The author's grandmother had a divine beauty that seemed to emanate from her piety, even though she was short, fat and slightly bent, the author writes about a serenity that comes from observance of a pious life. He writes that she could never have been pretty but she was always beautiful,dressed in pristine white,one hand balancing her stooping body and the other engaged in counting the beads of her rosary. She was quite old, her silver locks untidily framing her puckered face as her lips constantly moved in prayer. Her beauty was that of a disciplined monk, living a life of prayer and piety, soothing as a serene winter landscape in the mountains which had a calming effect on those who beheld her. The author's grandmother was a religious lady,her constant habit was to tell the beads of her rosary and that was something she would not miss for anything. His grandmother used to go to the temple while her grandson went to school which was attached to the temple. She would sit reading the scriptures and then walk back together. She believed in the reading of the scriptures being an important part of a child's education. Even when her grandson was departing for studies abroad, she came to the station but her lips were moving in prayer and mind was lost in prayer with fingers busy telling the beads. On his arrival after the completion of his studies, his grandmother did not stop reciting her prayers. For her, religion was a way of life and on the day she became ill,she did not omit her habit of praying. She kept on praying and telling her beads till her last breath. Her piety was a daily practice in life and even during the time of her death she did not falter.
The theme of the poem Photograph is loss, memory and the transience of life. It explores how people may die but in a strange way they continue to live on in the form of memories. These memories are not just restricted to one's head but can also attain a tangible form such as photographs. In certain ways, a photograph is like a memory,plucked out of time and frozen forever. The person one sees in the photograph is a version of themselves that no longer exists and it is especially ironic when we see how it can be connected to death. The photograph also marks the loss of that moment which is being photographed, it marks the passage of time and then becomes a reminder of what has gone by. Human beings are mortal and thus, we continue to seek ways in which to immortalize ourselves, through photographs and memories.