Culture and Tradition
Why This Matters
Look around your home. Is there a rangoli at the door? A clay pot in the kitchen? A wooden toy in a corner? A painting on a wall?
These things did not come from a factory. People made them by hand. They learned how from their parents. Their parents learned from their parents. This skill is very, very old.
We call this skill a craft. A craft is something useful or beautiful made by hand, with care.
India is full of crafts. Every state has its own. The toys of one state look different from the toys of another. The wall art of the hills is not like the wall art of the south.
In this unit, you will meet some children. Each one shares a craft from their own state. By the end, you will see one big, happy truth: India is many different things, joined into one. And these crafts are a treasure we must not lose.
The Big Idea
Our country has many states. Each state has its own special crafts and art — different things, made in different ways. But they all belong to one India. Learning about each other’s crafts helps us feel like one big family. And because each craft is made by hand and passed down by people, we must keep them alive, or they will be lost forever.
📖 Where to read the original: For copyright reasons, the full original text and poem are not reproduced here — read them in your NCERT Poorvi (Grade 6) textbook. This page gives you a clear summary and explanation to study alongside it.
Before we begin, here is one idea that runs through the whole unit. It is worth getting clear right now.
The Text — “Kalakritiyon ka Bharat”
What it is about
The title “Kalakritiyon ka Bharat” means “India through its artworks”. A kalakriti is a work of art or craft.
In this lesson, a teacher gathers students for a special programme called Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat. The name means “One India, the Best India”. This programme helps people from different states learn about each other. When we understand each other, we feel closer. We feel like one nation.
Then a video begins on a big screen. The screen fills with little windows. In each window is a smiling child from a different state. One by one, each child shares a craft from their home region. They tell us its name, where it is from, and how it is made.
It is like a video call with friends across the whole country. Let us meet them.
The crafts described
Four children speak. Here is each craft, simply.
1. Aipan — from Uttarakhand. Aakansha tells us about Aipan. It is a folk art, which means a traditional art made by ordinary village people, not by trained painters. The women of the family draw it. They use a paste of white rice flour. They draw it on walls coloured brick-red with geru (red clay). They make these designs on the floors and walls of the puja room, and outside the main door. The patterns are beautiful and neat, almost like maths. The ideas come from nature and from old traditions.
2. Dhokra — from Odisha. Priyaranjan’s tribe makes Dhokra. It is a metal craft that is around 4000 years old. That is older than almost anything you can imagine. It is made from brass (a yellow metal). The way it is made is very clever, and we will see it step by step below.
3. Coconut shell craft — from Kerala. Chitra makes things from the hard brown shell of a coconut. She cleans the shell inside and out. She makes it smooth with sandpaper. She shapes it, fixes a base so it can stand, and polishes it to make it shine. From one coconut shell, she makes bowls and even jewellery. Best of all, it is biodegradable — that means, when thrown away, it breaks down on its own and does not harm nature.
4. Kondapalli toys — from Andhra Pradesh. Balamurali makes wooden toys in his village, Kondapalli. This art is about 400 years old. The toys are made from soft wood taken from nearby hills. Each part is carved separately. The parts are joined with makku, a paste of tamarind-seed powder and sawdust. Then the toys are painted in bright colours. They show folk stories, animals, birds, bullock carts, and village life.
Let us put all four crafts side by side, so you can see them clearly at one glance. Figure 5.1 shows them as a simple grid.
Here is the same information as a neat table, so you can revise it fast before an exam.
| Craft | Where it is from | How it is made |
|---|---|---|
| Aipan (folk art) | Uttarakhand | White rice flour paste drawn on red (geru) walls and floors |
| Dhokra (metal craft) | Odisha | Wax shape covered in clay, fire melts wax, brass poured in |
| Coconut shell craft | Kerala | Coconut shell cleaned, smoothed, shaped, given a base, polished |
| Kondapalli toys | Andhra Pradesh | Soft wood carved, parts joined with tamarind paste, then painted |
Dhokra is the most surprising of all. How can you make a brass figure with tiny details using wax and fire? Let us slow down and see the trick, step by step, in Figure 5.2.
Notice why the wax must come out first. The detailed shape was carved on the wax. When the wax melts and flows away, it leaves a hollow space with that exact shape inside the clay. The brass then fills that space and copies the shape perfectly. So the wax is like a mould-maker — it makes the empty space, then disappears.
Why these crafts matter — and why we must keep them alive
NCERT tells us how these crafts are made. But it does not stop to ask the bigger question: why does it matter if a craft lives or dies? Let us answer that, because this is the real heart of the unit.
Think about it. Each craft sits inside one family or one village. There is no machine that makes Aipan or Dhokra. The skill lives only inside people’s hands and minds. If the older people stop teaching it, and the younger people stop learning it, the craft is gone. And once it is gone, no one can bring it back the same way. A 4000-year-old skill could end in one generation.
Figure 5.3 shows the four big reasons we must keep our crafts alive.
So here is the simple truth. A craft is not just a pretty object. It is a piece of who we are. It feeds a family. It carries the wisdom of people long gone. When you buy a handmade toy instead of a plastic one, when you learn to draw a rangoli, when you tell a friend about your region’s craft — you are helping keep all of this alive. That is in your hands.
Before we move to the poem, here is a quick “why” check to make sure the big idea is clear.
A village craft is made only by hand and taught by elders to children. Why is it in danger of being lost forever?
Because the skill lives only in people, not in any machine or book. If the elders stop teaching it and the children stop learning it, the chain breaks. Once the last person who knows the craft is gone, the exact skill is gone with them — and no one can make it the same way again. That is why each new generation must learn and pass it on.
The Poem — “Up in the Air”
The poem in this unit is “Up in the Air” by Daphne Lister. It is also about a tradition many of us love — flying kites.
The simple meaning, idea by idea
Let me walk you through the poem’s ideas in my own simple words. (Read the real poem in your Poorvi textbook alongside this.)
Idea 1 — The child sees kites in the sky. A child looks up at kites flying high. To the child, they look like coloured birds moving in the windy sky. The child does not say the kites are birds — only that they look like birds. This little word “like” is doing something special, and we will come back to it.
Idea 2 — The child wishes to be tiny and light. The child wishes to be small and light as air. Why? Because then the child could climb onto a kite and sail up into the sky too. It is a sweet daydream.
Idea 3 — Flying along on the kite. In the daydream, the child floats up on the kite’s “paper wings”. Up there, the child can hear the songs the wild wind sings — the whooshing sound of the wind as it blows.
Idea 4 — Looking down at the world. What fun it would be, the child thinks, to look right down from up high — down at the park, and down at the rooftops of the whole town. From up there, everything looks tiny.
Idea 5 — People below would stare. The people on the ground would stop and stare up. They would wish they were me, the child thinks — flying high, high in the air, free and happy.
Figure 5.4 shows this daydream in one picture.
Its message
What is the poem really saying? It is about imagination, wonder and freedom.
The child does not actually fly. But just by looking at a kite and imagining, the child enjoys a whole adventure in the sky. The poem tells us something lovely: a simple thing — a kite in the wind — can fill us with wonder if we let our imagination go. We do not always need a big or costly thing to feel joy. We just need to look up and dream.
There is one more thing to learn here — a tool that poets use. In Idea 1, the child said the kites were “like coloured birds”. This is called a simile. A simile compares two different things using the word “like” or “as”. Figure 5.5 makes it clear.
The poet also uses a simile in “light as air”. Both similes help us picture the idea more clearly in our minds. That is what good poems do — they help us see.
Common Mistakes
Let us clear up a few things students often get muddled about.
In the poem, the child really climbs onto a kite and flies up into the sky.
The child describes the flight in such happy, clear detail — hearing the wind, looking down at rooftops — that it feels completely real as you read it.
The child does not actually fly. It is all a daydream. The child only *wishes* to be light enough to ride a kite and *imagines* the whole adventure. The poem begins with 'I wish', which tells us it is imagination, not something that really happens.
Saying 'kites fly like birds' means a metaphor — it says the kite is a bird.
Both a simile and a metaphor compare two things, so they are easy to mix up, and people use the words loosely in everyday speech.
This is a *simile*, not a metaphor. A simile uses the word 'like' or 'as' to compare ('kites are *like* birds'). It does not say the kite *is* a bird. The clue is always those two little words — 'like' and 'as'.
All Indian crafts are made the same way, just with different names in different states.
They are all traditional handmade crafts shared by smiling children together, so it feels like they must all be one single kind of thing.
Each craft is made in its own special way, with its own materials. Aipan is *drawn* with rice flour paste. Dhokra is *cast* from melted brass using wax and fire. Kondapalli toys are *carved* from soft wood. They are very different crafts — that difference is exactly what makes India's diversity so rich.
Quick Check
Try these to see how much you remember. Pick an answer, then read the explanation.
Which craft is made by melting brass and pouring it into a space left by melted wax?
Dhokra is the metal craft from Odisha. A wax shape is covered in clay and heated. The wax melts and flows out, leaving an empty space. Melted brass is poured into that space, and it takes the wax’s shape. Aipan is drawn with rice flour, and Kondapalli toys are carved from wood.
In the line 'the kites fly like coloured birds', which poetic tool is the poet using?
It is a simile. A simile compares two different things using the word ‘like’ or ‘as’. Here, kites are compared to coloured birds using the word ‘like’. It helps us picture the kites moving in the sky.
What is the main reason we should keep our traditional crafts alive?
Crafts are made only by hand, and the skill is taught by elders to children. There is no machine that makes them. If the chain of teaching and learning breaks, the craft — and a piece of who we are — is lost forever. That is why each generation must learn it and pass it on.
Practice
Try each question on your own first. Then tap to check the full answer.
Easy
Name the four crafts in 'Kalakritiyon ka Bharat' and the state each one comes from.
- Aipan — from Uttarakhand.
- Dhokra — from Odisha.
- Coconut shell craft — from Kerala.
- Kondapalli toys — from Andhra Pradesh.
What does Aakansha use to make Aipan, and where does she draw it?
She uses a paste of white rice flour. She draws it on walls and floors coloured brick-red with geru (red clay). It is drawn in the puja room and outside the main door of the home. The women of the family make it.
Medium
In the poem 'Up in the Air', what does the child wish for, and why?
The child wishes to be small and light as air. The reason is so that the child could climb onto a kite and sail up into the sky. The child wants to fly along with the kites, hear the wind’s songs, and look down at the park and the rooftops below. It is a happy daydream about freedom and flying.
In Dhokra, why must the wax come out of the figure before the brass goes in?
The fine details of the figure are first carved onto the wax. When the figure is heated, the wax melts into a light liquid and flows out through small holes. This leaves an empty, hollow space inside the clay — a space shaped exactly like the figure, with all its details.
Now the melted brass is poured into that empty space. The brass fills it and copies the shape perfectly. If the wax were still inside, there would be no room for the brass. So the wax’s job is to first make the detailed space, then disappear to leave it empty.
Challenge
Vocabulary: Explain the meaning of these words from the unit in your own simple words — (a) folk art, (b) biodegradable, (c) simile, (d) diversity.
(a) Folk art — a traditional art made by ordinary village people, passed down over many years. Example: Aipan, drawn by the women of a family.
(b) Biodegradable — something that breaks down on its own when thrown away, and does not harm nature. Example: a coconut shell. (A plastic bag is not biodegradable.)
(c) Simile — a way of comparing two different things using the word “like” or “as”. Example: “the kites fly like coloured birds”.
(d) Diversity — having many different kinds of things. Example: India has many different languages, foods, festivals and crafts. That is its diversity.
The unit shows many different crafts from many different states, all part of one India. Explain in 3–4 sentences how this is an example of 'unity in diversity'.
Diversity means many different kinds of things. In the unit, each state has its own special craft — Aipan in Uttarakhand, Dhokra in Odisha, coconut craft in Kerala, Kondapalli toys in Andhra Pradesh. They are all different, made in different ways with different materials. Unity means being joined as one. Even though these crafts are so different, they all belong to one country, India, and we are proud of them all together. So we are different in many ways, yet we are still one — and that is unity in diversity. Programmes like Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat help us learn about each other’s crafts so we feel like one big family.
Summary
- “Kalakritiyon ka Bharat” means “India through its artworks”. Children from different states share a craft from their home, as part of the Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat programme.
- Aipan (Uttarakhand) is a folk art drawn with white rice flour paste on red (geru) walls and floors.
- Dhokra (Odisha) is a 4000-year-old brass metal craft, made by melting wax out and pouring brass in.
- Coconut shell craft (Kerala) turns a cleaned, smoothed coconut shell into bowls and jewellery. It is biodegradable.
- Kondapalli toys (Andhra Pradesh) are carved from soft wood, joined with tamarind paste, and painted in bright colours.
- We must keep our crafts alive because the skill lives only in people — it is our identity, it gives artists work, it carries our elders’ knowledge, and it makes India special.
- The poem “Up in the Air” by Daphne Lister is about a child who imagines flying on a kite, looking down at the town. Its message is the joy of imagination and wonder.
- A simile compares two things using “like” or “as” — as in “kites fly like coloured birds” and “light as air”.
- All this shows unity in diversity: many different things, joined as one India.
What’s Next
That’s the end of Unit 5 — and the end of your Class 6 English journey on Curriv. Well done! You have travelled from your very first lessons all the way to crafts, culture and a sky full of kites. Give yourself a pat on the back. 🪁
Remember the big lesson you carry forward: our country is full of beautiful, different things — and they are all part of one India that belongs to you. Look around your own home and town with new eyes. You will spot a craft, a tradition, a small bit of culture you never noticed before.
Want to revisit anything? Head back to the chapter list and read any earlier unit again. Every reading makes you a little stronger. Keep being curious — and keep flying high. 🌟
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the summary of 'Kalakritiyon ka Bharat' in class 6 English Poorvi?
A teacher gathers students to watch a video as part of the 'Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat' programme. Children from different states appear on screen, each sharing a traditional craft from their home region. Aakansha shows Aipan from Uttarakhand, Priyaranjan shows Dhokra from Odisha, Chitra shows coconut shell craft from Kerala, and Balamurali shows Kondapalli wooden toys from Andhra Pradesh. The lesson shows that India has many different crafts, yet they all belong to one nation.
What are Dhokra, Aipan, and Kondapalli toys in class 6 culture and tradition?
Aipan is a folk art from Uttarakhand made by drawing white rice flour paste on red clay walls and floors. Dhokra is a 4000-year-old brass metal craft from Odisha made by pouring melted brass into a clay mould shaped by wax. Kondapalli toys are wooden toys from Andhra Pradesh, about 400 years old, made from soft wood carved and painted in bright colours. Each craft comes from a different state but all are part of India's shared heritage.
Why is it important to keep traditional crafts alive according to class 6 unit 5?
Each craft lives only in the hands and minds of the people who make it, not in any machine or printed manual. If the older generation stops teaching and the younger generation stops learning, the craft is lost forever and cannot be brought back the same way. Crafts also give skilled artists work, carry the wisdom of our elders, and make India special in the world.
What is the meaning of the poem 'Up in the Air' in class 6 Poorvi unit 5?
In 'Up in the Air' by Daphne Lister, a child watches colourful kites fly in the sky and imagines how wonderful it would be to be light as air and ride one. In the daydream the child floats high, hears the wind sing, and looks down at the park and the rooftops of the town. The poem is about the joy of imagination and how a simple kite can fill us with a sense of freedom and wonder.
What is a simile and where is it used in the poem 'Up in the Air'?
A simile compares two different things using the word 'like' or 'as'. In 'Up in the Air', the child says the kites fly 'like coloured birds', comparing a kite to a bird because both fly and look bright and lively. The child also wishes to be 'light as air', comparing herself to the light, free feel of the wind. These similes help us picture the kites and the daydream more clearly in our minds.