NCERT Solutions for Class 9th English Chapter 6 Twin Melodies (play by Mitra Phukan) — Check Your Understanding (Act II)

Book page 177–178 Updated on2026-09-08

Q1.

I. Complete the summary of Act II by choosing the correct words from the box given below. There are two extra words that you do not need. Check your answers with the teacher. [Box: disapproval | plea | absent-minded | setback | surprised | scolded | courage | firm | clash | relief] Shruti seemed 1. _______ during dinner. She finally gathered the 2. _______ to inform her father, Nabin, about her wish to participate in an upcoming Indo-Western fusion concert. Nabin reacted negatively, expressing 3. _______ of fusion music and dismissed the idea. Despite Shruti’s 4. _______ to him to attend a practice before deciding, Nabin was 5. _______ in his decision. Shruti’s mother, Leela, 6. _______ her for not seeking permission earlier. The tension highlights the 7. _______ between traditional and contemporary musical preferences within the family. Despite the 8. _______, Shruti promises not to hide again and is urged to go to bed by her mother.

Answer

The completed summary reads:

Shruti seemed 1. absent-minded during dinner.
She finally gathered the 2. courage to inform her father…
Nabin reacted negatively, expressing 3. disapproval of fusion music…
Despite Shruti’s 4. plea to him to attend a practice before deciding,
Nabin was 5. firm in his decision.
Shruti’s mother, Leela, 6. scolded her for not seeking permission earlier.
The tension highlights the 7. clash between traditional and contemporary musical preferences…
Despite the 8. setback, Shruti promises not to hide again…
Two extra words not needed: surprised, relief

How each word is proved from the Act:

absent-minded — the stage direction says Shruti “is still stuck on the last bite and is seemingly lost in thoughts”, and Nabin has to say, “staring at the dosa is not going to make it disappear.”
courage — she has to force herself to begin: “I … er … was finding the right words to say something to you.” The blank follows gathered the, which collocates with courage.
disapproval — “I never thought any of my students, let alone my own child, would lose their sense of musicality to such an extent.”
plea — “Please papa! I request you to consider. Just attend the practice only once and then you can decide!” A plea is an earnest request; the grammar (“Shruti’s ___ to him”) needs a noun.
firm — “(calmly but firmly) No is the answer.”
scolded — “Shruti! Why did you have to get yourself into this without your father’s knowledge in the first place!”
clash — the whole Act is Hindustani classical set against Indo-Western fusion inside one household.
setback — the permission is refused, so the group cannot perform; “All our practice will go down the drain.”

The two rejected words fail on sense, not on grammar: nobody in the Act is surprised — Shruti predicted this reaction in Act I — and there is no relief at the end, only a promise made under a cloud.

Q2.

II. Will Shruti’s father go for the rehearsal? Support your answer with a reason.

Answer

At the end of Act II it looks certain that he will not — and yet he does. A good answer should say both things, because the Act is written to make the refusal sound final.

The evidence for ‘no’ is heavy. He answers her request with sarcasm: “(with a slight mocking tone) Sure, there’ll be a practice, for ‘phoo’ music when making noise starts needing practice.” He has already closed the subject — “I think there remains nothing for me to say now” — and he leaves the room “with a start”. He is not refusing a request; he is refusing to treat the question as a real one.

But two things in the Act quietly point the other way. Shruti’s appeal is unusually shrewd — she does not ask him to approve, only to look: “Just attend the practice only once and then you can decide!” That is an offer no teacher can dismiss for ever. And the person left on stage with Shruti is Leela, who scolds her but does not take Nabin’s side about the music at all. In Act III we learn what she did with that silence: “I must admit it was Leela who opened my eyes.”

Why the playwright arranges it this way: if Nabin had wavered in Act II there would be no drama left. His mockery has to be complete so that his applause in Act III — “Wah, how soulful!” — lands with full force. The reversal is earned by how absolute the refusal was.

Q3.

III. Do you think Shruti and her parents would understand one another? If yes, why? If no, why not?

Answer

Yes — because none of the three actually disagrees about what matters. They disagree about a form, not about a value.

Look at what each one wants. Nabin wants his daughter to take her art seriously: “Work on your art and everything will follow.” Shruti wants exactly the same thing, and says so in Act III: “I will always take my art seriously no matter what I do.” Even in Act I, when she is hiding the concert from him, she insists, “I don’t want papa to feel that I don’t care about his opinions, because I do.” Two people who share a standard can always be brought to understand each other; the argument is about which music meets the standard.

The family also has a translator. Leela is impatient with the concealment — “Or should I call it ‘practice classes’!” — but she is the one who reminds Nabin of his own history and gets him to the rehearsal. And Nabin turns out to be capable of admitting error in plain words: “I underestimated the power of our own music… I realise that my fears were baseless.”

The one real obstacle, and why it falls: the obstacle is not stubbornness but unfamiliarity. Nabin has never heard the group; he is judging a category, not a performance. The moment he listens, the category disappears and he hears a raga being played accurately — “You did not lose sight of the notes of the raga even once.” The play’s argument is that understanding in such families comes from exposure, not from argument.

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