Class 9th English Chapter-15 The Portrait Of A Lady

NOW ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

Q1. How has the author described his grandmother?
Ans: The author describes that his grandmother was an old woman like everybody’s grandmother. Her skin was wrinkled due to old age. She was short and fat and slightly bent. Her physique remained unchanged. She couldn’t have grown older and she stayed at the same age for twenty years. She hobbled with one hand resting on her waist to balance her stoop. Her face was a crisscross with wrinkles.

Q2. What impression did the author get looking at his grandfather’s photograph?
Ans: The photograph of the author’s grandfather was hung above the mantelpiece in the drawing room. He wore a big turban and loose-fitting clothes. His long white beard covered the best part of his chest and he looked a hundred years old. According to the author, his grandfather didn’t look like the sort of person who would have a wife or children. Rather he looked as if he had lots of grandchildren.

Q3. Do you think the author’s grandmother was a religious person? Why do you think so?

Ans: Yes, I think that the author’s grandmother was a religious lady. Because she was often telling the beads of her rosary in her one hand. Her lips constantly moved in praying an inaudibLe prayer. While she bathed his grandson (author), she said morning prayer in a monotonous sing-song. As a pious lady, she also offered food to the village dogs.

Q4. The author says that he and his grandmother were good friends. Did they do anything together?
Ans: After the departure of his parents to the city, the author and his grandmother became close friends living constantly together. The author’s grandmother used to wake him up in the morning and get him ready for school. She would get the study materials ready for his school. Both went to school regularly. When they walked back, they used to throw stale chapattis to the village dogs.

Q5. Why did his grandmother carry chapattis when they went to school? What does this tell you about her?
Ans: The author and his grandmother used to go to school together after breakfast. She took stale chapattis with her for the village dogs and offered it to them during their return from school. This tells us that the author’s grandmother was very kind to the animals.

Q6. Life was comfortable for the author and their grandmother. Do you think it will continue to be so?
Ans: No, I think that the comfortable life of the author and his grandmother would not continue for long as the author could not always stay with her when he went to the city for higher study.

Now ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

Q1. The author and his grandmother were very close to one another. How do you know this?
Ans: The author’s grandmother went to school with him because the school was attached to the temple. When he learned the alphabet and prayer, his grandmother sat reading the scriptures in the temple. Then they walked back home together. After some days they shifted to the city to live with the author’s parents. They shared the same room there. So both were very close to each other.

Q2. When did their relationship change? Why?
Ans: The author’s parents settled in the City. So he and his grandmother .went there and shared the same room. But in the city, she could no longer go to school with him. The author went to an English school alone on a motor bus. Besides she couldn’t help him with his study. Of course, for some time she continued to wake him up and would get him ready for school. They couldn’t revive their previous relationship as a great change had taken place.

Q3. There were some things about the author’s school that his grandmother did not like. What were these?
Ans: The author attended an English school in the city. When his grandmother came to know about the lessons taught at school, she was not happy as she couldn’t help him with his lessons. She was distressed to hear that the students were not taught about God and the scriptures. One day she heard that the students were being given music lessons. She told that it was not meant for gentle folk as it had lewd associations. These were the things about the author’s school that his grandmother didn’t like.

Q4. What happened to their relationship when the author went to the university?
Ans: The author and his grandmother had developed an amiable relationship before. But unfortunately, a great change was noticed when the author went to a university for his higher study. He was given a room of his own. So the common link of their friendship was snapped. They were unable to revive their old relationship. His grandmother accepted the unavoidable change. Thereafter she remained silent and felt lonely and isolated.

Q5.What did his grandmother do with her time?
Ans: The author went to a university and was separated from his grandmother. She felt it seriously. From sunrise to sunset she sat by her wheel spinning and reciting prayers. In the afternoon she got some time to feed the sparrows. She sat on the veranda breaking the bread into pieces and hundreds of sparrows gathered around her. It used to be the happiest half-hour of the day for her.

Q6.The distance between the author and his grandmother grew wider. What do you think will happen next?
Ans: I think after some years distance between an author and his grandmother would become wider and the relationship between them would be completely cut off when the author would go abroad for higher studies.

Now ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
Q1. The author decided to go abroad. Why did he think that his grandmother would be upset?
Ans: The author decided to go abroad for further studies. He thought that his grandmother would be upset because he would be away for five years. They were very close to each other. They developed a strong relationship and they had never been separated before. The author had been living with her grandmother since his childhood.

Q2. How did his grandmother behave when she saw him on his return to the station?
Ans: The author came back home after five years. He met his grandmother at the station. She didn’t look even a day older. She told nothing to him. But she clasped him in her arms. The author could hear her reciting her prayer. She was as silent as she was on the day of his departure.

Q3. What changes came over her in the evening?
Ans: The author returned home after five years and met his grandmother. That evening a change came over her. She didn’t offer her prayer. She collected the women of the neighbourhood, got an old drum, and started to sing of the homecoming of warriors. It continued for a long time. So the family members persuaded her to avoid overstraining keeping in view her weakness.

Q4. Was her illness of a serious nature?
Ans: In the evening, when the author came back from abroad, a change came over the grandmother. The very next morning she became ill. But her illness was not so serious. It was a mild fever. The doctor was consulted and he told me that it would go. Her illness was not seemed to be of a serious nature.

Q5. Why did she refuse to talk to her family members?
Ans: The grandmother became ill due to a mild fever. It was not serious, still, she thought differently. She told the family members that her end was near. She expected her death after a few hours. She didn’t like to waste any more time talking to them. So she refused to talk to the family members.

Q6. What did the author and his family see when they went to take her for a cremation?
Ans: When the author and his family members went to take her for cremation, they found thousands of sparrows sat scattered on the floor where she lay dead and stiff wrapped in the red shroud, but there was no chirping. They felt sorry for the birds. So the author’s mother offered them little crumbs of bread but the birds didn’t touch the food.

Q7. What was strange about the behaviour of the sparrows?
Ans: When the family members were going to take the corpse, they found a number of sparrows sitting scattered on the floor. They were not chirping that day. So feeling sorry for the birds, the author’s mother gave them little crumbs of bread like her mother-in-law. But they took no notice of the bread. It seemed as if they were mourning over the death of their dear old woman. That was strange about the behavior of the sparrows.

D. LET’S WRITE :

Write the answers to the following questions in about 50 words each :

Q1. How does the author describe his grandmother?
Ans: The author’s grandmother was an old woman who had been old and wrinkled. People said that once she had been young and pretty. She was short and fat and slightly bent. Her face was a crisscross of wrinkles. She hobbled with one hand resting on her waist to balance her stoop and the other telling the beads of her rosary. She was a pious lady. She constantly recited an inaudible prayer. Above all, she was very kind and affectionate.

Q2. The author and his grandmother were good friends. Give examples to support this statement.
Ans: The author and his grandmother were good friends. The author’s parents shifted to the city leaving him with his grandmother in the village. They lived together in the village and became very close to each other. His grandmother took his utmost care. Every morning she used to get him ready for school. Both walked to school regularly and threw stale chapattis to the village dogs during their return. Even when they moved to the city to live with the author’s parents, they shared the same room for some years.

Q3. How did the author’s grandmother behave when he was going abroad?
Ans: The author decided to go abroad for his higher studies. He thought that his grandmother would be upset as he would be away for five years. But that didn’t happen. She went to see him off at the railway station. She neither told anything to him nor showed any emotion there. She realized the situation and she was not sentimental. Rather her mind was lost in prayer. Just she kissed his forehead silently.

Q4. The author’s grandmother was a religious lady. Do you agree? Why?
Ans: The author’s grandmother was really a religious lady. She was very meek and mild and she had firm faith in God. So her lips constantly moved in inaudible prayer. Most of her time was spent telling the beads of her rosary. She believed in God and never did any harm to others. During her stay in the village, she used to give food to the village dogs and in the city to the sparrows.

Q5. How did the sparrows behave when the grandmother died?
Ans: When the grandmother died, the sparrows behaved in a quite strange way. Since it was daytime, thousands of sparrows whom she used to feed regularly sat scattered on the floor silently. That day they didn’t make their usual chirping. It revealed that they were lamenting over the death of the old woman. Although the family members were busy with the funeral ceremony, they felt sorry for the birds. The author’s mother offered them some bread to eat. But they didn’t look at the food. When they carried her dead body, the birds flew away silently.

Q6. The author and his grandmother shared a very close relationship. This changed when they moved to the city. Why did this happen?
Ans: The author and his grandmother shared a very close relationship when they were living in the village. That relationship changed when they moved to the city. In the village, they used to go to school together. But in the city, the author studied in an English school and went there alone on a motor bus. His grandmother couldn’t accompany him. She was not happy about the lessons taught to the author at school. She could no longer help the author with his lessons. The author’s grandmother was distressed to know that there was no teaching about God and the scriptures at school. Further, she didn’t like the music lessons taught at school, as they had lewd associations and were not meant for gentlefolk. When the author went to the university he was given a separate room.

E. ACTIVITY :

I. There was a change in the relationship between the author and his grandmother. Some of the following are the reasons for this change. Tick all the correct answers.
(a) The author went to an English school.
(b) He went to school by bus.
(c) There were sparrows in the city.
(d) His grandmother could not help him with his lessons.
(e) The school did not teach anything about God.
(f) She didn’t like western science.
(g) She liked music.
(h) When he went to the university they had separate rooms.
Ans:
(a) The author went to an English school. (✓)
(b) He went to school by bus. (✓)
(d) His grandmother could not help him with his lessons. (✓)
(e) The school did not teach anything about God. (✓)
(f) She didn’t like western science. (✓) .
(h) When he went to the university they had separate rooms. (✓)

II. Grandmothers are the pillars of the family. They create bonds that hold the family together. Discuss.
Ans: It is an exaggeration to say that grandmothers are the elderly members of the family. They are the fountains of love and affection. As they are the senior most people, everybody in the family respects them. They are very dear to the grandsons and granddaughters. They enjoy themselves in their company. Grandmothers try their best to keep all the family members together. They never allow any dispute in the family. They are like the main pillars of the family. So they create bonds that hold the family together.

​Class 9th English Chapter-15 The Portrait Of A Lady Question Answer

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Class 9th English Chapter-15 The Portrait Of A Lady Question Answer