My grandmother, like everybody's grandmother, was an old women. She had been old and wrinkled for the twenty 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 mantelpiece in the drawing room. He wore a big turban and loose-fitting clothes. His long, white board covered the best part of his chest and he looked at least a hundred years old. He did not look the sort of person who would have a wife children. He looked as if he could only have lots of grandchildren.
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. That seemed quit absurd and undignified on her part and we treated it like the fables of the prophets She used to tell us.
Word meaning:
Portrait: ----- description of a person.
Mantelpiece: ---- a structure of wood,marble.
The thought was almost revolting: ------ the thought his grandmother had did not satisfy him.
Abusrd: ----- widely unreasonable.
She had always been short and fat slightly bent. Her face was a criss-cross 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 twenty years. She could not have grown older, and had stayed at the same age for twenty years. She could never have been pretty; but she was always beautiful. She hobbled about the house in spotless white with one gland resting on her waistcoat balance her stoop and the otherctell8ng thecbeads of her rosary. Her silver locks were scattered untidily over her pale, puckered face, and her lips constantly removed in inaudible prayer. Yes, she was beautiful l. She was like the winter landscape in the mountains, an expanse of pure white serenity creating peace and contentment.
Word meaning:
Hobbled: walked awkwardly.
Stoop: bend, a stooping posture.
Rosary: a string of beads for keeping count in the devotion of a religion.
Locks: bunches of hair.
An expanse of pure white serenity: an unbroken stretch of snow covered mountainside looks like a picture of peace and calmness.
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 together. 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 while she bathed and dressed me in the hope that I would listen and get to know 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 plastered with yellow chalk a tiny earthen ink-pot and red pen, tie them all in a bundle and hand it to me. After a breakfast of a thick, stale chapatti with a little butter and sugar spread on it, we went to school. She carried several stale chapattis with her for the village dogs.
Word meaning:
Monotonous: tediously uhlniformed.
Fetch: to go to a place and bring back somebody/something.
My grandmother mother always went school with me because the school was attached to the temple. The priest taught side of the verandah singing the alphabet or prayer in a 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 chapattis we therw to them.
Word meaning:
Chorus: the part of a song that is repeated at the end each verse.
Growling: making a low noise in the throat to show anger.
When my parents were comfortable settled in the city, they sent for us. That was a turning- point in our friendship. Although we shared room, my grandmother no longer came to school with me. I used to go to an English school online a motor bus. There were no dogs in the streets and she took to feeding sparrows in the courtyard of our city house.
Word meaning:
Comfortably: easily.
A turning- point: point in place, time, etc.
Courtyard: an area of ground whiteout a roof that has walls or buildings around it.
As the years rolled by we saw less of each other. For sometime she countied to wakes 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, Archimedes principle, the world being around, etc. This made her unhappy. She could not help me with my lesson. 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 had lewd associations. It was the monopoly of harlots and beggers and not meant for gentle flow. She said nothing but hercsilence meant disapproval. She rarely talked to me after that.
Word meaning:
Monopoly: the exclusive control.
Harlots: prostitutes.