Class 9 English · Original EZT practice
The Pot Maker (Class 9 English Chapter 2): Sentila's secret craft
Sentila has dreamed of becoming a pot maker like her mother Arenla and grandmother ever since she was old enough to accompany them to the fields and forests. But Arenla wants her to become a weaver: pot making earns only a pittance, while weaving pays more, is not messy, and can be done indoors in all seasons. So Sentila secretly watches expert potters at work, until the village council steps in. Temsula Ao's story asks who a traditional skill really belongs to. This page gives a summary, themes and practice questions. (Note: this is original practice, not a textbook exercise key.)
6 original worked examples, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with explained answers. These are not copied textbook exercises, an official chapter index or a full answer key. No affiliation with NCERT is claimed.
Official sources for topic and edition context, checked 23 October 2026:
1. Summary - a secret passion and a mother's refusal
Sentila hides her fascination with pot making because she has overheard her mother complain about the craft: the riverbank with the grey and red clay is sixteen kilometres away, down a sheer drop; pounding the clay inside bamboo cylinders is tedious; a batch takes months; and the reward is a few rupees. Weaving, Arenla argues, brings a handsome return in less time, provides cloth for the family, and can be done indoors in all seasons.
2. Summary - the village council and Onula's lesson
When village gossip grows about Arenla's refusal, the council summons Sentila's father Mesoba. The elders rule that a skill such as pot making - which serves people's needs and symbolises their tradition and history - does not 'belong' to any individual, and experts are obliged to pass it on to anyone who wishes to learn. Arenla then teaches Sentila for almost a year, but the girl learns nothing until Onula, the kind middle-aged widow supervising the girls' dormitory, shows her how to shape a perfect pot and tells her to watch her mother shape the mouth.
3. Summary - one short of the tally and the ending
On a bright sunny day Arenla, complaining of a headache and a backache, leaves Sentila to make as many pots as she can - and the girl finds herself working with the same speed and dexterity as her mother, finishing just one short of her mother's tally. When Sentila goes in for lunch she finds her mother lying dead on the floor. At the funeral she cries that she did not wish it to happen this way; only Onula understands, finding two neat rows of new pots in the shed, impossible to tell apart - a new pot maker was born.
4. Theme and characters - Sentila, Arenla and Onula
The story celebrates traditional crafts and the duty to pass them on: a skill kept alive across generations belongs to the community, not to one person. Sentila is quietly determined, learning in secret and persisting through a year of failure; Arenla is not cruel but tired, protecting her daughter from a life of poorly paid toil; Onula is the true teacher whose patience finally unlocks the skill. The ending is bittersweet - mastery arrives on the very day the mother is lost.
Choose, solve, check, then try a fresh question.
Before calculating, read the method prompt and name the condition that makes it useful. Write your own attempt. Open the steps only when you need them, and use the check to catch a wrong sign, unit or interpretation. Finish with the fresh question before reading its answer.
Explain Arenla's refusal
Choose the method: Trace her own words about the craft.
EZT practice question
Why does Arenla refuse to teach Sentila pot making?
Show the worked solution
- The riverbank with grey and red clay is sixteen kilometres away, down a sheer drop, and the heavy load must be carried uphill.
- Pounding the clay inside bamboo cylinders is tedious, and a batch takes months of slow work.
- The reward is only a few rupees, while weaving brings a handsome return in less time and can be done indoors in all seasons.
Answer: Because the craft has brought her no joy and only a pittance for her troubles - distant clay, exhausting labour, months per batch - and she believes weaving will give Sentila more money and an easier life.
Check: Arenla's refusal comes from love, not spite - she wants to spare Sentila the hardship she herself endured.
Watch for this: Do not say Arenla is jealous of Sentila's talent - the text gives economic and emotional reasons, never jealousy.
Now try it yourself
What arguments does Arenla make in favour of weaving?
Check your answer
Weaving makes much more money, provides cloth for the family, is not messy, and can be done indoors in all seasons, with one shawl finished in less time for a handsome return.
Her comparison of the two crafts is what the village council later has to weigh against tradition.
Set up the central conflict
Choose the method: Dream versus a mother's plan.
EZT practice question
What does Sentila dream of becoming, and what does her mother want for her?
Show the worked solution
- Ever since she was old enough to accompany her mother and grandmother to the fields and forests, Sentila dreamed of becoming a pot maker like them.
- Arenla, her mother, wanted her to become a weaver instead.
- On days at home Sentila secretly approached expert potters to learn the skill, though they were amused and expected her to outgrow the passion.
Answer: Sentila dreams of becoming a pot maker like her mother and grandmother, while her mother Arenla wants her to become a weaver - and Sentila pursues her dream in secret.
Check: The conflict is set in the story's first lines: two honorable paths, one daughter, one unbending mother.
Watch for this: Do not say the potters refused to teach her - they were amused by her insistence, assuming she would outgrow it.
Now try it yourself
How do the expert potters react to little Sentila?
Check your answer
They are amused by her insistence, thinking she will soon outgrow her childish passion for the craft.
Their reaction shows how unusual her determination is for her age.
Explain the turning point
Choose the method: Compare the two teachers.
EZT practice question
Why does Sentila fail with her mother but succeed after Onula's guidance?
Show the worked solution
- Arenla teaches Sentila for almost a year, but the girl is too tense with her mother and the clay seems unwilling to yield the right shape.
- Onula, the kind middle-aged widow supervising the girls' dormitory, calmly demonstrates the whole process and corrects the mouth of Sentila's pot.
- She directs Sentila to watch Arenla's rhythm, and with new confidence Sentila follows and creates a beautiful pot.
Answer: With her mother Sentila is too tense, so the clay never takes the right shape; Onula's calm demonstration, her correction of the pot's mouth, and her advice to watch Arenla's rhythm give Sentila the confidence to succeed.
Check: The skill was always within reach - what Sentila lacked was a relaxed hand and a patient teacher.
Watch for this: Do not say Arenla taught badly on purpose - a year of her teaching simply could not overcome Sentila's tension.
Now try it yourself
What fault does Onula find in Sentila's pot, and what does she advise?
Check your answer
'The mouth of the pot is all wrong' - she tells Sentila to watch Arenla carefully when she shapes the mouth, where Arenla slackens her rhythm and adds a strip of elongated dough for the rim.
That one observed detail completes Sentila's technique.
Explain the elders' ruling
Choose the method: Who does a skill belong to?
EZT practice question
Why is Mesoba summoned by the village council, and what do the elders decide?
Show the worked solution
- Village gossip grows over Arenla's refusal to teach her daughter, so the council summons Sentila's father Mesoba to explain.
- The elders rule that a skill like pot making caters to people's needs and symbolises their tradition and history.
- Such a skill does not 'belong' to any individual, so experts are obliged to pass it on to their children and to anyone who wishes to learn.
Answer: Mesoba is summoned to explain Arenla's refusal, and the elders decide that a traditional skill belongs to no individual - because it serves the community's needs and carries its tradition and history, experts must pass it on to anyone who wishes to learn.
Check: The ruling turns a family quarrel into a question about who owns a community's heritage.
Watch for this: Do not say the council punishes Arenla - it reasons with the family through Mesoba and lays down a principle.
Now try it yourself
How does the council's ruling change Arenla's behaviour?
Check your answer
She begins teaching Sentila herself, and keeps at it for almost a year, even though Sentila cannot yet learn from her.
Her compliance shows the council's moral authority in the village.
Read the silent evidence
Choose the method: Two rows of pots, one revelation.
EZT practice question
What does Onula understand from the two rows of pots in the work shed?
Show the worked solution
- Left alone, Sentila works with the same speed and dexterity as her mother and finishes just one short of her mother's tally.
- After the funeral, Onula finds two neat rows of new pots standing in the shed, still moist.
- The two batches - one by Arenla, one by Sentila - are impossible to tell apart.
Answer: Onula understands that the daughter's skill has quietly equalled the mother's - the two batches cannot be told apart - and to her the pots standing in perfect symmetry are a revelation that a new pot maker has been born.
Check: Only Onula sees the shed; the craft's survival is witnessed by the woman who made it possible.
Watch for this: Do not say Onula counts the pots to scold Sentila - she reads them as proof of mastery.
Now try it yourself
How many pots does Sentila make that day compared with her mother?
Check your answer
Just one short of her mother's tally, working with the same speed and dexterity.
The near-equal tally prepares the reader for Onula's discovery.
Interpret the ending
Choose the method: Grief, guilt and inheritance.
EZT practice question
What does Sentila mean when she cries that she did not wish it to happen this way?
Show the worked solution
- Sentila comes in for lunch and finds her mother lying dead on the floor, the same day her skill has matched her mother's.
- As the body is carried out she shouts, 'Mother, I did not wish it to happen this way; it simply came to me. Please forgive me.'
- She had wanted to win her mother's approval by learning the craft - not to surpass her on the day of her death.
Answer: She means she never wanted her mastery to arrive through her mother's death - the skill 'simply came to her' that day, and she begs forgiveness for outshining her mother at the very moment she lost her.
Check: Her guilt is the price of a wish fulfilled in the worst possible way; only Onula understands both the grief and the gift.
Watch for this: Do not read the cry as an admission of wrongdoing - Sentila caused no harm; she is grieving a cruel coincidence.
Now try it yourself
Who wrote The Pot Maker, and in what form does it appear in Kaveri?
Check your answer
Temsula Ao, as an abridged version of the original story in Unit 2 of the NCERT Class 9 English textbook Kaveri.
The byline and the abridgement note both appear with the story in the unit.
Try a mixed set
Choose a method or explanation before opening each answer.
1. Author of the story?
Show answer and reason
Temsula Ao.
An abridged version appears in Kaveri Unit 2.
2. Sentila's dream, and her mother's wish?
Show answer and reason
Pot maker like her mother and grandmother; Arenla wants her to become a weaver.
Weaving pays more and is cleaner.
3. What is wrong with Sentila's first pot?
Show answer and reason
'The mouth of the pot is all wrong.'
Onula tells her to watch Arenla shape the mouth.
4. Sentila's tally that final day?
Show answer and reason
One short of her mother's tally.
She works with her mother's speed and dexterity.
Try it yourself
Work these on paper before checking any notes. Answers are deliberately not shown here.
- Quote the elders' ruling on who a traditional skill belongs to.
- Give two reasons Arenla considers weaving better than pot making.
- In one sentence, say what the two rows of pots in the shed tell Onula.
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Questions about this practice page
- Who wrote The Pot Maker?
- Temsula Ao. An abridged version of the story appears in Unit 2 of the NCERT Class 9 English textbook Kaveri.
- Why does Arenla want Sentila to learn weaving instead of pot making?
- Pot making has earned her only a pittance - the clay riverbank is sixteen kilometres away, the labour is tedious, and a batch takes months - while weaving pays more, is cleaner, and can be done indoors in all seasons.
- Who is Onula in The Pot Maker?
- A kind middle-aged widow who supervises the girls' dormitory where Sentila stays; she teaches Sentila to shape a perfect pot and advises her to watch her mother shape the mouth.
- What does the village council decide about Arenla's refusal?
- That skills like pot making do not belong to any individual - they serve the community and carry its tradition and history - so experts are obliged to teach anyone who wishes to learn.
- What is the theme of The Pot Maker?
- The preservation of traditional crafts: a skill handed down through generations must be passed on freely, and quiet determination like Sentila's can master it even against a parent's wishes.