NCERT Solutions Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read

F R E E S T U D Y M AT E R I A L F O R E V E R Y S T U D E N T

CLASS 9 · ENGLISH

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 1: How I Taught My
Grandmother to Read

NCERT Textbook — Kaveri

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

1 – 32 17 64 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 68 pages

Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 9 · ENGLISH · KAVERI

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 1: How I Taught My
Grandmother to Read
Chapter 1 of Kaveri puts two pieces about belonging side by side. How I Taught My Grandmother to Read by
Sudha Murty is a memoir in which a sixty-two-year-old woman, shamed by her own helplessness before a
printed page, asks her twelve-year-old granddaughter to teach her the Kannada alphabet — and passes her
test on Saraswati Puja day. Bharat Our Land by Subramania Bharati is an ode that claims a mountain, a river,
a body of scripture and a line of sages as ours, and returns each time to one refrain: she’s peerless, let’s praise
her!

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Kaveri (Class 9) 1 – 32

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

17 64

MEDIUM

English

Reflect and Respond — Pages 1–2
How I Taught My Grandmother to Read (prose) — Sudha Murty

BEFORE YOU READ

Q1 I. Complete the given word web.

Why is it important
to learn how to
read and write?

The word web on page 1.

Four reasons, one for each box. Notice that the story itself supplies every one of them.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

BOX REASON WHAT IT MEANS IN PRACTICE

1 Independence You can read a letter, a bus board, a bank form or a medicine label without
asking anyone. This is exactly Krishtakka’s reason: “I want to be
independent.”

2 Access to Books, newspapers, magazines and now the internet are all locked behind
knowledge print. The grandmother could hear Kashi Yatre only when someone else
was free to read it to her.

3 Self-respect and Illiteracy is felt as shame: she “could have asked somebody in this village
confidence but I was too embarrassed to do so. I felt very dependent and helpless.”

4 Livelihood and Jobs, contracts, digital payments and government schemes all need
safety reading. A person who cannot read a document can be cheated with it.

Why the story makes the point better than a slogan: Krishtakka is not poor. “We
are well-off, but what use is money when I cannot be independent?” By removing
poverty from the picture, Sudha Murty shows that literacy is not only an economic
need — it is a form of dignity.

Q2 II. Read the questions given below and share your answers with your classmates
and teacher. 1. Which language(s) do your grandparents or elderly relatives speak?

This asks about your own family, so answer from it. A good answer names the language, says
where it is spoken, and mentions any second language your grandparents picked up later and
why.

Sample answer: My grandparents speak Awadhi at home and standard Hindi with
visitors. My grandmother grew up in a village near Barabanki, where Awadhi is the
everyday speech, so her proverbs and songs are all in it. My grandfather learnt some
English at work in the railways, and he still uses railway words — “platform”, “signal”
— in the middle of Hindi sentences. I understand Awadhi completely but reply in
Hindi, which my grandmother teases me about.

Tip: Mention the words you cannot translate. Every family language has one — like
Avva in this story, which means “mother” in the Kannada of north Karnataka but is
used here for a grandmother.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 II. 2. How do they spend their time? How do you spend time with them?

Answer in two halves, as the question is in two halves: their day, and the part of it you share.

Sample answer: My grandfather walks to the park at six, reads the newspaper cover
to cover, and spends the afternoon with his radio. My grandmother cooks, keeps the
terrace garden and watches a serial at eight. I spend the evening hour with them — I
read out the sports page for my grandfather because the print is small for him now,
and I help my grandmother water the pots. On Sundays we play carrom, and she
wins more often than anyone believes.

What makes this a good answer: it is specific. “They watch TV and I talk to them”
tells the reader nothing. One named activity, one named time of day and one small
habit make a person visible.

Q4 II. 3. What is your favourite experience with them?

Choose one incident, not a general feeling, and tell it with a beginning, a turn and an ending.

Sample answer: During last year’s power cut my grandmother took us to the
terrace and told us the story of the flood in her village in 1978 — how her father
carried the family’s brass vessels to the roof and how they ate parched rice for four
days. She remembered the name of every neighbour. I had known her only as the
person who cooks; that night I understood that she had lived a whole life before I
existed. It is my favourite memory because it changed how I see her, not just how I
feel about her.

Q5 II. 4. What is something that the elderly in your family cannot do easily but enjoy
watching you do?

Name the thing, then say why they enjoy watching — usually because it was once theirs, or
because it is new and they are curious about it.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Readl AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
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Sample answer: My grandfather cannot climb the stairs to the terrace any more

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because of his knee, but he sits at the window and watches me fly a kite from there
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every Makar
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agrandmother cannot use a smartphone easily, but she loves watching me video-call
my cousin in Pune; she waves at the screen and asks him to turn the camera towards
com
the window.
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Why this question is placed here: it prepares you for the story. Krishtakka too must
watch a twelve-year-old do something she cannot — read — and the story begins at
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the moment she refuses to go on merely watching.
em.
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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q6 III. Read the following passage. Match the highlighted words with their meanings
given in the box below. Box: 1. excitedly 2. believable 3. people living in one
particular area 4. discussion 5. a part of a story 6. focus 7. main character 8. directed
The casting for the (i) protagonist of our school’s annual play was done after a lot of
(ii) debate as many good actors had auditioned for the role. We had decided to
present an (iii) episode from an inspirational story. It was a life story of a group of
children who worked with the (iv) community to spread literacy. Every day, we
reached school early to practise with (v) concentration. We waited (vi) eagerly for
the final presentation. All of us played our roles in a very (vii) convincing manner as
our theatre teacher had (viii) guided us well.

HIGHLIGHTED MEANING THE CLUE IN THE SENTENCE
WORD

(i) protagonist 7. main character “many good actors had auditioned for the role” —
one role everyone wants means the leading one.

(ii) debate 4. discussion The casting was done “after a lot of” it — an argument
that took time before a decision.

(iii) episode 5. a part of a story “an episode from an inspirational story” — a part
taken out of a whole.

(iv) community 3. people living in one The children “worked with” it to spread literacy — a
particular area local body of people, not an individual.

(v) concentration 6. focus “reached school early to practise with” it — undivided
attention.

(vi) eagerly 1. excitedly “We waited eagerly for the final presentation” —
waiting with keen anticipation.

(vii) convincing 2. believable “played our roles in a very convincing manner” — the
audience believed them.

(viii) guided 8. directed Done by “our theatre teacher” — the person who
directs a play.

Did you know? Three of these words come back inside the story itself. Triveni’s style
is called “very convincing”, the narrator listens with “the greatest concentration”, and
the grandmother waits “eagerly” for the next episode. The passage is a deliberate
warm-up for the vocabulary of the text.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Check Your Understanding — Pages 6–7

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How I Taught My Grandmother to Read — Part I

PART I

Q1 I. Complete the cause and effect table given below based on Part I of the story.
Share your answers with your classmates and teacher.

CAUSE EFFECT

1. (i) The morning papers arrived late in the day and
weekly magazines would come one day late.

2. The grandmother, Krishtakka, (ii)
never went to school.

3. (iii) She was deeply interested in the story and
discussed it with her friends.

4. The narrator went to a (iv)
wedding for a week.

5. (v) The grandmother never went to school.

6. The grandmother regretted not (vi)
going to school.

NO. CAUSE EFFECT

1 The transport system in the village was not (i) The morning papers arrived late in the day
very good, so the bus that carried the papers, and weekly magazines would come one day late.
magazines and post reached late.

2 The grandmother, Krishtakka, never went (ii) She could not read, so every Wednesday, when
to school. Karmaveera arrived, the narrator had to read the
next episode of Kashi Yatre out to her.

3 (iii) She identified herself with the novel’s She was deeply interested in the story and
protagonist — an old lady longing to reach discussed it with her friends.
Kashi, a journey the grandmother too had
never made.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

4 The narrator went to a wedding for a (iv) Nobody read the new episode to the grandmother.
week. She opened the magazine, saw the picture,
understood nothing, “rubbed my hands over the
pages wishing they could understand” — and was in
tears when the narrator returned.

5 (v) “In those days people never considered The grandmother never went to school.
education essential for girls” — and she had
lost her mother, while her father was “a busy
man” who had married again, so there was
nobody to send her.

6 The grandmother regretted not going to (vi) She made sure that her children and
school. grandchildren studied well — and finally decided to
learn the Kannada alphabet herself at sixty-two.

Why the table is worth doing carefully: read the six rows downwards and you have
the whole plot. A slow bus creates a weekly ritual; the ritual exposes a dependence;
the dependence becomes unbearable the one week it is interrupted; and the shame
turns into a decision. Nothing in the story is coincidence — each event is the effect of
the one above it.

Q2 II. Do you think the narrator expected to see her grandmother in tears when she
returned to the village? If yes, why? If no, why not?

No, she did not expect it at all. The text says so directly: “I saw my grandmother in tears. I was
surprised, for I had never seen her cry even in the most difficult situations.”
Two things make the shock complete. First, the narrator had been away enjoying herself — “We
would eat and play endlessly, savouring the freedom because all the elders were busy” — so she
came back in a holiday mood, expecting nothing to have changed. Second, her whole idea of
her grandmother was of a woman who does not break: “a good-looking lady who was usually
always smiling.” Tears did not fit that picture, which is why she asks twice, gets a nod and no
reply, and then simply “forgot about it”.

Why Sudha Murty writes it this way: the reader is put exactly where the twelve-
year-old is — unable to guess the cause. The delay between the tears in the
afternoon and the explanation at night is what turns a small domestic scene into
suspense.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Readl AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
III. How might the narrator help her grandmother to fulfil her desire to learn to
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Q3

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read and write?

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se m
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By becoming her teacher — which is precisely what happens in Part II: “The next day onwards I

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started my tuition.”
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The practical shape of that help is worth spelling out, because the story shows every step of it:

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a
Start with the script, not with books. The grandmother’s goal is the Kannada alphabet —
letters first, then words, then a whole novel.
Fix a daily time and stick to it. The lesson happens every day, and the homework is the real
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work: “She would read, repeat, write, and recite.”
se m.
o m g l a
.c so the target is felt, not imposed.
Set a deadline the learner chooses. Saraswati Puja day during Dassara — a date with
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se her something real to read at the end. The narrator secretly buys Kashi Yatre, now
meaning,

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Give
published as a novel. The test is the thing the grandmother wanted in the first place.

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Treat her as a student, not as a grandmother. The narrator does correct and teach her;

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the roles are genuinely exchanged, which is why the ending works.

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Tip: When a question begins “How might…”, you are being asked to predict. Answer

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with a method, and where the text later confirms it, say so — that is how you show
you have read ahead as well as guessed well.
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m l as
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a s em
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gCheck Your Understanding — Pages 9–10

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m a s e
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co m
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How I Taught My Grandmother to Read — Part II

PART II

Q1 I. State whether the following sentences are true or false. Share your answers with
your classmates and teacher. 1. The grandmother wanted to learn the Kannada
alphabet to gain independence. 2. The grandmother asked someone in the village
to read Kashi Yatre to her while the narrator was away. 3. The narrator was the
grandmother’s first teacher and taught her how to read Kannada. 4. The
grandmother believed that there was no age limit for learning. 5. The grandmother
touched the narrator’s feet as a mark of respect for her as a teacher. 6. The narrator
was disappointed with the progress her grandmother made in learning to read.

NO. TRUE / THE LINE THAT DECIDES IT
FALSE

1 True “That day I should be able to read a novel on my own. I want to be independent.”
Independence is her stated motive, not literacy for its own sake.

2 False The opposite happened: “I could have asked somebody in this village but I was
too embarrassed to do so.” Her silence is the point of the whole episode.

3 True “I was her only teacher and she was my first student.” The narrator adds the irony
herself — she did not know she would one day teach Computer Science to
hundreds.

4 True “For learning there is no age bar.” She says it in answer to being laughed at for
being sixty-two.

5 True “I am touching the feet of a teacher, not my granddaughter… It is my duty to
respect a teacher.” She names the reason before anyone can misread the gesture.

6 False “I knew then that my student had passed with flying colours.” The narrator is
proud, not disappointed — the grandmother read the title and the publisher’s
name straight off the cover.

How to attempt true/false without guessing: every one of these six statements
can be settled by a single sentence in the text. Statements 2 and 6 are false because
they reverse what the text says — a common trap. Before you tick, find the line; if
you cannot find one, you are recalling the plot rather than reading it.

Critical Reflection — Pages 10–13

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How I Taught My Grandmother to Read (prose)

EXTRACT-BASED

Q1 I. Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow. 1. When I
came back to my village, I saw my grandmother in tears. I was surprised, for I had
never seen her cry even in the most difficult situations. What had happened? I was
worried. ‘Avva, is everything all right? Are you okay?’ I used to call her Avva, which
means mother in the Kannada spoken in north Karnataka. She nodded but did not
reply. I did not understand and forgot about it. In the night, after dinner, we were
sleeping in the open terrace of our house. It was a summer night and there was a
full moon. Avva came and sat next to me. Her affectionate hands touched my
forehead. (i) Complete the following sentence with the appropriate option. The
phrase ‘never seen her cry in the most difficult situations’ tells us that the
grandmother was ________. A. strong-willed B. understanding C. considerate D. bold
(ii) Complete the following with the correct option from those given in the brackets.
Grandmother did not reply when the narrator asked if she was alright because she
might have been too ________ (emotional/tired) to respond. (iii) Identify the clue from
the extract that indicates a rural setting with traditional customs. (iv) Which lines
of the extract establish a tender atmosphere? (v) Which of the following aspect is
NOT emphasised in the given extract? A. the emotional turmoil of the grandmother
B. the affectionate bond between the narrator and her grandmother C. the
grandmother’s regret over her lack of education D. the narrator’s concern for her
grandmother

(i) A. strong-willed. The phrase measures her by what she does not do — she does not break
down even when circumstances are at their worst. That is endurance of the will. Bold (D) is the
near miss: boldness is daring, a readiness to act or speak out, and the extract shows nothing
daring — only self-control. Understanding (B) and considerate (C) describe how she treats others,
and the phrase says nothing about others at all.
(ii) emotional. The extract gives the evidence twice over. She “nodded but did not reply” — she
could manage a gesture but not speech, which is what strong feeling does to a person. And she
is not tired: that same night she gets up after dinner, comes to the terrace and sits beside the
narrator to talk. A tired woman sleeps; an overwhelmed one waits for the dark to speak.
(iii) Two clues, both inside the extract:

“I used to call her Avva, which means mother in the Kannada spoken in north
Karnataka.” A local dialect word used inside the family, and the custom of calling a
grandmother “mother”, place the scene in a particular rural region rather than in a city.
“we were sleeping in the open terrace of our house” on a summer night — sleeping on
the terrace in the hot months is a village and small-town practice, and it is what allows a
private conversation to happen at all.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

(iv) The last two sentences: “Avva came and sat next to me. Her affectionate hands touched my
forehead.” The tenderness is created by touch rather than by speech — nobody says anything,
and the gesture is the one an adult uses to comfort a child, here used by the person who
actually needs comfort. The setting adds to it: “It was a summer night and there was a full
moon” gives a soft, quiet light in which the confession that follows becomes possible.
(v) C. the grandmother’s regret over her lack of education. Test each option against the
printed lines. A is present — tears, a nod, no reply. B is present — “Avva”, the hands on the
forehead. D is present — “Are you okay?”, “I was worried.” But nothing in this extract mentions
school, reading or education; her regret is confessed later, on the following page. That is exactly
why this option is the answer: it is true of the story but not of the extract.

Check it yourself: in a NOT-question, do not look for the option that is false. Look
for the one you cannot underline in the passage in front of you.

Q2 I. 2. ‘I have decided I want to learn the Kannada alphabet from tomorrow onwards. I
will work very hard. I will keep Saraswati Puja day during Dassara as the deadline.
That day I should be able to read a novel on my own. I want to be independent.’ I
saw the determination on her face. Yet I laughed at her. ‘Avva, at this age of sixty-
two you want to learn the alphabet? All your hair is grey, your hands are wrinkled,
you wear spectacles and you work so much in the kitchen...’ Childishly I made fun of
the old lady. But she just smiled. ‘For a good cause if you are determined, you can
overcome any obstacle. I will work harder than anybody but I will do it. For learning
there is no age bar.’ (i) What does the grandmother’s statement, “I want to be
independent,” reveal about her character? A. She wanted to be literate. B. She
desires self-sufficiency. C. She wants to prove her intelligence to others. D. She feels
pressured by society to learn. (ii) Fill in the blank with the appropriate option from
those given in brackets. The grandmother’s determination shows that learning has
no ________. (age limit/gender bias/cultural barriers) (iii) Complete the following with
a suitable reason. The narrator laughs at her grandmother’s decision to learn the
alphabet at the age of sixty-two because ________. (iv) List any two qualities displayed
by the grandmother. (v) How can we say that the narrator is making assumptions
about her grandmother?

(i) B. She desires self-sufficiency. Literacy (A) is only her method; the sentence names her goal,
and the goal is to stop needing other people. The proof is elsewhere in the chapter — “We are
well-off, but what use is money when I cannot be independent?” C is wrong because she is not
addressing “others” at all; she never even told the village she could not read. D is the opposite of
the truth: society had told her that education was not essential for girls, and she is now going
against that.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

(ii) age limit. Take the words from the extract itself. The narrator’s objection is “at this age of
sixty-two”, and the grandmother’s reply is “For learning there is no age bar.” Gender bias and
cultural barriers are real in the story — “In those days people never considered education
essential for girls” — but that line is not in this extract, and this extract argues about age.
(iii) …because she is twelve years old and cannot imagine that learning belongs to anyone but
the young. Her reasons are listed in the extract and every one of them is physical — “All your
hair is grey, your hands are wrinkled, you wear spectacles and you work so much in the kitchen.”
She measures ability by the body and by the daily role her grandmother occupies, and so treats
the decision as a joke. She admits the judgement was worthless as soon as she reports it:
“Childishly I made fun of the old lady.”
(iv) Two, with the words that show them:

Determination. “I saw the determination on her face”; she fixes a subject, a date and a
standard — read a novel on my own by Saraswati Puja day.
Patience and composure. She is laughed at by a child and does not retort: “But she just
smiled,” and answers with a principle rather than with anger.

(Self-respect and hard work would also be accepted: “I will work harder than anybody but I will
do it.”)
(v) Because she decides what her grandmother can do without asking, testing or listening.
Notice the structure of her outburst: she does not say “learning is difficult” or “the alphabet
takes time” — she lists grey hair, wrinkled hands, spectacles and kitchen work, none of which
has anything to do with the mind. She assumes that old age ends the capacity to learn, that a
woman busy in the kitchen has no room for anything else, and that a person who has never
studied cannot begin. The extract quietly marks all this as assumption by showing what the
narrator can already see — “I saw the determination on her face. Yet I laughed at her.” The word
“yet” admits that the evidence was in front of her and she ignored it.

Q3 II. 1. Why do you think the grandmother felt embarrassed to ask someone else to
read to her while the narrator was away?

Because asking would have made her illiteracy public in a village where she was a respected,
well-off elder.
Inside the family, being read to was a shared pleasure — it looked like affection, not
helplessness. Outside it, the same request would have announced that Krishtakka, the head of a
comfortable household, could not read a magazine. She says both halves of this herself: “I could
have asked somebody in this village but I was too embarrassed to do so. I felt very dependent
and helpless.”
There is a second, sharper reason. She had spent her life being the one who provides — “always
felt so much happiness in cooking and feeding all of you” — and had made sure her children
and grandchildren studied well. To go to a neighbour as a supplicant would have reversed the

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Readl AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

position she had held for sixty years. That is why the embarrassment is not vanity; it is the
co m
moment she discovers what her illiteracy has cost her, and it is what drives the decision on the
e m.
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.co g
next page.

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Q4 II. 2. Why does the narrator initially laugh at her grandmother’s determination to

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learn at the age of sixty-two?

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She laughs out of a child’s certainty, not out of unkindness. At twelve, school is the whole world
of learning, and school belongs to children. A sixty-two-year-old sitting down to the alphabet
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strikes her as a comic mismatch, like an adult joining a game of hide and seek.
em.
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Her objections show the mistake exactly: “All your hair is grey, your hands are wrinkled, you

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wear spectacles and you work so much in the kitchen…” Every item is about the body or the
l routine; not one is about whether her grandmother can think, remember or work hard.
gdaily
a Sudha Murty also lets the laugh be affectionate — the two are close enough to tease each other,
m a s
.co agl
and the grandmother does not take offence: “But she just smiled.”

se m
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Why the author includes the laugh at all: the narrator is writing about herself
a
years later, and she is honest about being wrong. Calling her own behaviour

m
“childish” sets up the reversal at the end, where the same child is called a teacher
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and has her feet touched. Without the laugh, the ending would have no distance to

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travel.
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Q5 II. 3. What significance does the story of Kashi Yatre have in both the
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.
grandmother’s life and the story?
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In the grandmother’s life, Kashi Yatre is not entertainment — it is her own life told back to her.

c o m
.
Triveni’s novel is about “an old lady and her ardent desire to go to Kashi or Varanasi”, a
pilgrimage she never makes because she gives away all her savings for
s e man orphan girl’s
. c om Krishtakka “too never went to Kashi, and she identified
wedding.
a g laherself with the novel’s
a emprotagonist”, and she has spent her life giving to others in exactly the same way — cooking,
s feeding, and making sure her grandchildren studied. That is why she listens “with the greatest
agl c
concentration”, repeats the whole text by heart, and argues about it with her friends in the
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temple courtyard.
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In the story’s construction, the novel does three jobs:

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It creates the weekly ritual that binds grandmother and granddaughter — every
Wednesday, a magazine and a reading.

co m
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

It causes the crisis. When the narrator is away, it is the picture accompanying Kashi Yatre
that the grandmother stares at and cannot read. Her tears are about that page.
It closes the story. The narrator secretly buys Kashi Yatre, “published as a novel by that
time”, and the grandmother “opened it and read immediately the title Kashi Yatre by Triveni
and the publisher’s name.” The book she could once only hear becomes the book she reads
— the proof of what she has achieved.

The deeper echo: the fictional old lady chooses another person’s happiness over her
own pilgrimage; the real old lady is finally given a gift instead of giving one. Sudha
Murty lets the novel inside the story quietly comment on the story itself.

Q6 II. 4. What does the grandmother’s desire to learn the Kannada alphabet reflect
about her?

It reflects a woman who refuses to accept dependence as a settled fact of her life.

Self-respect. She is not learning to impress anyone — nobody in the village even knows she
cannot read. The audience for this is herself: “I want to be independent.”
Courage. Beginning at the beginning at sixty-two means being a beginner in front of a
twelve-year-old, and being laughed at on the first day. She goes ahead anyway.
Discipline. She turns a wish into a plan with a deadline — Saraswati Puja day — and then
does the work: “The amount of homework she did was amazing. She would read, repeat,
write, and recite.”
Humility. She accepts a child as her teacher completely, and at the end insists on the full
formality of the role by touching her feet.
Clear-eyed judgement about her own past. She does not blame anyone for never having
gone to school; she simply decides that the loss can still be repaired.

Q7 II. 5. What lessons can we infer from the grandmother’s action of touching the
narrator’s feet?

The gesture is deliberately shocking — the narrator calls it “unusual”, says she was “taken
aback”, and notes that “Elders never touch the feet of youngsters… today the reverse had
happened. It was not correct.” The grandmother then explains it, and the explanation carries
the lessons.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Respect is owed to a role, not to a person’s age. “I am touching the feet of a teacher, not
my granddaughter.” She is not honouring a twelve-year-old girl; she is honouring the office
of the teacher, which that girl happens to hold.
Knowledge is what a tradition actually asks us to revere. “Is it not written in our
scriptures that a teacher should be respected, irrespective of the gender and age?” She
keeps the spirit of the custom by breaking its usual form — the sharper reading of the two.
Gratitude should be expressed, not merely felt. She marks the day formally: the puja
place, a stool, a gift of frock material, and then the namaskara.
A true learner stays humble even in success. She has just achieved something
remarkable, and her first act is to thank her teacher.

Note how the narrator answers: “I did return her namaskara to her by touching her feet and
gave my gift to my first student.” Neither of them cancels the other’s respect. The lesson is not
that the old should bow to the young, but that learning and teaching deserve honour wherever
they are found.

Q8 II. 6. What does the following line tell us about the broader theme of the story? ‘For
a good cause if you are determined, you can overcome any obstacle.’

It states the theme of the whole story in one sentence: determination, joined to a worthwhile
purpose, defeats circumstance.
Read the sentence closely — it has two conditions, not one. “For a good cause” comes first: the
will has to be pointed at something worth doing. “If you are determined” comes second:
wanting is not enough, it must be sustained. Only then does the promise arrive — “you can
overcome any obstacle.”
The story then tests the claim rather than merely asserting it. The obstacles are all named and
none is imaginary: age sixty-two, grey hair, wrinkled hands, weak eyes, a full day of kitchen
work, no schooling of any kind, and a teacher who begins by laughing at her. Against all that she
puts one thing — hard work with a deadline — and by Dassara she reads a novel. The line is
proved by the plot, not by argument.

Why this matters beyond the story: the sentence separates what we can control
from what we cannot. Age, past circumstances and other people’s opinions are
given; effort and purpose are chosen. The grandmother wins because she stops
arguing with the first group and works on the second.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q9 II. 7. How effectively does the story highlight the value of education in supporting
personal independence?

Very effectively — chiefly because it dramatises the idea instead of stating it, and because it
removes every easy explanation before it does so.
It shows dependence physically. The most powerful sentence in the story is not an argument
but an image: “Many times I rubbed my hands over the pages wishing they could understand
what was written.” A page that will not open to a person is the whole case for literacy, made in
one line.
It rules out poverty as the cause. “We are well-off, but what use is money when I cannot be
independent?” By making the grandmother comfortable, Sudha Murty prevents the reader from
filing this under “problems of the poor”. What she lacks cannot be bought.
It makes independence measurable. The goal is precise — read a novel unaided; the deadline
is fixed — Saraswati Puja day; and the result is demonstrated in public, not claimed: she “opened
it and read immediately the title Kashi Yatre by Triveni and the publisher’s name.”
It shows the change in status, not only in skill. The proof that something real has altered is
the reversed namaskara. A woman who a few months earlier was too embarrassed to ask a
neighbour for help now stands as an equal — and, in the matter of gratitude, as the one who
gives.

A fair qualification: the story works on a small, favourable scale — one willing
learner, one available teacher, no cost, no distance to travel. Adult literacy in the
country needs classes, materials and volunteers, which is exactly what the Writing
Task on page 19 asks you to argue for. The story proves that adults can learn; the
programmes exist because most adults do not have a granddaughter free every
evening.

Vocabulary and Structures in Context — Pages 13–16

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How I Taught My Grandmother to Read (prose)

VOCABULARY GRAMMAR

Q1 I. The expression ‘hide and seek’ is used in the text. This is called a binomial.
Binomials are expressions consisting of two words, usually linked by a conjunction
like ‘and’ or ‘or’, that are commonly used together in a fixed order. For example:
odds and ends, right or wrong. Match the binomials in Column 1 with their
meanings in Column 2. You may refer to a dictionary. Column 1: 1. sink or swim 2.
on and off 3. mix and match 4. all or nothing 5. part and parcel 6. pick and choose 7.
sooner or later 8. leaps and bounds Column 2: (i) put different things together to
get a range of possibilities (ii) complete part of or belong to (iii) choose only the
best (things, people, etc.) (iv) at sometime in the future (v) sometimes, occasionally
(vi) increase or develop very quickly (vii) succeed or fail without help (viii)
something to be done completely or not at all Now, use any five of the above
binomials in sentences of your own.

BINOMIAL MEANING HOW TO REMEMBER IT

1. sink or swim (vii) succeed or fail without help A person thrown into water with nobody to hold
him — only two outcomes, and both are his own.

2. on and off (v) sometimes, occasionally Like a switch that keeps being turned on and then
off — the thing happens in patches, not steadily.

3. mix and (i) put different things together to Three shirts and three trousers give nine outfits —
match get a range of possibilities you mix, then match.

4. all or nothing (viii) something to be done No middle position is allowed.
completely or not at all

5. part and (ii) complete part of or belong to Not an extra that can be removed — it comes
parcel inside the parcel.

6. pick and (iii) choose only the best (things, Two words for choosing, doubled, to suggest
choose people, etc.) choosing very selectively.

7. sooner or (iv) at sometime in the future The time is unknown; only the certainty is being
later stated.

8. leaps and (vi) increase or develop very Not steps — jumps.
bounds quickly

Five sentences of my own:

1. The coach gave us no instructions before the final — it was sink or swim.

Page 18 of 68

ase
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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Readl AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

2. My grandfather still plays the harmonium on and off, usually on Sunday mornings.
co m
3. With four kurtas and three dupattas she could mix and match an outfit for every day of the
e m.
m l as
.co g
week.

em a
s
4. Missing the bus is part and parcel of living at the far end of the route.
a
agl
5. Since the new library opened, his reading has improved by leaps and bounds.

o m
c ag
Tip: The order inside a binomial is fixed by habit, not by logic. English says hide and
.
m never “ends and odds”. If you reverse the
s e
seek, never “seek and hide”; odds and ends,
order, the phrase stops soundingla
unchanged. a g like English even though the meaning is

co m
se m.
o m l a
m .c the following words from the text given in the boxagbelow. unhappy unusual
II. Read
se unfortunately irrespective independent These words are made by adding suitable
Q2

l a
ag prefixes (‘un’, ‘ir’, and ‘in’) to give an opposite or negative meaning to the words.
Now, make words by adding the suitable prefixes given in the box to the words
a s
comun im dis in mis extra 1. popular 2. belief 3. agl
from the text in Column 1. Write the prefixed words in Column 2. One example has
.
s em
been done for you. Prefixes available:
a
a g l 6. continue 7. understand 8. ordinary 9. interesting
important 4. respect 5. correct
10. possible

co m
m .
se

com 1 l a
g WORD
m . MEANING OF THE a

ase
COLUMN COLUMN 2 NEW

agl 1. popular (i) unpopular (given) not liked by many people

se m
2. belief (ii) disbelief
c o m the refusal or inability to believe something
g l a
m . a
ase
agl
3. important (iii) unimportant of no importance

4. respect (iv) disrespect lack of respect

com
5. correct (v) incorrect wrong
m .
m as e
.co
6. continue (vi) discontinue
a g l
to stop doing or providing something

a s em 7. understand
agl
(vii) misunderstand to understand wrongly

.c
8. ordinary (viii) extraordinary far beyond the ordinary; remarkable
s e m
m a
m . co agl
se
9. interesting (ix) uninteresting dull

l a
10. possible
ag
(x) impossible not able to happen

co m
m .
m as e
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why these particular prefixes: not all of them mean the same thing.

un-, in-, im-, ir- simply negate: unhappy, incorrect, impossible, irrespective.
im- is used before p, b, m (impossible, imbalance, immature) and ir- before r
(irrespective, irregular) — they are just in- reshaped to suit the next sound.
dis- often means removal or reversal of an action or state: discontinue, disrespect,
disbelief.
mis- means wrongly, not “not”: misunderstand is not the absence of
understanding but faulty understanding.
extra- is not a negative at all — it means beyond: extraordinary, extra-curricular.
Watch this one; it is the trap in the list.

Q3 III. Identify any five words with prefixes from the story and make sentences using
each.

WORD FROM PREFIX + WHERE IT OCCURS MY OWN SENTENCE
THE STORY ROOT

unfortunately un + “Unfortunately for Kannada Unfortunately, the last bus had
fortunate (+ literature, she died very already left when we reached
ly) young.” the stand.

unhappy un + happy “It was unhappy and her eyes He looked unhappy about the
were filled with tears.” change in the team list.

unusual un + usual “Then she did something Rain in December is unusual in
unusual.” our district.

independent in + “Now I am independent.” Once she learnt to cycle, she
dependent was independent of everyone
for the school run.

irrespective ir + “a teacher should be The library is open to everyone
respective respected, irrespective of the irrespective of which class they
gender and age” are in.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Check it yourself: a prefix must leave a real word behind when you remove it.
Unhappy minus un- gives happy, so the prefix is genuine. But immensely minus im-
gives “mensely”, which is not a word — so the im there is not the negative prefix at
all, even though it looks like one.

Q4 IV. In the sentence, “I knew, then, that my student had passed with flying colours”,
the phrase “passed with flying colours” is an idiom. It means outstanding
performance. Now, match the idioms related to ‘learning’ given in Column 1 with
their meanings in Column 2. You may refer to a dictionary. Column 1: 1. to hit the
books 2. to draw a blank 3. to learn the ropes 4. to rack one’s brain 5. to learn by
heart 6. burn the midnight oil Column 2: (i) to memorise something (ii) to think very
hard (iii) to study seriously (iv) to study or work late into the night (v) to be unable
to remember (vi) to understand how to do an activity Now, use these idioms in
sentences of your own.

IDIOM MEANING MY OWN SENTENCE

1. to hit the (iii) to study seriously After the half-yearly results, Rohit decided to hit the
books books every evening.

2. to draw a (v) to be unable to I knew the poet’s name at home, but in the exam hall I
blank remember drew a blank.

3. to learn the (vi) to understand how to It took her a fortnight in the school library to learn the
ropes do an activity ropes of the cataloguing system.

4. to rack one’s (ii) to think very hard We racked our brains for an hour before spotting the
brain mistake in the last step.

5. to learn by (i) to memorise something My grandmother had learnt the whole of Kashi Yatre by
heart heart simply by listening to it.

6. burn the (iv) to study or work late The whole team burnt the midnight oil to finish the
midnight oil into the night science model before the exhibition.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Where the images come from: Burn the midnight oil is older than electricity — it
means keeping an oil lamp alight past midnight. Learn the ropes comes from sailing
ships, where a new sailor first had to learn which rope controlled which sail. Rack
one’s brain comes from the rack, a machine that stretched a body — the mind is
being stretched to its limit. Knowing the picture inside an idiom is the surest way to
remember its meaning.

Did you know? Item 5 is not a hypothetical for this story. The narrator says of her
grandmother, “Later, she could repeat the entire text by heart” — she had learnt the
serial by heart long before she could read a single letter of it.

Q5 V. Read the following sentences from the text and underline the verbs. 1. Secretly, I
bought Kashi Yatre which had been published as a novel by that time. 2. I knew,
then, that my student had passed with flying colours.

SENTENCE VERBS TENSE WHICH ACTION CAME
FIRST

1. Secretly, I bought Kashi Yatre bought / had simple past / The publishing came first; the
which had been published as a been published past perfect buying came later.
novel by that time. (passive)

2. I knew, then, that my student had knew / had simple past / The grandmother passed first;
passed with flying colours. passed past perfect the narrator realised it a
moment later.

Why English needs two past tenses here: both actions are over, but they did not
happen at the same moment. The simple past marks the recent past — the action
the story has reached. The past perfect (had + past participle) marks the earlier past
— something already finished before that moment. Take away the past perfect in
sentence 1 and you get “I bought Kashi Yatre which was published as a novel by that
time”, which loses the fact that the novel already existed on the shelf, waiting, before
she went to buy it.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q6 V. (i) Fill in the blanks with simple past and past perfect tense form of the verbs
given in brackets. A. When the delegates ________ (arrive) at the conference, the
keynote speaker ________ (already begin) the session. B. After the students ________
(learn) how to identify fake news online, they ________ (start) verifying information
before sharing it. C. Before Kiran ________ (start) using digital payment platforms, she
________ (ensure) her understanding of online fraud prevention. D. By the time Varun
________ (recognise) the importance of budgeting, he ________ (exhaust) most of his
savings. E. When Raghu ________ (log in) to the cybersecurity webinar, the instructor
________ (already discuss) the importance of strong passwords.

NO. COMPLETED SENTENCE WHY THAT PAIR

A When the delegates arrived at the conference, The speaker began before they walked in
the keynote speaker had already begun the — so his action takes the past perfect.
session. Already is a signal word for it.

B After the students had learnt how to identify After puts the learning first; the verifying
fake news online, they started verifying follows, so the verifying is the simple past.
information before sharing it.

C Before Kiran started using digital payment Before reverses the order of A and B: the
platforms, she had ensured her understanding clause after before is the later action, so
of online fraud prevention. the other verb takes the past perfect.

D By the time Varun recognised the importance of By the time always marks the moment
budgeting, he had exhausted most of his things had already reached — the damage
savings. was complete before the realisation.

E When Raghu logged in to the cybersecurity Same shape as A: he missed a part that
webinar, the instructor had already discussed was over before he arrived.
the importance of strong passwords.

Tip — the one rule that decides all five: find which action finished first, and give
that one had + past participle. The connector tells you where to look: after and by
the time point backwards to the earlier action, before points forwards to the later
one, and when can do either — so read the sense.

Page 23 of 68

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Readl AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
V. (ii) Fill in the blanks with the correct form of verbs given in brackets. Last year,
se
Q7

o m l a
my parents and I A. ________ (take) a financial planning course. When we B. ________
g on unnecessary
m .c our expenses, we realised we C. ________ (spend) too much
(review) a
l a se
purchases. After my parents D. ________ (discuss) ways to save, I E. ________ (open) a
a g savings account. By the time we F. ________ (set) our budget, the course G. ________
(already introduce) investment strategies. We H. ________ (hurry) to take notes, but

. c om
many participants I. ________ (complete) their financial plans. Despite that, we J.
ag
s e m money wisely.
________ (enjoy) learning how to manage

a gla

co m
m.
The completed passage, with the two tenses marked:

o m l a se
m .c my parents and I A. took a financial planning course. ag
se we B. reviewed our expenses, we realised we C. had spent too much on unnecessary
Last year,

g l a
a
When

s
purchases.
m a
m .co
After my parents D. had discussed ways to save, I E. opened a savings account.
agl
l a se
a g
By the time we F. set our budget, the course G. had already introduced investment

com
strategies.
m .
m as e
.co g l
We H. hurried to take notes, but many participants I. had completed their financial plans.
a
s m that, we J. enjoyed learning how to manage money wisely.
eDespite
gl a
a
se m
com g l a
m . a
ase
agl

co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

BLANK FORM REASON

A took Simple past — “last year” is a finished time, and this is the first event
of the story.

B reviewed Simple past — the moment the narrative has reached.

C had spent Past perfect — the overspending was already over before the review
revealed it.

D had discussed Past perfect after after — the discussion came first.

E opened Simple past — the later action, the result of the discussion.

F set Simple past (set is unchanged in the past) — the reference moment
marked by by the time.

G had already Past perfect — the course had done this before the budget was set;
introduced already confirms it.

H hurried Simple past — an action at the same moment as the narrative.

I had completed Past perfect — the contrast with but only works if the others had
finished earlier.

J enjoyed Simple past — the closing comment on the whole finished experience.

Why set and not “had set”: the phrase by the time names the point of reference. The
verb inside that phrase is the reference itself, so it stays in the simple past; the verb
in the main clause is the one that had already happened, and it takes the past
perfect. Compare item D in the previous exercise — the same pattern, the same
reason.

Listen and Respond — Page 17 (Transcript for teacher, Appendix page 259)

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How I Taught My Grandmother to Read (prose)

LISTENING

Q1 I. You will listen to a speaker talk about digital literacy. As you listen, complete the
following sentences with one to three exact words that you hear. (Transcript for
teacher on page 259) 1. Literacy these days includes the ability to use ____________.

digital tools
The transcript on page 259 reads: “Earlier, literacy meant just reading and writing. Now, it
includes the ability to use digital tools effectively and responsibly.” The sentence in the book
copies the speaker’s own words up to the blank, so the two or three words that follow — digital
tools — are what must be written. “Effectively and responsibly” is how they are used, not what is
used, so it does not belong in the blank.

Tip for gap-fill listening: the instruction says exact words that you hear. Do not
improve the speaker’s phrasing — “computers” or “technology” would be wrong here
even though the meaning is close.

Q2 I. 2. Digital literacy is also about protecting ____________.

personal data
Transcript, page 259: “It’s not just about using gadgets but also understanding digital platforms,
identifying reliable sources, and protecting personal data.” The listed items build to this one,
and “protecting” in the question matches the speaker’s word exactly, so the blank takes the two
words that follow it.

Q3 I. 3. Digital literacy enables the elderly to ______________.

stay connected
Transcript, page 259: “it empowers individuals—students learn to research critically,
professionals handle digital transactions, and senior citizens stay connected.” The book’s
sentence replaces the speaker’s “senior citizens” with “the elderly”, so you must listen past that
phrase for the two words that describe what they are enabled to do.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why this item sits in this chapter: the speaker’s three examples are a student, a
professional and an older person — and the chapter you have just read is about an
older person who was cut off from information because she could not read. The
listening passage updates the story’s question for a digital age.

Q4 I. 4. Digital literacy encourages using the internet safely by helping us recognise
______________ and _______________.

misinformation and scams
Transcript, page 259: “Second, it promotes safe internet use by helping us recognise
misinformation, scams, and cyber threats.” The speaker names three dangers; the book leaves
only two blanks, so take them in the order spoken — misinformation first, scams second. (If your
teacher accepts the last pair instead, scams and cyber threats is defensible, but the first two
follow the sentence order exactly.)

Q5 I. 5. The National Digital Literacy Mission helps people across the country by
imparting ______________.

IT training
Transcript, page 259: “This is the reason the Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (DISHA) or National
Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) Scheme has been formulated to impart IT training to people
across the country.” The book turns the speaker’s “to impart” into “by imparting”, so only the
object of the verb goes in the blank.

Did you know? The scheme is named in the transcript twice over — Digital Saksharta
Abhiyan (DISHA) and National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM). It is the digital-age
descendant of the National Literacy Mission mentioned in the “Do you know?” box
on page 21 of this very chapter.

Speaking Activity — Pages 17–18

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How I Taught My Grandmother to Read (prose)

SPEAKING

Q1 Turncoat is a type of solo debate where the speaker argues for and against a topic,
switching sides after a certain period of time. I. Choose your topic and speak ‘for’
and ‘against’ for not more than one minute each. Topic 1: It is important to learn a
new language apart from your mother tongue. Use the guidelines given below. •
Begin with speaking ‘for’ the topic for one minute. • Your teacher will signal that it
is time to switch sides. • Then speak ‘against’ the topic for one minute.

How a turncoat is judged: not on which side you believe, but on whether you can argue both
sides honestly. Give each side its strongest case, use the signposting phrases printed on page
18, and make the switch audible — the listener should hear the exact sentence where you
change camps.
What a good one-minute case needs: one clear claim, two reasons, one example, and a
closing line. Do not attempt more; a minute holds about 130 words.

Sample answer — ‘For’ (about one minute):
To begin with, I would like to speak for the topic. A second language is a second
doorway into the world. My first argument in favour is opportunity: most of what is
written on science, medicine and law in this country is not available in every mother
tongue, and a student who reads only one language reads only one shelf of the
library. Secondly, a new language changes the person who learns it. Research on
multilingual children shows better memory and sharper attention, and anyone who
has struggled with Sanskrit grammar knows why — you are forced to notice how
meaning is built. Most importantly, I want to mention that India runs on translation.
A Kannada speaker who learns Hindi, or a Hindi speaker who learns Tamil, is not
losing a culture; she is gaining a neighbour. That is why I strongly feel every student
should carry a second language.

Page 28 of 68

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Readl AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Sample answer — ‘Against’ (about one minute):

m l a
On the contrary, I am not sure a second language should be compulsory for
o se
g than breadth.
everyone..cThere are two sides to this topic. First, depth matters more
a
m
se who half-learns three languages may write none of them well, and it is the
g l a
A child
amother tongue that carries her thinking, her jokes and her grandmother’s stories.
Second, time in school is limited. An hour spent on a third script is an hour not spent
com
.
on mathematics, music or reading widely in the language she already commands. If
m ag
l a se
I could make a point here — translation tools now do at a keystroke what once took
g
years of study, so the practicalaargument is weaker than it was. And there is a cost
we rarely count: children pushed into a prestige language often begin to feel

co m
m.
ashamed of their own. So, to put it in a few words, learn a second language by

m
choice and with joy — but not by force.
as e
.co a g l
a s emthe exercise is worth taking seriously: arguing a side you do not hold forces
a gl Why
you to find its best version rather than its weakest. That is also the fairest test of

m a s
.co agl
your own opinion — if you cannot state the opposite case well, you do not yet
understand your own.
se m
g l a
a

c o m
.
Q2 I. Topic 2: Learning can happen only when you are young. Speak ‘for’ and ‘against’

s e
for not more than one minute each, using the guidelines and them sentence prompts
onm a
.co agl
page 18.

a s em
agl ANSWER
Method: the same shape as Topic 1 — claim, two reasons, one example, closing line — but this
se m
com g l a
. a
topic has an obvious anchor in the chapter you have just read, so use it. Keep the strongest
m
ase
evidence for the ‘against’ half, because that is where Krishtakka belongs.

a gl
Sample answer — ‘For’ (about one minute):
To begin with, I would like to speak for the topic. There is no doubt that childhood is
co m
m .
e
built for learning. My first argument is biological: a young brain forms connections
m l as
.co g
faster, which is why a child picks up an accent perfectly and an adult almost never

e a
m does. My second is practical — a school child has time, a teacher, a syllabus and no
la s
ag responsibilities, while an adult learns in the gaps between work and family. I am
c
pretty sure most of us have watched a parent give up on a new phone after two
m .
m a s e
co agl
attempts. In addition to that, habits of study, handwriting and memory are formed

m .
e
early and are hard to build later. So the years we spend in school are not one
as
a g l
opportunity among many; they are the best one we will get.

com
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Sample answer — ‘Against’ (about one minute):
On the other hand, I have a reason to believe this topic is simply false, and the proof
is in our own textbook. Krishtakka was sixty-two, grey-haired, wearing spectacles
and busy all day in the kitchen — and she learnt the Kannada alphabet in a few
months, well enough to read a novel by Saraswati Puja day. Her own answer was,
“For learning there is no age bar.” Well, I am not sure you can really call the young
brain the only one that works: adults learn faster in one crucial way, because they
know why they are learning. My second point is that skills now change every decade,
so an adult who cannot learn is an adult who cannot work. And every literacy
mission in this country exists precisely because adults do learn. So, to put it in a few
words, youth makes learning easier — it does not make it exclusive.

Writing Task — Pages 19–20
How I Taught My Grandmother to Read (prose)

WRITING

Q1 I. As a socially responsible citizen, you strongly believe that students can contribute
significantly in promoting adult literacy. Write a letter to the Editor of a local
newspaper emphasising the importance of student participation in adult literacy
camps conducted by various organisations. Discuss the benefits of such initiatives
for both students and society. Suggest effective ways to spread awareness and
encourage more students to volunteer for this noble cause. (Format and language
guidelines are given in the POINTS TO REMEMBER box on pages 19–20.)

What the examiner is checking, in order: the format (sender’s address, date, receiver, subject
in 4–5 words, salutation, three paragraphs, complimentary close); a problem stated with
evidence in paragraph 1; causes and consequences in paragraph 2; suggestions plus a request
to publish in paragraph 3; and a formal register throughout — no contractions, no slang, short
and specific sentences.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Sample answer:

Aarav Menon
Class IX-B, Head Boy
Government Higher Secondary School
Nehru Road, Mysuru – 570001

6 September 2026

The Editor
The Mysuru Chronicle
M.G. Road, Mysuru – 570004

Subject: Students for Adult Literacy Camps

Sir

This is with reference to your report of 30 August about the district’s adult literacy
camps running short of volunteers. As a concerned student, I would like to draw
your attention to a resource the organisers have not yet used — the senior students
of our own schools. Our school surveyed the two streets behind its campus last
month and found nineteen adults, most of them women over forty, who cannot read
a bus board or a hospital form.

The issue at hand affects a large section of society. An adult who cannot read is
dependent on somebody else for every document she signs, and that dependence is
easily exploited — in loan papers, in land records and now in digital payments. The
consequences reach the next generation as well, because a parent who cannot read
cannot follow a child’s progress. Meanwhile, thousands of students in this city have
two free hours every evening, the patience to teach an alphabet and the advantage
of speaking the same mother tongue as the learner. Such initiatives nurture a sense
of responsibility that no classroom lesson can teach; by engaging in these
programmes students learn to explain clearly, to be patient with slow progress, and
to see their own education as something owed to others.

A possible solution would be for each school to adopt one literacy camp and roster
four students a week, with attendance credited under community service. One
effective way to spread awareness might be a short film made by students
themselves and screened at morning assemblies, followed by a sign-up desk.
Authorities could also consider giving the Directorate of Adult Education a single

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helpline number that volunteers can call. I trust this matter will be considered
seriously for the benefit of all, and I hope this letter gets published in the columns of
your esteemed daily.

Yours truly
Aarav Menon

Why the letter argues this way: it does not begin with an opinion, it begins with a
fact — a report and a small survey. A letter to the editor is read by strangers, and the
only thing that earns their attention in the first two lines is evidence. Notice also that
every suggestion in the third paragraph is something a school could actually do next
week; a vague “awareness should be spread” carries no weight.

Tip: Keep the subject line to four or five words in title case. “Subject: Students for
Adult Literacy Camps” is right; “Subject: Regarding the very important issue of adult
literacy in our city” is not.

Learning Beyond the Text — Pages 20–22

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How I Taught My Grandmother to Read (prose)

PROJECT

Q1 I. India has 22 major languages according to the Eighth Schedule of the Indian
Constitution. Each language has its own unique identity. Talk to your classmates
and teacher and complete the given table with words from any five Indian
languages.

LANGUAGE 1. KANNADA 2. 3. 4. 5.

Grandmother Avva

Grandfather

Mother

Father

Sister

Brother

Below is one completed version. Fill your own from the languages actually spoken in your class
— the point of the activity is the conversation, not the copying.

LANGUAGE 1. KANNADA 2. HINDI 3. TAMIL 4. BENGALI 5.
MARATHI

Grandmother Avva (also ajji) dadi / paatti thakuma / aaji
nani didima

Grandfather ajja / tata dada / thatha dadu / aajoba
nana thakurda

Mother amma / tayi maa amma maa aai

Father appa / tande pita ji / appa baba baba
papa

Sister akka (elder) / tangi bahan / akka / didi / bon tai / bahin
(younger) didi thangai

Brother anna (elder) / tamma bhai anna / dada / bhai dada / bhau
(younger) thambi

Page 33 of 68

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Readl AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Two things worth noticing while you fill this in:

m as e
.co g
The book’s own entry is a dialect word. Sudha Murty explains it in the story: “I
a l
a s em
used to call her Avva, which means mother in the Kannada spoken in north

a gl Karnataka.” In standard Kannada a grandmother is ajji. So one language can have
several words, and the family’s word beats the dictionary’s.

o m
c ag
Many Indian languages distinguish elder from younger. Kannada and Tamil
.
m a younger sister; English has only “sister”
s
have separate words for an elder and
e
a this shows that a language is not a set of labels
and must add “elder”. A table llike
a g
for the same world — it divides the world differently.

co m
se m.
o m l a
g is responsible to
c you know? 1. National Literacy Mission Authority (NLMA)
Q2 m II..Do a
l a se design, develop, and implement the Adult Education Programme in India.
ag Directorate of Adult Education (DAE), under the Department of School Education

m
and Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India, functions to facilitate the
a s
.co
implementation of adult education programmes in the country. Find more
em agl
a s
l effectively apply various financial skills, including
information on it with the help of the link given below: 2. Financial literacy refers to
the ability to understandgand
a
personal financial management, budgeting, and investing. The National Centre for
Financial Education (NCFE) plays a pivotal role in implementing financial education
co m
m .
se
programmes… 3. The Early Literacy Project (ELP) is an integrated, intensive, and

o m l a
.cthe awareness, understanding, and appreciation of theagcountry’s diverse traditions,
culturally sensitive early literacy-training programme… 4. Cultural literacy refers to

se m
a
agl
languages, arts, and social practices…

se m
com g l a
m . a
e
as— and the note that follows shows how.
This box is not asking you to memorise four names. It is widening the word literacy — the same

g l
word the whole chapter turns on
a

co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
sem
g l a
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

com
m .
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.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

KIND OF WHAT IT MEANS WHO RUNS IT WHOM IT IS FOR
LITERACY

Adult literacy Teaching reading, writing NLMA, with the Adults like Krishtakka — the
and numeracy to those Directorate of Adult direct subject of this chapter
who missed school Education (DAE),
Ministry of Education

Financial Understanding and using National Centre for Everyone; the grammar exercise
literacy financial skills: budgeting, Financial Education on page 16 is built entirely on
saving, investing, avoiding (NCFE) this theme
fraud

Early literacy Intensive, culturally The Early Literacy Out-of-school children and
sensitive early reading Project (ELP) under-achieving pupils of
training Grades 1–3 in rural government
schools, largely from
marginalised communities

Cultural Awareness and Centre for Cultural Students and teachers; it is what
literacy appreciation of India’s Resources and the second piece, Bharat Our
traditions, languages, arts Training (CCRT) Land, quietly asks for
and social practices

What to do with the box: follow the QR code or the link printed beside note 1 and find, for the
DAE, (a) the current name of the adult education scheme, (b) how a volunteer registers, and (c)
one figure from the latest literacy survey for your own state. Bring the three answers to class;
that is a five-minute task and turns a paragraph you skim into information you own.

Why all four are grouped here: Krishtakka could read nothing, which is illiteracy in
the plainest sense. But an adult who can read and still cannot judge a loan
document, or a citizen who cannot tell a folk form from a film song, is illiterate in a
second and third way. The box is arguing that literacy is not one door but several.

Q3 III. Talk to your grandparents and find out which book or magazine they enjoy
reading. Buy a copy of it and present it to them as a gift.

This one is done, not written — but it is worth doing carefully, because it is the story’s ending
handed to you as a task. The narrator’s gift is chosen with attention: she buys the exact novel
her grandmother had been following for months.
How to do it well:

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Ask properly. Not “which books do you like?” but “what did you read when you were my
age?” and “is there anything you have been meaning to read again?” The second question
usually produces the real answer.
Note the language and the format. A regional-language monthly, a devotional text, a
cookery magazine or large-print editions may matter more than the title. If eyesight is a
problem, look for a large-print edition or an audio version.
Buy it yourself. Save for it if you can; the gift means something different when it costs you
something.
Give it in person and read the first page aloud together. That is the part of the activity
that will be remembered.

Sample answer (a short report you can write afterwards): My grandfather said he
had not read Chandamama since 1974 but still remembered the Vikram–Betaal
serial. I found a reprint collection at the book fair for ₹180 and gave it to him on his
birthday. He read two stories aloud to my younger cousin the same evening, in the
voice he must have used forty years ago. What surprised me was that the gift was
not really the book — it was that somebody had asked him what he liked.

Reflect and Respond — Page 23

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Bharat Our Land (poem) — Subramania Bharati

BEFORE YOU READ

Q1 I. Recall the lines of the National Anthem and complete the table given below with
the names of the states, mountain ranges, and rivers mentioned in it.

STATES/PROVINCES MOUNTAIN RANGES RIVERS

________ ________ ________ ________

________ ________ ________ ________

________ ________

________

STATES/PROVINCES (7) MOUNTAIN RANGES (2) RIVERS (2)

Punjab Vindhya Yamuna

Sindhu (Sindh) Himachal (the Himalaya) Ganga

Gujarat — —

Maratha — —

Dravida — —

Utkala (Odisha) — —

Banga (Bengal) — —

The names come from the second line of the anthem — Punjab, Sindhu, Gujarat, Maratha, Dravid,
Utkal, Banga — and from the third — Vindhya, Himachal, Yamuna, Ganga.

Why the table has exactly this shape: Tagore is sweeping across the whole country
in two lines. The seven provinces move from north-west to south to east; the two
mountain ranges are the country’s northern wall and its central spine; the two rivers
are the ones that water the plain between them. The next phrase, uchchala-jaladhi-
taranga (“the leaping waves of the ocean”), closes the map at the coast — but it
names the sea, not a river, so it does not go in the third column.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Tip: This activity is a warm-up for the poem you are about to read. Bharati does the
same thing in four lines — Himavant, Ganga, the Upanishads, the land — naming a
few things and letting them stand for the whole country. Compare the two lists when
you finish the poem.

Q2 II. Work in pairs. Discuss what the words ‘जय हे’ (Jaya he) in the last two lines of the
National Anthem convey. Share your answer with your classmates and teacher.

‘Jaya he’ means “Victory to you!” or “Hail!” — jaya is victory, and he is the vocative, the form
used when calling out to someone. It is addressed to the bharata-bhagya-vidhata, the dispenser
of India’s destiny, and it is a blessing and a salutation rather than a piece of information.
What the words convey, in three layers:

Triumph and hope. The anthem does not end by describing the country; it ends by wishing
it well. “Victory” here is not victory over anyone — it is the country’s flourishing.
Reverence. The phrase belongs to the language of prayer and of stuti, praise-song. Saying it
turns the singer from a spectator into a devotee.
Unity through repetition. The words are repeated seven times in the closing lines — “Jaya
he, jaya he, jaya he, jaya jaya jaya, jaya he” — until they stop being sentences and become a
chant that a crowd can carry together. Nobody sings a chant alone.

Connect it to the poem ahead: Bharati ends two of his three stanzas with “she’s
peerless, let’s praise her!” — the same move. Both poets close a list of a country’s
glories with a shared exclamation, because a fact can be read silently but a refrain
has to be joined in.

Page 38 of 68

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Readl AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
III. Read the underlined words in the given lines of the poem. Choose the odd one
se
Q3

o m l a
out that does not correspond with the meaning of the underlined word. 1. She’s
g 2. Many a sage has
m .c let’s praise her! — valuable, incomparable, unmatched
peerless, a
l a se
sanctified this land. — blessed, purified, applauded 3. And here all auspicious things
a g are found. — fortunate, fantastic, favourable 4. Of hoary antiquity is Bharat, —
ancient times, recent past, time immemorial

co m
em . ag
l as

a g
NO. UNDERLINED WHAT IT ODD WHY IT DOES NOT FIT
WORD MEANS ONE
co m
m.
OUT

m as e
.co a g l
m
1 peerless having no valuable Valuable is about worth, and many things

l a se equal; without can be valuable at once. Peerless is about

a g a peer rank — it says nothing is equal to it.
Incomparable and unmatched both carry

a s
com agl
that same idea of no rival.

m . applauded
2 sanctified
sacred las
e
made holy or Applauded means praised aloud by others

ag
— an act of an audience. Sanctified is a
change in the thing itself: it has been

m
made pure and holy. Blessed and purified

. co
both describe that change.

se m
o m l a
. c agand in its older sense means
3 auspicious promising fantastic Fantastic in everyday use just means

m
ase
good fortune; excellent,

agl
favourable imaginary or fanciful — neither has
anything to do with good omens.
Fortunate and favourable both point to
se m
com
good fortune ahead.
g l a
m . a
4 hoary antiquity
ase
gl and
extremely recent past The odd one is a plain opposite. Hoary

agreat
venerable age
means grey with age, so the phrase
means age so great it is honoured.

co m
Ancient times and time immemorial agree

m .
with it; recent past contradicts it.

m as e
.co a g l
se m Tip for odd-one-out items: do not ask which word is unusual — ask what the
g l a
a underlined word is about. Item 1 is about rank, item 2 about holiness, item 3 about
c
m .
e
omens, item 4 about age. The odd word is always the one that has quietly changed
m a s
co agl
the subject.
m .
as e
a g l
Check Your Understanding — Pages 25–28
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m .
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.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Bharat Our Land (poem)

APPRECIATION

Q1 I. Fill in the blanks by choosing appropriate words from the box given below to
complete the summary of the poem. Box: warriors peerless Upanishads Ganga
Buddha Himavant sages praise historical greatness Brahma-knowledge The poem is
a tribute to India, celebrating its natural beauty, spiritual heritage, and 1. ______. The
poet praises the 2. ______, describing it as mighty and unparalleled. The 3. ______ is
depicted as generous and graceful, while the 4. ______ are honoured as sacred and
unmatched. The poem highlights the contributions of 5. ______ and 6. ______ who have
enriched the land with their bravery and wisdom. It also acknowledges the
presence of 7. ______ and the teachings of 8. ______, highlighting India’s deep-rooted
spiritual and philosophical traditions. The poet repeatedly asserts that India is 9.
______, urging everyone to 10. ______ her.

The poem is a tribute to India, celebrating its natural beauty, spiritual heritage, and 1.

historical greatness.

The poet praises the 2. Himavant, describing it as mighty and unparalleled.

The 3. Ganga is depicted as generous and graceful, while the 4. Upanishads are honoured

as sacred and unmatched.
The poem highlights the contributions of 5. warriors and 6. sages who have enriched the

land with their bravery and wisdom.

It also acknowledges the presence of 7. Brahma-knowledge and the teachings of 8.

Buddha, highlighting India’s deep-rooted spiritual and philosophical traditions.

The poet repeatedly asserts that India is 9. peerless, urging everyone to 10. praise her.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How each blank is decided from the poem, not from guessing:

2 and 3 are fixed by the adjectives the summary itself uses. “Mighty” is the poem’s
word for Himavant; “generous” and “grace” are its words for the Ganga.
5 and 6 must be in that order because the summary ends “with their bravery and
wisdom” — bravery belongs to the warriors, wisdom to the sages, and the pairs
match up in sequence.
7 and 8 come from the last stanza: “Here Brahma-knowledge has taken root, /
and the Buddha preached his dhamma here.” Note the grammar of the blank —
“the teachings of ______” needs a person, so Buddha goes in 8.
9 and 10 are the refrain, split in two: “she’s peerless, let’s praise her!”
1 is what is left, and it fits: warriors, sages and the Buddha belong to history
rather than to nature or to scripture.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 II. Complete the following features about the poem. 1. The impact on the readers
(mood): __________ 2. The poet’s attitude (tone): __________ 3. The rhyme scheme:
__________ 4. Examples of personification: __________

FEATURE ANSWER EVIDENCE

1. Mood Proud, uplifting and The exclamation mark of the refrain, the accumulation of
celebratory — the glories, and the invitation “let’s praise her!” which draws the
reader is left elated and reader in rather than leaving him watching.
patriotic, as after a
hymn

2. Tone Reverential and “there’s no equal anywhere on earth”; the rhetorical
assertive — admiring, questions “which other river can match her grace?” and
devotional and “what scriptures else to name with them?”, which expect no
completely confident answer because the poet allows none.

3. Rhyme There is no regular end- Stanza 1 ends its lines ours / earth / ours / grace / ours / them
scheme rhyme; the poem is in / ours / her; stanza 3 ends root / here / Bharat / her. What the
free verse ear actually hears is not rhyme but repetition — “is ours—”
closing four lines in a row, and the refrain closing two
stanzas. That is what gives the poem its chant-like beat.

4. The Ganga and Bharat “The generous Ganga is ours— which other river can match
Personification are both spoken of as her grace?” — generosity and grace are human qualities,
women and the river becomes “her”. So does the country: “she’s
peerless, let’s praise her!” and “Of hoary antiquity is Bharat,
she’s peerless”.

Mood and tone are not the same thing. Tone is what the poet feels about the
subject; mood is what the reader is made to feel. Here they run together — a
reverent poet produces an elated reader — but they can easily part company. A
bitter poem about war can leave the reader pitying rather than bitter.

Check it yourself: before you write “ABAB” for any poem, read the last word of each
line aloud in order. If you cannot hear a returning sound, do not invent one — say
the poem is unrhymed and then describe what is repeated. That is the harder and
better answer.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 III. What is the impact of the refrain, ‘she’s peerless, let’s praise her!’?

The refrain closes the first stanza and then returns to close the last, so it acts as the hinge of the
whole poem. Four effects, in order of importance:

It converts a list into a song. Everything before it is a catalogue — mountain, river,
scriptures, warriors, sages, music, Brahma-knowledge, the Buddha. The refrain gives all of it
one destination, so the poem stops sounding like an inventory and starts sounding like a
chorus.
It makes one claim unforgettable by repeating it. Not that India is beautiful or old or holy,
but that she is peerless — without an equal. Everything else is evidence; this is the verdict.
It draws the reader inside the poem. “Let’s praise her” is first person plural and imperative
at once. The poet is not stating his own admiration; he is calling the reader to join it. Private
feeling becomes public participation.
It is what makes the poem an ode you can chant. A refrain returning at fixed points is how
devotional and patriotic songs are built, so that a crowd who does not know the verses can
still sing the chorus. Bharati’s poems were meant to be sung in exactly this way.

Notice where it does not appear: the middle stanza — warriors, sages, music,
auspicious things — ends without it. The gap makes the return of the refrain in the
last stanza feel earned rather than mechanical.

Q4 IV. Complete the following sentence appropriately. India is metaphorically
described as ‘this sunny golden land,’ suggesting that it is _________.

…suggesting that it is a bright, richly fertile and infinitely precious country — warmed by
abundant sunlight, golden with ripe harvests, and as valuable as gold itself.
The phrase carries three pictures at once, and a good answer separates them:

Sunny — literally true of a tropical land, but also figurative: light stands for cheer, openness
and hope. A “sunny” land is one where life flourishes.
Golden — the colour of ripe wheat and paddy, so the phrase promises abundance and a
good harvest.
Golden again — the metal, the standard of value. India is not merely pleasant; she is
precious.

It is a metaphor and not a simile because the poet does not say India is like gold. He calls the
land golden outright, so the quality is transferred completely.

Page 43 of 68

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co m
m.
Tip: “Golden age” works the same way in English — no gold is involved, only the idea

m as e
l
of the most valuable time. Watching a word carry its literal and its figurative sense
together .isco a g
em
the heart of reading poetry.
a s
agl

co m
ag
V. The poet uses symbolism. Match the symbols in Column 1 to what they suggest in
.
Q5

em
as
Column 2. Column 1: 1. Himavant 2. Ganga 3. Upanishads 4. Gallant warriors and

a g l
sages 5. Brahma-knowledge and Buddha’s Dhamma 6. Sunny golden land Column 2:
(i) knowledge and enlightenment (ii) spiritual and philosophical legacy (iii) purity

m
and generosity (iv) richness and glory (v) strength and permanence (vi) courage and

co
m.
wisdom

as e
ANSWER .c
om a g l
a s em
aglSYMBOL SUGGESTS WHY

a s
. com agl
1. Himavant (v) strength and A mountain is the one thing in a landscape that does not
permanence
e mmove or change. The poem’s own adjective is “mighty”, and
s “there’s no equal anywhere on earth” is a claim about size
a
agl and endurance.

2. Ganga (iii) purity and
co m
The poem calls her “generous” — she gives water to

m .
e
generosity everyone alike — and she is the river to which purity is

m l as
.co
traditionally attributed.

a g
sem
l a
3. Upanishads (ii) spiritual and They are texts, and texts are what a civilisation hands on.

a g philosophical legacy “What scriptures else to name with them?” places them at

m
the head of an inheritance.

mpairing is exact: gallant gives courage, sage gives l a se
coThe
. wisdom. The poem sets the two kinds of greatness side by a g
m
4. Gallant warriors (vi) courage and
and sages wisdom
as e
agl
side deliberately.

m
5. Brahma- (i) knowledge and Brahma-knowledge is the knowledge of ultimate reality; the
knowledge and enlightenment
. co
Buddha’s dhamma is the path to enlightenment. Both are
Buddha’s Dhamma about seeing truly.
se m
om golden l a
m .6.cSunny ag together; the sun adds
ase land
(iv) richness and Gold is wealth and splendour

agl
glory radiance. The land is being called both fertile and glorious.

.c
s e m
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e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
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.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What the matched list reveals: read the right-hand column downwards —
strength, purity, legacy, courage and wisdom, enlightenment, glory. Bharati has not
chosen his symbols at random. Two come from nature, two from books and belief,
one from people, one from the land itself, so the country he builds is physical,
intellectual and moral at the same time.

Q6 VI. The poet uses imagery (descriptive language to create vivid mental pictures that
appeal to the senses). Give any two examples from the poem.

Two clear examples, one visual and one auditory:

1. “The mighty Himavant is ours— / there’s no equal anywhere on earth.” — visual
imagery. The single adjective mighty raises a wall of snow and rock in the reader’s mind; the
second line then widens the picture to the whole earth so that the mountain is seen against
everything else there is.
2. “The divinest music has been heard here” — auditory imagery. The poem stops
appealing to the eye and turns to the ear. Divinest does not describe the tune but its effect,
so the reader supplies the sound himself.

Two more, if you need them: “This sunny golden land” — visual imagery of light and colour,
the whole country seen at harvest; and “The generous Ganga… her grace” — visual and
kinaesthetic together, a wide river moving unhurriedly and smoothly, like a dancer.

Tip: When a question asks for imagery, always name the sense it appeals to. “The
Himalayas are described” is a summary; “mighty creates a visual image of immense
scale” is an answer about craft.

Q7 VII. What is the impact of the use of hyphens in the first stanza? Select the options
that are true. 1. Creates deliberate pauses to reinforce the sense of admiration and
pride 2. Emphasises the contrast between India’s strengths and weaknesses 3.
Lends to the lyrical quality giving it a measured, chant-like rhythm 4. Suggests
hesitation or uncertainty in the poet’s claims about India 5. Presents a key element
of India’s greatness before the hyphen and makes a strong assertion about its
uniqueness after the hyphen

True: 1, 3 and 5. False: 2 and 4.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

OPTION TRUE? REASON

1. Deliberate pauses TRUE The hyphen halts the voice for a beat after “is ours”, and a pause
reinforcing admiration before a claim makes the claim land harder. Read the line aloud
and pride without the pause and the pride drains out of it.

2. Contrast between FALSE No weakness is named anywhere in the poem. There is nothing to
strengths and weaknesses contrast with.

3. Lyrical, measured, TRUE The hyphen falls in the same position four times running —
chant-like rhythm “Himavant is ours-”, “Ganga is ours-”, “Upanishads are ours-”, “land
is ours-”. A pause at a fixed interval is exactly what makes a chant.

4. Hesitation or FALSE The tone is the opposite of hesitant. What follows each hyphen is
uncertainty an absolute — “there’s no equal anywhere on earth”. A hesitant
poet does not write “no equal”.

5. Key element before TRUE This describes the structure precisely. Before: the possession —
the hyphen, strong Himavant, Ganga, the Upanishads, the land. After: the verdict — no
assertion after it equal, no rival river, no comparable scripture, peerless.

Why a mark of punctuation counts as a device: the hyphens are not needed for
grammar; the sentences would be complete without them. They exist only to control
the reader’s breathing — name, pause, assert; name, pause, assert. Bharati’s poems
were written to be sung, and this is the printed page trying to keep time.

Q8 VIII. The poet uses hyperbole in the poem. Hyperbole (hi-puh-buh-lee) is a figure of
speech that involves extreme exaggeration to highlight a point or create a dramatic
effect. It is not meant to be taken literally but is used to make something sound
more impressive or intense. For example: • My luggage weighs a tonne. Does the
luggage actually weigh a tonne? • She was so happy that her smile was a mile wide.
Can a smile be a mile wide? Identify the hyperbole in the poem and explain the
effect.

Four places where the poem exaggerates deliberately:

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

LINE THE EXAGGERATION ITS EFFECT

“there’s no equal An absolute claim about the entire planet The scale of the claim measures
anywhere on earth” that no one could ever verify — the Andes the scale of the poet’s feeling, not
and the Alps exist. of the mountain.

“which other river can Phrased as a question, but it forbids an A rhetorical question hides the
match her grace?” answer — it assumes no river anywhere exaggeration inside an appeal to
does. the reader’s agreement.

“what scriptures else to Suggests that no other scripture in the Raises the Upanishads above
name with them?” world may even be mentioned in the comparison rather than above
same breath. competition.

“The divinest music Superlatives that admit of no degree — Together they close the poem’s
has been heard here” / the most divine, and having no equal at argument: comparison is not
“she’s peerless” all. merely lost, it is refused.

Why the exaggeration is not dishonesty: hyperbole is a statement about the
speaker, not about the world. “My luggage weighs a tonne” tells you how heavy it felt
to me. In the same way “no equal anywhere on earth” tells you how the Himalaya
feels to a poet who belongs to that land. The reader is expected to hear love, not
geography — and an ode is exactly the form in which that expectation is normal.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q9 IX. The poem is an ode. An ode is a lyrical poem that expresses deep admiration,
praise, or reverence for a person, place, object, or idea. It is often written in an
elevated and formal style, celebrating the subject with enthusiasm and emotion. An
ode’s language is often grand and expressive; and it seeks to highlight the
extraordinary qualities of its subject. Now, identify examples from the poem that
correspond to it being an ode.

FEATURE OF AN WHERE THE POEM SHOWS IT
ODE

A worthy subject, The subject is Bharat itself — “Of hoary antiquity is Bharat” — and she is spoken of
addressed with reverence as a person to be honoured, not a territory to be described.

Direct, open praise The refrain is an instruction to praise: “she’s peerless, let’s praise her!” — repeated
so that no reader can miss the poem’s purpose.

Elevated, formal diction “hoary antiquity”, “sanctified”, “auspicious”, “gallant”, “peerless”, “divinest” —
not one of these belongs to ordinary speech.

A catalogue of Mountain, river, scriptures, land, warriors, sages, music, Brahma-knowledge, the
extraordinary qualities Buddha — the poem works by accumulation, each item raising the subject higher.

Enthusiasm and emotional The exclamation mark of the refrain, and the two rhetorical questions that dare the
intensity reader to disagree.

Lyrical, song-like The repeated “is ours—” and the returning refrain give it the measured, chant-like
movement rhythm of a song meant to be sung aloud.

Did you know? Subramania Bharati wrote in Tamil and set many of his poems to
music; several are still sung. Reading this as an ode is not a classroom label imposed
from outside — it is close to the form the poem was actually born in.

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ase
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co m
m.
X. The poet uses allusion in the poem. Allusion is a literary device where a writer
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makes an indirect reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or

m .c element without explicitly mentioning it. The readeragis expected to
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recognise and understand the reference based on prior knowledge. Now, read the
ag explanations and identify the matching allusions from the poem for the following.
• An allusion to the ancient Indian scriptures that form the philosophical core and

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symbolise deep wisdom and enlightenment. • An allusion to the concept of
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s e m self-realisation and ultimate truth. • An
spiritual knowledge associated with

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allusion to Gautama Buddha’slateachings, which include compassion, non-violence,
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EXPLANATION GIVEN ALLUSION IN THE WHAT THE READER IS EXPECTED TO
a POEM KNOW

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Ancient Indian scriptures “The sacred That the Upanishads are the concluding

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forming the philosophical core; philosophical portions of the Vedas, the source

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deep wisdom and what scriptures of Vedanta. The poet names them and says no
enlightenment name more, trusting the reader to supply the weight.

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That brahma-jnana is the knowledge of
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Spiritual knowledge associated “Here Brahma-

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Brahman, ultimate reality — the realisation
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that the self and the absolute are one. “Taken
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That the Buddha taught in this land, and that

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Gautama Buddha’s teachings “and the Buddha

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Eightfold Path, ahimsa and compassion.

Why allusion suits a poem this short: the poem is sixteen lines long and covers the
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philosophy, religion, geography and history of a civilisation. It can only do that by
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pointing. Three words — Upanishads, Brahma-knowledge, dhamma — carry libraries
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Tip: an allusion works only if the reader recognises it. That is why item X sits at the
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end of this exercise: the poem is quietly testing what you already carry into it.
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Critical Reflection — Pages 28–29
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Bharat Our Land (poem)

EXTRACT-BASED

Q1 I. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow. The mighty
Himavant is ours- there’s no equal anywhere on earth. The generous Ganga is ours-
which other river can match her grace? The sacred Upanishads are ours- what
scriptures else to name with them? 1. Complete the sentence. The word ‘mighty’
refers to the __________ of the Himavant. 2. Choose the correct option to complete the
sentence given below. The question mark at the end of the fourth and sixth line of
the extract is used to __________. (i) show doubt and uncertainty (ii) emphasise a point
(iii) highlight confusion and hesitation (iv) reveal inquiry and curiosity 3. The poet
uses the word ‘generous’ to describe the Ganga. Why? 4. Why has the movement of
the river been described as graceful? 5. Fill in the blank with the correct option from
the words given in the brackets. The poet is implying that the Upanishads are
__________ (unmatched/abundant) in their wisdom and spiritual depth.

1. The word ‘mighty’ refers to the immense strength, height and majesty of the Himavant.
The next line proves that this is what is meant — “there’s no equal anywhere on earth” is a
statement about scale and power, not about beauty or age.
2. (ii) emphasise a point. These are rhetorical questions: the poet already knows the answer
and expects the reader to supply it. “Which other river can match her grace?” means no river
can, and “what scriptures else to name with them?” means there are none. Options (i) and (iii) fail
because the tone of the whole extract is confident, not doubtful — a hesitant poet does not
write “there’s no equal anywhere on earth”. Option (iv) fails because genuine inquiry expects
information back; the poet wants agreement, not an answer.
3. Because the Ganga gives constantly and asks for nothing. Her water irrigates the fields of the
plain, supplies the towns along her banks, supports fishing and boat traffic, and is believed to
purify those who bathe in her — and she does all of this for everyone alike, without choosing.
Generosity is a moral quality, so by giving it to a river the poet does two things at once: he
personifies her, and he makes the land itself seem benevolent rather than merely fertile.
4. Because a river in the plains moves the way a graceful person moves — smoothly,
unhurriedly and without any abruptness. The Ganga does not fall or crash; she winds in long
curves, spreads and glides, and keeps the same unbroken motion for hundreds of kilometres.
The word also carries its second sense: grace as a blessing conferred. So the line describes both
how the river looks and what she is believed to bestow. In one word the poet turns a body of
water into a woman walking.
5. unmatched. The line before the blank decides it — “what scriptures else to name with them?”
asks whether any other scripture can even be placed beside the Upanishads. That is a claim
about uniqueness, not about quantity. Abundant would mean there is a great deal of wisdom in
them, which is true but is not what this rhetorical question says.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The pattern running through the extract: three times the poet names a
possession and three times he refuses comparison — no equal, no matching river,
no scripture to set beside them. Read that way, the extract is not a description of
India at all. It is an argument that India cannot be described by comparison.

Q2 II. 1. How does the poem reflect a strong connection to cultural identity and
heritage?

Through one grammatical choice repeated four times: “is ours”. The poem does not say the
Himalaya is high or the Ganga long; it says they belong to us. Identity in this poem is a matter of
inheritance, and the reader is being handed a share in it.
Look at what is claimed. Two things from nature — Himavant and the Ganga. Two things from
thought — the Upanishads and Brahma-knowledge. Three kinds of people — warriors, sages
and musicians. One teacher — the Buddha. A country made of only mountains and rivers would
be a place; a country made of only books would be an idea. By claiming both, Bharati defines
heritage as land and mind together.
The verbs matter too. “Gallant warriors have lived here”, “many a sage has sanctified this land”,
“Brahma-knowledge has taken root”, “the Buddha preached his dhamma here.” All are in the
perfect tense — completed actions whose results are still present. The heritage is not
something that happened; it is something that is still standing, and the word “here” pins every
one of them to the same soil.

Check it yourself: replace “is ours” with “is great” in the first four lines and read
them again. The information survives; the belonging disappears — and with it the
whole reason the poem exists.

Q3 II. 2. What can you infer about the poet’s attitude towards India from the repeated
phrase ‘she’s peerless, let’s praise her!’?

That his attitude is devotion rather than admiration — and that he wants company in it.
Three inferences, each from a different word in the phrase:

“she” — he does not think of India as a territory. She is a person, and the affection in the line
is the affection owed to a mother or a revered woman. That is why the poem can call her
generous, graceful and peerless in the same breath.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

“peerless” — an absolute, not a comparative. He is not claiming India is better than other
countries, which would invite argument; he is placing her outside comparison altogether.
This is the language of reverence, not of rivalry.
“let’s” — the crucial word. He could have written “I praise her”. Instead he issues an
invitation, so private feeling becomes a collective act. A patriot who only feels is content; a
patriot who says “let us” wants a nation to feel it with him.

And because the phrase returns — closing the first stanza, then the last — the attitude is shown
to be settled rather than a passing burst of feeling. Everything between the two appearances is
offered as evidence for a verdict he had already reached.

Q4 II. 3. What does the line ‘many a sage has sanctified this land’ suggest about India’s
spiritual heritage?

It suggests that India’s holiness has been earned by human lives, over a very long time, and
by many people rather than one.
Take the line apart:

“many a sage” — the archaic construction means “sage after sage”. Not one founder, not
one revelation, but a succession. India’s spiritual heritage is presented as cumulative, built
up in layers.
“has sanctified” — the present perfect: the action is finished but its effect is still here. And
the sages are the subject of the verb, which means holiness is something they did, not
something the land was born with. Sanctity here is the residue of lives of meditation,
teaching and renunciation.
“this land” — geography is made sacred by what happened on it. That is why India has
tirthas: the place is holy because of who lived, taught or died there.

The line also fits its neighbours. It stands beside “Gallant warriors have lived here” and “The
divinest music has been heard here”, so the sage takes his place among the country’s makers —
bravery, holiness and art treated as three forms of the same greatness.

Q5 II. 4. How does the poet connect warriors and music to India’s greatness?

By placing them in the same stanza, in parallel lines, so that neither can outrank the other:

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

“Gallant warriors have lived here,

many a sage has sanctified this land.

The divinest music has been heard here,

and here all auspicious things are found.”

Warriors stand for the strength that protects a civilisation; music stands for the beauty it
produces. The poet is arguing that a nation is great only when it has both — courage without
art is mere force, art without defence does not survive. The stanza is built so that the two claims
are grammatically identical: “have lived here” and “has been heard here”, the same adverb of
place closing both lines. India is the common ground on which the sword and the song meet.
The arrangement is deliberate in a second way. Between the warrior and the musician he puts
the sage — so the stanza reads courage, wisdom, beauty, and then closes with “all auspicious
things are found”, gathering the three into one. Greatness in this poem is never a single quality;
it is a completeness.

Why “divinest” and not “finest”: the superlative makes music sacred rather than
merely excellent. It puts the musician on the same footing as the sage in the line
above — and in the Indian tradition that is not a poetic liberty, since music has
always been treated as a path to the divine.

Q6 II. 5. How does this poem foster a sense of national pride?

By four methods, and it is worth noticing that not one of them is an order to feel proud.

It names things the reader already loves. The Himalaya, the Ganga, the Upanishads, the
Buddha. Pride is not manufactured; it is awakened by objects the reader has known since
childhood.
It uses the possessive. “Is ours”, four times over, and “let’s praise her”. The reader is never a
spectator being told about India — he is a co-owner being reminded of what he holds.
It offers evidence before the verdict. Eight lines of mountain, river and scripture come
before the first “she’s peerless”. The conclusion arrives only after the case has been made, so
it feels deserved rather than asserted.
It gives pride a chorus. The chant-like rhythm and the returning refrain make the poem
something to be said aloud with others. A feeling shared in a group is stronger than the
same feeling held alone — which is exactly why national songs are written this way.

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And notice the breadth of the grounds it chooses: nature, scripture, arms, music, philosophy.
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Pride built on only one of these would be narrow, and easily hurt. Bharati distributes it, so that a
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reader who cares nothing for battles can still find his own reason in the third stanza.

em a
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aaglrival nation. Its pride is entirely about what India has, never about what anyone
A thought worth carrying away: the poem never mentions an enemy, a border or

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else lacks — which is why it can be read today without discomfort.
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Vocabulary in Context — Pages 29–30
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Bharat Our Land (poem)

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VOCABULARY
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a s em
aglQ1 I. Complete the table by choosing words from the poem.
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SUFFIX MEANING EXAMPLES

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full of, having the qualities of kindness 1. _______ous

-ity
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the state of being very old or ancient 2. _______ity

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-est superlative form 3. ______est
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without something 4. ______less

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WORD THE LINE IT COMES FROM

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qualities of kindness
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from Latin generosus, plus -ous: full of giving.

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the state of being very “Of hoary antiquity is Bharat” — antique (old)
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divine pushed to its highest degree.

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-less without something
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a an equal, so peerless means having none.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What suffixes do that prefixes do not: a prefix usually changes meaning (happy →
unhappy), but a suffix usually changes the word class. -ity turns the adjective antique
into a noun; -ous and -less turn nouns into adjectives; -est keeps the class but shifts
the degree. Once you can see the suffix, you can predict how a new word will behave
in a sentence even if you have never met it.

Did you know? Peer in peerless is the same word as in “judged by a jury of his peers”
— an equal, not a person who looks. It has nothing to do with peer meaning to
squint at something; those are two different words that happen to be spelt alike.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 II. Complete the following table by adding a different suffix to form new words.
Also, create a sentence using the created word. One example has been done for
you.

SUFFIX MEANING SENTENCES

-tion the action or process of Example: indicate—indication
The dark clouds were an indication that it would
rain soon.
1.

-ive quality or nature of 2.

-ment the action or result of 3.

-ed past-tense version of a 4.
verb

SUFFIX MEANING ROOT → NEW SENTENCE OF MY OWN
WORD

-tion the action or 1. educate → The education Krishtakka gave herself at sixty-
process of education two changed how her whole family thought
about learning.

-ive quality or nature 2. create → Bharati’s creative use of a single refrain holds
of creative sixteen scattered lines together.

-ment the action or 3. achieve → Reading a whole novel within one Dassara was an
result of achievement achievement nobody in the village had expected.

-ed past-tense 4. praise → The class praised her translation of the poem into
version of a verb praised Kannada.

Tip on spelling: a silent e is usually dropped before a suffix beginning with a vowel
— create + -ive gives creative, not “createive”; praise + -ed gives praised. But it is kept
before a suffix beginning with a consonant — achieve + -ment gives achievement.
That one rule settles most mistakes in this exercise.

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the exercise asks for a sentence and not just a word: a suffix changes what a
word can do grammatically. You cannot prove you have understood -ment until you
have used achievement as a noun — with an article in front of it and a verb
somewhere near. The sentence is the test, not the decoration.

Listen and Respond — Pages 30–31 (Transcript for teacher, Appendix page
260)
Bharat Our Land (poem)

LISTENING

Q1 I. You will listen to four people talk about the places they like to travel to. As you
listen, write the speaker number for the two pictures given. (Transcript for teacher
on page 260)

1. Speaker No. ______ 2. Speaker No. ______

The two pictures on page 30, redrawn, with the answer blanks below each.

1. Speaker No. 4 2. Speaker No. 2

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Class 9 English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

PICTURE WHAT IT SHOWS SPEAKER THE WORDS THAT DECIDE IT (TRANSCRIPT,
PAGE 260)

1 A person walking Speaker 4 “As a travel vlogger, exploring these biodiverse
with a backpack, areas allows me to share the wonders of nature
filming himself on a with my audience. My recent trip was to the
phone fixed to a Sundarbans and my subscribers loved the videos I
stick had uploaded.” Only one speaker records himself
for an audience.

2 A climber roped to Speaker 2 “Adventures thrill me, and so, I think there’s no
a steep rock face place better than the mountains for this… the
mountains are my playground, where I push my
limits and embrace the adventurous side of life.”

Why the other two speakers are eliminated: Speaker 1 is “an elderly man” who
visits “serene riversides” to “reflect, meditate, and find inner harmony” — neither
picture shows a river or a person at rest. Speaker 3 is a photographer of deserts —
“vast stretches of sand dunes and the colours of the desert before sunset” — and
neither picture shows sand. In a picture-matching listening task, ruling out is faster
than matching: find the speaker each picture cannot be, and the rest is arithmetic.

Tip: look hard at the picture before the audio begins. Picture 1 turns on one small
detail — the phone on the stick faces the walker, so he is recording himself, not
photographing the view. Miss that and Speaker 3, the photographer, becomes
tempting.

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co m
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II. You will once again listen to the four speakers. As you listen, match the given
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Q2

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statements to the speaker. There are two statements that you do not need.
glook beautiful
m .c for teacher on page 260) 1. The green surroundings
(Transcript a
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visually. 2. The group visits make even the difficult areas seem easy. 3. The
a g quietness of the environment here leads to a peaceful experience. 4. The risk and
thrill in such an area is what is most appealing. 5. The dry expanse promises to

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appeal to the spirit of exploration. 6. The sight of such beauty is very inviting and

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has to be captured.

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STATEMENT SPEAKER THE LINE IN THE TRANSCRIPT (PAGE 260)
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1. The green Speaker 4
agIndia… exploring these
“my heart beats for the forests of

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biodiverse areas allows me to share the wonders of nature
with my audience.”

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2. The group visits make even Not needed No speaker mentions travelling in a group. Speaker 2 says

eminstitutional support, not company on the climb — the near-
the difficult areas seem easy. “Our college supports adventure sports”, which is

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3. The quietness of the Speaker 1 “I love visiting serene riversides… The gentle flow of the river
environment here leads to a
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spoke to my soul. I could reflect, meditate, and find inner

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4. The Speaker 2 “Adventures thrill me… the mountains are my playground,
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where I push my limits.”

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. loves them for what they give his camera. The statement
5. The dry expanse promises Not needed Speaker 3 does love deserts, but not for exploration — he

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to appeal to the spirit of

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exploration. names the right place and the wrong reason.

6. The sight of such beauty is
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sunset combined with the play of shadows is matchless. The

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captured. desert’s beauty rewards me with one-of-a-kind clicks.”

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m Why the two spare statements are the hardest part: both 2 and 5 sound plausible a g
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ag and both point at a real speaker. The examiner is testing whether you match on the
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speaker’s reason, not merely on the place. Speaker 3 and statement 5 share a
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decides this whole exercise.m.
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desert; they do not share a motive. That distinction — place versus purpose —

l a se
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