📄 SECTION A: Answer the following questions
Q1. Find instances from the story to prove that the narrator and his grandmother shared a good relationship.
- Constant companionship: She woke him up every morning, bathed him, dressed him, and got him ready for school.
- Shared daily routine: She walked him to school every single day because the school was attached to the temple.
- Academic involvement: She helped him with his lessons and took an active interest in his early education.
Q2. What did the narrator's grandmother carry with her while going to his school?
- Stale chapatis: She carried several stale chapatis with a little butter and sugar spread on them for their breakfast.
- Dog food: She carried extra stale chapatis to feed the village stray dogs on their walk back home.
Q3. How did she pass her time while the narrator studied at school?
- Temple prayers: She sat inside the temple attached to the school.
- Reading scriptures: She spent the entire school duration reading holy books and scriptures until the narrator finished his classes.
Q4. Why was grandmother unhappy in the city?
- No religious education: She disliked that the city school taught modern science and music instead of God and scriptures.
- Loss of helpfulness: She could no longer help the narrator with his homework because it was in English and covered concepts she did not understand.
- No animals to feed: There were no stray dogs in the city, forcing her to switch to feeding sparrows in the courtyard.
Q5. How can you say that narrator's going to university left grandmother feeling upset and alone?
- Acceptance of seclusion: She accepted her isolation with quiet resignation and rarely spoke to anyone.
- Spinning wheel routine: She spent her entire day from sunrise to sunset sitting by her wheel, spinning thread.
- Continuous prayers: She kept her fingers busy reciting prayers with her rosary beads, only pausing briefly in the afternoon to feed the sparrows.
Q6. What did the grandmother do to forget the grief of separation from the narrator?
- Spinning wheel: She sat by her spinning wheel from sunrise to sunset, spinning thread.
- Reciting prayers: She continuously recited her prayers without stopping.
- Feeding sparrows: She took a break in the afternoon to feed hundreds of sparrows in the courtyard, which became the happiest half-hour of her day.
Q7. How did grandmother celebrate the homecoming of the narrator?
- Gathered neighborhood women: She collected the women from her neighborhood in the evening.
- Beating the drum: She got an old, dilapidated drum and beat it for hours.
- Singing songs: She sang songs celebrating the homecoming of warriors, overexerting herself to the point of skipping her prayers.
Q8. Do you think even the birds mourned the death of the grandmother? Why/ Why not?
- Yes, they did mourn her:
- Silent gathering: Thousands of sparrows sat silently around her dead body in the verandah, making no chirping sounds.
- Refusing food: They completely ignored the bread crumbs that the narrator's mother broke and threw for them.
- Quiet departure: They flew away quietly as soon as the grandmother’s corpse was carried off for cremation.
💬 SECTION B: Explain with reference to the context
1. "That was a turning point in our friendship."
- Context: This refers to the shift in their bond when they moved from the village to the city.
- Meaning: Although they shared a room, they saw less of each other. The grandmother could no longer accompany him to school or help him with his studies, signaling the beginning of their physical and emotional distance.
2. "The common link of friendship was snapped."
- Context: This happens when the narrator goes to university and receives his own separate room.
- Meaning: The final daily contact they shared by living in the same room was broken. The grandmother accepted this isolation quietly, realizing that their close companionship had come to an end.
3. "But my grandmother could. She was not even sentimental."
- Context: This describes the grandmother's behavior at the railway station when the narrator was leaving for abroad for five years.
- Meaning: While others might have cried, she showed no tears or emotional breakdown. She remained completely calm and focused entirely on reciting her prayers and kissing his forehead.
4. "In the evening, a change came over her."
- Context: This describes her behavior on the evening the narrator returned from abroad.
- Meaning: For the first time in her life, she did not pray. Instead, she collected neighborhood women to sing and beat a drum to celebrate her grandson's return, leading to her falling ill the next day.
5. "Next morning, the sweeper swept the bread crumbs into the dustbin."
- Context: This occurs the morning after the grandmother's death.
- Meaning: It proves that the sparrows did not visit for food, but to mourn the grandmother. They left the bread completely untouched, highlighting a deep, silent grief shared by nature.
👵 SECTION C: Write a short character sketch of the grandmother
The Grandmother is depicted as a deeply religious, self-reliant, and strong-willed woman. Physically, she was short, fat, slightly bent, and deeply wrinkled, presenting a picture of serene peace akin to a "winter landscape in the mountains."
Her life revolved around her spiritual faith; she constantly counted her rosary beads and muttered silent prayers. She possessed a deep love for animals, moving from feeding village dogs to city sparrows. Highly traditional, she disapproved of modern secular education that lacked spiritual grounding. Above all, she possessed immense emotional fortitude, accepting her loneliness and impending death with absolute dignity, peace, and quiet resignation.