my grandmother like everybody's grandmother was an old [Music] woman she had been old and wrinkled for the 20 years that I had known her people said that she had once been young and pretty and had even had a husband but that was hard to believe my grandfather's portrait hung Above The Mantel piece 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 at least 100 years old he did not look the sort of person who would have a wife or children he looked as if he could only have lots and lots of grandchildren as for my grandmother being young and pretty the thought was almost revolting revolting hard to believe she often told us of the games she used to play as a child that seemed quite absurd and undignified on her part and we treated it like the fables of the prophets she used to tell us absurd illogical undignified disrespectful what does this mean fables imaginary stories prophets Saints means the fables of prophets are the imaginary stories of saints the grandmother told these stories to teach moral values when the author's grandmother told him about the game she he played as a child he considered them as fables of prophets means just like he did not believe in her stories he could not believe that she would play in her childhood she had always been short and fat and slightly bent her face was a crisscross of wrinkles running from everywhere to everywhere no we were certain she had always been as we had known her old so terribly old that she could not have grown older and had stayed at the same age for 20 years she could never have been pretty but she was always beautiful she hobbled about the house in spotless white with one hand resting on her waist to balance her stoop and the other telling the beads of her Rosary this thing is Rosary it is a string of beads used to count the prayers while reciting it is also known as jet Mala her silver locks were scattered un tily over her palale pucked face silver locks gray hair stale not fresh puckered face wrinkled face and her lips constantly moved in in audible prayer yes she was beautiful she was like the winter landscape in the mountains an expanse of pure white Serenity breathing peace and contentment the author has described the physical appearance of his grandmother she was short and slightly bent she had wrinkles all over her face she wore plain white clothes one hand rested on the waist and the other telling the Beats of of rosary her hair scattered over her pale face she was not pretty but she was beautiful means she was not physically attractive but her face reflected calmness peace and contentment that is why she is compared to the winter landscape in the mountains that is an expense of pure white calmness peace and contentment thus she was not pretty but she was beautiful my grandmother and I were good friends my parents left me with her when they went to live in the city and we were constantly all the time she used to wake me up in the morning and get me ready for school she said her morning prayer in the monotonous sing song while she bathed and dressed me in the hope that I would listen and learn it by heart I listened because I loved her voice but never bothered to learn it then she would fetch my wooden slate which she had already washed and plasted with yellow choke a tiny earn ink pot in a red pen tie them all in a bundle and hand it to me those days in India a wooden slate was used it was called Tik te she washed and plastered it with yellow chalk what is a yellow chalk it refers to a yellow clay known as this it was plastered on the Slate every day and cleaned after the writing was done the pen is actually a piece of wood that is dipped in the ink pot and is used to write on the Slate hope you understood after a breakfast of a thick Stout chapati with a little butter and sugar spread on it we went to school she carried several stale chapatas with her for the village dogs my grandmother always went to school with me because the school was attached to the temple the priest taught us the alphabet in the morning prayer while the children sat in Rose on either side of the Miranda singing the alphabet or the prayer in the chorus my grandmother sat inside reading the scriptures when we had both finished we would walk back together this time the village dogs would meet us at the temple door they followed us to our home growling and fighting with each other for the chipot as we threw to them when my parents were comfortably settled in the city they sent for us that was a turning point in our friendship although we shared the same room my grandmother no longer came to school with me I used to go to an English school in a motor bus there were no dogs in the streets and she took to feeding sparrows in the courtyard of our city house as the years rolled by we saw less of each other for some time she continued to wake me up and get me ready for school when I came back she would ask me what the teacher had taught me I would tell her English words and little things of Western science and learning the law of gravity aed's principle the world being round this made her unhappy she could not help me with my lessons she did not believe in the things they taught at the English school and was distressed that there was no teaching about God and the scriptures one day I announced that we were being given music lessons she was very disturbed to her music of blute associations it was the Monopoly of harlots and Beggars and not meant for gentle folk lude and acceptable in society harlots prostitutes gentler folk people of good family she said nothing but her silence meant disapproval she rarely talked to me after that when I went up to University I was given a room of my own the common link of friendship was snapped my grandmother accepted her seclusion with resignation what does this mean seclusion isolation resignation acceptance means she hadn't accepted to live without the author she rarely left her Spinning Wheel to talk to anyone from sunrise to sunset she sat by her wheel spinning and reciting prayers only in the afternoon she relaxed for a while to feed The Sparrows while she sat in The Veranda breaking the bread into little bits hundreds of little birds collected around her creating a veritable bedom of chering a veritable bedum of Chings what does this mean veritable bedum loud noise Chings sound made by birds means when the birds gathered around her they would make loud sounds some came and perched on her legs others on her shoulders some even sat on her head she smiled but never shoot them away it used to be the happiest half hour of the day for her when I decided to go abroad for further studies I was sure my grandmother would be upset I would be away for 5 years and at her age one could never tell whether she would still be alive during that time but my grandmother could she was not even sentimental she came to leave me at the railway station but did not talk or show any emotion her lips moved in prayer her mind was lost in prayer her fingers were busy telling the beads of her Rosary silently she kissed my forehead and when I left I cherished the moist imprint as perhaps the last sign of physical contact between us but that was not so after 5 years I came back home and was met by her at the station she did not look at a older she still had no time for words and while she clasped Me In Her Arms I could hear her reciting her prayers even on the first day of my arrival her happiest moments were with her sparrows whom she fed lunger and with frivolous aukes frivolous rebukes gentle scolding in the evening a change came over her she did not pray she collected the women of the neighborhood got an old drum and started to sing for several hours she thumbed the sagging skins of a dilapidated drum and sang of the homecoming of Warriors the sagging skins of the dilapidated drum sagging worn out dilapidated in a bad condition means the drum was in a very bad state with the Skins worn out we had to persuade her to stop to avoid over straining that was the first time since I had known her that she did not pray the next morning she was taken ill it was a mild feeling and the doctor told us that it would go but my grandmother thought differently she told us that her end was near she said that since only a few hours before the close of the last chapter of her life she admitted to pray she was not going to waste any more time talking to us we protested but she ignored our protests she lay peacefully in bed praying and telling her beads even before we could suspect her lips stopped moving and the rosary fell from her lifeless fingers a peaceful pal spread on her face and we knew that she was dead we lifted her off the bed and as his customer laid her on the ground and covered her with a red shroud after a few hours of mourning we left her alone to make arrangements for her funeral funeral a ceremony held after someone dies in the evening he went to her room with the crude stretcher to take her to be cremated crude stretcher simple stretcher cremated burned to ashes the sun was setting and had lit her room in Miranda with a blaze of Golden Light we stopped halfway in the courtyard all over the veranda and in her room right up to where she lay dead and stiff wrapped in the red shroud thousands of sparrows sat scattered on the floor there was no Ching we felt sorry for the birds and my mother fetched some bread for them she broke it into little crumbs the way my grandmother used to and threw it to them The Sparrows took no notice of the bread when we carried my grandmother's corpse off they flew away quietly next morning the sweeper swept the bread crumbs into the dust bin [Music]