NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 3 The Magic Brush of Dreams — Let us explore

Book page 136 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

Have you heard of India’s famous magician, P. C. Sorcar Sr.? He is known as one of the ‘World’s Greatest Magician’ and performed live magic shows in front of audiences and on television, internationally. He was awarded Padma Shri on 26 January 1964 for his contribution to the world of magic.

Answer

Protul Chandra Sorcar (P. C. Sorcar Sr.) was India's best-known stage magician, and the book gives you the two facts to remember: he performed live and on television across the world, and he was awarded the Padma Shri on 26 January 1964 for his contribution to magic.

Point	What to note
What he was called	One of the ‘World's Greatest Magician' — a title used on his own posters
Where he performed	Live before audiences and on television, internationally
The honour	Padma Shri, 26 January 1964
Why he matters	He presented Indian magic as a full stage art — costume, music, lighting and showmanship — rather than as a street trick, and made it respected abroad

Magic and this unit: a magician's art is the exact opposite of Gopi's brush. Gopi's paintings truly become real; a magician's do not — his art is to make you believe they have, by controlling where you look. That is the same skill Sobol uses on the reader in ‘The Case of the Fifth Word', and the same one the optical illusions on page 121 play with.

Take it further: find out about the tradition of Indian street magicians (jadugars) and about magicians who use their shows to teach science and expose fake miracles. Prepare a five-minute talk on ‘Magic: art or trickery?'

Q2.

Words can also play tricks. Read the riddles about things that seem to be unreal and find what they refer to. 1. I can fill a room, but I take up no space. I’m often heard, but never seen. What am I? 2. The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I? 3. I have cities but no houses, I have forests but no trees. What am I? 4. I’m tall when I’m young and short when I’m old, in a dark room, my story is told.

Answer

No.	Riddle	Answer	How it works
1	Fills a room, takes up no space; often heard, never seen	Sound (a voice, or music)	‘Fill' is used of volume in one sense and of loudness in another. Sound reaches every corner of a room without occupying any of it.
2	The more you take, the more you leave behind	Footsteps	The trick is the word take: you take steps, you do not remove them. Every step taken is a footprint left.
3	Has cities but no houses, forests but no trees	A map	A map contains the names and marks of cities and forests, not the things themselves. It confuses the symbol with what it stands for.
4	Tall when young, short when old; in a dark room its story is told	A candle	It really does get shorter as it burns down — ‘young' and ‘old' are borrowed from living things, and a candle is used exactly where there is no other light.

Every one of these riddles turns on a double meaning: fill, take, have, tall/short. You solve them by asking which of a word's two senses you have wrongly assumed. That is precisely Leroy's method with Nom Utes Sweden Hurts — Mrs. Brown assumes they are words, and they are letters.

Try This: write a riddle for the magic brush in the same style. For example: “I make things you can hold, out of what you cannot. The poor grow rich by me, and I stay poor. What am I?”

Q3.

You are asked to create a magical object. What object would you create? Make a drawing with all its details and mention its special quality on the same sheet. Put up the sheet on the display board.

Answer

What a good sheet must contain — plan these five things before you begin drawing:

A name for the object, at the top.
A large, clear drawing, with parts labelled — where it is held, what it is made of, what moves.
The special quality, stated in one sentence, in a box.
One rule or limit. This is what separates an interesting object from a boring one. Gopi's brush has a rule (only for the poor) and that rule is the entire poem.
Who would use it, and for what — one or two lines.

Sample answer

The Mender's Needle

Drawing: a long steel needle with a wooden handle wound in green thread; a small brass ring near the eye; a coil of thread that never ends.

Special quality: whatever it sews back together stays whole for ever — a torn school bag, a broken sandal, a cracked pot, the roof of a hut after a storm.

Its rule: it will not mend anything new, and it will not mend anything twice. It works only on objects that are already worn, and only for someone who cannot afford to replace them.

Who would use it: anyone whose things must last — a school child with one pair of shoes, a fisherman with one net, a family with one roof. It makes nobody rich; it simply stops poor people from being made poorer by ordinary damage.

Why a limit makes the object better: unlimited power is dull, both to write about and to draw. Give your object a rule and you immediately get a story — someone will want it broken, and someone will have to refuse. That is exactly how the poet turned a brush into a poem.

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