ong>Explanation:

The portrait of a lady is a story written by an Indian author Khushwant Singh which describes the relationship between the author and his grandmother through his different stages of life.

When the author returned after his studies from abroad, the grandmother was so overjoyed that she organised a musical troupe taking the lead as the drummer and singing SONGS. This strain and over exhaustion resulted in the grandmother's death.

The grandmother on the day of her death,insisted that her end was near even though the doctor assured her that it was a SIMPLE fever and would pass away soon. She said that she would spend the last few hours of her life praying INSTEAD of talking to her family. She lay on the bed praying and telling the beads of her rosary till her death.

When the grandmother died, hundreds of sparrows crowded around the grandmother's room. There was no chirruping and EVERYTHING was quiet.  When he author's mother broke breadcrumbs for them as the grandmother used to do every day, they took no notice of it. When the grandmother's corpse was taken away, they quietly flew off.