Chapter the-portrait-of-a-lady: The Portrait of a Lady | Summary

The Portrait of a Lady is a touching biographical sketch by Khushwant Singh, where he describes his changing relationship with his grandmother over several years. The story begins in a village setting where the author and his grandmother shared a deep bond. The grandmother is depicted as an extremely religious, kind-hearted, and disciplined woman. She was not 'pretty' in the traditional sense but possessed a 'spiritual beauty' that the author compares to a winter landscape in the mountains—peaceful and serene. In the village, she was his constant companion, waking him up, dressing him for school, and walking him to the temple-attached school while she read scriptures inside. Their relationship hit a turning point when they moved to the city to live with the author’s parents. In the city, the author attended an English school and travelled by bus, which meant the grandmother could no longer accompany him. She was deeply distressed to learn that he was being taught Western science and music instead of religious scriptures. To her, music was lewd and not meant for gentlefolk, leading her to withdraw into silence. As the author grew up and went to university, he was given a separate room, snapping the last link of their physical friendship. The grandmother accepted her seclusion with resignation, spending most of her day at the spinning wheel and reciting prayers. Her only moment of relaxation was in the afternoon when she fed hundreds of sparrows in the verandah. When the author decided to go abroad for five years, he expected her to be upset, but she saw him off at the railway station without showing any emotion, her lips moving in constant prayer. Upon his return, she celebrated his arrival by gathering neighborhood women and singing songs of homecoming for warriors while beating an old drum. This overexertion led to a mild fever. Realizing her end was near, she refused to talk to anyone, wanting to spend her final moments only in prayer. She died peacefully with the rosary falling from her lifeless fingers. In a final, moving tribute, thousands of sparrows gathered in the verandah where her body lay. They did not chirp or eat the bread crumbs offered by the author's mother; instead, they sat in silent mourning and flew away quietly once the corpse was carried off. The story beautifully captures the themes of transition, the gap between generations, and the silent strength of traditional values.