Follow That Dream: Class 9 Kaveri · Chapter 8

8.1 Reflect and Respond: before you read

Think of a Class 9 student in Indore who spends every holiday photographing birds at the lake near her home. Her phone is full of kingfishers and herons, and she wants to become a wildlife photographer. Her parents worry about money, her teacher talks about planning, and her best friend simply cheers. Whose advice should she follow? This unit is about exactly such moments, when a young person holds a big aspiration and has to decide what to do with it.

The unit has two texts. The first is a letter from a mother to her teenage daughter about following a dream. The second is a short poem about believing in yourself when you take the first step towards a goal. Around them you will practise words, grammar, listening, speaking and two kinds of writing: a formal email and a speech.

Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam often said that a real dream is not the one you see while sleeping. It is the one that keeps you awake, because you cannot stop thinking about it and working for it. In other words, a true dream turns into action. Keep this idea in mind as you read the letter.

Why bother to follow a dream at all? Some reasons help you: a dream gives direction, builds discipline and shows you what you are good at. Others reach beyond you, as Fig. 8.1 shows: a person who chases a worthy goal often inspires friends, lifts the family and serves society.

8.2 Reading for Meaning: the letter

8.2.1 About the letter and its writer

“Follow That Dream” is not a story. It is a real personal letter, dated June 1995, from a mother to her teenage daughter, Ming. Ming seems to have shared a dream with her mother, and this is the reply. Read it in your textbook first; then use the notes below to check that you have followed every idea.

A personal letter lets a parent say things calmly and completely, without being interrupted. Notice how the mother writes as a friend as well as a guide: she shares her own hopes and disappointments instead of giving orders.

8.2.2 The letter, part by part

Part 1: A clear yes, and the price of greatness. The mother’s very first line backs Ming’s dream without any doubt. Then she explains what really makes people great. It is not luck or talent alone but the amount of effort and sacrifice they are willing to put in. To be among the best in the world at anything, she says, a person needs at least ten years of focused, single-minded work.

Part 2: From a spark to a plunge. Next the mother maps out the stages a dream passes through. First there is a strong pull towards some interest. That pull hardens into conviction, a firm belief that the dream must come true. A sensible dreamer then does the arithmetic of sacrifice: the years, the money and the things she will have to give up. Only if the fire survives this honest sum should she dive in fully, whatever the field. The mother does not pretend it will be easy. On the long climb, two things help most: loving the work and believing it is right, and keeping the final success in view when energy runs low.

Part 3: No one wins alone. The mother points to film award ceremonies. Every winner on the stage thanks a long list of people. Behind each success, she says, stands a team of supporters.

Part 4: Why many dreams stay dreams. The mother admits that most people never get past wishing. Some trade their dream for a safe, steady life. Others are stopped by events beyond their control. She recalls people in Singapore whose plans for college were ruined by the Japanese invasion during the Second World War, and young people who had to start earning early so that their younger siblings could stay in school. She is quick to add that she does not want to dampen Ming’s spirit. Her point is simply this: weigh the obstacles and the years honestly, and if your belief is still strong, act on it.

Part 5: Dreams can change. Finally, she says that life has a way of reshaping our dreams, and a dream that grows out of later life deserves as much respect as the one we had as children. Such dreams may take longer and need the help of more people. Her own example is the book these letters belong to: getting it published is a dream she has chased for ten years, and it was not the dream of her youth. She ends by wishing that at least one of Ming’s dreams comes true, and signs off simply as “Mum”.

Fig. 8.2 turns the mother’s advice into a journey up a hill. Each milestone is one stage she describes, and the helpers along the way stand for the support network.

8.2.3 Words to know

Your textbook explains a few difficult words in the margin. Flip each card to see a simple meaning and a fresh example sentence.

8.3 Understanding the letter

Writer, reader and tone. The writer is a loving, experienced mother; the reader is her daughter, who is standing at the start of adult life. The tone is warm, honest and encouraging. It is never preachy: the mother explains her reasons and shares her own life instead of simply telling Ming what to do.

8.3.1 Themes

• Dreams need effort and sacrifice. Greatness is earned through years of work, not wished into being.
• Passion plus conviction. Liking something is the start; believing it must happen turns it into action.
• Count the cost first. Time, money and sacrifice should be weighed before you commit.
• Perseverance. The road is uphill; love for the work and hope keep you climbing.
• Nobody succeeds alone. Family, teachers and friends form a support network.
• Life can change a dream. Circumstances may block one dream, and a new dream can be just as valuable.
• A parent as friend. The letter shows a relationship built on trust and open talk.

8.3.2 How the mother persuades

The mother uses several techniques to make her advice convincing. She asks Ming a question about how long it takes to become world-class, which makes Ming think before she reads the answer. She gives real examples: award winners thanking their teams, students whose plans were destroyed by war, and young people who left school to support their families. Finally, she offers a personal story, her own ten-year struggle to publish a book. Advice backed by personal experience is hard to ignore.

Above all, she keeps a balance. Every warning is paired with encouragement, so Ming feels both supported and prepared. Fig. 8.3 shows this balance as a pair of scales.

The title. “Follow That Dream” is the mother’s main message in four words. The word follow matters: a dream has to be pursued step by step, sometimes for years. It does not simply arrive.

8.4 Critical Reflection: the letter

Extract questions test whether you can read closely and think beyond the words. Read the whole paragraph in your textbook before you answer. For ‘why’ questions, give a reason from the text and then add your own thinking in one sentence.

8.5 Vocabulary and Structures in Context

8.5.1 Words ending in -scape

Near the end of the letter, the mother uses the word dreamscape for the world of a person’s dreams. The ending -scape turns a noun into a word for a whole view: land becomes landscape, sea becomes seascape. Such words are common in descriptive writing and travel writing.

8.5.2 Expressions from the letter

The letter is full of idioms, groups of words whose meaning is different from the meaning of each word. A dream does not really set your blood on fire, and no one is actually wrapped in a wet blanket! Learn each expression as a whole.

8.5.3 If-clauses that give advice

The mother tells Ming that if her conviction is still strong after weighing the obstacles, she should go ahead and act. This is a first conditional: it talks about a real possibility in the present or future.

• Usual form: If + present simple, will + base verb. If it rains, we will play indoors.
• Advice form: If + present simple, imperative. If you feel stuck, ask your teacher.
• The if-clause can come second, without a comma: Call me if you miss the bus.
• Never put will in the if-clause: If it will rain is wrong; say If it rains.

8.5.4 The many jobs of ‘could’

Could is a modal verb: it is followed by the base form of a verb and never changes its own form. The letter uses it in several ways. The table sorts its main jobs.

8.5.5 Choosing the right verb form

In a passage, each verb must fit its time and its subject. Before you fill a blank, ask three questions: Is this a general fact, a past event or a future plan? Is the subject singular or plural? Is there a modal such as must or will before the verb?

• General facts and habits: present simple. A good coach gives feedback. Coaches give feedback.
• Finished past actions: past simple. In 1990, most students learned by copying notes.
• After a modal: base form. Players must wear helmets; they can borrow them.
• Future plans and predictions: will + base form. Next year the club will hold a quiz.

8.6 Listening and Speaking

8.6.1 Listen and Respond

In class your teacher will play or read an announcement about new courses in school (the transcript is in the teacher’s pages of your textbook). Your task is to complete each blank with a word or short phrase taken straight from the recording, never more than three words. Before listening, read the blanks and guess what kind of word fits: a month, a name, a place or a number. While listening, note the words exactly as spoken; tidy the spelling afterwards.

8.6.2 Speaking Activity: four voices

Work in groups of four. One student is a dreamer with an unusual career goal. The others play a parent who worries about money, a teacher or mentor who weighs both sides, and a friend or sibling who supports but asks practical questions. In our example the dreamer wants to become a wildlife photographer. Fig. 8.5 shows how each voice sounds.

8.7 Writing Task: a formal email

Email lets you send a typed message to anyone with an address, and it arrives in seconds. A formal email goes to someone you do not know personally, such as an institute, an office or a principal. It must be polite, clear and complete, because the reader may act on it.

1. From / To: your email address and the receiver’s address.
2. Cc / Bcc: people who should get a copy (Bcc copies are hidden from others). Leave blank if not needed.
3. Subject: a short, exact line, e.g. Enquiry about the summer workshop.
4. Greeting: Dear Sir/Madam, or Dear Ms Rao,
5. Body: introduce yourself and your purpose; ask for the details you need; show interest; make your request.
6. Closing: thank the reader, then Yours sincerely, followed by your name, class or designation and contact details.

Use formal words, complete sentences and no short forms such as pls, u or asap. Keep paragraphs short. Fig. 8.6 shows the layout.

8.8 Learning Beyond the Text: dreams and goals

The ‘Goals’ part is where dreams become action. A big dream is easier to chase when you break it down, as in Fig. 8.7.

8.9 Reflect and Respond: before the poem

Remember the moment before a penalty kick, an audition or your first day at a new school? Your heart races and a voice inside says, Stay where it is safe. The poem in this part speaks to that exact moment.

8.10 Reading for Appreciation: Believe in Yourself

“Believe in Yourself” by Robert Langley is a short motivational poem of four stanzas, each four lines long. The speaker talks straight to you, the reader, at the moment of a big choice. Read it aloud in your textbook first: notice its steady beat and its simple, everyday words.

8.10.1 Stanza by stanza

Stanza 1: alone with the future. The poem opens like a coach’s call before a match, except that the stands are empty. By removing every onlooker, the speaker shows that a challenge is a private meeting between a person and what lies ahead. With no applause and no pressure from others, the reason to act has to come from within.

Stanza 2: the tug of hope and fear. Now doubt enters, and the speaker shows it through a question instead of a statement. The future can feel like an invitation or like a threat, and we cannot be sure which until we act. The nearer the moment of decision, the heavier the choice feels, as anyone who has hesitated over a ‘Submit’ button knows.

Stanza 3: the comfort trap. Here the speaker is honest about why people stay put: leaving things unchanged, the status quo, is pleasant and asks nothing of us. Then the stanza turns. Ease, the speaker argues, is not our purpose; human beings are built to grow, and growth cannot happen without change.

Stanza 4: the answer. The closing stanza replies to the doubts raised earlier. Beginning is the toughest moment of any change, and beginning also means committing, so courage is needed most at the very start. The poem’s title returns as the solution: trust in yourself is what keeps a life moving in the right direction.

One way to picture the poem is the ‘comfort zone’ model in Fig. 8.8. You begin in a cosy circle where nothing changes, pass through a ring of fear, and only then reach the zones where learning and growth happen.

8.10.2 Speaker, tone and message

Speaker. Think of the speaker as a coach standing right beside you, not someone watching from far away. The speaker knows how hard the moment feels, and the repeated you makes the advice personal, as if it were meant for you alone. The aim is to make you the one who decides what happens next.

Tone and mood. The poem never scolds; it cheers the reader on. The early stanzas sound reflective, even uncertain, because they weigh hope against fear and comfort against growth. The last stanza is short and firm, like a coach’s final words before a match. The mood shifts from hesitation to resolve.

Message. Growth means leaving comfort behind. The first step is always the hardest, but self-belief makes it possible.

8.11 The poet’s craft

8.11.1 Rhyme scheme

To find a rhyme scheme, give the last word of the first line the letter a. Give each new sound a new letter, and repeat a letter whenever a sound rhymes with an earlier line. In this poem, lines 2 and 4 of every stanza rhyme, while lines 1 and 3 do not. So the scheme is abcb in every stanza, as Fig. 8.9 shows. Because the rhyme falls on every second line, the poem sounds simple and steady, like footsteps.

8.11.2 Imagery, symbols and metaphor

Imagery is language that creates a picture in the mind. A symbol is a thing that stands for a bigger idea. The poem is short, but almost every picture in it carries a larger meaning.

A metaphor describes one thing as if it were another. When the poet says “The first step is the hardest”, he does not mean a step on a staircase. The step stands for the very beginning of any change: the first lesson, the first application, the first try. Beginning is hardest because fear and doubt are strongest before we have any success to lean on.

The poem also uses personification: the future seems to pull and push you, as if it were a person with hands.

8.11.3 Antithesis

Antithesis puts two opposite ideas into two halves of the same sentence pattern. Because the shapes match, the difference in meaning jumps out. Look at these examples: Easy to start, hard to finish. Quick to judge, slow to forgive. Train hard, play easy.

In the poem, the second stanza sets pull you forward against push you back. Both phrases follow the same pattern (verb + you + direction), but the verbs and the directions are opposite. The contrast shows the two forces inside us at a moment of choice: hope and fear. The third stanza also contrasts the ease of comfort with the need to grow.

8.12 Critical Reflection: the poem

For poem questions, always link your answer to a stanza and a device. Say what the line means, then what it suggests.

8.13 Vocabulary in Context

8.13.1 Latin expressions used in English

Status quo comes from Latin and means ‘the state in which (things are)’. English has borrowed many such Latin expressions, and you meet them in newspapers, notices and textbooks. Most are written in italics in careful print, and their short forms take full stops.

8.13.2 Rhetorical questions

In the second stanza the speaker asks whether the future will draw you on or drive you back. Nobody is expected to reply aloud. This is a rhetorical question: the speaker already knows the answer, or wants you to supply it silently. Its job is to stress a point or stir feeling, not to collect information.

• To push for action: How long will we keep ignoring the garbage on our street? (We must act now.)
• To challenge fear: What is the worst that can happen if you try? (Not much: so try.)
• To stress an obvious truth: Who doesn’t love a holiday? (Everyone does.)

Speakers use rhetorical questions in speeches and debates because they pull the audience in. Use one or two, not more, or your speech will sound like a quiz.

8.14 Listening and Speaking

8.14.1 Listen and Respond

In class you will hear two friends talking before a performance (the transcript is in the teacher’s pages). Listen for feelings and advice: words such as nervous, ready and sure tell you how each speaker feels, and phrases such as you should or just remember signal advice. When you pick true statements, check every word: one changed word can make a statement false.

8.14.2 Speaking Activity: proverbs in action

Work in pairs. Take a proverb, explain what it means, link it to a real situation and act out a short scene that proves it. Follow the three-part plan in Fig. 8.11.

8.15 Writing Task: a speech

A speech is written to be heard. It needs a clear structure, a friendly but formal voice and a persuasive tone that draws listeners in, for example with rhetorical questions or tags such as …, don’t we? and …, isn’t that so?

1. Opening: greet the audience, introduce yourself, hook them with a question, quotation or surprising fact, and state your topic.
2. Body, paragraph 1: your first main point with a story or example.
3. Body, paragraph 2: your second point with a fact or another example. Use linkers such as moreover and on the other hand.
4. Conclusion: sum up, end with a line people will remember, and thank the audience.

• Examples for ‘Turning Challenges into Opportunities’: a student who failed a science test and discovered a love of experiments while revising; a farmer who switched to millets after a drought; a town that turned a garbage dump into a park; the lockdown that pushed many people to learn new skills online. Pick two, one personal and one from the news.

8.16 Learning Beyond the Text: challenge into chance

Many great Indians faced hardships that could have stopped them. Instead they used those difficulties as fuel. Fig. 8.13 and the comparison below sum up three such lives.