The Portrait of a Lady Question Answer | Invitation to English 1 | +2 2nd Year | CHSE Odisha
The Portrait of a Lady Question Answer CHSE Odisha | CHSE Odisha Class 12 The Portrait of a Lady Question Answer
Unit – 1
- Why was it hard for the author to believe that this grandmother was once young and pretty?
Ans: The author has seen his grandmother for the last 20 years. She was always wrinkled with white hair. So when people say that she was young and pretty in her youth, the writer could not believe it.
- How did the grandfather appear in his portrait?
Ans: In the portrait, the grandfather appeared to be a beard man with a big turban, loose-fitting clothes. He seemed to a hundred years old.
- What sort of a person did he look in his portrait?
Ans: In his portrait he looked as if he would only have lots and lots of grandchildren.
- How does the author portray his grandmother?
Ans: The writer’s grandmother was short, fat and slightly bent. Her face had wrinkles. She had grown older and had stayed at the same age for twenty years.
- Why does he say “the thought was almost revolting”?
Ans: The writer’s grandfather appeared to be more than hundred years who could have lots of grandchildren. His grandmother appeared old, but pretty and a bit younger. He could not think that such a pretty lady could be the wife of such on oldman.
- The grandmother had a divine beauty. How does the author bring this out?
Ans: The grandmother always told the beads of rosary. Her lips constantly moved in inaudible prayer. Yet she was like an expanse of pure white serenity breathing peace and contentment.
Unit – 2
- What was the grandmother’s routine in the village?
Ans: The grandmother used to wake up the writer every morning and got him ready for school. She bathed and dressed him and took him to school.
- How did the grandmother take care of the writer during his childhood? Was she a good companion of the writer in the village?
Ans: The grandmother woke him up every morning, bathed and dressed him, fed him and carried him to school. She was a good companion of the writer in the village, staying with him at every moment.
- What lessons did the writer learn from the village priest?
Ans: The writer learnt the alphabet and morning prayer from the priest.
- How did the grandmother spend her time at the temple?
Ans: Grandmother sat inside the temple and was reading the scriptures when the writer was studying near the priest.
- Was she a religious person? How?
Ans: Grandmother was a religious person. She said her morning prayer in a monotonous sing-song. She used to read the scriptures in the temple.
Unit – 3
- Why didn’t the grandmother accompany the writer to school in the city?
Ans: The writer went to school by bus. So the grandmother did not accompany him to school.
- Why could not the grandmother help the writer with his lesson at the city school?
Ans: The writer was reading western science, law of gravity, Archimedes’ principle, the world being round. Grandmother did not know it. So she couldn’t help him in his lessons.
- Why did the lessons at the English school distress grandmother?
Ans: Grandmother was an old fashioned lady. To her reading scriptures was real education. As the English school taught western science instead of scriptures she thought it distressing.
- Why was she disturbed about music lessons at the English school?
Ans: Grandmother looked disturbed when she heard that music lessons were taught at the English school, because to her, music had leud association. It was the monopoly of harlots and beggars, not for the gentle folk.
- What were the three ways in which the grandmother spent her days when the author went to university?
Ans: When the writer went to university, the grandmother felt lonely. She spent time sitting by spinning wheel, reciting prayers and feeding the sparrows.
- What was the happiest time of the day for her?
Ans: In the afternoon, grandmother fed the hundreds of sparrows that gathered around her demanding bread. While feeding them she felt that the time was the happiest day for her.
- How did she accept her seclusion?
Ans. When the relationship from the writer was cut off, grandmother did not complain, rather accepted it with resignation.
Unit – 4
- How did the grandmother see the author off at the railway station?
Ans: When the writer decided to go abroad, grandmother came to see him off at the railway station. She kissed his forehead and saw him off.
- How did she receive him when he came back home from abroad?
Ans: When the writer came back home from abroad, grandmother came to the station to receive him. She clasped him in her arms.
- What were her happiest moments on the first day of his arrival?
Ans: On the first day of his arrival, her happiest moments were with her sparrows whom she fed longer and with frivolous rebukes.
- How did she celebrate return in the evening? Does her behaviour appear odd to you?
Ans: In the evening, she collected some women of the neighbourhood, played drum, sang of the home coming of warriors.
- How did she pass away?
Ans: She lay peacefully in bed praying and telling her beads. Gradually her lips stopped moving and her rosary fell from her lifeless fingers. She died a peaceful death.
- How did the sparrows react when the author’s grandmother died?
Ans: When the author’s grandmother died, the sparrows sat scattered on the floor, around the dead body without chirruping. They did not take away food.
- “Next morning the sweeper swept the bread crumbs into the dustbin. “What does this line imply?
Ans: Mother offered few pieces of bread to the sparrows sitting around the corpse of grandmother. They did not receive it. So the next morning the sweeper swept the bread crumbs into the dustbin to clear the room.