Sports and Wellness
Why This Matters
Think about the last game you played. Maybe it was cricket. Maybe kabaddi, or carrom, or a quick race with friends.
Now ask yourself one question. Why do you play it?
Some people play to win. Winning feels great. But here is a small problem. If you only play to win, then losing starts to hurt a lot. You may even stop playing games you might lose.
This unit is all about that idea. It is called Sports and Wellness. “Wellness” means feeling good and healthy — in your body and in your mind.
You will meet a boy named Prabhat who only liked to win. You will meet two real champions of India. And you will read a sweet little poem about children playing till night falls. Together they teach one simple thing: a game is not only about winning. It is about trying your best, playing fair, and having fun.
The Big Idea
A game gives you the most joy when you play it for fun and play it fairly — not only to win. Winning is nice, but it is not everything. Real “sporting spirit” means you enjoy the game, you respect the other players, and you can smile even when you lose. The story, the champions, and the poem in this unit all point to the same lesson: love the game itself, not just the trophy.
📖 Where to read the original: For copyright reasons, the full original story, sketches 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 start, here is one word you will see again and again in this unit. Let’s get it clear right now.
The Story — “Change of Heart”
This is the story of a boy named Prabhat and how his thinking slowly changed. The title is a clue. “A change of heart” means a person changes the way they feel or think about something.
What happens
Prabhat loved one thing above all — winning. He could not stand losing. Not even at marbles.
So Prabhat made a quiet rule for himself. If he thought he might lose a game, he simply would not play it. He only joined a game when he was sure he could win. He was very good at badminton, so he happily played that.
One day a new boy joined his school. His name was Surya. Surya was an excellent badminton player.
Every last Friday of the month, the coach held friendly matches in the games period. (“Friendly matches” are matches played just for fun, not to win a big trophy.) The teams were picked on Monday. Prabhat and Surya were chosen to play against each other. Prabhat was also given the job of keeping the score.
Prabhat practised hard and took the match very seriously. But Surya was relaxed. He walked around smiling and cracking jokes, not worried at all.
On Friday, Surya played brilliantly. He won point after point, still laughing and joking. But because Surya was paying so little attention to the score, Prabhat did something wrong. While Surya looked away, Prabhat secretly changed the scoreboard. By cheating, Prabhat “won”.
Prabhat made a big deal of his win. But Surya did not mind at all. He just smiled and said, “It’s been fun. We should play again some time.”
That night, something strange happened. Prabhat could not sleep. He had won — but he did not feel happy.
The next day, he saw Surya playing basketball. Surya was terrible at it. He could not score even once for ten minutes. Yet he kept smiling and enjoying every moment.
Prabhat watched Surya closely for several days. Surya was great at some games and bad at others. But one thing was always the same — he enjoyed them all. Slowly, Prabhat understood something big. You do not need a scoreboard to enjoy a game. You do not have to win. You just have to love playing.
Prabhat began to change. He started playing hide-and-seek, and even felt sad when it ended. He began joking during badminton. Soon his friends were saying, “It’s good fun playing with Prabhat. He really has a great sporting spirit.” That was his change of heart.
Here is the whole change in one picture. Figure 4.1 below shows Prabhat moving through three stages — from only wanting to win, to watching Surya, to finally enjoying the game.
Prabhat’s problem (the “why” behind his fear)
Prabhat’s problem was simple to see but hard to fix. He thought winning was everything. To him, losing was the worst thing that could happen.
But why did losing scare him so much? Let’s slow down and think about it. This is the “why” the story shows us without saying it out loud.
When you win, you feel proud and special. That feeling is lovely. Prabhat liked it so much that he never wanted to lose it. So in his mind, a loss did not just mean “I lost a game.” It felt like “I am not good.” That is a heavy feeling. No wonder he ran away from any game he might lose.
So Prabhat tied his happiness to one thing only — the result. Win, and he felt great. Lose, and he felt terrible. There was no middle path. That is why he even cheated against Surya. He wanted the win so badly that he forgot to play fair.
But here is the sad twist. After cheating, he still was not happy. Why not? Because deep down he knew the win was not real. A win you did not truly earn does not feel good. This is the first crack in his old thinking.
How and why he changes
Prabhat did not change because someone gave him a lecture. He changed because he watched Surya, day after day.
Surya was the opposite of Prabhat. Surya could lose a match and still feel fine. He could be hopeless at a sport and still grin from ear to ear. Why? Because for Surya, the fun was the prize. The score was not the point.
This puzzled Prabhat. At first it surprised him. Then it made him curious. Slowly it made him think.
Bit by bit, Prabhat saw the truth. The joy was never in the scoreboard. It was in playing. You can love a game even when you are losing. You can love a game even when you are bad at it.
Once Prabhat understood this, his fear melted away. If a loss is okay, then there is nothing to be scared of. So he started joining all kinds of games — even ones he might lose, like hide-and-seek. And he started having real fun.
That is the heart of the change: he stopped asking “Will I win?” and started asking “Will I enjoy this?”
The lesson — sportsmanship, fair play, joy of the game
So what does “Change of Heart” teach us? A few clear things.
First, winning is not everything. A game is meant to be enjoyed. If you only chase the win, you lose the fun.
Second, a cheap win feels empty. Prabhat cheated and “won”, but it gave him no real joy. Fair play matters more than the score on the board.
Third, how you play matters more than whether you win. Surya lost matches but won something better — a happy heart and good friends.
Here is a clear side-by-side look at the two ways of playing a game. We will use it in a moment, so let’s see it now.
Notice the big idea hidden in Figure 4.2. The person who plays only to win actually feels worse, not better. The person who plays to enjoy feels happy almost all the time. That is the strange and lovely truth the story shows us.
Real Champions
The next part of the unit shows us two real Indian sportspersons. They are not story characters. They are living champions. Their lives prove a beautiful point: hard work, practice, and never giving up can take an ordinary person to the very top.
Figure 4.3 below introduces both of them and their sport.
Deepika Kumari
Deepika Kumari is an archer. Archery is the sport of shooting arrows at a target with a bow. The closer your arrow lands to the centre, the more points you get.
Deepika comes from Jharkhand. Her family was not rich at all. Her father drove an auto-rickshaw, and her mother worked as a nurse.
Here is the inspiring part. As a child, Deepika did not have a fancy bow. She practised by aiming stones at mangoes on trees. Later she used a homemade bow and arrows made of bamboo. Just think about that. She built her skill with whatever she had.
Her hard work was noticed. She joined the Tata Archery Academy and got proper training. In 2010, she won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.
What does Deepika teach us? That you do not need expensive things to begin. You need practice, patience, and a strong wish to improve. She started with stones and mangoes and reached a world stage.
Neeraj Chopra
Neeraj Chopra is a javelin thrower. A javelin is a long, light spear. In this sport, you run and throw the javelin as far as you can. The longest throw wins.
Neeraj comes from a village called Khandra in Haryana. Most of his family worked in farming.
Neeraj worked hard for many years to chase his dream. And it paid off in a huge way. He became the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in javelin throw. He was only 23 — and he became the second Indian ever to win an individual gold medal at the Olympics. He also won a silver medal in javelin at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
What does Neeraj teach us? That a boy from a small village can become a champion of the whole world. It takes years of effort, focus, and not giving up. His success did not come overnight. It came from steady, daily hard work.
Let’s place the two champions side by side so the key facts are easy to remember.
| Deepika Kumari | Neeraj Chopra | |
|---|---|---|
| Sport | Archery (bow and arrow) | Javelin throw (a long spear) |
| From | Jharkhand | Khandra village, Haryana |
| Early life | Practised by aiming stones at mangoes; used a homemade bamboo bow | Family mostly in farming; trained for years |
| Big achievement | Gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games | First Asian to win Olympic gold in javelin; silver at 2024 Paris Olympics |
| What it teaches | You can start with very little and still rise high | Years of hard work can make a village boy a world champion |
The common thread is clear. Neither champion was handed an easy path. Both worked hard for a long time. That is the real secret behind every medal.
The Poem
The unit ends with a poem called “The Winner”, written by Georgia Heard. It is short and simple, but it has a clever twist at the end. Let’s read its meaning, idea by idea, in plain words.
Simple meaning, idea by idea
The setting. In the evenings, some children play ball in a field. The field belongs to their neighbour. Right next to it is a small stream of water called a creek. So the picture is: kids playing ball, in a field, beside a little stream, in the evening.
Running so fast. The children run so fast that they cannot even catch their breath. The poet writes these words in a special way — one word on each line, going straight down the page:
I / can’t / even / catch / my / breath.
Why down the page? Because it makes you read slowly, with a tiny pause after each word — just like a person panting after a hard run. The shape of the words copies the feeling of being out of breath. Clever, right?
Evening turns to night. As they play, the sky changes colour. “Blue dark turns to black.” This means the evening sky slowly goes from dark-blue to full black. In simple words: it is getting late, and night is coming.
It gets cold and hard to see. The grass grows cold and “aches” their feet — their feet feel sore on the cold ground. The trees “creep close”. Of course the trees do not really move. But in the dark, you cannot see far, so the trees seem to come nearer. It feels like the darkness is closing in.
The game ends. Finally it is too dark to play. The game is over. And then comes the famous last line: “Night wins!”
Figure 4.4 below shows this whole scene — the children, the creek, the trees, and the darkness winning.
Its message
Here is the clever twist. Through the whole poem, the children are simply playing — there is no other team, no match, no trophy. So who could win?
The poet gives a funny answer: Night wins. When the sky turns black and the kids cannot see, they have to stop playing. The darkness “beats” them and ends the game. So in a playful way, Night is the “winner”.
This is a small joke, but it carries a sweet idea. The children were not really trying to win anything. They were just playing for the pure fun of it, until darkness made them stop. The poem celebrates the simple, happy joy of playing outside with friends — the very same joy Prabhat finally found in the story.
When the poet says “Night wins!”, she is giving the night a human quality (winning, like a player). Giving human qualities to a non-living thing is a fun trick poets use. Here it turns the falling of night into a friendly little game.
Now let’s bring the whole unit together. Sport teaches us many things at once. Figure 4.5 below shows them as a web.
Common Mistakes
Let’s clear up a few wrong ideas students often have about this unit.
Prabhat was a good sportsperson at the start because he won so many games.
He did win a lot, and winning makes someone look like a star player, so it is easy to call him a 'good sportsperson'.
At the start Prabhat was NOT a good sportsperson. He avoided games he might lose, and he even cheated to beat Surya. A good sportsperson plays fair and enjoys the game. Prabhat only became one at the end, after his change of heart.
In the poem, a child or a team is the 'winner'.
The poem is titled 'The Winner', and it is full of children playing a ball game, so we naturally expect a person to win.
No person wins. The poet says 'Night wins!' When the sky turns black, it gets too dark to see, so the game has to stop. The poet playfully treats the falling night as the winner.
The trees in the poem actually move closer to the children.
The line says 'trees creep close', and 'creep' is a word we use for things that really move, like an insect creeping along.
The trees do not move at all. As night falls, it gets darker and harder to see far. So the trees only *seem* to come closer. It is the darkness, not the trees, that is changing.
Quick Check
Let’s test what you have understood. Try each one before you read the answer.
Why did Prabhat refuse to play certain games?
Prabhat could not bear to lose. So if he sensed he might lose a game, he simply would not play it. He only joined games he was sure to win.
What finally made Prabhat change his thinking?
Prabhat watched Surya for several days. Surya was good at some games and bad at others, but he enjoyed them all. Seeing this slowly changed Prabhat’s heart.
What is Neeraj Chopra famous for?
Neeraj Chopra is a javelin thrower from Haryana. He became the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in javelin throw. (The auto-rickshaw detail belongs to Deepika Kumari’s father.)
In the poem, who or what 'wins'?
The poet ends with ‘Night wins!’. When the sky turns black, it gets too dark to play, so the game stops. The poet playfully calls the night the winner.
Here is one quick “why” check before we practise.
Prabhat cheated and won the badminton match. Yet that night he could not feel happy. Why not?
Because deep down he knew the win was not real. He did not earn it fairly — he changed the scoreboard. A win you did not truly earn feels empty. This was the first sign that his old “winning is everything” idea was wrong.
Practice
Now try these on your own. Write your answer first, then open the solution to check.
Easy
Who was Surya, and what was special about the way he played games?
Surya was a new student who joined Prabhat’s school. He was an excellent badminton player. The special thing about him was his attitude. He enjoyed every game, whether he won or lost, and whether he was good at it or bad at it. He always stayed cheerful and never got upset about losing. He played for the fun of it.
Name the two real champions in this unit and the sport each one plays.
The two champions are:
- Deepika Kumari — she plays archery (shooting arrows at a target with a bow).
- Neeraj Chopra — he does the javelin throw (throwing a long, light spear as far as possible).
Medium
Explain why the title 'Change of Heart' is a good title for the story.
“A change of heart” means a person changes the way they feel or think about something. The title fits the story perfectly because Prabhat does exactly that.
At the start, Prabhat believed winning was everything. He was scared of losing and even cheated to win. By the end, his thinking has completely changed. He learns that the real joy is in playing and playing fair, not in winning. He starts enjoying all kinds of games, even ones he might lose.
So the story is about a deep change in how Prabhat feels about games. That is exactly a “change of heart” — which makes the title a very good one.
What do the lives of Deepika Kumari and Neeraj Chopra teach us about success?
They teach us that success comes from hard work, not from an easy or rich start.
Deepika Kumari came from a simple family. As a child she practised by aiming stones at mangoes and used a homemade bamboo bow. Yet she went on to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.
Neeraj Chopra came from a small farming village. He worked hard for many years and became the first Asian to win an Olympic gold in javelin throw.
Both started with very little. Both worked hard for a long time. So their lives show that with practice, patience, and effort, an ordinary person can reach the very top.
Challenge
In the poem, the line 'trees creep close' is used. Explain what this really means and why the poet wrote it this way.
The trees do not actually move. As evening turns into night, it grows darker and the children cannot see far. In the dim light, the trees seem to come nearer than before.
The poet writes “creep close” on purpose. “Creep” suggests slow, quiet movement, which matches how the darkness slowly closes in. It makes the scene feel a little mysterious, as if the night is gently taking over the field. This is part of the poem’s playful idea that the night is “winning” and pushing the children to stop their game.
Vocabulary: in this unit you met these words — 'defeat', 'opponent', 'sporting spirit', and 'creek'. Write the simple meaning of each.
- Defeat — a loss; when you do not win a game or contest. (Prabhat could not accept defeat.)
- Opponent — the person you play or compete against. (In the match, Surya was Prabhat’s opponent.)
- Sporting spirit — playing in a fair, friendly way; staying kind whether you win or lose. (At the end, Prabhat had a great sporting spirit.)
- Creek — a small stream of flowing water. (In the poem, the children play next to the creek.)
Summary
- This unit, Sports and Wellness, teaches that a game is for fun and fairness, not only for winning.
- In “Change of Heart”, Prabhat only played games he could win because he was afraid of losing. He even cheated to beat the new boy, Surya.
- Surya was the opposite. He enjoyed every game, win or lose. Watching Surya slowly changed Prabhat’s heart.
- By the end, Prabhat played for the joy of the game and showed real sporting spirit — fair play, respect, and enjoyment.
- Deepika Kumari is an archer who started with a homemade bamboo bow and won gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
- Neeraj Chopra is a javelin thrower who became the first Asian to win an Olympic gold in javelin. Both champions show that hard work leads to success.
- The poem “The Winner” by Georgia Heard shows children playing ball in the evening until it gets too dark, and then jokes that “Night wins!”
- The whole unit points to one lesson: love the game, play fair, work hard, and enjoy every moment.
What’s Next
You have learned how sport keeps your body and mind well, and how fair play and joy matter more than winning. Next, you will explore the rich traditions, festivals, and customs that make India special.
Continue to Unit 5 — Culture and Tradition.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the summary of 'Change of Heart' in class 6 English Poorvi unit 4?
Prabhat is a boy who only plays games he knows he will win. When a new boy named Surya beats him at badminton, Prabhat even cheats to 'win', but still feels unhappy. He watches Surya laugh and enjoy games even when he loses, and slowly realises that the real joy of a game is in playing, not in the final score. Prabhat changes and starts playing all kinds of games with a smile.
What is the lesson or moral of 'Change of Heart' class 6?
The lesson is that winning is not everything. A game is meant to be enjoyed, played fairly, and shared with others. When you only play to win, you feel tense and sometimes cheat, but you do not feel truly happy. When you play for the joy of the game, like Surya does, you feel free and have real fun whether you win or lose.
Who is Surya in 'Change of Heart' and why is he important?
Surya is the new boy who joins Prabhat's school and is an excellent badminton player. He is important because he is the complete opposite of Prabhat. Surya enjoys every game, laughs even when he loses badly, and never worries about the score. By watching Surya, Prabhat slowly learns what true sporting spirit means and changes his own attitude.
What did Deepika Kumari achieve and what is her story in class 6 Poorvi?
Deepika Kumari is an archer from Jharkhand. As a child she had no proper bow, so she practised by aiming stones at mangoes on trees and later used a homemade bamboo bow. Her hard work was noticed and she joined the Tata Archery Academy. She went on to win a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, showing that you do not need expensive equipment to reach the very top.
What is the meaning of the poem 'The Winner' in class 6 sports and wellness unit?
The poem 'The Winner' by Georgia Heard shows children playing outdoors with total joy until the very last moment of daylight. The poem celebrates the simple happiness of running, shouting and playing together, where nobody is counting who wins or loses. The real 'winner' in the poem is the child who plays freely and happily, not the one who scores the most points.