Literatus

The title of the poem is much appropriate as it reminds the poet of her mother. A photograph is something that captures a certain moment of someone’s life. The person might change in course of time but the memories attached with the photograph are eternal. In this poem, the poet’s mother is no more but the photograph makes her memories come alive. The mother’s sweet face and her cousins have changed with time but the moment captured in the photograph still gives happiness to the poet’s mother when she views it thirty to forty years later. The poet reminisces that the sea holiday was the past of her mother and for her the laughter of her mother is past now. Both the moments of life have been permanently etched in the poet’s mind with the feeling of eternal loss. Death now has overpowered the innocence of these moments and the pleasure they treasured. The poet concludes the poem on a melancholy note with the comment that there is nothing to say or comment upon this sad event. The silence...

Introduction   Khushwant Singh Was One Of The Prominent Indian Writers. In The Story, The Author Draws A Pen Portrait Of His Grandmother. He Has Beautifully Written An Account Of His Relationship With Her Grandmother.  Pen Portrait Of Grandmother  Khushwant Singh Draws A Pen Portrait Of His Grandmother. Old Woman  Its Hard To Believe That Once  She Had Been Young And Pretty His Grandfather’s Picture Hung Above The Mantelpiece  He Looked At Least A Hundred Years Old  Appearance of grandmother   Old, Short, Fat, Slightly Bent  Wrinkled Face  She Looks The Same For Last Twenty Years  She Couldn’t Walk Straight   She Wears White Clothes And Roams In The House. She Keeps Her One Hand On Her Waist To Balance Herself. She Held A Rosary In The Other Hand.  Her Silver Locks Scattered Over Her Pale Face. Her Lips Constantly Moved. She Always Prayed To Herself. Close Friends  Narrator And His Grandmother Were Good Friends. ...

Gist of the Lesson The chapter captures a very sensitive reaction of a small girl to an important aspect of the story that her father narrates to her. The story reveals the worldview of a little child to a difficult moral question that shows her mental or psychological richness. Jo is a little girl of four years. She is engaged in a story session with her father. Jack, the father used to tell her a story every evening and especially for Saturday naps. Jo feels involved with the characters and the happenings. The story always had an animal with a problem. The old owl advises him to visit the wizard who would solve the problem. Skunk’s problem‐ he smelt bad, visited the wizard who changed it to the smell of roses. Skunk’s mother was unhappy with it and took him back to the wizard. She hit the wizard and asked him to restore the original smell. She wanted her son to keep his identity as a skunk and wanted his friends to accept him for himself. So the...