NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 5 Ila Sachani: Embroidering Dreams with her Feet — Let us think and reflect

different

‘Unlike other children’ means not like other children — that is, different from them. The prefix un- turns like (similar to) into its opposite.

She must have felt sad, left out and helpless, and probably a little envious of the other children as well.

The text shows this rather than stating it: “she wondered why she could not join them. She too wanted to hold a chalk in her hands and draw figures on a slate.” The little word ‘too’ is full of longing — she wanted the same ordinary pleasures as everyone else, and could not have them.

Ila could not draw figures on the slate because she was born with her hands hanging loose by her sides and could not use them in the usual way, so she was unable to hold a chalk.

The passage says: “Ila was born with her hands hanging loose by her sides. Unlike other children, she could not use her hands in the usual way.”

The family's one great idea was to stop trying to make Ila's hands work and to train her feet instead. Four creative steps follow from it:

1. Her mother and grandmother taught her their own art with her feet. They were “skilled in the traditional art of Kathiawar embroidery and decided to share this art with Ila. They taught her to create many beautiful patterns using her feet!”
2. Her parents trained her in everyday tasks with her legs — “like eating and combing her hair” — so that she could look after herself and be independent at home.
3. She herself refused to be beaten by the hardest part. “Threading a needle was hard, but Ila did not give up and became an expert at a young age.”
4. Her younger brother and sister helped her, so that learning happened in an ordinary, cheerful, family way rather than as a treatment.

The new independence helped Ila in two ways, one practical and one personal.

• She earned her own money. “Through her skill, she not only earned a regular income…” — so she no longer had to depend on her family for everything, and she could support herself.
• She found joy and self-respect. “…but also found joy in doing what she loved.” She was no longer a girl who needed help; she was an artist whose work people queued to buy.

The text calls this “the most important change for Ila” — more important even than the awards. Fame is given by others; independence is something she made for herself.

It was the turning point of her life — the moment she stopped being a village secret and became a known artist.

Until then only her family, her friends and her village knew her work. Then “word reached the government office in Surat”, and they “decided to display some samples of her embroidery at a state exhibition”. What happened there changed everything:

• Strangers saw her work — “People observed the beauty woven by her feet”.
• Strangers bought it — “and readily purchased the creations”, which meant her art could earn.
• She became known — “Ila was no more a hidden talent, but famous!”

The story itself says, “This experience opened new doors for Ila.” Everything that follows — national exhibitions, awards, the President's Medal and her financial independence — began at that one exhibition.

It tells us that art is not made by the body but by the mind and the heart, and therefore no physical limitation can stop it.

Look at the two halves of the sentence:

So the power of art is twofold: it frees the artist from what her body cannot do, and it reaches the viewer straight, without needing any explanation. When a buyer at the Surat exhibition admired Ila's bedcover, he was admiring the beauty first and learning about her feet afterwards.

Copy what Ila's family actually did — they helped her to do things, they did not do things for her.

In our own school we can: ask a classmate what help he actually wants instead of assuming; read aloud for someone who cannot see the board; keep the passage to the classroom clear; choose games everyone can play; and never laugh at anyone's way of speaking, walking or writing.

Ila's story helps because it is true, and because it names exactly what worked.

The lesson itself gives the formula in one line: she proved “that challenges can be turned into victories with focus, hard work, positivity and never giving up.” Anyone facing a difficulty can take four things from her life:

1. Do not wait for the difficulty to disappear. Ila's hands never became usable; she found another way instead of waiting.
2. Start with the hardest step and stay with it. Threading a needle was the hardest thing of all, and it was the thing she refused to give up on.
3. Turn the difference into your strength. Anyone can embroider with hands; Ila's work is famous partly because it is done with her feet.
4. Accept help, and then go further than the help. Her family taught her; the exhibition displayed her; but the awards and the President's Medal she won herself.