NCERT Solutions for Class 9th English Chapter 1 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read (prose) — Learning Beyond the Text

Book page 20–22 Updated on2026-09-08

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. (Table rows: Grandmother, Grandfather, Mother, Father, Sister, Brother. Column 1 is Kannada, with ‘Avva’ already filled in for Grandmother.)

Answer

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 / nani	paatti	thakuma / didima	aaji
Grandfather	ajja / tata	dada / nana	thatha	dadu / thakurda	aajoba
Mother	amma / tayi	maa	amma	maa	aai
Father	appa / tande	pita ji / papa	appa	baba	baba
Sister	akka (elder) / tangi (younger)	bahan / didi	akka / thangai	didi / bon	tai / bahin
Brother	anna (elder) / tamma (younger)	bhai	anna / thambi	dada / bhai	dada / bhau

Two things worth noticing while you fill this in:

The book’s own entry is a dialect word. Sudha Murty explains it in the story: “I used to call her Avva, which means mother in the Kannada spoken in north Karnataka.” In standard Kannada a grandmother is ajji. So one language can have several words, and the family’s word beats the dictionary’s.
Many Indian languages distinguish elder from younger. Kannada and Tamil have separate words for an elder and a younger sister; English has only “sister” and must add “elder”. A table like this shows that a language is not a set of labels for the same world — it divides the world differently.

Q2.

II. Do you know? 1. National Literacy Mission Authority (NLMA) is responsible to design, develop, and implement the Adult Education Programme in India. Directorate of Adult Education (DAE), under the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India, functions to facilitate the implementation of adult education programmes in the country. Find more information on it with the help of the link given below: 2. Financial literacy refers to the ability to understand and effectively apply various financial skills, including personal financial management, budgeting, and investing. The National Centre for Financial Education (NCFE) plays a pivotal role in implementing financial education programmes… 3. The Early Literacy Project (ELP) is an integrated, intensive, and culturally sensitive early literacy-training programme… 4. Cultural literacy refers to the awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the country’s diverse traditions, languages, arts, and social practices…

Answer

This box is not asking you to memorise four names. It is widening the word literacy — the same word the whole chapter turns on — and the note that follows shows how.

Kind of literacy	What it means	Who runs it	Whom it is for
Adult literacy	Teaching reading, writing and numeracy to those who missed school	NLMA, with the Directorate of Adult Education (DAE), Ministry of Education	Adults like Krishtakka — the direct subject of this chapter
Financial literacy	Understanding and using financial skills: budgeting, saving, investing, avoiding fraud	National Centre for Financial Education (NCFE)	Everyone; the grammar exercise on page 16 is built entirely on this theme
Early literacy	Intensive, culturally sensitive early reading training	The Early Literacy Project (ELP)	Out-of-school children and under-achieving pupils of Grades 1–3 in rural government schools, largely from marginalised communities
Cultural literacy	Awareness and appreciation of India’s traditions, languages, arts and social practices	Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT)	Students and teachers; it is what the second piece, Bharat Our Land, quietly asks for

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.

Answer

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:

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.

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