last chapter of her life. She had omitted to pray. She was not going to waste anymore
time talking to them. She ignored their protests. She lay peacefully in bed praying and telling
her beads till her lips stopped moving and the rosary fell from her lifeless fingers.
5. The way in which the sparrows expressed their sorrow when the author’s grandmother died.
Ans. When the grandmother died thousands of sparrows collected in the courtyard. There was no
chirruping. When the author’s mother some bread for them, they took no notice of the bread
crumbs. They took no notice of them. After her cremation they flew away without touching the
crumbs. The next day bread crumbs had to be swept away.