The Portrait of a Lady is a short story written by Famous Indian writer, Khushwant Singh. The story of novel revolves around a relationship of author with his grandmother.
The Portrait of a Lady Class 11 Summary By Khushwant Singh
Summary of The Portrait of a Lady By Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh “The Portrait of a Lady” begins with the description of his grandmother, my grandmother was an old woman like other peoples grandmother. She was very old and had many wrinkles on her face. I think she was always that much old. I can’t believe she was once young, beautiful and had husband because I never see her like that.
Whenever I look at my grandmother she always look me an old woman. On the other side, I have only seen one photo of my grandfather in which I saw he used to wear loose clothes and turban on his head. My grandfather doesn’t look like that he had a wife. Thereafter, I can’t imagine that my grandmother had a husband once.
My grandmother told me that she used to spend lots of time with me when I was a child. We have played games together, she used to tell me about the stories of religion, angel and super heroes. My grandmother was short in height, fat in weight and her back was bent.
She had many wrinkles on her face. I believe she was always like that no matter how many years passed. Even if we go 20 years back still she was same only. My grandmother used to roam in whole house and was always busy in doing some household work.
She had Rudra garland on her hands and her hair was always Grey. Apart from all these things I know one thing that is she was very beautiful. My grandmother and me were very good friends, my parents left me in village with my grandmother and they came in city. Therefore, I have spend most of childhood time with my grandmother. She used to wake me up for school, gives me food and make me ready for school.
While making me ready for school, she used to sing Bhajan of god which I also learned by listening to her. As well as I loved her voice but I does not try to remember those Bhajans. When I got ready for school, she used to gave me slate and chalk in school bag.
Thereafter, we used to have breakfast with Chapati and butter and after breakfast we leaved for my school. My grandmother keep few stale Chapatis which she used to feed to dogs. We both reached Temple where Pundits used to teach children like me while my grandmother sits in temple and sang Bhajans.
After my school, we used to return together and along the way we meet dogs who we feed our Chapatis. As my parents settled in city, they called us, which means we have to leave village and go in city to live with my parents.
As we goes in city, my grandmother and my friendship changed even though we sleep together in one room. Now, my grandmother does not make me ready for school like she does in village, I go in English medium school by school bus. As there were no dogs to feed, my grandmother started feeding Birds. As the time passes, we spend less time together as I was busy in my study and she was busy in household work and feeding birds.
Someday we used to talk, when sometimes she asked me what my teacher teach me, I used to tell her everything like English words and about the Science subject. She does not like it because she wanted to help me in studies but can’t as she was not graduate.
She wants me to learn about Indian culture, God and country. One day I return from school, I told my grandmother that my school is giving us music lessons. According to her, playing music was lower caste people’s work but she does not interfere in my music lessons. Thereafter, as I grow old I started going university and then I had my own separate room.
As I got admission into university, my grandmother and me used to spend very less time together. But my grandmother does not mind about it and now she has started spending her time with Charkha and singing Bhajans. This was her daily routine.
After completing my graduation, I went to foreign country for further studies. I was going foreign country for five years and I felt my grandmother would be very sad about it. But she wasn’t sad, she kiss on my forehead and this was our last physical attraction.
My grandmother was very happy about me and she does not said anything. After five years, when I return I find my grandmother like she was before. She wasn’t looking much old and nor she had any changes. She was looking like she always was. She was happy to see me but does not talk with me much. She still followed her same routine like she always does which is feeding birds and praying to god.
My grandmother evening routine has changed now, she sing song and plays Drum with women of the neighborhood. She sings that much that it started affecting her health. That was the first day when I did not see her praying to god. Next day, when I woke up I find my grandmother ill, she was suffering from fever. We called doctor and he told us that it is just a normal fever and she will be okay soon.
On the other side, my grandmother told us that it won’t be okay anymore because her time has come. As I have less time now so I don’t want to waste my time I just want to pray to god. One day, My grandmother died praying to god.
We pick her up and covered her body with red bedsheet, all of us cried for long time. Afterwards, we started preparing for her funeral. At the evening time, lots of birds gathered at my home which my grandmother feed. It was looking like all the birds are looking at my grandmother only.
We feel bad so my mother feeds them with few pieces of bread. But those birds does not even look at those breads pieces, those birds flies from there and does not ate any bread. Thereafter, those birds never come back at our home.
ABOUT AUTHOR : Khushwant Singh was famous Indian author and lawyer who was born in 2 February 1915. Khushwant Singh is awarded with couple of awards like Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. His famous work include, Train to Pakistan, The History of Sikh and Black Jasmine. Khushwant Singh died at the age of 99 in 20 March 2014.