Hello everybody, I am Anisha. Welcome to Magnet Brains. Today we will be starting with our first chapter from the book Hornbill which is the portrait of a lady. Now what is a portrait? Portrait kya hota hai? Portrait yaani ki picture ya kisi ki tasveer. The portrait of a lady is a story of the author Khushwant Singh. Jo hamare author hai Khushwant Singh hai, ye unhi ki story hai. He describes his relationship with his grandmother over the years. He will tell you in this chapter about his relationship with his grandmother. He pens down her daily activities and how she evolved as a character as time passed by. In this chapter, they will tell us about her character as a grandmother. How was her appearance? What did she wear? What were her habits? They will clear all this in this chapter. And how she changed as time passed from her life to a character. Earlier, there were some other habits. As time passed, some other habits increased. He explains her appearance which helps to create an image in readers mind. He will explain her appearance, how she looked, what she wore, how she walked, so that readers or whoever we are reading, we have clarity in our mind about how her grandmother looked. From here we will be starting our chapter, one word to word we will explain the meanings and one word to word. So there would be no doubts in your mind. So, my grandmother like everybody's grandmother was an old woman. Mr. Khushwant Singh is saying that my grandmother was very old like all the other grandmothers. She had been old and wrinkled for the 20 years that I had known her. She is very old and wrinkled. Wrinkled yani? Having lines or folds, when there are wrinkles on the face, when an old person's face gets wrinkles after age, then we call it wrinkled. So, his whole face was wrinkled, it was filled with wrinkles and I have been seeing him exactly like this for the last 20 years, he has not changed at all, our poet, author Khushwant Singh is saying. People said that she had once been young and pretty and had even had a husband. People say that she was very pretty and beautiful in her time. She had a husband, i.e. her grandfather. But that was hard to believe. But it is very difficult to believe for Khushwant Singh because he has been looking at his grandmother like this for the past 20 years. Very old, very old, full of wrinkles. So it is very difficult for him to believe that she used to be so pretty. Oh, she used to be so beautiful. So it is very difficult for him to believe. My grandfather's portrait hung above the mantelpiece in the drawing room. They are saying that the portrait of my grandfather is hung on the mantelpiece of our drawing room. Now what is the mantelpiece? Like you can see in this picture, in olden times, there was a fire in people's houses and some wooden or marble structure was kept on which people used to put their elders or someone's picture or some decorative thing to decorate their house. So, in this way, there was a mantelpiece in Khushwant Singh's house where his grandfather's portrait or picture was placed on this fire. He wore a big turban and loose fitting clothes. Now he is telling the appearance of his grandfather. In the picture he was seeing in his drawing room, he is wearing a turban. He used to wear a turban and loose fitting clothes. He used to wear very loose clothes. His long white beard covered the best part of his chest and he looked at least a hundred years old. So he is telling that he had a very big beard or beard. He was covering the entire area of his beard. And it seemed like they were 100 years old. He did not like the sort of person who has a wife or children. He said that they were not looking like that. They were not looking like they had a wife or children. Because they looked very old. He looked as if he could only have lots and lots of grandchildren. He said that it seemed that he was so old that he would have had only grandchildren but he would never have had a wife or children. He looked so old. As for my grandmother being young and pretty, the thought was almost revolting. She often told us of the games she used to play as a child. So, this thought that my grandmother must have been very pretty and beautiful in her time and the picture of my grandfather in the portrait is almost revolting. It means to imagine your grandmother as a pretty woman and to see the picture of a very old man in front of you and to think that they were both wife and husband. This thought was almost revolting for Khushwant Singh. Revolting means hard to believe. They were not able to believe how this can happen. The thought was most revolting means it was very hard for the author to believe. She often told us about the games she used to play as a child. Her grandmother used to tell her many times that in her childhood she used to play many games with her friends and she used to enjoy them a lot. That seemed quite absurd and undignified on her part when we treated it like the fables of the prophets used to tell us. Now what is absurd? Illogical, the things which have no logic, no meaning. And fables means a short story, small stories in which there is a moral or lesson, we call them fables. So, Khushwant Singh is saying that this thing of Dadi, that I used to play a lot of games in my childhood, I used to enjoy, this thing seemed very absurd to me, it seemed illogical. Why? Because Dadi is so old, she has seen him like this since 20 years. She was not able to imagine that she would be young in childhood and would also play games. So, Dadi's talks seemed like fables. That means, it seemed like a short story, like those stories that she used to tell about the prophets, the old gods and the scriptures. Like those stories, she also felt that this was a story of Dadi that I used to play in childhood. She had always been short and fat and slightly bent. Now, here the author is telling us about her appearance. That Dadi was always short-heighted, fat and slightly bent. Fat and slightly bent. You have to keep this in your mind, Dadi's appearance. That she was short, a little fat and a little bent. Because she was very old, so she was bent. Her waist was bent. Her face was criss-cross of wrinkles running from everywhere to everywhere. Unka face jo tha, wo bhat criss-cross tha. Criss-cross yaani unke face pe kaafi saare wrinkles se from everywhere to everywhere. Yaani unke chehre par jahan se jahan tak dekhoge, sirf wrinkles aur wrinkles aur jooriyain jooriyain thi. Now, 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. He is saying that we can't believe that she would have been young. She is so old that she is maximum old. She can't be older than this. It is also written here, if you pay attention, she could not have grown older and stayed the same at 20 years. She cannot be older than this, she looks so old at present and she has been looking like this for 20 years. She could never have been pretty but she was always beautiful. Now this is a very important line from here till here. Ki author kera hai ki she could never have been pretty. Wo kabhi pretty yaane sundar ho hi nahi sakti but she was very beautiful. Par wo bohot khubsurat thi. Uska matlab kya hai? Pretty yaane jo chehre se which looks beautiful from the face and beautiful means in and out means beautiful from the heart, from the mind, from the nature So the poet is saying, the author is saying that my grandmother was not beautiful from the face but she was beautiful means she was very beautiful from the mind because she used to talk about God, she used to tell good things she was my best friend so she was very beautiful but not pretty from the face She hobbled about the house in spotless white. Now, what is hobbled? Walked in an awkward way. Because you are very old, you are not able to walk, your back is bent, so you are walking with difficulty. You are walking with a little struggle. We call it hobbled. And what is spotless white? It means spotless. There is not a single spot, not a single spot on it. White. So, her grandmother used to wear a white saree of spotless white color and hobble at home. It means she used to walk with difficulty because of her old age. One hand resting on her waist to balance the stoop and the other telling the beads of her rosary. One hand resting on her waist to balance her stoop. What is a stoop? Bend one's body forward. Because her body was bent forward, she used to balance her stoop with one hand. She used to balance her stoop with one hand and beads of rosary with the other hand. In ancient times, you used to... You must have seen people who used to read Rudraksha and used to say their prayers continuously. Exactly they also used to do this. One hand was on their waist and the other hand was their beads of rosary and they used to say their prayers continuously. Her silver locks, now what is locks? In this chapter locks means hair and silver locks, why silver? Because she was very old, so her hair was white, so white color is expressed here by silver color and locks means hair. So her white hair was scattered untidily over her pale puckered face, which was always untidily scattered, her pale means slightly yellow color, her pale means slightly yellow color, her pale means slightly yellow Her face was yellowish, pale and puccared face. What do you mean by puccared? A face contract into wrinkles. That is a face which was filled with wrinkles. Her lips constantly moved in inaudible prayers. Her lips were constantly inaudible prayers. That means she used to say her prayers in her mind. Her voice was not coming out so it was inaudible. Continuously her lips were moving. Yes, she was beautiful and that is why she was beautiful. Why? Because she used to walk around in her house, she used to walk around comfortably, she used to wear clean white clothes, her lips used to walk continuously, she used to pray to God, she used to do beads of rosary, so she was not pretty from the face, but yes she was beautiful because she had all these good qualities. She was like the winter landscape in the mountains, an expanse of pure white serenity, breathing peace and contentment. First of all, we will understand what the word contentment means. Contentment means a state of happiness and satisfaction. Those people who don't want anything else in life, they are satisfied, they are content, they have everything and they don't need anything else. The other thing is contentment, they are full of contentment, they don't want anything else, they have achieved what they wanted to achieve in life. So, her grandmother was full of contentment, she was always satisfied with life. An expanse of pure white serenity refers to the calm, relaxed and peaceful character of the author's grandmother. It means that she used to be very calm, very peaceful and used to wear a spotless white saree, so she used to look pure. So, she was an expanse of pure white serenity. My grandmother and I were good friends. My parents left me with her when they want to live in the city and we were constantly together. So, Khushwant Singh tells that my parents had shifted to the city to settle their life and to make it better. Till then, my grandmother and I used to live together in the village. She used to wake me up in the morning and get me ready for school. She used to wake me up in the morning and get me ready for school. She said her morning prayer in a monotonous sing-song way. What is monotonous? Monotonous means very boring, dull, who does the same thing every day. So, they are saying that she used to sing her morning prayer in the same monotonous way in the morning. Who is singing the same song every morning, singing the same bhajan every morning. So, she used to feel boring because she used to listen to this every day. She bathed and dressed me in the hope that I would listen and get to know it by heart. So why did she sing these songs in her morning prayers? Why did she sing? So that she had this expectation that Khushwant Singh also learn these prayers by heart. But Khushwant Singh never learned them because he found them monotonous and boring. He would just listen to them. Why did he listen to them? Because he liked his grandmother's voice very much. I listened, wo sunthe the because I loved her voice but never bothered to listen it bothered yaar nahi itni concern nahi the ki main learn kar loon Then she would fetch my wooden slate which she had already washed and plastered with yellow chalk. Then she would fetch, that is she would find wooden slate. Now in olden times when children used to go to school, they would not take books and copies, they would take slates. There was a small slate, you can also call it mini blackboard. So she would fetch her slates, clean them, plaster them and keep them clean and ready for use. She would keep the yellow chalks ready in her hand. She would keep the yellow chalks a tiny earthen ink pot earthen means a small earthen ink pot and to dip it in the ink pot she used to give a red color pen and a red pen tie them all in a bundle and hand it to me and these slates chalk earthen ink pot pens all these were tied together in a bundle and kept in the hands of khushwant singh and made him ready for school After a breakfast of thick stale chapati with a little butter and sugar spread on it, we went to school. So, Khushwant Singh tells us that she used to give them breakfast as well. And what did she give them? Thick stale chapati. Stale means... No longer fresh and pleasant to eat She used to give her one day's stale roti She used to put butter on it and sugar spread on it and then they used to go to school together She carried several stale chapatis with her for the village dogs and when they used to go to school their grandmother used to take a lot of stale rotis with her for the village dogs She used to think that on the way if we will get some village dogs Now, we will give them pieces of roti My grandmother always went to school with me because the school was attached to the temple. The priest taught us the alphabet and the morning prayer. Why did my grandmother go to school with him? Because Khushwant Singh's school was attached to a temple. So, my grandmother thought that she would enjoy in the temple. And that was her area of interest because she always liked to talk to God, pray, keep morning prayers, and do beads of rosary. So, she used to go and teach the priests alphabet and morning prayers. So, the priests used to teach the children alphabet and morning prayers. So, children, I hope you understood this. You can take a screenshot of this whole screen and we will continue this in our next video. Till then... Stay tuned. So, she used to make them do morning prayers. While the children sat in rows on either side of the veranda, singing the alphabet or the prayer in a chorus, my grandmother sat inside reading the scriptures. So, he is saying that all the children of the school used to sit in rows or in a line and in the veranda, i.e. in their area, outside their school, they used to sit and sing songs and pray to God. In chorus, i.e. all together. My grandmother sat inside reading the scriptures. And my grandmother used to sit in the temple and read scriptures. What are scriptures? The sacred writings of a religion. That is, she used to read the scriptures of God. When we had both finished, we would walk back together. When my school was over and Dadi's scriptures were over, we would go back home 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 chapatis we threw to them. When we would go back home, who would follow us? The street dogs, the village dogs would follow us. Why did they follow us? Because they would see what was in our hands. We used to give them chapati pieces and they used to fight and growl with each other. We used to get them on our way back. When my parents were comfortably settled in the city, they sent for us. When my parents settled in the city, they sent for us. They called us back to the city. We settled here. Now grandmother and Khushwant, you also come here for a good life. Now that was a turning point in our friendship. Now this is very important and here your important questions can also come in the exam that what was the turning point in Khushwant Singh and Khushwant Singh's and Grandmother's relationship. So in the first city, first when they used to live in the village, they used to wake up their grandmother in the morning, used to make them enjoy, used to prepare them, used to give them breakfast, used to drop them off at school, used to do a lot of things. They had the same room, they used to enjoy together. But from here when the city shifted, then there came a turning point in their friendship. What was the turning point? We will study. Although we shared the same room, my grandmother no longer came to school with me. Now we have come to the city. Now we are sharing the same room but now grandmother is not coming to school with us. Why she is not coming? Because now she is coming to take a motor bus or a motor vehicle for school. I used to go to an English school. Now they are going to an English medium school. They are not going to the small school of the village which was attached to the temple. In a motor bus. They used to come to take the motor bus. That is why Dadi does not go now. There were no dogs in the streets and she took to feeding sparrows in the courtyard of our city house. Now Dadi is not going to school. and you are not even getting street dogs on the way. So what does grandma do? She sits in the porch of the house and gives some bread pieces to some sparrows. She sits with them and feeds them. I would tell her English words and little things of western science and learning the law of gravitation, Archimedes principle, the world being around, being round etc. This made her unhappy. Now, Khushwant Singh is telling that when he used to live in the village, he used to come back from school or used to go back home from school, he used to tell his grandmother on the way that today we have been taught this, today the priest taught us that. But now when he comes back from an English school, what does he tell his grandmother? Everyone tells in English that today I have studied Archimedes principle, today I have studied the earth was round, today I have studied many numbers, today I have studied some science concepts, I have studied many things. But grandma gets unhappy here because everything is in English and she is not able to understand anything. She gets unhappy. She could not help me with lessons and now she is not able to help me with her lessons. She did not believe in the things they taught at the school and was distressed that there was no teaching about God and the scriptures. So, Dadi says that Dadi is very unhappy and distressed. She is in sorrow that you are not being taught about God in school. You are not being taught about God. Dadi was very distressed about this because in the village they were taught about God, morning prayers, scriptures, but here they are not taught anything about God. So, Dadi did not like this and she became unhappy. One day I announced that we were being given music lessons. She was disturbed, very disturbed. Now one day, when Khushwant comes from school, he tells his grandmother that today we are being taught music lessons in school. Now grandmother became very disturbed, means she did not like it at all. To her music had lewd associations. Why did she get angry? Why did she feel bad? Because she felt that music, singing is a lewd association. That is indecent and obscene. That is not good. It is not decent. Why is it not decent? It was the monopoly of harlots and beggars and not meant for gentle folk. She says that this music, singing, dancing is not for gentle folk. This is for the poor, middle class and lower class women. We, the gentlfolk, are not for good families. She said nothing but her silence meant disapproval. She didn't say anything. She didn't get angry but she kept quiet. She kept quiet and told that she disapproved and didn't like it. She rarely talked to me after that. After that, she talked to Khushwant very unkindly. She felt so bad about this, about the music lessons. When I went up to university, I was given a room of my own. Now, here comes the talk of a third phase. Which third phase? In the first phase, we had studied. Khushwant Singh lived with his grandmother in the village. They had a very good bond. Then we studied the second phase when they shifted and came to the city. And Khushwant Singh started going to an English medium school. Now Khushwant Singh's school is over. And like all the children go to university or college after school, Khushwant Singh also went. So when the university phase came, then their third phase starts from here. Because now Khushwant Singh is not sharing the same room with his grandmother. Now they have grown up, they have come to college, university. They have their own personal... room and the grandma got a separate room. The common link of friendship was snapped. There was only one room which was the common link of friendship between the two. Because both shared the same room. Now that too got snapped. That means it got broken. My grandmother accepted her seclusion with resignation. Now this is a very important expression and questions can also come from this. What do you mean by accepted her seclusion with resignation? Or why grandmother accepted her seclusion with resignation? So what is seclusion? Seclusion means the state of being private and away from the people. Means a state when you get away from people, get away from them and stay in solitude. and you live privately, you don't meet people much so he accepted his seclusion, his loneliness he accepted that now my son, my grandson is living in a separate room with resignation, what do you mean by resignation? The grandmother accepted the lonely life as she accepted the separation from her grandson without objection. Resignation means she did not object to this thing. She did not fight. She calmly understood that her grandson is grown up now and he will get a separate room because he is going to college now. And she accepted her loneliness with resignation means without any objection or fight. She rarely left her spinning wheel to talk to anyone. Now what is spinning wheel? This wheel, as you can see in this picture, which grandmother is driving. What she used to do? She used to get bored, so she always used to drive her spinning wheel, her wheel and rarely left it. She did not leave it, she used to leave her spinning wheel for a very short time in the day. From sunrise to sunset, she sat by her spinning wheel and recited her prayers. She kept on riding her bike and recited her prayers. Only in the afternoon she relaxed for a while to feed the sparrows. From the whole day, only one afternoon, it was an evening time when she used to relax because at that time, sparrows used to come in the verandah of her house. While she sat in the verandah breaking the bread into little bits, hundreds of little birds collected around her, creating a veritable bedlam of chirpings. Now, when she used to sit in her verandah, so as soon as she started cutting the bread into pieces, Sparrows used to come to them to eat bread pieces. What did sparrows create? A veritable bedlam of chirpings. Chirpings means the sound of sparrows. The sound of chirping of the small bird was the sound of the chirping of the sparrows in the entire veranda. A veritable bedlam of chirping refers to the noise and confusion caused by the chirping of the sparrows. When sparrows used to come together and spread all over the veranda, then confusion and a lot of noise used to spread all over the veranda because they didn't understand that grandma has come and will feed them bread pieces. Some came and perched on her legs, others on her shoulders, some even sat on her head. She smiled but never shooed them away. So when sparrows came, some would come and sit on her body or come near her legs. Some would come and sit on her head, some on her shoulders, some on her hands. But grandma never pushed them away in anger. She would smile and be happy. It used to be the happiest half hour of the day for her. This half hour when she used to feed her sparrows bread, this was the happiest and best hour of her day and she used to enjoy this the most. when I decided to go abroad for further studies I was sure my grandmother would be upset. Now university is over and to further study further Khushwant Singh had to go abroad abroad means to study abroad in some other country outside India. So he thought that now I am going abroad to do further studies so now grandma will be very upset I would be away for five years and at her age one could never tell which means that I am going abroad for 5 years to complete my further studies and at her age one could never tell that means her age was already so old I don't know that when I will come back after 5 years will I get her alive or not it is possible that I am going and this is my last meeting with her I don't know if I will come back and will my grandmother be there or not but my grandmother could My grandmother Kodiya was alive, she didn't die, she didn't die, she kept herself strong and waited for 5 years for Khushwant Singh to come and meet her after 5 years. She was not even sentimental. When she went to drop him at the railway station, she was not sentimental. So, here we get to know about grandmother that grandmother is a very strong character Her grandson whom she loves so much, his room has changed so she accepted the seclusion without any objection He is going for 5 years, she will not be able to see that thing, she accepted that Room got separated from her, she accepted that too So, she was a very strong lady emotionally, we get to know from these points 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. So when she came to drop Khushwant Singh at the railway station, did she show any emotional disbalance? She didn't show any emotional disbalance at all. Instead, she just saw Khushwant Singh and continued to pray. She didn't cry or show any emotion. Her fingers were busy telling the beads of a rosary. And as usual, her fingers were reading the beads of rosary. Silently she kissed my forehead and when I felt I cherished the most imprint as perhaps the last sign of physical contact between us. They are saying that when I was going they kissed my forehead and I felt that now I am going and I will not get my grandmother after 5 years and maybe this is my last imprint that means last physical touch or contact between my grandmother and me. Maybe after this it will never happen. Moisture and wet. The kiss she did on his forehead was a moist one. But that was not so. After 5 years when I came back home and was met by her at the station. When I returned to India after 5 years of further studies abroad, I got that railway station. She came to receive me. I was very happy. She did not look a day older. And she didn't look old even for a day. She looked exactly the same as she used to. She still had no time for words and while she clasped me in her arms, I could hear her reciting her prayers. Clasped means when you hold someone tightly. As soon as she saw Khushwant after 5 years, she clasped him tightly, she hugged him. And when she was hugging him, she was reciting his prayers slowly, which Dadi used to say slowly in her lips. Even on the first day of my arrival, her happiest moments were with the sparrows whom she fed longer and with frivolous rebukes. So Khushwant is saying that after my arrival, after 5 years of arrival, when I came home, even then the first day after my arrival was not the best day because I had come. From the whole day, her best time was still the one when she used to sit with the sparrows and feed them breadcrumbs. with frivolous rebukes. Now, what is frivolous rebukes? Frivolous means not having any serious purpose, light-hearted. When you say something to someone, not seriously, you say it in a joke, and you don't shout, you say it casually. Rebuke means disapproval of something or someone. When you say something to someone, or you disapprove of something, or you say to a small child, don't do this, son, then we are not shouting at him. We are saying it frivolously, meaning we are refusing something but without shouting, we are saying it very casually and lovingly. So, the grandmother, the grandmother used to frivolously rebuke sparrows because someone used to sit on their head, someone on their shoulders, someone used to lie down on their head, some sparrows. So, she used to frivolously rebuke them, meaning move away, move away, don't trouble me, she used to say it like this. Not in anger, she used to say it lovingly. Okay. In the evening, a change came over. Now, this is a very important line and again a question can come from this part. In the evening, a change came over. In the evening, a change came over. In the evening, a change came over. In the evening, a change came over. In In In In In the evening, a change came over. She did not pray. That lady who is so spiritual, who always reads the scriptures of God, her lips continuously move in silent prayers, reads beads of rosary, Rudraksh mala, that day for the first time she did not omit her prayer in the evening. That day she missed her prayer. She collected the women of the neighborhood, got an old drum and started to sing. Instead of that prayer, what she did was, I called some women from my neighborhood and took an old drum and started playing it. I started singing and enjoying with everyone. For several hours, she thumped the sagging skin of the dilapidated drum. Now, for hours, the sagging skin of the dilapidated drum, means the drum was dilapidated, means it was completely broken, it was in very bad condition, and the layer on top of it, the skin on top of it, that too was completely removed. So, that broken, bad condition dilapidated drum, means the bad condition drum, she continuously thumped it, she kept hitting it, she kept playing it, she kept singing and kept singing. Dilapidated in a state of despair or ruin. The sagging skins of dilapidated drum means the loose surface of the worn out drum. Worn out means old and in very bad condition. And sang the homecoming of warriors. Now what is homecoming of warriors? In olden times, when the warriors used to come back home after a war, their mothers, wives and family members used to celebrate this. They used to celebrate their son or husband's return after a war. Dadi was also celebrating the homecoming of warriors. My grandson, Khushwant Singh, came after 5 years. He was playing drums with the ladies of the neighborhood and celebrating his happiness. We had to persuade her to stop. We were persuading her and continuously telling her not to do this because she is too old and she will get tired. She has been enjoying for hours and hours and she is over straining her body. We had to persuade her to stop to avoid over straining means overdoing of something. That was the first time since I had known her that she did not pray. And Khushwant Singh is saying that this is the first time in my entire life that I was seeing my grandmother not praying but instead she was enjoying playing the drum and she omitted the prayer, she missed it. This is the first time she has seen it in her life. So this question can be asked in the exam. The next morning she was taken ill. The fear was the same thing. They were persuading their grandmother that don't do too much, you are enjoying your body for a long time and you are over straining your body. But grandmother didn't listen to anyone and didn't listen to anyone. And next day she was taken ill. She was not well. It was a mild fever and the doctor told us that it would go. Doctor said that it is a mild fever and it will go away. There is no need to worry. But my grandmother thought differently. But my grandmother did not think like that. She had thought that I will not be fine because my end time has come. She had this feeling and intuition from inside. She told us that her end was near. My end time is near. She said that since only a few hours before the close of the last chapter of her life, she had omitted the prayer. She was not going to waste any more time talking to us. So, as Dadi told Khushwant Singh and family that these are my last few hours. So, they tried to talk to him and spend some time with him. But Dadi said that I have spent a lot of time in my life. I have wasted time because I have missed my prayers. I have enjoyed my prayers since yesterday. I don't want to waste even a second of my time. I want to complete my prayers. I don't want to waste time talking to anyone. I don't want to talk to anyone. I just want to pray because I have missed my prayers since yesterday. We protested, we told them the objection that no, talk to us. But still they did not listen to us because they had to pray. And it was the first time that they missed their prayer. But she ignored our protest. She lay peacefully in bed and telling her beads. She lay peacefully on her bed and her beads were falling off, closing her eyes and slowly praying. Even before we could suspect, we were just about to suspect, her lips stopped moving. Her lips stopped praying. The rosary fell from her lifeless fingers and her death happened. The beads of rosary fell from her hands on the ground. A peaceful pallor spread on her face and we knew that she was dead. A peaceful pallor means unhealthy pale appearance. A strange pale face that looks like a dead body. That was her face and her family came to know that her grandmother is dead. on her face and we knew that she was dead. We lifted her off the bed and as is customary laid her on the ground and covered her with a red shroud. So, they picked her up from the bed and customary, according to their traditions, planned their funeral, did traditional, laid her on the ground and covered her with a red shroud. And red colored shroud means a red colored long cloth which is used to cover a dead body. With that, they took her and put her on the ground. After a few hours of moaning, we left her alone to make arrangements for her funeral. She was brought home and put on the ground. For a long time, she was moaning. What is moaning? It means she was sitting quietly and expressed her grief for her grandmother's death. Her family members also moaned. They called her and said that she was moaning because of the death of a family member. After that, they kept her there for a while because now they had to take her to the funeral. In the evening, we went to her room with a crude stretcher to take her to be cremated. So, what did they say? That in the evening, they will take us with a crude stretcher, that is, you can say a small wooden bed on which they were lying, on which a dead body was lying, they took it and were taking it to cremate. Cremated means to dispose their body, that is, they were taking it to burn. The sun was setting and lit her room and veranda with blaze of golden light. The room was filled with sunlight and the room was filled with the light of the evening sun. All over the veranda and in the room right up to where she lay dead and stiff wrapped in the red shroud, thousands of sparrows scattered on the floor. So, where they were laid and in that red shroud, in that cloth where they were covered, thousands of sparrows came there. Because it was evening time, because grandma used to give them breadcrumbs in that half an hour. And there in the veranda, their dead body was lying there and there thousands of sparrows came. There was no chirping but today it was an unusual thing. By the way, when sparrows came, there were a lot of chirps. It used to become a whole bedlam of chirps. It used to become a veritable bedlam of chirps. There used to be so much noise, so much chaos there. But today, a single sparrow chirp means it was not making its own sound. Because they had come to know that today grandma is not to be fed bread crumbs and she has died. We felt sorry for the birds and my mother fetched some bread for them. She felt bad for the birds because today they are all sitting and mourning for the death of their grandmother. So, her mother, Khushwant's mother, went inside the kitchen and brought some bread crumbs to feed them. She broke it into little crumbs the way my grandmother used to and threw it to them. She also broke it into little crumbs the way my grandmother used to and threw it to them. The sparrows took no notice of the bread. Even a single sparrow did not notice which breadcrumbs were lying around. It was a long way to eat. When we carried my grandmother's corpse off, they flew away quietly. They thought that as soon as the time came for the funeral, they picked up the dead body and started taking the corpse. Cops means dead body started taking the corpse to burn for the funeral. All the sparrows quietly flew away from there and the bread crumbs remained there. They didn't even touch it. Next morning, the sweeper swept the bread crumbs into the dustbin. And the next morning, when the sweeper came, the person who was doing the work, he picked up all the bread crumbs and threw them in the dustbin. So, this was all about our first chapter, the portrait of a lady. I hope you would have enjoyed this chapter. And now, we will explain this chapter further through a mind map. So, all your small and big doubts will be cleared. So, here is the portrait of a lady whose author is Mr. Khushwant Singh. Who is she talking about? She is talking about her grandmother. Now, how was her grandmother? She couldn't walk straight. She used to hobble, she couldn't walk straight. Always spread, always used to pray. She was fat and slightly bent. Her face used to be wrinkled. Now, there were three phases of friendship between her Khushwant Singh and grandmother. The first phase was when they were close friends in the village. She used to wake him up in the morning for school, made him ready for school. School was attached to the temple, prayed in chorus there, spent her time in reading books. They used to do all this in their phase 1. What did they do in phase 2? They went to the city. What did they do in phase 2? The narrator started going to an English school. Both shared same room. Grandmother hated English words and signs. There was no teaching of God in English school. Music was for prostitutes and paupers. It was not for good people. So this was in the mind map. I have divided it into two slides so that you can see clearly and you can understand. After this, after three phases of friendship, we will read below. Now, the third phase of the bond of friendship snapped. After the second phase, the third phase of the bond of friendship between the grandmother and Khushwant snapped. The bond of friendship was broken. The narrator began to study in the university and they were given a separate room. Grandmother accepted her loneliness quietly. Grandmother accepted her loneliness and did not object. She relaxed in the afternoon, did spinning and recited her prayers. Grandmother did not show any emotion. She used to sit on the veranda and feed sparrows. It was her best time in the evening. Narrator goes abroad for higher studies. Now, Narrator goes abroad for higher studies. So, what happened? He came to see off at the railway station and kissed on his forehead. Now when she came back, Grandmother was still alive and now her end time had come. So what happened that day? When narrator came back home after 5 years, she didn't pray, collected all women from the society, sang songs of the homecoming warriors, declared her end was near and lay peacefully in the bed. She told everyone that her last time has come and then she died in the hospital. What happened that day? When Sparrows came in the evening on the day of her death, she mourned. She expressed her sorrow for her grandmother's death. Now, Sparrows moaned and they did not chirp. They did not make any sound. They sat near the dead body. They sat near the dead body. And as soon as the corpse of the dead body was taken to the funeral, they were taken to burn it. They silently flew away. And they flew away from there. So children, this was all about our chapter, The Portrait of a Grandmother. And in that we read the explanation of the whole chapter, we read the important words and read a small mind map in which you can clear all the small things. Now what will we read in the next video? We will read the summary of this whole chapter, we will cover important comprehension questions and answers which are in NCERT and all the difficult things which are related to the chapter, we will discuss all. So children stay tuned and stay safe. Until then.