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Winds of Change – Class 9 English Chapter 3 Notes & NCERT PDF

Class 9EnglishChapter 3NCERT book: Kaveri - English Class 9

Notes and a simple summary of Chapter 3 of the NCERT Class 9 English book, with the official chapter PDF, flashcards, an MCQ quiz and an AI tutor for your doubts.

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Chapter 3: Winds of Change

Chapter Overview

Chapter 3 explores how art and craft carry culture. It has two main texts:

  • Winds of Change — an informative (non-fiction) essay on the pankha (hand fan) — its history, regional varieties, and the need to preserve the craft.
  • Canvas of Soil — a poem by Maya Anthony that compares a garden to a painting.

    • Additional reading: O. Henry's story "The Last Leaf" and Toru Dutt's sonnet "A Sea of Foliage Girds Our Garden Round".

    Winds of Change (informative essay)

    Type: factual/descriptive prose about a traditional craft.

    Origins

  • Punkha/pankha comes from "pankh" — the feather of a bird. Pankha means any fan; pankhi is a small plumed fan used in ancient India.
  • Evidence of the pankhi appears in Buddhist wall paintings at Ajanta, dating back to the 2nd century CE; also in embroidery, sculptures and carvings.
  • In ancient times, pankhas were used in temples to fan deities and in royal courts to fan kings, ranging from a tiny two-inch fan to large ones needing full arm strength.
  • They became cultural goods traded along trade routes, considered exotic and stylish. Each village and town developed its own materials and designs — bamboo, cane, palm leaf, silk, brass, leather, silver, beads and stones.

    • Regional varieties (as described in the text)

  • Rajasthan: the appliqué hand fan (fabric pieces sewn on with ornamental needlework); the zardozi fan (glittering gold threadwork); temple hand fans of engraved brass with a long handle; painted cardboard fans offered to gods.
  • Gujarat: pure cotton fans with mirror work; the beads hand fan with a silver handle (Gujarat is the centre of bead craft); Kutch's hand-stitched leather fans decorated with thread and wool; home-based women workers make embroidered fans with mirror work and cross-stitch.
  • Bengal: delicate fans from the milky-white spongy centre of the sola (a water grass); palm-leaf Tal Patar Pankha kept in Bengali homes.
  • Uttar Pradesh: Phadh fans adorned with pure gold, silver zari, silk and satin frills.
  • Odisha: large palm-leaf fans; Bihar: colourful, sturdy bamboo fans.
  • Tribal pankhas use grass, metal, bamboo sticks, cane and palm leaves, with geometrical patterns and white ink on red backgrounds.

    • Change and preservation

  • With technology, the culture of pankhas "runs the risk of slowly losing its presence". Once for personal use, the craft has become a commercial business that gives artisans a livelihood.
  • To preserve it we must celebrate pankhas and their stories; pankha-making workshops and handicraft exhibitions spread awareness and give artisans a platform for a sustainable livelihood.
  • The title "Winds of Change" plays on the fan's wind and on changing times.

    • Canvas of Soil (Maya Anthony)

    Palette of earth, rich and deep,
    Where dreams of gardeners seep.
    Brushstrokes of seeds, planted true,
    Awaiting spring's vibrant hue.
  • Stanza 1: the earth is a rich palette; gardeners' dreams take the form of seeds ("brushstrokes") awaiting spring.
  • Stanza 2: blossoms bloom, "a painted sight, / Dancing in the morning light"; "Shades of green, red, and blue" are "Nature's artwork, ever new".
  • Stanza 3: "Each plot, a canvas wide, / Where art and life coincide"; in the hands of those who till, "Gardens become paintings still."
  • Devices: extended metaphor (garden = painting; plot = canvas; seeds = brushstrokes), visual imagery, alliteration ("Blossoms bloom"), rhyme scheme AABB, appreciative tone and joyful mood; the speaker is a gardener. The poem can be read as an allegory of life's growth and of harmony in diversity.

    • Word Power

  • indigenous – local, native (स्वदेशी)
  • innovative – new and original (नवीन)
  • industrious – hardworking (परिश्रमी)
  • intricate – elaborate, detailed (जटिल/बारीक)
  • invoked – brought out, called up (जगाया)
  • initiatives – actions to improve a situation (पहल)
  • encrusted – covered or decorated (जड़ा हुआ)
  • sola – a type of water grass (सोला)
  • perpetually – constantly (सदैव)
  • antiquity – the distant past (प्राचीनता)
  • advent – arrival (आगमन)
  • palette – board on which a painter mixes colours (रंग-पट्टिका)
  • hue – shade of a colour (रंगत)
  • till – to prepare land for crops (जोतना)

    • Grammar & Language Focus

  • Word pairs from the text by category: appearance (exotic and stylish, ornate and encrusted), place (villages and towns, within and outside), material (thread and wool, silk and brass).
  • Fixed expressions with and in a fixed order: high and dry (in difficulty without help), wear and tear (damage from normal use), facts and figures (accurate details), thick and thin (even in difficulties), all and sundry (everyone), time and again (often), cut and run (escape quickly), hard and fast (fixed rules).
  • Collocations: take an exam, have/take a seat, ran into a car, take responsibility, improve my grammar, sustainable livelihood.
  • Present perfect tense — past actions with present relevance: Many tribes in India have adopted* this handicraft.* / Puppets have long fascinated* audiences.*
  • Poem vocabulary: colour names such as scarlet, crimson, vermilion, jade, olive, indigo, cobalt blue; art words like easel, tonal range, portrait, underpainting, mural.

    • Speaking & Writing Tasks

  • Speak as a hand fan, ceiling fan, table fan or handheld fan — features, strengths, weakness, what makes you unique.
  • Factual description of an artefact you made — facts only, no opinion.
  • Make a hand fan in groups; present a local art or craft (materials, process, use, origin story).
  • Poem tasks: speak about preferring a flower or vegetable garden using comparison prompts; write a descriptive piece about the colours of a garden; mini-project on famous gardens such as Amrit Udyan and Brindavan Gardens.

    • Common Mistakes

  • Confusing pankha (any fan) with pankhi (small plumed fan of ancient India).
  • Mixing up regions — sola fans are from Bengal, Phadh fans from Uttar Pradesh, leather fans from Kutch (Gujarat), bamboo fans from Bihar.
  • Treating "They were considered exotic and stylish" as a fact — it is an opinion.
  • Reversing fixed expressions (tear and wear ✗ → wear and tear ✓).
  • In "Canvas of Soil", taking "Gardens become paintings still" literally — it means gardens are like still-life paintings, a lasting picture of nature.

    • 💡 Key Learning Points

    • ✓Trace the history of the pankha from Ajanta's wall paintings to a modern craft and business.
    • ✓Match regional pankhas to their states and materials (Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bengal, UP, Odisha, Bihar).
    • ✓Evaluate ways to preserve traditional crafts while supporting artisans' livelihoods.
    • ✓Interpret the extended metaphor of 'Canvas of Soil' — garden as painting — and its devices.
    • ✓Use word pairs, fixed expressions, collocations and the present perfect tense correctly.

    👨‍🏫 Teaching Tips

    • →Bring or show real hand fans from different regions; let students guess the state and material.
    • →Build the state–fan–material table from the text as a group activity before the extracts.
    • →Discuss the title: ask what 'winds of change' could mean for a craft like pankha-making.
    • →Separate facts from opinions in a paragraph of the essay to train critical reading.
    • →Have each student speak as a type of fan (hand, ceiling, table, handheld) for the speaking task.
    • →For the poem, place a garden photo next to a painting and list shared words: palette, hue, canvas.
    • →Organise a short hand-fan-making workshop and display, echoing the essay's call to celebrate the craft.

    📋 Assessment Questions

    1. Where is the earliest evidence of the pankhi found, and how old is it?
    2. Give two examples showing that pankhas reflect the cultural identity of a region.
    3. How might workshops and exhibitions help pankha makers?
    4. Explain the metaphor 'Brushstrokes of seeds' in 'Canvas of Soil'.
    5. Fill in with the present perfect: 'Over the years, puppetry ______ (evolve).'

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    Keep learning

    All chapters in Kaveri - English Class 9

    1. 1. How I Taught My Grandmother to Read
    2. 2. The Pot Maker
    3. 3. Winds of Change
    4. 4. Vitamin-M
    5. 5. The World of Limitless Possibilities
    6. 6. Twin Melodies
    7. 7. Carrier of Words
    8. 8. Follow That Dream