EN हिं

NCERT Solutions for Class 9th English Chapter 2 The Pot Maker — Check Your Understanding

Book page 41–42 Updated on2026-09-08

Q1.
I. Do you think Onula’s support helped Sentila? If yes, why? If no, why not?
Answer

Yes. Onula changes Sentila from a girl who cannot hold a lump of clay into one who makes “a beautiful pot” on the very next attempt — and she does it in a single evening.

What Onula does that Arenla never did is worth listing, because each step is deliberate:

  • She finds the real fault. Everyone else saw clumsy hands. Onula “noticed that Sentila was too tense. As a result, the clay seemed unable or unwilling to yield the right shape.” The problem was in the girl’s nerves, not her fingers.
  • She removes the fear first. “Don’t worry, little one, I shall teach you how to make a perfect pot.” Reassurance comes before instruction.
  • She demonstrates, then hands the work back. She “fashioned a beautiful pot and asked her to try again” — a model to copy, immediately followed by practice.
  • She corrects honestly. When Sentila sits admiring her own pot, Onula says flatly, “The mouth of the pot is all wrong.” Praise that hides a fault would have left the fault there.
  • She sends her back to her mother with one thing to watch. “Watch her carefully when she is shaping the mouth of the pot.” A single, narrow instruction — which is why the next observation succeeds where a year of general watching had not.

The result is stated in the text: Sentila began again “with a confidence she had never felt before”. Confidence, not technique, was the missing ingredient, and Onula supplied it.

Q2.
II. Sentila observes her mother making pots. What does this tell us about her?
Answer

It tells us she is a patient, precise observer who has understood that in a craft like this, watching is the lesson.

Notice what she picks up in that one session: “how her mother held the left hand and the spatula, how she slackened the rhythm when fashioning the mouth of the pots and how a strip of elongated dough was added to the mouth to make the rim.” Those are three small technical details — a grip, a change of tempo, an added strip — that no one told her in words. She had to see them.

Three things follow from this:

  • She is humble enough to be corrected. Onula told her the mouth was wrong; instead of arguing or sulking, she went back and studied exactly that.
  • She is persistent. This is not her first observation — she had watched the expert potters for years, noticing even “the regular tap, tap of the spatula”.
  • She respects her mother’s skill even while her mother withholds it. The resentment never enters her watching.
Why the story insists on observation: a craft has no textbook. It is transmitted from body to body, by eye and imitation. That is precisely why the village elders call it a skill “handed down from generation to generation” — and why Arenla’s silence threatened to break the chain.
Q3.
III. Arrange the following events of the story in the correct sequence. Share your answer with your classmates and teacher. 1. The village council called Mesoba to know about Arenla’s unwillingness to teach pottery to Sentila. 2. Arenla made a new batch of pots and asked Sentila to continue the work as she was unwell. 3. Sentila observed how other expert potters crafted beautiful pots. 4. Sentila was passionate about pottery but did not share it with her mother. 5. Onula guided Sentila in the art of pot making. 6. Sentila overheard her mother saying that pot making was a tiring job and that she earned very little from it. 7. Onula observed two rows of pots inside the work shed, which she felt was the work of two people. 8. Sentila learnt the art of pot making for a year from her mother, but was unsuccessful. 9. Sentila was able to make pots quickly and skillfully, just one less than her mother’s.
Answer

Correct sequence: 6 → 4 → 3 → 1 → 8 → 5 → 2 → 9 → 7

OrderEventThe line that fixes its place
1st6 — She overheard her mother calling pot making tiring and badly paid“she had overheard a conversation between her parents one night… only a pittance for my troubles”
2nd4 — She was passionate but kept it secret“Sentila did not disclose her fascination with pot making at home as she had overheard…” — the secrecy is the result of the overhearing
3rd3 — She watched the expert potters at work“Sentila continued her visits to watch the potters at work. She saw how the clay was mixed with water and pounded…”
4th1 — The village council summoned Mesoba“One day, Sentila’s father, Mesoba was summoned by the village council” — after the visits had become “a topic of village gossip”
5th8 — A year of training with her mother, and no progress“These sessions continued for almost a year but Sentila was unable to learn anything from her mother.”
6th5 — Onula taught her at the dormitory“I shall teach you how to make a perfect pot… She created a beautiful pot!”
7th2 — Arenla finished a batch and handed the work over, pleading illness“Complaining that she had a headache and a backache, she went out telling Sentila to try and make as many pots as she could.”
8th9 — Sentila made pots swiftly, one short of her mother’s count“she had made just one short of her mother’s tally”
9th7 — Onula saw two rows of pots in the shed“two neat rows of newly-made pots stood side by side… not the handiwork of one person alone”
Check it yourself: events 4 and 6 belong to the same episode, and the story narrates the secrecy (4) before it explains the cause (6). Because the question asks for the sequence of events, the overhearing must come first — the word “as” in “as she had overheard” makes it the cause. If your teacher’s key prints 4 before 6, it is following the order of telling rather than the order of happening; be ready to justify whichever order you write.
Was this helpful? Report an error