The World of Limitless Possibilities: Class 9 Kaveri · Chapter 5

What do you do when life knocks you down? Some people stay down. Some get up and walk away. A few get up and turn the fall into the start of something bigger. Unit 5 of Kaveri is about that third kind of person, and about the kindness that helps people rise.

The unit has two texts. The first, The World of Limitless Possibilities, is an interview with Dr Deepa Malik, the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic medal. The second, the poem Nine Gold Medals by David Roth, tells the story of a race in which eight runners stop to help a ninth. Read each text in your NCERT book first. This page then walks you through summaries, meanings, grammar, writing and exam-style practice, with answers.

5.1 Before You Read: The Paralympic Games

The unit opens with a photograph of Sheetal Devi, a para-archer from Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir. She was born in 2007 without arms, yet she competes in compound archery at the highest level. She received the Arjuna Award in January 2024. At the Paris 2024 Paralympics, she and Rakesh Kumar won a bronze medal in the mixed team compound event.

The Paralympic Games are the world's biggest multi-sport event for athletes with physical, visual or intellectual impairments. The name comes from the Greek para, meaning ‘beside’: these Games run alongside the Olympics. Since Seoul 1988, the Summer Paralympics have shared a host city with the Summer Olympics, starting a few weeks after them. As with the Olympics, there are Summer and Winter Games, each held every four years.

The Paralympic story began with a doctor's idea after the Second World War and grew into a global event in which India now wins dozens of medals. Step through Fig. 5.1 to see the milestones.

5.2 Reading for Meaning: The Interview

5.2.1 Meet Dr Deepa Malik

Dr Deepa Malik was born in Haryana in 1970. In 1999, when she was 29, a tumour was found in her spine, and the surgeries that followed left her paralysed below the waist. She went on to compete in swimming and then in throwing events, and she won silver in the shot put at the Rio 2016 Paralympics. Her honours include the Arjuna Award (2012), the Padma Shri (2017) and the Khel Ratna (2019). From 2020 to 2024 she was President of the Paralympic Committee of India.

This text is an interview: a conversation in which one person asks questions and another answers them. In print it is set out like a play, with each speaker's name before their words. Each answer adds one part to Dr Malik's story, so we will follow it answer by answer.

5.2.2 The interview, answer by answer

The opening. Before the interview begins, the text sets the scene. It presents the Paralympics as a celebration of athletes who beat the odds and prove that disability does not cap talent. We learn that India first took part in 1968 and won its first medal, in swimming, in 1972. Then Dr Malik is introduced: a Paralympian with three national honours, whose example inspires young athletes across the country.

How did she rise? Pointing out that the International Paralympic Committee ranks her among the world's most inspiring women para-athletes, the interviewer asks how she reached this point. Her answer starts at 29. A tumour in her spine, an operation, and then worse news: she would never walk again. Two futures lay open, one of regret and one of rebuilding, and she picked rebuilding. Because sport was already her passion, and swimming part of her past, para-athletics was the obvious next step. Rio 2016 brought her breakthrough, a silver medal in the shot put. She now sees that medal as a personal triumph that also shook old ideas about disability.

What do the honours mean? Calling her a trailblazer, the interviewer points to a long list of ‘firsts’. Among them: India's first Paralympic medal won by a woman, and the first Asian Games athletics medal won by an Indian woman para-athlete. For Dr Malik the awards matter less as trophies than as evidence. They back up her conviction that what a body cannot do never fixes what a person can achieve, an idea she sums up as ‘ability beyond disability’.

What were the hardest challenges? Her answer may surprise you: the toughest battle was with other people's low expectations. Proving them wrong demanded a strong mind as much as strong muscles. With her family behind her and her own grit to draw on, she learnt to see each challenge as an opportunity and each obstacle as a stepping stone.

Can sport change attitudes? Yes, she says, and her own life is the proof: the Paralympics gave her a fresh start and made her who she is. More widely, audiences who watch para-athletes compete hard and well are forced to drop their assumptions. The evidence in front of them shows that people with disabilities can equal, or even beat, anyone else.

What is her role beyond sport? Speaking up for others, she says, lies at the core of her mission. Her work today spans several fronts:

• the emotional well-being of people with disabilities;
• outdoor and adventure sports as a path to confidence for women;
• help, including sports equipment, for para-athletes from poor families;
• awareness sessions in schools and colleges, because the young will shape tomorrow.

All of it points to one aim: a society in which nobody's ability decides the respect they receive or the chances they get.

What is her advice? In her view, a setback is simply a stage on which to show your strength. Lean on people who believe in you, believe in yourself, and use your story to lift others. Her last word reframes disability itself: not a cage, but a hidden power.

Fig. 5.2 turns her story into a staircase. Each slab is one stage of her journey, and each stage rests on the one below it.

5.2.3 Key moments explained

The fork in the road. The heart of the interview is one decision. Doctors had told her she would need a wheelchair for life. She could have spent her years in regret; instead she chose to rebuild. The title of the text comes from this moment: she chose a world of limitless possibilities.

Why Rio 2016 mattered twice. The silver medal was a personal triumph after years of effort. It was also public proof that a woman in a wheelchair could win a Paralympic medal for India. That is why she links it to changing perceptions: people who watched her could no longer believe that disability meant helplessness.

‘Ability beyond disability’. This phrase sums up her outlook. It does not pretend that disability is unreal. It says that a person's abilities matter more than what they cannot do, and that society should notice the first, not the second.

Obstacles as stepping stones. A stepping stone helps you cross a stream. When she calls obstacles stepping stones, she means that each difficulty became something to stand on and move forward from. Her family's support mattered here, because resilience is easier when people stand with you.

Youth as the voice of tomorrow. Her awareness sessions target schools and colleges for a reason. Young people who learn early to respect every kind of ability will build fairer workplaces, playgrounds and cities when they grow up.

5.2.4 Themes and message

• Resilience: bouncing back from a life-changing setback through choice, effort and support.
• Breaking stereotypes: sport shows people what para-athletes can do, and fixed ideas about disability fall away.
• Inclusion and dignity: a fair society gives everyone, whatever their ability, respect and a real chance.
• Women in sport: a woman para-athlete at the top of world lists challenges two stereotypes at once.
• Giving back: success means most when it opens doors for others.

The message: limits are often set by attitudes, not by bodies. With determination, support and a fair chance, every person can find their own world of possibilities.

5.2.5 Words to know

5.3 Check Your Understanding and Critical Reflection

5.3.1 Fact file

Factual questions test whether you can find details quickly. Skim the interview for numbers, names and years: they are the anchors of a fact file. Try these questions from memory first, then check the text.

5.3.2 Fact or opinion?

A fact can be checked and proved true or false: a date, a score, a record, an event that happened. An opinion tells us what someone believes, feels or judges. Other people may disagree with it, and no record can settle the question.

An interview mixes the two all the time. Dr Malik reports facts about her life, then tells us what they meant to her. Good readers notice the switch. Opinions often come with signal words such as I feel, I believe and in my view, or judging words such as best, finest and wonderful. Facts tend to carry dates, numbers and names.

5.3.3 Cause and effect

A cause is why something happens; an effect is what happens as a result. Linking words reveal the connection: because, so, as a result, therefore, since and led to. Sometimes there is no linking word, and you must work out the link yourself.

One statement can be a fact and also part of a cause–effect pair, because the two skills ask different questions. Fact or opinion asks: can this be proved? Cause and effect asks: does one thing lead to the other?

5.3.4 Critical reflection: extracts and long answers

Critical reflection questions ask you to think beyond the words: to infer, judge tone, link ideas and connect them to life. Two kinds appear in exams. Extract questions point to a passage and ask four or five short questions about it. Long answers ask you to explain, evaluate or relate the text to your own life.

1. Read the whole extract once before you look at the questions.
2. For each question, find the exact sentence it is about.
3. Answer in your own words; quote a word or phrase only if the question asks for it.
4. For a why question, give the reason from the text, then explain it in a line.
5. Match the length to the marks: one line for one mark, three or four lines for two or three marks.

Tone questions are common. Tone is the speaker's attitude, shown through word choice. Learn these tone words; you will meet them in the interview and in the poem.

5.4 Vocabulary and Structures in Context

5.4.1 Phrases from the interview

The interview uses several vivid phrases. Each one packs a whole idea into a few words, which is why writers love them. Learn what they mean, then use them in your own speaking and writing.

5.4.2 Word cline: words of movement

A word cline arranges words with related meanings in order of intensity, like points on a slope. Warm and boiling both describe heat, but one is far stronger. Placing words on a cline helps you choose the exact word you need (Fig. 5.4).

The interview mentions sprinting, a word for very fast movement, and NCERT asks you to arrange a set of movement words on a cline. Here is what each word means, grouped by pace. Some are very close (amble, stroll and saunter all mean relaxed walking), so small differences in your order are fine if you can explain them.

5.4.3 Modal auxiliaries

Modal auxiliaries are helping verbs such as can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would and must. They come before a main verb and add a shade of meaning: ability, possibility, permission, advice, duty, a request or a prediction. The same modal can do different jobs, so the context tells you its function.

Modals never change their form (there is no coulds or shoulding), and the verb after them is always the base form: she could swim, not she could swam.

5.4.4 Direct and reported speech

The interview is written in direct speech: we read each speaker's exact words, set out like a play. Most of its sentences are declarative: they make statements rather than ask, order or exclaim. To tell someone else what was said without quoting it, we use reported speech, also called indirect speech.

Turning a statement into reported speech takes a few changes. Fig. 5.5 shows them one at a time.

1. Reporting verb: use said, told (followed by a person), replied, added, explained or remarked.
2. Remove the quotation marks and add the linking word that (in speech it is often dropped).
3. Change pronouns to fit the new speaker: I → he/she, my → his/her, we → they, you → I/me/he/she.
4. Shift tenses one step back when the reporting verb is in the past (see the table).
5. Change time and place words: now → then, today → that day, tomorrow → the next day, yesterday → the day before, last night → the previous night, next week → the following week, here → there, this → that.

When nothing shifts. If the reporting verb is in the present (says, tells), keep the tenses: Riya says that she trains every morning. We also keep the tense for facts that are always true: The teacher said that the Earth goes round the Sun. And must stays must when it is a logical conclusion, as in They must practise a lot.

5.5 Listen, Speak and Write

5.5.1 Listen and respond

In the NCERT task, you listen to a school announcement about a special assembly and fill each gap with one or two exact words; your teacher has the script. To practise the same skill, use the announcement below. A partner reads it aloud once at normal speed while you listen without looking.

5.5.2 Speaking: formal and informal interviews

The style of an interview depends on whom you are talking to. With a friend, such as your school's Sports Captain, an informal style is natural: first names, short forms (you're, what's) and simple, chatty questions. With a teacher or a coach, choose a formal style: a polite greeting, full forms, and openers such as Could you tell us…? or Would you describe…?

5.5.3 Writing a notice

A notice is a short, formal message put up for a group of people: a class, a school or a housing society. It announces an event, a competition or a change, or reports a lost or found item. People read notices quickly while passing by, so a good notice is brief (about 50 words), clear, and boxed so that it stands out.

Follow the format in Fig. 5.6. In the body, answer the five Ws: what is happening, when, where, who can take part, and how or by when to respond. Use simple, impersonal sentences, and leave out greetings such as Dear students.

5.5.4 Learning beyond the text

Part two: the poem. We now move from a true story told in an interview to a story told in verse. The interview showed strength as refusing to give up. The poem adds another kind of strength: choosing kindness when it costs you something.

5.6 Nine Gold Medals: Before You Read

5.6.1 Olympics, Paralympics, Special Olympics

People often mix up the Olympics, the Paralympics and the Special Olympics. They share one spirit but serve different athletes. The Special Olympics movement was founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in the United States, and its first international Games were held that year in Chicago.

5.6.2 Sympathy, empathy and compassion

These three words all describe caring about someone in trouble, but each goes deeper than the one before (Fig. 5.7). Sympathy is feeling sorry for someone. Empathy is feeling with them: imagining yourself in their place and understanding their feelings from the inside. Compassion goes one step further: it is empathy that moves you to help.

Here is the difference in everyday life. A classmate's bicycle has been stolen. ‘That's terrible, I'm sorry’ is sympathy. ‘I know how upset you must be; I'd feel the same’ is empathy. ‘Come, I'll walk home with you and help you report it’ is compassion.

Words that people link with empathy include understanding, listening, kindness, patience, respect, sensitivity and putting yourself in someone's shoes. Add your own to the list.

5.7 Nine Gold Medals: Reading for Appreciation

5.7.1 About the poet

David Roth is an American folk singer-songwriter who performs, teaches songwriting and leads music retreats. Nine Gold Medals began as one of his songs, and its words have been reprinted in the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul books. That song-like origin explains the poem's steady beat and its storyteller's voice.

5.7.2 The poem at a glance

• Form: a narrative poem (a poem that tells a story) in eight stanzas of four lines, like a ballad. In most stanzas the second and fourth lines rhyme or nearly rhyme.
• Speaker: a storyteller who addresses us directly and insists that the story is true.
• Setting: an old sports field at a Special Olympics meet, during the last event of the day, a hundred-yard dash (about 91 metres).
• Characters: nine young runners, the smallest of whom falls; the eight who help him; and the watching crowd.

5.7.3 Stanza by stanza

Read each stanza in your book, then its explanation here. The explanations follow the story, but they focus on what each stanza does, not just on what it says.

Stanza 1: the stakes. We learn just two things about the athletes, where they come from and how hard they have prepared, and both make the medals feel precious. The stanza works like the opening shot of a film, wide and busy, and it leads us to expect a fierce contest.

Stanza 2: the audience. The focus shifts from the athletes to the people watching them. By telling us that this is the last event of the day, the poet makes us wait alongside the crowd, and the eager mood grows.

Stanza 3: the frozen moment. Only now do we learn the race (a hundred-yard dash) and the number of runners: nine. The stanza holds them still, determined and ready, in the second before the gun. Words such as resolved and poised make this pause tense, so the action that follows feels even sharper.

Stanza 4: the fall. This is the most action-packed stanza, and it turns on the word but. A clever double use of one verb makes the gun and the runners seem to explode together. Then the camera leaves the leaders and follows the smallest runner, as he loses his footing and goes down on the hard track.

Stanza 5: the lowest point. The boy's cry and the picture of his hopes lying in the dirt show how complete his disappointment is. Then the storyteller breaks into the story to speak to us directly and vouch for what comes next. The interruption is a hook: something remarkable is about to happen.

Stanza 6: the turning point. The poet reminds us how long the other runners have trained, so that we feel the size of what they give up when they stop and go back. Helping the boy up is the first act in the poem that is not about winning. From here on, kindness drives the story.

Stanza 7: a new kind of race. Speed stops mattering; togetherness takes its place. The storyteller draws our eye to the Special Olympics banner overhead and calls it a perfect fit, because the runners have just acted out the movement's ideals of inclusion and dignity.

Stanza 8: the title explained. The ending delivers the nine gold medals of the title, and the crowd's standing applause shows that the audience agrees with the result. In the closing line the poet admits that words, even his own, fall short of the runners' joy: a humble way to end a poem.

Fig. 5.8 follows the race on the track, stanza by stanza. The runners are simple markers; the square one is the smallest runner.

5.7.4 Theme and message

The central theme is compassion over competition. A race exists to find one winner, yet these runners give up their own chances to lift up one of their own. The poem turns the usual idea of victory upside down: by not racing, all nine win.

Other ideas run through it: sportsmanship, unity, dignity and inclusion, the values the Special Olympics stand for. The poem shows that true success is measured in kindness, not in seconds.

The message: winning means most when everyone wins together, and helping someone who has fallen is worth more than any medal.

Did it really happen? Versions of this story have been retold for decades, with different places and years, and the details are hard to confirm. The poem does not depend on record books. Its power lies in what it asks us to imagine, and to do.

5.8 Nine Gold Medals: Understanding and Reflection

5.8.1 Words in context

5.8.2 The gist of each stanza

The gist is the main point of a stanza in a single line. Match each stanza with its gist; the reader shuffles the lines each time.

5.8.3 Appreciating the poem

Poets choose sounds and pictures as carefully as words. Here are the main devices in Nine Gold Medals and what each one does.

Imagery makes the poem appealing because it lets us live the race. We do not just learn that a boy fell; we see him on the hard track and hear his cry. So when the eight runners turn back, we feel the surprise and warmth that the crowd felt. Alliteration adds to this by making key moments ring in the ear.

Tone and mood. The tone is the poet's attitude; the mood is the feeling the poem creates in the reader. At first the storyteller sounds lively and expectant, describing the crowd and the runners. At the fall, the tone turns sombre and tense. From stanza 6 onwards it grows warm, admiring and joyful. The overall mood is uplifting and heart-warming (Fig. 5.9).

The message. The poem asks us to measure success by how we treat others. It celebrates compassion, unity and the inclusive spirit of the Special Olympics, and it shows that a shared victory can be the greatest victory of all.

5.8.4 Critical reflection practice

Use the steps for extract questions from Section 5.3.4. With a poem, refer to stanzas by number, and explain what the poet's words suggest, not only what they say.

5.9 Nine Gold Medals: Vocabulary in Context

5.9.1 Collocations

A collocation is a combination of words that speakers habitually put together. We say heavy rain, not strong rain, and a standing ovation, not a standing applause. Grammar does not forbid the odd pair; it simply does not sound natural. The poem has other adjective–noun collocations too, such as beaming faces and final event.

Learning collocations makes your English sound fluent. Fig. 5.10 shows how one adjective pairs with certain nouns, and why near-synonyms cannot always replace each other.

5.9.2 Choosing the precise adjective

Good writers pick the adjective that fits exactly. A vague phrase such as very good, nice or very big can often be replaced with one precise word that matches both the meaning and the situation.

• very tired → exhausted
• very loud → deafening
• very good → remarkable
• very happy → delighted
• very old → ancient

5.10 Nine Gold Medals: Listen, Speak and Write

5.10.1 Listen and respond

The NCERT task is a radio talk about a coach of special athletes; your teacher has the script. Practise the skill with the talk below. As before, a partner reads the script aloud while you listen without looking.

5.10.2 Speaking: sharing points of view

In a discussion you need two kinds of phrases: ones that invite another person's view, and ones that state your own. Vary them, so you do not say I think every time.

Model exchange. Asha: What are your thoughts on the Special Olympics? Vikram: As I see it, they matter because they give every athlete a fair chance to compete. Asha: I agree. Would you say they change the athletes themselves? Vikram: Definitely. To my mind, the confidence they gain carries over into school and work too.

5.10.3 Writing slogans

A slogan is a short, memorable line that sums up a cause or an idea. The best ones stick in the mind after a single reading, so stay under ten words.

1. Pick one idea you want people to remember (for example, that every athlete belongs).
2. Collect words linked to it: together, every, ability, heart, finish line.
3. Play with sound and shape: rhyme, alliteration, contrast, or a verb that calls people to act (Join…, Cheer…).
4. Read it aloud and cut every word you do not need.

5.10.4 Designing a poster

A poster combines a slogan, a picture and key information on one sheet, designed to catch the eye from a distance. Plan it in zones, as in Fig. 5.11.

• Decide the one thing viewers must remember, and build the poster around it.
• Make the slogan the largest text, readable from three metres away.
• Let one picture do the work; clutter hides the message.
• Keep details short: date, time, place and who can come.
• Choose two or three contrasting colours, leave some empty space, and frame the poster with a border.

5.10.5 Learning beyond the text