Class 6 English Chapter 15: Ila Sachani: Embroidering Dreams with her Feet

The room at the start

The passage opens in a tiny room in Moti Vavdi village, in Bhavnagar. It is full of bright colours. Cushions, bedcovers, pillows, and more besides. All of them carry beautiful designs, and all of them were made by one woman with a shiny needle.

Then it goes back

Only after showing you the work does the passage tell you where it came from. Ila Sachani was born in Amreli, Gujarat, into a farmer's family.

What she faced

She was born with her hands hanging loose at her sides. She could not use them the way other children used theirs. This was so from the day she was born, and the passage does not dwell on it.

What she saw

Around her, children were drawing figures in the sand and picking wild flowers. She asked herself what kept her out of it, and she wanted a piece of chalk and a slate of her own.

Her mother and grandmother

Both were skilled in Kathiawar embroidery, which the passage calls a style that needs a great deal of skill. They were single-minded, meaning focused, about helping her. The craft was already in the house, held by two people who knew it well.

What they decided

They did not look for something easier. They taught her the difficult art they already had, and worked out that she could do it with her feet. That decision is easy to read past, and it was not the obvious one to make.

What she brought to it

The passage says it was certainly not an easy task, and that she accepted the challenge with determination, which means willpower.

Beyond embroidery

Everyday things came next. With her legs she learnt to eat, and to comb her hair. The teaching was not only about art.

The hardest part

Threading a needle was hard. That is the one difficulty the passage names, and she did not give up, becoming an expert while still young. Nothing else in the work is called hard anywhere on the page.

The rest of the family

Her younger brother and sister helped her as well. Three generations appear in this story, and all of them are on the same side.

More styles

She went on to learn others, including some from outside Gujarat. Kachhi, Kashmiri and Lucknawi work are all named. Three more traditions, none of them her own family s, taken up after she had mastered theirs.

The first circle

At first she made fine designs for family and friends only. They were awestruck, meaning amazed, and they told other people.

The circles widen

Then the village discovered her skill. Then word reached a government office in Surat, which was moved by her story and impressed by her work. The news had left the village by then, and it kept going.

The exhibition

They displayed samples at a state exhibition. People saw the beauty woven by her feet and bought her work, and she was no longer a hidden talent. Strangers paying for something is a harder test than neighbours praising it. Encouraged by that, she entered more exhibitions, at state level and then at national level, and awards and honours followed. Encouraged, she entered more exhibitions, at state level and then national level. Awards and honours followed, including the President's Medal.

The important line

Then paragraph eight says something easy to hurry past. What changed her life most, it says, was standing on her own feet at last.

Not the medal

Not the fame, and not the honours. A regular income, and joy in doing what she loved. The passage puts that above everything else it has described.

Scenario:

A teacher asks the class to give the main idea of paragraph eight in one sentence. Sameer writes that Ila won the President's Medal and became famous across the country. Nadia writes that the change Ila valued most was her independence, because she earned a regular income and enjoyed her work. The teacher says one of them has summarised the wrong paragraph. She asks the class to read paragraph seven and paragraph eight again, and to notice where the medal is mentioned and where the word independence appears.

Analysis:

Both sentences are true of the passage. Only one of them is true of that paragraph.

Activity:

Choose any two neighbouring paragraphs of the passage and write one sentence for each, then swap with a partner to check.

Title:

Your other hand

Safety:

Stop if your hand or wrist starts to hurt.

What You Notice:

By the tenth attempt something has usually improved, and it is rarely the part you expected. The letters may still be poor while the spacing has settled, or the size has stopped wandering. That is worth noticing, because it is how a skill actually arrives: in pieces, and not all at once. Ila Sachani was an expert while still young, and this gives you ten minutes of the beginning of that.

Kathiawar embroidery is described in the passage as a style that needs a great deal of skill, which is what her mother and grandmother already had.

Ila went on to learn styles from beyond Gujarat as well, including Kachhi, Kashmiri and Lucknawi work.

She received the President's Medal, and the passage says the honours were for her willpower and creativity as much as for her art.

How her work became known — FAMILY - VILLAGE - SURAT - STATE - NATION — Five circles, each wider than the one before, and the first was just her own household.

What the passage values — Independence, not fame — The medal comes in paragraph seven. The sentence about what mattered most comes in paragraph eight.

Words that nearly match

The passage calls the room tiny. It could have said small. The two words mean much the same thing. A word with nearly the same meaning as another. Nearly, and not exactly, which is worth remembering. A synonym is a word with nearly the same meaning as another one.

Why not exactly

Small and tiny both mean not large. Tiny means it more strongly, and a writer choosing between them is choosing a degree. That is why a dictionary rarely gives you one word and stops there.

The exercise

You are given five words from the passage, a sentence for each, and a list of possible synonyms. Two of the synonyms fit nothing at all. They are put there on purpose, and they are the check on your work.

The sentence is the clue

That is the point of giving you one. Task alone might suggest several words. The sentence about Science homework tells you it means work. Read the sentence first and the word second, every time.

The five pairs

Tiny goes with small. Wonderful goes with fantastic. Quiet goes with silent. Task goes with work. Tough goes with difficult. An antonym is a word with the opposite meaning. The example given is display and hide.

The five antonyms

Tiny becomes huge. Wonderful becomes terrible. Quiet becomes noisy. Tough becomes easy. And task becomes pastime. An antonym is a word that means the opposite, and the example given is display and hide.

Look at that last one

Four of those are straightforward. Small against huge is a matter of size. Quiet against noisy is a matter of sound. Tough against easy is a matter of difficulty, and in each case you could put the two words at the ends of a line.

Why pastime is different

A pastime is not a smaller task or a quieter one. It is the opposite in purpose. A task is something you must do, and a pastime is something you choose to do.

What that teaches

Opposite is not one simple thing. Two words can be opposed in size, in sound, in direction, or in the reason behind them.

Now a different job

Read these lines from the passage. Lots of bright colours. Many lovely things. Many beautiful patterns. Many styles. Many awards.

What they have in common

Every one of them tells you a quantity, and every one of them points the same way. They all mean a large amount. Not one of them tells you a small amount, and that is not an accident in a passage about a life full of work.

The rule underneath

Some nouns can be counted and some cannot. You can count buses, examples and flowers. You cannot count milk, rice or energy. The nouns themselves decide this, and no rule about the sentence will change it.

Which word goes where

Many and a few belong to the countable ones. Much and a little belong to the uncountable ones. How many buses, and how much milk. Say it the other way round and it sounds wrong at once to anybody who speaks the language.

The word that fits both

Some works either way. Some flowers, and some rice. That makes it the safest choice, and also the least exact one.

A quick test

Try putting a number in front. Three buses works, so use many. Three milks does not, so use much.

One complication

A few nouns go both ways. Two coffees means two cups of it, and not much coffee means the liquid. The test still works, once you know which sense you mean.

Scenario:

A teacher sets the synonym matching exercise. The list of possible synonyms has seven words for five gaps, so two of them fit nothing. Meera works quickly. She matches tiny with small, and then pairs wonderful with happy because both sound pleasant. She gives task to difficult and tough to dangerous, and is left holding silent, work and fantastic. Ravi reads the sentence given with each word before matching anything. He is left holding happy and dangerous, which is what the exercise intended. The teacher asks the class what the two leftover words are meant to tell them.

Analysis:

The same list, and two different sets of leftovers. One pupil matched by feel and the other by reading.

Activity:

Make a matching exercise of your own with two extra words, and try it on a partner.

Title:

Sort your own kitchen

What You Notice:

The circled words are the interesting ones, and there will usually be two or three. Tea, coffee and sugar all go both ways, because three teas means three cups and not much tea means the leaves or the liquid. The test still works once you decide which sense you mean, and deciding that is the actual skill.

The synonym exercise gives two extra words that fit nothing, so a pupil who matches by guesswork will always be caught.

Some nouns can be both. Two coffees means two cups, and not much coffee means the liquid itself.

Many or much — MANY counts. MUCH measures. — If you can put a number in front of it, use many. If you can only pour it or weigh it, use much.

Using a synonym exercise — Read the sentence, not the word — Several synonyms may fit a word alone. Only one will fit the sentence it came from.

A listening task with a twist

You hear a short talk about embroidery. Then you circle the correct option in six pairs. That sounds simple enough until you look at a pair on its own. Read one pair on its own. Chain stitch, or running stitch. Both are real. Both are used in embroidery. Neither of them looks false, so nothing on the page will tell you which to choose.

So what decides it

Only one of them was named in the talk. The task is asking what you heard, and not what is true in general. Those are two different questions, and only one of them is being asked here.

The six answers

The form is very old. The colours are bright. The stitch is chain stitch. The caps are made for children. Small mirrors are sewn in. The shapes are squares and triangles. The caps are children's caps. Small mirrors are sewn in. The shapes are squares and triangles.

Note that last one

Flowers are embroidered too, everywhere in India. The talk named geometric shapes, so squares and triangles is the answer. A pupil who knows a lot about Indian craft will feel the pull of the wrong answer hardest.

What this trains

Holding on to what was said. That is a different skill from knowing about the subject, and the two can pull against each other.

Now you ask the questions

Write two questions you would ask Ila Sachani if you met her.

The first test of a question

Has the passage answered it already? Asking where she was born wastes your turn, because the passage says Amreli in Gujarat.

What is worth asking

How long one piece takes her. How she chooses her colours. What she found hardest after threading the needle. What she would say to a child who is told they cannot do something. Each of those asks for something the passage never supplied.

Saying it aloud

You are asked to practise your questions five times. That is about the sound and not the words. You already have the words written down in front of you, so the repetition can only be teaching your voice.

Yes or no questions rise

Do you enjoy your work. Your voice goes up at the end, and the rise is what makes it a question. Take the rise away and the same words become a flat statement.

Other questions fall

How do you choose your colours. This starts with a question word, so the voice falls at the end instead. Notice that you do this already without being taught, in your own language as well as in English.

Why it matters

Say a yes or no question with a falling tone and it sounds like an order. The words are polite and the sound is not. A listener hears the sound before the words, so the sound is what they answer.

Then you make something

Collect four or five things. Twigs and leaves, straws and pins, an empty carton, a used greeting card, a sheet of scrap paper, a flower.

Look at that list again

Every item is either free or already rubbish. The task is making something worth keeping out of what nobody wanted. That is a fair description of what Ila Sachani does with thread as well.

Writing it up

Describe your artwork in a paragraph. The easiest order is the one you worked in, which is what you collected, what you did first, and what it looks like now. A reader can follow that order without being told it.

The title comes last

You are asked for a suitable one. Choosing it is easier once the paragraph exists, because by then you know what the piece turned out to be. What you planned and what you ended up with are almost never the same.

Scenario:

A class hears the talk about embroidery once. Then they circle one option in each of six pairs. Aarav is proud of knowing the subject, because his aunt embroiders at home. He circles running stitch, because that is the stitch she uses most, and flowers, because her work is covered in them. He gets four right. Sana knows nothing about embroidery at all. She writes one word from each pair in the margin as she listens, and circles from her own notes afterwards. She gets six right. Aarav says the test was unfair, because his answers were about real embroidery.

Analysis:

The pupil who knew more scored less. That is worth stopping over, because it is not what anybody expects.

Activity:

Have a partner read six sentences aloud once. Write one word from each as you listen, then answer from your notes.

Title:

Made from what nobody wanted

Safety:

Ask an adult before using scissors or pins, and never pick plants you cannot identify.

What You Notice:

The piece almost never matches the plan, and that is the useful part. An arrangement you meant to be neat turns out crowded, or a twig you added last becomes the thing everyone looks at first. If you had chosen the title at the start you would now be stuck with the wrong one. Writing the paragraph first makes the title easy, because the paragraph has already told you what the piece became.

Small mirrors sewn into cloth have a name of their own. The work is called shisha, from the word for glass.

Chain stitch is made by looping the thread through itself, so each stitch holds the next one in place.

Circling the right option — Named, not likely — Ask what the speaker actually said, rather than what sounds reasonable.

Tone in questions — Yes or no goes up. Wh goes down. — Are you coming rises at the end. Where are you going falls.