NCERT Solutions for Class 9th English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream (letter by Irene Chua) — Speaking Activity

How to play the Dreamer well: do not simply insist. The strongest Dreamer is the one who has already done the arithmetic Irene Chua demands — who can name the years, the cost and the risk before the Parent does. Passion alone loses this argument; passion plus a plan wins it.

Sample lines, completing each prompt (dream: to become a certified high-altitude trekking guide in Uttarakhand):

• “I know this might sound challenging, but I have looked it up properly — the basic mountaineering course at Uttarkashi is 26 days, and I would need the advanced one after that. It is not a whim; I know what the next four years look like.”
• “Ever since I was a child, I’ve dreamed of the week we spent at Sankri. I still remember the guide pointing out Swargarohini through the clouds, and I remember thinking that he was being paid to stand there. That has never left me.”
• “I understand it’s not a usual path, but I believe it is a real profession now, not an adventure. Trekking tourism in Uttarakhand employs thousands of people, and a certified guide with first-aid training earns more than most of us assume.”
• “It’s an uphill journey, but I’m ready for it because I have already begun paying for it — I have been training every morning since June, and I am saving for the course fee by coaching two juniors in Maths.”

How to play the Parent well: the Parent must be sympathetic and hard to answer. A parent played as a villain makes the scene collapse — the audience simply sides with the Dreamer and nothing is discussed. Give the Parent the best version of the worry, as Chua does in her own letter when she speaks of “financial investments” and of people who “preferred to trade their dream for security.”

Sample lines, completing each prompt:

• “I know you’re passionate, but passion does not pay a hospital bill. When your grandfather was ill last year, it was your uncle’s steady salary that saw us through. I am not arguing against your dream; I am asking who pays if something goes wrong.”
• “I only want what’s best for you, and I have watched what happens to families who bet everything on one plan. I want you to have a life you chose, not a life you were rescued from.”
• “You can always pursue your dream later — finish the degree first, and then take the mountaineering course. It will still be there at twenty-three, and you will have something to fall back on.”
• “What if it doesn’t work out? What if you injure a knee at twenty-six and cannot climb again? I am not saying it will happen. I am saying that I need to know you have thought about the day it might.”

How to play the Mentor well: the Mentor’s job is not to take a side but to turn the quarrel into a plan. Notice that three of the four prompts are about structure and one is a question — the Mentor listens more than the others and speaks in specifics.

Sample lines, completing each prompt:

• “Remember dreams need planning. Both of you are arguing about the destination and neither of you has written down the route. Let us put the actual steps on paper: certification, first aid, a season as an assistant, then independent trips.”
• “Let’s look at the long-term view. A guide’s climbing years are limited, so the real question is what comes after forty — running an agency, training new guides, or working with a rescue service. Plan for the second half of the career now, and the first half stops looking so risky.”
• “There are ways to combine your dream and your father’s worry. Take a degree in tourism or sports science alongside the mountaineering courses. It is one qualification that serves both the dream and the fallback, so nobody has to lose the argument.”
• “Are you ready to spend the next two winters carrying loads for somebody else’s expedition for very little money? That is what the first years look like. If the answer is yes, I will write to the institute myself.”

How to play the Friend well: this role is the audience’s way into the scene. The Friend can say the awkward thing that neither the Parent nor the Mentor can — and can also do what nobody else does: ask what the Dreamer actually wants, rather than what is sensible.

Sample lines, completing each prompt:

• “You’ve always been good at reading a map and keeping a group calm — remember the school trek, when the two juniors panicked at the stream and you were the one who got them across? Don’t give up now because of one argument at dinner.”
• “I don’t want to be a wet blanket, but what’s your backup plan? Not because I think you will fail. Because if you have an answer ready, uncle stops asking, and you can get on with it.”
• “If anyone can do this, it’s you, so stop defending yourself and start showing them. Bring the course brochure to the table tomorrow instead of arguing about it tonight.”
• “If this dream makes you happy, that is not a small thing, and I don’t think anyone here is really against it. They are frightened, not opposed. There is a difference, and you keep hearing the wrong one.”