ENGLISH Answer the Questions [2 MARKS]

In the city, grandmother had taken to feed the sparrows. Hundreds of little birds collected around her. Some perched on her legs while others on her shoulders. Some even sat on her head. This used to be the happiest half an hour of the day for her. When grandmother died and was to be taken to the crematory thousands of sparrows sat scattered on the floor. There was no chirruping.
The author and others felt sorry for the birds. His mother fetched some bread for them. Breaking it into little crumbs she threw them to the sparrows. But the sparrows took no notice of the bread. When grandmother’s dead body was carried away, the sparrows flew away quietly. In this way the sparrows expressed their sorrow.

In the evening of the first day of his arrival grandmother began to behave in a very strange way. She gathered the women of her neighbourhood, got hold of an old drum and playing on it she began to sing, in spite of people telling her not to overstrain. For the first time the author noticed that she did not pray.
Next morning she was taken ill. Though the doctor announced that it was a mild fever, she told that her end was near. She did not waste her time talking to anyone. She lay peacefully in her bed praying and telling her beads. Even before they could say something her lips stopped moving and the rosary fell from her lifeless fingers. A peaceful paleness spread over her face. They knew that she was dead.

The author’s parents were comfortably settled in the city and they sent for him. This was the turning point in the relationship between him and his grandmother. In the village she used to feed the dogs. But now since there were no dogs in the city she took to feeding the sparrows in the courtyard with crumbs of bread. When the author went to the university, he was given a room for himself. Their friendship was snapped.
But she accepted being alone without any questions. She rarely left her spinning wheel and reciting of prayers. Feedings of sparrows was the happiest half hour of her day. Hundreds of little birds collected around her creating a lot of noise. Some of them perched on her legs the others on her shoulders. Some even sat on her head. But she never chased them away. When she was alone her fingers were always busy with her rosary and lips moved in prayers.

Going to the city affected her routine of being of some help to the author. His going to the school in a motor-bus and she not being able to accompany him disturbed her. As time passed they saw less of each other. On returning from the school one day she learned from the author that he was taught several laws based on science. This made her unhappy as she could not help him with his lessons.
The fact that nothing about God was taught in the school disturbed her more. The most shocking aspect was the teaching of music in the school. According to her music was meant for the people belonging to lower categories such as beggars and prostitutes and not the gentlefolk. Though she said nothing her silence clearly displayed disapproval. After this incident occurred she rarely spoke to the author.

The relationship of the author with his grandmother can be categorised in three phases. Namely: in the village, in the city and while he underwent music lessons.
In the village, since he was young, she took care of all his requirements, beginning with waking him up early morning she got him ready for school. After providing him breakfast she escorted him to the school which was attached to the village temple. While the author studied she sat in the temple reading her scriptures. After school she brought him back home but on the way she fed the village dogs with the leftover stale chapatis.
The second phase deals with their relationship In the city where the author has joined an English school. She has now discontinued to escort him to the school as he goes to the school in a motor-bus. She is unable to help him in his studies also.
Learning music at school forms to be the third phase of their relationship. The knowledge of his learning music shocks her. According to her music is meant for people belonging to the lower category such as beggars and harlots. Time has now come where she rarely spoke to the author.

The expression used in our language for a ‘dilapidated drum’ is ‘Junu-fatelu dhol’.

My elderly relatives are well-versed in English and Gujarati, I feel at home greeting them in English but like to converse with them freely in Gujarati.

The author’s grandmother was not much educated. So, I think the author and his grandmother used to talk in their mother tongue-in this case Punjabi.

Yes, I have known my grandfather, who loved me deeply and looked after me. He had served in the army before he retired as a colonel 20 years ago. When I was a school going kid, he was still active and smart. He was fond of walking, jogging and playing outdoor games. He inspired us to get up early in the morning. He believed that a healthy mind lives in a healthy body. He used to give us good physical exercises followed by milk and nourishing food and then asked us to study for a while before going to school. In the afternoon, he would enquire what we had been taught at the school. He would help us in our home task and supervise our reading, writing and doing sums. He was gentle but firm. He laid stress on good habits and character building. He passed away when I had gone abroad for higher studies. I miss him a lot. A sense of loss fills me whenever I see his portrait on the wall. But his cheerful looks remind me to take heart and fight the struggle of life.

The author’s grandmother possessed a very firm nature. She was a women of determination. She possessed set beliefs. She did not deter from her faith. She practised certain religious values without caring for the views or criticism of others. One could always see her lips moving in prayers. She was always telling the beads of her rosary. She never deterred from practising a set routine whether it was in the village or city. In the village she fed the dogs and in the city she fed the sparrows. When the author went abroad for further studies she was in complete control of her emotions. Even at the time of departure she was saying her prayers and telling the beads of the rosary.

The relationship between the author and his grandmother never underwent any changes in spite of the changes in circumstances. During their stay in the village she proved to be his best companion. She woke him up in the morning. After giving him bath she got him ready for school. She never left him while he was at school. She sat there till the school got over and then took him back home. When his parents had settled in the city they (author’s parents) called them over. The author now joined the English school.
Being concerned she asked him about the studies. When she knew that there was no teaching of scriptures, she was distressed. The distance between them grew up but their love for each other continued to remain the same. The author’s going abroad for further studies also had not reduced their love for each other. She hardly talked to him, but this also did not affect their affection for each other. When he came back after five ye,ars she took him into her arms. Though physically they were away, at heart they were very close.

The author’s grandmother was a pious lady in the real sense of the word. Her lips always moved in prayers which were inaudible and one of her hands was always found telling the beads of her rosary. She never ceased reading the scriptures. She always advocated that children should be taught scriptures and about the existence of God. She was distressed when she came to know that no such education was imparted in the author’s English school.
Another sign of being religious is also witnessed when she feeds the dogs and the sparrows. Prediction about her own end being near also denotes her pious nature. She refuses to talk to anyone and busies herself in consistant meditation. The obvious fact was that she did not stop praying and telling her beads till the end of her life.

She did not , believe in the things they taught at the English school. She hated Western Science and learning. She was pained to know that there was no teaching of God and the scriptures there.

The turning point in their friendship came when they shifted to the city. Now the narrator went to an English school in a bus. Grandmother could no longer accompany him to school. Although they shared the same room, they saw less of each other.

Grandmother had a kind heart. She loved her grandson. She loved even birds and animals. In the village, she fed the street dogs. In the city, she would feed the sparrows.

The grandmother went to the school with the narrator. The school was attached to the temple. The narrator would learn alphabet and morning prayer at school. The grandmother would sit inside the temple. There she would read holy books. Thus, she spent her time before they came back together.

During his childhood, the narrator stayed with his grandmother in the village. She was his constant companion. She looked after him. She used to wake him up. She got him ready for school in the morning. She would give him breakfast. She went to school with him.

The grandmother was always dressed in spotless white. She had silvery hair. Her white locks spread untidily over her pale and wrinkled face. She looked like an expanse of pure white Serenity. The stretch of snow over the mountains looks equally white and peaceful. So her silvery locks and white dress made her look like the winter landscape in the mountains.

She was terribly old to appear pretty. Her face was a criss-cross of wrinkles. She was short, fat and slightly bent. She didn’t create any physical appeal or attraction. However, In her spotless white dress and grey hair she was a picture of serenity, peace, sobriety and beauty.

The narrator’s grandfather looked very old. He had a long white beard. His clothes were loose fitting. He wore a big turban. He looked too old to have a wife or children. He looked at least a hundred years old. He could have only lots and lots of grandchildren.

Khushwant Singh’s grandmother has been portrayed as a very old lady. She was short-statured, fat and slightly bent. Her face was wrinkled and she was always dressed in spotless white clothes. She was a deeply religious lady. Her lips were always moving in a silent prayer. She was always telling the beads of her rosary. She went to the temple and read the scriptures. The grandmother was a kind lady. She used to feed dogs in the village. In the city she took to feeding the sparrows.
She had great affection for her grandson. She looked after him in the village. She could not adjust herself to the western way of life, science and English education. She hated music and was distressed to know that there was no teaching about God and holy books at Khushwant’s new English school. On the whole, she was a nice, kind-hearted and religious lady.

Khushwant Singh’s grandmother was closely involved in bringing him up when the author lived with her in the village during his early life. She used to wake him up early in the morning. While bathing and dressing him, she sang her prayers. She hoped that the young boy Would learn it by heart. She then gave him breakfast-a stale chapati with butter and sugar.
Then they would go together to the temple school. While the author learnt his lesson, the grandmother would read holy books. They returned home together. A turning point came in their friendship when his parents called them to city. Although they shared a room, she could not help him much. She hated music, science and western education. The common link of their friendship was gradually snapped.

The grandmother lay dead. Thousands of sparrows came there. They did not Chirrup. They paid their last homage to the old lady silently. She used to feed them regularly. The narrator’s mother threw some crumbs of bread to them. They took no notice of them. As soon as the grandmother’s corpse was carried off, they flew away quietly.

The grandmother realised that her end was near. She continued praying. Her fingers were busy in telling the beads of her rosary. She lay peacefully in bed. She did not talk to anyone. After sometime, her lips stopped moving. The rosary fell down from her fingers. She died peacefully.

There was a strange change in her behaviour. She was over-excited. She celebrated the arrival of her grandson. She collected all the women of the neighbourhood. For hours she continued singing and beating the drum. She had to be persuaded to stop to avoid overstraining. Perhaps it was the first time that she didn’t pray.

She was not at all sentimental. She kept silent and didn’t show her emotions. Her lips moved in prayer and her fingers were busy telling the beads of her rosary. She only kissed the narrator’s forehead. He cherished the moist imprint as perhaps the last sign-of physical contact between them.

The narrator went to the university. Now he was given a room of his own. This separated the narrator from his grandmother. The common link of their friendship was thus finally broken.

She considered that music had lewd associations. It was not meant for decent people and gentlefolk. It was actually the monopoly of prostitutes and beggars.

The narrator had known his grandmother – old and wrinkled for the last twenty years. She was terribly old. Perhaps she could not have looked older. People said that she had once been young and pretty. They said that she even had a husband. The narrator found it hard to believe.

The old grandmother lost even the last link of friendship with the author so she made friends with the sparrows. In the afternoon, she threw small bits of bread to the birds who even sat on her shoulders and her head. After her death, the sparrows also grieved for her. Thousands of them made a circle round her. They made no noise, no movement. They refused to eat the crumbs offered to them. They flew away only after her dead body was taken away.

When the author got a room of his own in the city home, the old lady accepted her aloofness calmly. She worked on her spinning wheel all day long and recited her prayers. Only in the afternoon did she take a half-hour break to rest and to feed the birds.

The common link between the old lady and her growing-up grandson was that they shared the same room in the city for several years. It was broken when he went to university and got a room of his own. She was left alone but she accepted her aloofness quietly.

The old grandmother was old-fashioned in her thinking and she herself was not much educated. She did not believe in the things they taught in English schools. She was against English education as it imparted no religious teaching. She was of the view that music was meant only for beggars and prostitutes.

In the city, the friendship between the old lady and the little grandson came under strain. She was disturbed because she could not go with him to school, nor help him with his lessons. She did not approve of English education, particularly the music lessons. The author, as he grew up, got a room of his own. The growing distance between them upset her. All this made her unhappy.

The grandmother was quite doting and was very affectionate towards her grandson. The author was a small boy. For his safe journey to and from school, she went with him to the temple-school. She utilised her time reading scriptures in the temple.

The author and his grandmother became good friends in the village home. The grandmother readied him for school and accompanied him there. They were together almost the whole day. Her affection and care lasted until her last breath. But in between, when they lived together in the city that link grew weak. The author studied in an English school and was not taught about God and scriptures at all. Now she could not help him with his studies. Finally, he got a room of his own and this made her withdraw from him. But the friendship was broken only after she had died.

The old grandmother often told the children of the games she used to play as a child. It seemed absurd or unbelievable and even Indecent on her part. The children treated those stories like fables. They found it hard to believe that their grandmother could have ever been young and pretty. They had always seen her as an old lady: so they liked to think of her only as their grandmother.

The author’s old grandmother was deeply religious-minded. She all day long counted the beads of the rosary and recited prayers. She read scriptures inside the temple. She was disturbed to know that there was no teaching about God and scriptures at the city school. She fed the dogs in the villages and the birds in the city.

The old lady was a caring person. She had a love for birds and animals. In the village, she threw chapattis to the street dogs. In the city, she had no dogs around, so she began to feed little birds. This showed her affection for all living creatures and her noble nature.

The narrator was left to the care of his grandmother in the village home when his parents went to live in the city. She looked after the child with care and love. She bathed him, dressed him, fed him, got his school bag ready, and then took him to temple-school. She helped the boy with his lessons.

The author’s grandmother used to wear spotless white clothes. She had silvery hair. White all over, she looked like the winter landscape in the mountains covered with snow. She recited her prayers all the time, so had a serene expression on her face which was like the peaceful, white mountains.

It was almost unbelievable that the author’s grandfather ever had a wife and children. He looked as if he could have only lots of grandchildren. In case of the author’s grandmother, it was difficult to imagine or believe that she, too, once used to play as a child, that she was ever young and pretty, or that she too had a husband.

The portrait of the narrator’s grandfather hung in the drawing room. He wore a turban and loose-fitting clothes. His long, white beard gave him the look of a 100-year-old man who could have only grandchildren.

Khushwant Singh says that his grandmother was so old that she could not get any older. Her face was full of wrinkles. She was short, fat and somewhat bent. It was unbelievable to imagine that she had once been young and pretty, and had a husband. The thought of her being a child once was almost revolting to him.

The author's grandmother was disturbed when he started going to the city school for several reasons. Firstly, she was deeply attached to him and had a routine that revolved around his company, especially in the mornings. She was uncomfortable with the idea of him leaving for the city, as it meant breaking their shared time and the closeness they had developed. Secondly, she felt disconnected from the modern, fast-paced world of the city, which was different from her quiet, spiritual lifestyle in the village. Lastly, the grandmother's traditional values made her anxious about the changes in the author's life, including the influence of the English medium and the new environment. She wanted to ensure that the author stayed grounded in the customs and values she held dear.