NCERT Solutions for Class 9th English Chapter 5 The World of Limitless Possibilities (interview with Dr. Deepa Malik) — Reflect and Respond
Book page 137–138 Updated on2026-09-19
Q1.
I. This is a picture of Sheetal Devi, a para-archer who was honoured with the Arjuna Award in January 2024.The picture on page 137, redrawn.
1. Look at the picture carefully and share your observations with your classmates and teacher.
Answer
Look first at how she is shooting, because that is what the picture is really about. Sheetal Devi is a para-archer who shoots with her legs, and the illustration shows the whole technique in one frozen moment.
What can actually be seen in the picture:
She is seated, with the left leg folded under her and the right leg raised. The bare right foot is gripping the riser of the bow — her foot does the work a hand does for other archers.
The bow is a modern compound bow: you can see the wheel-like cams at the top and bottom, the long stabiliser rod jutting forward, and a sight window with a small viewfinder.
The string is drawn back not by a hand but by a release aid on a shoulder strap that runs from her right shoulder to the string. She holds it at her jaw and releases with a movement of the jaw and shoulder.
The arrow is nocked and level, pointing away past the bow towards the target, off the right of the frame. Her eyes are fixed straight down the line of the arrow — the face is calm, the mouth closed, the whole body still.
She wears a navy-and-white sports jacket with a chest guard, her hair tied back under a band — competition kit, not casual clothes.
Behind her, the Agitos — the three red, blue and green swooshes of the Paralympic symbol — are repeated across the field, and the Paralympics logo sits at the top of the page. A gold medal on a ribbon hangs at the left margin.
Why the picture is placed here: it is the chapter’s opening argument, made without words. The reader is shown an athlete at the exact instant of maximum control, and is left to notice that the control is being produced by a foot, a shoulder and a jaw. The picture does not ask for sympathy; it asks you to look at technique. That is precisely the point Dr. Deepa Malik makes a few pages later — ‘ability beyond disability’.
Tip for the class discussion: describe the method before you describe the person. “She grips the bow with her right foot and draws with a shoulder release” is an observation. “She is brave in spite of everything” is not — it is an assumption, and it tells your classmates nothing about the photograph.
Q2.
I. 2. Does this personality inspire you? Explain how.
Answer
This asks for your response, so it must be in your own words — but ‘Explain how’ means an opinion alone will not do. You have to say what exactly in her achievement acts on you, and what you would do differently because of it.
What a good answer needs:
A clear yes or no in the first line.
One specific thing about her — the technique, the Arjuna Award in January 2024, the fact that she competes at world level in a precision sport — not a general statement about courage.
The ‘how’: name the quality (patience, practice, refusing to accept other people’s limits) and connect it to something in your own life.
Respectful language. Write about what she has achieved and mastered, not about what she lacks.
Sample answer: Yes, she inspires me, and mainly because archery is a sport of fine control rather than raw strength. To place an arrow in a small ring at seventy metres, an archer must hold a heavy bow perfectly steady and release without a tremor — and Sheetal Devi does this using her foot, shoulder and jaw, a technique she had to build from nothing because it is not in any coaching manual. That tells me two things. First, that a method can be invented where none exists, if a person is willing to fail at it for months. Second, that she was clearly not waiting for anyone’s permission to compete. When I find a subject difficult, my usual reaction is to decide I am ‘not a maths person’ and stop. Her example makes that excuse hard to defend. I have started keeping a practice log for geometry — twenty minutes a day, the same problem type until it becomes automatic — because that is the only part of her method I can actually copy.
Q3.
The picture on page 137, redrawn.
I. 3. Give a caption for this picture.
Answer
A caption is not a description — the picture already shows what is happening. A caption should add a short, sharp idea that changes how you look at the picture. Keep it to about eight words, and let it point at the technique or the attitude rather than repeating the obvious.
Caption
Why it works
Steady as any hand
Answers the reader’s first thought — “but she is using her foot” — and settles it.
Aim is not in the arms
Moves the idea of skill from the limb to the mind.
Ability beyond disability
Borrows Dr. Malik’s own phrase from page 140 and links the two pieces of the chapter.
Arjuna, 2024: a new way to hold a bow
Uses the one fact the book gives, and gives it a twist.
Every target is within range
Literal and figurative at once — the pun is the point.
Check it yourself: a caption that says “A brave girl shooting an arrow” fails on both counts — ‘brave’ is a judgement the picture never asks for, and ‘shooting an arrow’ is already visible. Cut anything the eye can see for itself.
Q4.
II. Complete the table given below about Paralympics. Share your responses with your classmates and teacher.
What I know
What I want to know
The blank table as printed on page 138.
Answer
This is a K–W organiser: you fill it before reading, then check it after. Column 1 is only for things you are already sure of; Column 2 is for real questions, phrased as questions.
Sample answer (fill it with your own knowledge — this is one student’s table):
What I know
What I want to know
The Paralympics are international games for athletes with disabilities, held every four years.
How are athletes grouped so that the contest is fair — who decides which athlete competes against whom?
India has won medals there; Deepa Malik and Devendra Jhajharia are names I have heard.
Which sports are in the Paralympics that are not in the Olympics at all?
They are held in the same city as the Olympics, a little after them.
When and why did the Paralympics begin, and who started them?
Check it yourself after reading: the chapter answers two of these itself. Page 138 says the Games are for athletes with locomotor, sensory, or intellectual disabilities. The Did you know? box on page 154 answers the third — the origin lies in 1948, when Sir Ludwig Guttmann organised a competition for war veterans with spinal cord injuries in England, which grew into the Stoke Mandeville Games and then into the Paralympic Games, first held in Rome in 1960. Tick off what the chapter answers and carry the rest to the library.