The Portrait of a Lady & A Photograph

The three phases of the author's relationship with his grandmother are:

Phase 1 — In the village (childhood):
The author and his grandmother shared a very close and intimate bond. She would wake him up, help him get ready for school, and accompany him to the village school. She would sit outside the classroom reading the scriptures while he studied. They were almost inseparable companions.

Phase 2 — In the city school:
When they moved to the city, the author went to an English-medium school by a motor bus. The grandmother could no longer accompany him. She was disturbed by the new curriculum — English, Western science, and the absence of religious teaching. The bond began to loosen, though she still spent time with him in the afternoons.

Phase 3 — At the university (living in the hostel):
When the author was given a room of his own in the university, the common link of their being together was snapped. They rarely met. The relationship became distant, though the grandmother never showed any bitterness. She spent her time spinning, praying, and feeding sparrows.

The three reasons why the author's grandmother was disturbed when he started going to the city school are:

1. No religious education: The city school did not teach the children about God or the scriptures. The grandmother believed that education without religious instruction was incomplete and morally wrong.

2. Teaching of music: The school taught music, which the grandmother considered unbecoming and improper. She associated music with 'nautch girls' and beggars, and felt it had no place in the education of respectable children.

3. No mention of God: The curriculum included English and Western science but made no mention of God. The grandmother felt that a school that did not teach children to pray or know God was doing them a disservice.

After the author grew up and moved to the university hostel, the grandmother spent her days in the following three ways:

1. Spinning the wheel (charkha): She sat by her spinning wheel most of the day, spinning quietly. This kept her occupied and gave her a sense of purpose.

2. Reciting prayers: She continuously recited prayers, moving her lips and telling the beads of her rosary. Prayer was the central activity of her daily life.

3. Feeding sparrows: Every afternoon she would sit in the verandah and feed hundreds of sparrows with bread crumbs. This became a ritual she deeply enjoyed, and the sparrows would throng around her.

Just before she died, the author's grandmother behaved in an unusual and unexpected way:

She stopped her prayers for the first time in her life. Instead of spending the evening in quiet prayer as was her lifelong habit, she gathered the women of the neighbourhood, got an old drum, and sang and beat the drum for hours together. She sang songs of the homecoming of warriors — loud, celebratory songs.

This was completely out of character for her, as she had always been a deeply religious and quiet woman who disapproved of music. The family felt this was odd behaviour, but she dismissed their protests. It was as if she was celebrating something — perhaps her own impending death, which she sensed was near. That night she quietly lay in bed, told her beads, and passed away peacefully.

The sparrows expressed their grief in a deeply moving and silent manner:

When the family came to take the grandmother's body for cremation in the evening, they found thousands of sparrows sitting scattered all over the verandah and in her room, right up to where her body lay wrapped in a red shroud.

What was most striking was the complete silence — there was no chirruping at all. The birds sat absolutely still and quiet, which was very unlike their usual noisy behaviour.

When the author's mother threw bread crumbs to them (the way the grandmother used to), the sparrows took no notice of the bread. They were not interested in food.

When the family carried the grandmother's body away, the sparrows flew away quietly. This silent, collective mourning was their way of paying tribute to the woman who had lovingly fed them every day.

The author's grandmother's deep religiosity is evident throughout the text in many ways:

1. Constant prayer: Her lips were always moving in silent prayer. She was perpetually telling the beads of her rosary, whether sitting, walking, or resting.

2. Accompanying the author to school: In the village, she would sit outside the classroom and read the scriptures while the author attended school. She turned even this routine into a religious activity.

3. Disapproval of non-religious education: She was deeply disturbed that the city school did not teach the children about God and the scriptures. This shows how central religion was to her idea of a good life.

4. Feeding sparrows as a religious act: Her daily ritual of feeding sparrows was not merely an act of kindness but also a form of devotion — a way of serving God's creatures.

5. Death while praying: Even on her deathbed, she lay peacefully telling her beads. Her rosary fell from her fingers only when she breathed her last — a deeply symbolic image of a life lived in prayer.

6. Disapproval of music: She considered music immoral and associated it with disreputable people, reflecting her conservative religious values.

The changing relationship:

The relationship between the author and his grandmother went through three distinct phases:

- In the village: Their bond was extremely close and warm. She woke him up, prepared him for school, walked with him to the village school, and waited for him outside. They were constant companions.

- In the city: The bond began to loosen. The author went to school by bus and the grandmother could not accompany him. She was disturbed by his new education. They still met in the afternoons, but the intimacy was reduced.

- At the university: When the author got his own room, the common link was broken. They rarely met. When he went abroad, they were separated for five years.

Did their feelings change?

The *circumstances* changed, but the *feelings* did not fundamentally change. The grandmother never showed resentment or bitterness. She accepted each phase with quiet dignity. When the author returned from abroad, she celebrated joyfully by singing and beating the drum. The author, too, always retained deep affection and respect for her. The emotional bond remained strong even when physical closeness was lost.

Yes, the author's grandmother was undoubtedly a person of strong character. The following instances demonstrate this:

1. Acceptance of change without bitterness: When the author moved to the city school and later to the university, she accepted the growing distance without complaint or self-pity. She adapted to each change with quiet strength.

2. Firm in her beliefs: She disapproved of music and the absence of religious education in the city school. She expressed her disapproval clearly, though she did not impose her views forcefully.

3. Self-reliance in old age: After the author moved to the hostel, she did not sit idle or feel sorry for herself. She kept herself meaningfully occupied with spinning, praying, and feeding sparrows.

4. Dignified farewell: Sensing that her end was near, she chose to spend her last evening celebrating (singing and beating the drum) rather than grieving. She then lay down peacefully, told her beads, and died without fuss or drama — a death as dignified as her life.

5. Refusal to be a burden: She never complained about loneliness or the changes in her life. Her strength lay in her silent acceptance and her deep inner life of prayer.

Note: This question requires a personal, subjective response. The following is a model answer that students may adapt.

Yes, many of us have known elderly relatives — grandparents, great-aunts or great-uncles — who, like the author's grandmother, were deeply religious, self-sufficient, and full of quiet love. They may not have expressed their affection in words, but their presence was a source of comfort and security.

The sense of loss described by the author is universal. When someone we love deeply passes away, we often feel a strange emptiness — not just grief, but the loss of a particular kind of warmth and familiarity that can never be replaced. The author's description of the sparrows sitting silently, refusing to eat, mirrors the way we ourselves sometimes feel — unable to go about our normal lives, struck silent by loss.

What makes such loss particularly poignant is that we often realise the depth of our love only after the person is gone. The author's quiet, understated account of his grandmother's death is more moving than any dramatic expression of grief could be.

The author and his grandmother most likely spoke in Punjabi (or their regional mother tongue). The story is set in a Punjabi household, and the grandmother was a traditional village woman who would not have been educated in English. The author, too, as a child in the village, would have communicated in his mother tongue. Even after he began learning English at the city school, their personal conversations at home would have continued in Punjabi, as that was the language of their shared emotional world.

Note: This is a personal response question. The following is a model answer.

I use my mother tongue (e.g., Hindi / Tamil / Bengali / Punjabi — as applicable to the student) to talk to elderly relatives in my family. Elderly members of the family are often more comfortable in their regional language, and conversations in the mother tongue feel more natural, warm, and intimate. Sometimes a mix of the mother tongue and Hindi is used, depending on the topic and the relative.

Note: This answer will vary by language. The following is a model answer in Hindi.

In Hindi, 'a dilapidated drum' can be said as:
$$\text{"एक टूटा-फूटा / जर्जर ढोल"}$$

- *जर्जर* (jarjar) means dilapidated, worn out, or in a state of decay.
- *ढोल* (dhol) means drum.

So the phrase would be: "एक जर्जर ढोल" or "एक टूटा-फूटा ढोल".

Note: This is a personal/creative response. The following is a model answer.

Yes, in Hindi literature and folk tradition, there are many songs and poems that celebrate homecoming. For example:

- "Aayo re Aayo re" — a folk song sung when a son or husband returns home after a long absence.
- In the context of the lesson itself, the grandmother sang songs of the homecoming of warriors (*"ghar aane ki khushiyan"*) when the author returned from abroad.
- The famous Hindi poem "Ghar Wapsi" (Return Home) by various poets captures the joy and emotion of returning to one's roots.

Such songs and poems remind us that homecoming is a deeply emotional experience across all cultures — a reunion with one's roots, loved ones, and identity.

The correct matching is as follows:

| Use | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1. Her fingers were busy telling the beads of her rosary. | (b) count while reciting — Here 'telling' means counting the beads one by one as prayers are recited. |
| 2. I would tell her English words and little things of Western science. | (d) give information to somebody — The author was sharing/informing his grandmother about what he had learnt. |
| 3. At her age one could never tell. | (c) be sure — This means one could never be certain or sure about anything at her advanced age. |
| 4. She told us that her end was near. | (a) make something known to someone in spoken or written words — She communicated/announced to the family that she was going to die soon. |

Locating the phrases in the text:

1. 'to take to something' (to begin to do something as a habit):

In the text: *"She took to feeding sparrows in the courtyard of our city house."*

Here, 'took to feeding' means she began the habit of feeding sparrows regularly. It was not something she had always done, but something she adopted as a new daily routine after the author moved to the university and she had more time to herself.

2. 'to take ill' (to suddenly become ill):

In the text: *"...when she was taken ill..."* (referring to the evening before her death, when she developed a mild fever after her singing and celebration).

Here, 'taken ill' means she suddenly fell sick — she developed a fever, which the family did not take seriously at first, but which turned out to be the beginning of her final hours.

The words that refer to a manner of walking are:

$$\checkmark \text{ shuffle} \quad \checkmark \text{ stride} \quad \checkmark \text{ waddle} \quad \checkmark \text{ swagger} \quad \checkmark \text{ trudge}$$

Explanations:
- Shuffle — to walk by dragging one's feet along the ground without lifting them properly.
- Stride — to walk with long, decisive steps.
- Waddle — to walk with short steps, swaying from side to side (like a duck).
- Swagger — to walk in a very confident, arrogant manner, swinging the body.
- Trudge — to walk slowly and heavily, especially when tired or carrying a load.

Words that do NOT refer to walking:
- Haggle — to argue/bargain over a price.
- Ride — to travel on a vehicle or animal.
- Wriggle — to twist and turn the body (not specifically walking).
- Paddle — to walk or play in shallow water; also to row a boat.
- Slog — primarily means to work hard; though it can informally mean to walk with effort, it is not primarily a walking word.

The past perfect tense is formed using had + past participle. It is used to describe an action that was completed *before* another action or point in the past — i.e., the more distant past.

Let us examine each sentence:

Sentence 1:
*"My grandmother was an old woman. She had been old and wrinkled for the twenty years that I had known her. People said that she had once been young and pretty and had even had a husband, but that was hard to believe."*

- *Had been*, *had known*, *had once been*, *had even had* — all refer to states/events that existed or occurred long before the time of narration. The author is recounting the remote past.

Sentence 2:
*"When we both had finished we would walk back together."*

- *Had finished* — the finishing of the meal was completed before the walking back began. The past perfect shows the sequence of events.

Sentence 3:
*"When I came back she would ask me what the teacher had taught me."*

- *Had taught* — the teaching happened before the author came back home. The past perfect shows that the teaching was prior to the asking.

Sentence 4:
*"It was the first time since I had known her that she did not pray."*

- *Had known* — the knowing (the entire period of acquaintance) preceded the specific moment being described. The past perfect emphasises the long duration of the past relationship.

Sentence 5:
*"The sun was setting and had lit her room and verandah with a golden light."*

- *Had lit* — the lighting up of the room had already happened (was already complete) at the moment when the sun was setting. The past perfect shows a completed action in the past.

Conclusion: The past perfect is used throughout the text to recount events of the remote or more distant past, especially when the narrator is looking back from a later point in time and describing what had already happened before another past event.

1. Paddling:

*Context:* "When the two girl cousins went paddling" — the poem describes a sea holiday, with the children at the beach.

*Inferred meaning:* Walking or playing in shallow water at the edge of the sea, splashing about with bare feet.

*Dictionary meaning:* To walk with bare feet in shallow water; to dabble the feet or hands in water. ✓ (Inference confirmed)

2. Transient:

*Context:* "The sea, which appears to have changed less, / Washed their terribly transient feet."

*Inferred meaning:* The sea has remained the same over the years, but the feet (and the people they belong to) have not — they are temporary, fleeting, not permanent. So 'transient' seems to mean *short-lived* or *temporary*.

*Dictionary meaning:* Lasting only for a short time; temporary; fleeting. ✓ (Inference confirmed)

The contrast between the permanent sea and the transient feet (and lives) of the people is the central poetic image — the sea endures while human beings are mortal and fleeting.

What 'cardboard' denotes:

The word 'cardboard' refers to an old photograph — specifically, a photograph printed or mounted on a thick piece of cardboard, which was the common format for photographs in the early twentieth century. Old photographs were often pasted onto stiff cardboard backing to preserve them.

Why this word has been used:

The poet has deliberately chosen the word 'cardboard' rather than simply saying 'photograph' for several reasons:

1. It emphasises the physical, material nature of the object — it is just a piece of cardboard, a flat, lifeless object. Yet it holds within it an entire world of memory and emotion.

2. It suggests age and distance — cardboard photographs belong to an older era, reinforcing the sense of time having passed.

3. It creates an ironic contrast — something as ordinary and mundane as a piece of cardboard becomes the medium through which the poet connects with her dead mother and the lost past.

The word thus sets the tone of the poem — the tension between the ordinary (a piece of cardboard) and the extraordinary (a window into the past and into grief).

The camera has captured a moment from a sea holiday — a snapshot of the poet's mother as a young girl of about twelve, standing on the beach with her two younger girl cousins, Betty and Dolly.

Specifically, the photograph shows:
- The poet's mother as a young, sweet-faced girl of about twelve years.
- Her two girl cousins (Betty and Dolly), each holding one of her hands.
- All three standing still, smiling through their hair at the uncle who is taking the photograph.
- The sea in the background, washing over their feet.

The camera has thus captured a fleeting moment of childhood joy — a carefree sea holiday, a smile, a family gathering — a moment that was 'terribly transient' but has been preserved in the photograph long after the people in it have changed or died.

What has not changed:

The sea has not changed over the years. The poet says: *"And the sea, which appears to have changed less..."* The sea looks the same in the photograph as it does today — vast, timeless, and indifferent.

What this suggests:

This contrast between the unchanging sea and the transient human beings is deeply significant:

1. The permanence of nature vs. the mortality of humans: The sea endures across generations, while the people who stood in it — the young girl, her cousins, and eventually the poet's mother — have all aged and died. Nature is indifferent to human loss.

2. The passage of time: The sea serves as a symbol of eternity and continuity, making the brevity of human life all the more poignant. The feet that the sea washed were 'terribly transient' — here today, gone tomorrow.

3. The universality of loss: The sea's constancy reminds us that loss and death are part of the natural order. The world goes on even when individuals do not.

The image is both beautiful and melancholy — the sea's indifference is a quiet comment on human mortality.

When the poet's mother looked at the snapshot some twenty to thirty years after it was taken, she laughed and said, *"See Betty and Dolly... and look how they dressed us for the beach."*

What the laugh indicated:

1. Fond nostalgia: The laugh was a warm, affectionate recollection of a happy childhood memory — the sea holiday, the cousins, the old-fashioned beach clothes. It was the laughter of someone revisiting a pleasant past.

2. The distance of time: The laugh also indicated that enough time had passed for the memory to be viewed with gentle amusement rather than sharp longing. The mother could look back at her younger self with a kind of detached fondness.

3. 'Wry' laughter — the ease of loss: However, the poet describes it as *"wry with the laboured ease of loss."* This suggests the laugh was not entirely carefree. It was tinged with a quiet sadness — the awareness that those days were gone, that Betty and Dolly had grown old, that youth had passed. The laughter was a way of coping with loss — making it bearable by treating it lightly.

In short, the laugh was bittersweet — joyful on the surface, but carrying within it the weight of time and loss.

This is one of the most complex and beautiful lines in the poem. Let us analyse it carefully:

'Both' — refers to two things:
- The sea holiday (the mother's past, captured in the photograph)
- The mother's laughter (the poet's memory of her mother laughing at the photograph — which is now the poet's own past)

'Wry' — means twisted, bitter, or ironic. Something that is wry has a quality of quiet, rueful humour — it is not straightforwardly happy or sad, but a mixture of both.

'Laboured ease' — this is an oxymoron (a contradiction in terms). 'Ease' suggests effortlessness and comfort; 'laboured' suggests effort and difficulty. Together, they describe the way people learn to carry loss — it appears easy or casual on the surface (the mother laughs, the poet speaks calmly), but this ease has been worked at, struggled for. It does not come naturally; it is achieved through effort.

'Loss' — the loss of youth, of time, of loved ones, of the past.

Overall meaning:
Both the sea holiday (the mother's past) and the mother's laughter (the poet's past) are tinged with a quiet, ironic sadness. The ease with which people speak of or laugh at their losses is not genuine ease — it is a coping mechanism, a way of making grief bearable. The line captures the universal human experience of learning to live with loss by treating it with a kind of wry, practised lightness.

'This circumstance' refers to the death of the poet's mother.

In the third and final stanza, the poet says:
*"Now she's been dead nearly as many years / As that girl lived. And of this circumstance / There is nothing to say at all. / Its silence silences."*

The 'circumstance' is the fact that the poet's mother has been dead for almost as many years as she lived as the young girl in the photograph. In other words, the mother has been absent from the poet's life for as long as she was present in it as a young person.

This is a devastating realisation — the mother's death has lasted as long as her youth. The poet finds that there are no words adequate to describe or respond to this fact. The grief is so deep and the loss so absolute that language fails. Hence: *"Its silence silences"* — the circumstance of death imposes a silence that silences even the poet's voice.

The three stanzas of the poem 'A Photograph' depict three distinct phases of time and experience:

Stanza 1 — The Distant Past (Before the poet was born):
This stanza describes the photograph itself — the sea holiday when the poet's mother was about twelve years old, standing with her two cousins Betty and Dolly, smiling at the uncle with the camera. The poet was not yet born. This is the most distant past, preserved only in the photograph.

Stanza 2 — The Intermediate Past (The poet's own childhood/youth):
This stanza describes a time some twenty to thirty years after the photograph was taken, when the poet's mother would look at the snapshot and laugh, reminiscing about Betty and Dolly and the old-fashioned beach clothes. The poet was alive and present during this phase. This is the poet's own past — her memory of her mother's laughter.

Stanza 3 — The Present (After the mother's death):
This stanza brings us to the present moment. The mother has now been dead for nearly as many years as she lived as the girl in the photograph. The poet is left with silence — there is nothing to say about death and loss. This is the present phase, marked by grief, absence, and the inadequacy of language.

Thus the poem moves from the past → the recent past → the present, tracing the arc of time, memory, and loss.