Kaveri

"How I Taught My Grandmother to Read" is a story by Sudha Murty about a twelve-year-old girl who teaches her sixty-two-year-old grandmother Krishtakka to read Kannada, driven by the grandmother's desire to follow the serialised novel Kashi Yatre on her own and be independent.

• 1The narrator, a twelve-year-old girl in a north Karnataka village, reads episodes of Kashi Yatre to her illiterate grandmother Krishtakka (Avva) every Wednesday when the Kannada weekly Karmaveera arrives.
• 2Triveni, a popular Kannada writer who died young, wrote Kashi Yatre — a story about an old lady's desire to visit Kashi and worship Lord Vishweshwara, and an orphan girl whose wedding the old lady funds by giving away her savings instead of going to Kashi.
• 3The grandmother identifies with the novel's protagonist because she, like the old lady in the story, never went to Kashi.
• 4When the narrator is away at a wedding for a week, the grandmother cannot read the new episode, feels dependent and helpless, and is too embarrassed to ask anyone else in the village.
• 5The grandmother, aged sixty-two, decides to learn the Kannada alphabet with Saraswati Puja day during Dassara as her self-set deadline, saying, "For learning there is no age bar."

'The Pot Maker' by Temsula Ao follows Sentila, a girl who perseveres against family reluctance to master the traditional craft of pot making inherited through generations in her community.

• 1Sentila dreams of becoming a pot maker like her mother and grandmother but faces opposition from Arenla, who wants her to learn weaving for better earnings.
• 2Arenla describes pot making as exhausting and poorly paid — clay must be fetched 16 km away, pounded in bamboo cylinders, and kilns carefully tended to avoid over- or under-firing.
• 3The village council warns Mesoba that traditional skills like pot making are community heritage, not individual property, and must be passed on to all who wish to learn.
• 4Onula, a kind middle-aged widow supervising the girls' dormitory, teaches Sentila to relax while shaping clay and directs her to observe her mother's technique for forming the mouth of the pot.
• 5Sentila's breakthrough comes when Arenla feigns illness and leaves her alone in the work shed; she makes just one pot short of her mother's full tally.

Unit 3 of Kaveri (Class 9 NCERT English) contains four pieces: a prose article on the history and regional varieties of Indian hand fans (pankhas), the short story "The Last Leaf" by O. Henry, and two poems — "Canvas of Soil" by Maya Anthony and "A Sea of Foliage Girds Our Garden Round" by Toru Dutt.

• 1The word 'pankha' originates from 'pankh' meaning feather of a bird; 'pankhi' refers to a small plumed fan used in ancient India, with evidence found in Buddhist wall paintings at Ajanta dating to the 2nd century CE.
• 2Pankhas ranged in size from two inches to large ones requiring full arm strength, and were made from bamboo, cane, palm leaf, silk, brass, leather, and silver — with decorative beads and stones varying by region.
• 3Each state developed distinct pankhas: Rajasthan's appliqué (fabric sewn onto cloth) and zardozi (gold threadwork) fans; Gujarat's mirror-work cotton fans and beadwork fans (Gujarat is the centre for bead craft in India); Bengal's sola and Tal Patar Pankha (palm leaf) fans; Uttar Pradesh's Phadh fans (gold, silver zari, silk, satin); Bihar's colourful bamboo fans.
• 4Technology and modernisation have put traditional pankha culture at risk; the craft has shifted from personal use to a commercial livelihood for artisans, sustained by workshops and handicraft exhibitions.
• 5In "The Last Leaf," Behrman — a 60-year-old painter whose lifelong dream was to paint a masterpiece — secretly painted a realistic ivy leaf on the wall during a storm, giving Johnsy the will to live but dying of pneumonia himself.

"Vitamin-M" is a humorous short story by Asha Nehemiah about Ravi, a boy who secretly follows his elderly Grandpa around the city to keep him safe — only to discover that Grandpa's memory and wit are far sharper than anyone assumed.

• 1Grandpa, a former lawyer aged 75, moves in with Ravi's family after he accidentally took a double dose of medicine, got lost on a walk, and fell in his garden at night with no one to help him.
• 2Ravi's mother Vidya coins the term "Vitamin-M" — a fictional vitamin she wishes existed to improve the memories of the elderly.
• 3Grandpa resents city life, longs for his quiet small brick house in town with a big mango tree, and objects to being treated like a child or a prisoner.
• 4Grandpa tricks Ravi into letting him go out alone by turning Ravi's own words against him, then leaves jauntily twirling his mahogany walking stick with a brass eagle-head handle.
• 5Ravi secretly follows Grandpa through a children's park, a tea stall (where Grandpa eats sugary tea, bananas, and ice cream — all forbidden at home), a barber shop, and onto a city bus.

Chapter 5 of Class 9 English Kaveri contains an interview with Dr. Deepa Malik — India's first female Paralympics medallist — and the poem 'Nine Gold Medals' by David Roth, both exploring resilience, inclusion, and the power of sport to challenge societal stereotypes.

• 1Dr. Deepa Malik was 29 when she was diagnosed with a spine tumour; surgery left her paralysed from the waist down permanently.
• 2India debuted at the Paralympics in 1968 and won its first medal in swimming in 1972.
• 3Dr. Malik's breakthrough was a silver medal in shot-put at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, which she calls a moment of personal victory and a step in changing perceptions.
• 4She is India's first ever female Paralympics medallist across any sport and the first Indian female para-athlete to win an Asian Games medal in athletics.
• 5The International Paralympic Committee named her one of the 10 most inspirational women para-athletes globally; her awards include Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award, and Padma Shri.

"Twin Melodies" by Mitra Phukan is a three-act play about Shruti, a young violinist who secretly practises Indo-Western fusion music, and how her father Nabin — a strict Classical Hindustani musician — reaches understanding after watching her perform.

• 1The play has three acts and six named characters: Shruti Sharma (violin), Iqbal (flute), Avinash (tabla), Peter (keyboard), Nabin Sharma (father, violinist, Principal of Sangeetika Music School), and Leela Devi (mother).
• 2Nabin believes Classical Hindustani music — with its ragas and aalaaps — is the only music an artist of worth should play, and considers playing the violin to Western tunes a "desecration."
• 3Shruti hides her fusion practice sessions from her parents, creating the central conflict; her friends encourage her to "bite the bullet" and confess.
• 4In Act II, Nabin dismisses the Indo-Western fusion concert as "phoo music," invokes his rule of one performance every six months, and walks out of the dinner conversation.
• 5In Act III, Nabin and Leela arrive unannounced at rehearsal; Nabin taps his feet, claps furiously, and praises Shruti for not losing sight of the raga's notes even once.

Chapter 7 of Class 9 English Kaveri profiles Khetaram, the sole Gramin Dak Sewak of Somarad Branch Post Office, who has delivered mail on foot across the Thar desert near the Indo-Pakistan border for 15 years. The chapter also includes the poem "Words" by Charles Swain, which argues that a few sincere words carry more meaning than many hollow ones.

• 1Khetaram is the sole postman of Somarad Branch Post Office, delivering mail on foot across the Thar desert just 2.5 km from the Indo-Pakistan border.
• 2He works 120 km beyond the last railhead at Barmer, 50 km beyond the last phone, and 10 km beyond where the road crumbles into sand so soft that even bicycles cannot ply.
• 3His mailbag cannot exceed 28 kilos; in summer he covers 20 km for a single delivery and sometimes postpones deliveries till after sundown when temperatures exceed 50°C.
• 4India has over three lakh Gramin Dak Sewaks, who constitute more than 50% of India Post's total workforce and serve areas from Ladakh to Lakshadweep.
• 5Until 2001, GDS workers were called 'delivery agents'; since then they are recognised as Gramin Dak Sewaks, allowed to work only five hours a day and to serve until the age of 65.

Chapter 8 'Follow That Dream' features a letter dated 19 June 1995 by Irene Chua to her daughter Ming (from the collection 'My Daughter, My Friend'), advising her that pursuing a dream to world-class level demands passion, conviction, and at least ten years of intense, singular effort along with financial sacrifice.

• 1The chapter's central text is a letter dated 19 June 1995 from Irene Chua to her daughter Ming, excerpted from the collection 'My Daughter, My Friend'.
• 2The mother argues that what differentiates greatness from the ordinary is how much effort and sacrifice people invest to realise their dream.
• 3Reaching world-class standard in any field requires at least ten years of singularly and intensively pursuing the subject.
• 4The path to a dream starts with passion for a particular interest, followed by the conviction that it is imperative to realise it; only then should one 'plunge'.
• 5The mother gives examples of people whose dreams were derailed by the Japanese invasion during World War II (preventing entry to Raffles College, now the National University of Singapore) and by the need to work to support siblings through school.