NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 1 Wisdom Paves the Way (play) — Let us do these activities before we read

Because they have already seen how situations like ours turned out.

• Experience instead of guesswork. An elder has watched dozens of families deal with illness, money trouble, examinations and quarrels. They are not cleverer than us; they simply have more results to reason from.
• Distance from the panic. The person inside a problem sees only the problem. Someone a step outside it can tell which part actually matters.
• Knowledge that was never written down. When to sow, which remedy works for a cough, how a family dispute was settled two generations ago — this survives only in people who remember it.
• They have no stake in impressing us. An elder will say the unwelcome thing that a friend of our own age might avoid saying.

What the picture shows. A village house with a thatched roof stands under a large tree. Its walls are cracked, one window pane is broken and another window frame hangs loose. A monkey sits on the edge of the thatch, quite at ease; a cat crouches on a branch of the tree, watching. On the grass in front lie broken earthen pots and a scattered box. Four villagers — three women and a man in a blue turban — stand outside, hands raised, in the middle of an anxious discussion.

What might have happened. The likeliest reading is that the monkey came down from the tree onto the roof, knocked over the pots kept outside and broke a window in the process. The neighbours have gathered, and from their gestures they are arguing about who is responsible — perhaps blaming one another, or blaming the family whose house it is, while the actual culprit sits above them, watching.