NCERT Solutions Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin M

F R E E S T U D Y M AT E R I A L F O R E V E R Y S T U D E N T

CLASS 9 · ENGLISH

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 4: Vitamin-M

NCERT Textbook — Kaveri

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

97 – 136 18 58 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 79 pages

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 9 · ENGLISH · KAVERI

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 4: Vitamin-M
Chapter 4 of Kaveri puts a comic detective story about an old man beside a three-stanza lyric about a mother
nobody can picture. Vitamin-M by Asha Nehemiah opens with a wish — “that somebody would invent a
memory — Vitamin-M… and we could give it to old people” — and spends the rest of the story turning that
wish back on the person who made it. I Cannot Remember My Mother by Rabindranath Tagore takes the
opposite route: it begins by admitting the loss and then recovers the mother through sound, scent and sky.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Kaveri (Class 9) 97 – 136

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

18 58

MEDIUM

English

Reflect and Respond — Pages 97–98
Vitamin-M (prose) — Asha Nehemiah

BEFORE YOU READ

Q1 I. From your experience with an elderly person at home or in your neighbourhood,
complete the following graphic organiser. [Graphic organiser on page 97. A central
box reads CARING FOR THE ELDERLY, with four arrows leading to four boxes: ‘Why
should we care for the elderly?’ (above), ‘What are the problems faced by the
elderly?’ (left), ‘What could be the possible reasons for the problems faced?’ (right),
‘How can we take care of the elderly?’ (below).] Now, discuss the points written in
the organiser with your classmates and teacher.

This organiser asks for your own observation, so fill each box from a real person you know — a
grandparent, a neighbour, the old man who sits outside the shop. Write two or three short
points in each box, and make sure the left box (problems) and the right box (reasons) actually
match up: every problem you list should have a cause opposite it.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What a good answer needs:

Concrete points, not slogans. “She cannot read the small print on her medicine
strip” beats “old people have problems”.
The right box must explain the left box, not repeat it — poor eyesight, weak
bones, hearing loss, retirement (loss of income and of a daily role), children living
in another city, a flat with stairs and no lift.
The bottom box should be about things you can actually do, and should include
dignity, not only medicines.

Sample answer:

BOX POINTS I FILLED IN (ABOUT MY NEIGHBOUR, SUSHILA AMMAL, 78)

Why should we care They looked after us first; they carry the family’s stories, recipes and language;
for the elderly? they are more likely to fall ill or fall down and cannot always call for help; and a
society is judged by how it treats people who can no longer be useful to it.

What are the problems Loneliness after her husband died; knees that hurt on the stairs; she cannot
faced by the elderly? read her medicine labels; she is often left out of family decisions and spoken to
loudly, as if she were a child.

What could be the Failing sight and hearing, arthritis; both her sons work in another city;
possible reasons for the retirement ended her daily routine and her income; and the family assumes that
problems faced? age has ended her judgement.

How can we take care Sit and listen without hurrying her; write medicine names in large letters on the
of the elderly? box; walk with her to the temple instead of forbidding her to go; ask her opinion
before deciding for her; visit at a fixed time each week so she can look forward
to it.

Why the book starts here: the story you are about to read is exactly this organiser
turned into fiction. Grandpa’s problems are failing sight, hearing and memory; the
reason he is unhappy is not those failings but the loss of independence that follows
them; and the story’s answer to “How can we take care of the elderly?” is not a
stricter rule — it is Ravi’s decision to protect his grandfather without insulting him.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 II. Fill in the table given below. You may check your answers with the help of a
dictionary.

WORD NOT HAVE HEARD I KNOW THIS WRITE THE
HEARD THIS WORD WORD. IT HAS MEANING OF
THIS BUT DON’T SOMETHING TO THIS WORD
WORD KNOW WHAT DO WITH…
BEFORE IT MEANS

1. frail

2.
shuddered

3. poky

4. forbid

5.
pottering

6. winced

The table as printed on page 98 — tick one column for each word, then write its
meaning.

The first three columns are a personal tick — only you know which word you had met before.
The fourth column has one right answer each, and the story itself supplies the context. Here are
the meanings, with the line each word comes from.

Page 3 of 79

as e
Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
WORD MEANING THE LINE IN THE STORY

m as e
1. frail
.co
weak and delicate, usually because of old age or illness
a g l
“pointing to the frail old figure

a s em sitting in the rocking chair”

ag l (page 98)

2. trembled suddenly, with fear or with distaste at a memory “she stopped and shuddered at

m
.co ag
shuddered the memory” (page 99)

em and cramped
(of a room or house) unpleasantlyssmall
a
agl
3. poky “this poky little flat, in this
horrible, crowded city” (page
99)

co m
e m.
4. forbid to order somebody not to do something “you have the right to forbid me

m l as
.co
to go out on my own!” (page 99)

a g
se m
l a
5. moving about doing small, unhurried, unimportant jobs “while he was pottering around”

ag pottering in the garden (page 100)

a s
com
“Ravi winced at the over-loud

agl
6. winced made a small, involuntary expression of pain or

. tone his mother used” (page
embarrassment (the book glosses it as “showed an
m
ase
expression of embarrassment”) 100)

agl
Tip: notice that five of these six words are used about Grandpa or about how he is

co m
treated — frail, poky, forbid, pottering — and only one, winced, is about Ravi. The
m .
m
word list is already telling you where the story’s sympathy lies.
as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a
se m
Q3 III. Think of a tradition, story, or recipe passed down by grandparents or an elderly

comclassmates and teacher.
relative in your family. What does it mean to you? How does it connect you to your
growing-up years? Share with .your g l a
em a
a s
ANSWER agl
This is a personal question with three parts, and all three must be answered: what the tradition
co m
m .
e
is, what it means to you, and how it connects you to your childhood. Choose something small and

com g l as
specific — one dish, one song, one Diwali habit — because detail is what makes such an answer
. a
sem
convincing.
a
agl c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m as e
.co


a g l Page 4 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What a good answer needs:

Name the person and the thing: “my father’s mother” + “puran poli on Holi” / “the
story of Karna she told at bedtime” / “tying the first rakhi only after the sun is up”.
One sensory detail — a smell, a sound, the feel of it. That is what turns a fact into
a memory.
A sentence on meaning: what it teaches, or whom it keeps present.
A sentence on continuity: what you now do because of it.

Sample answer: My grandmother makes ellu urundai — sesame and jaggery balls — every year
on the eve of Pongal. She learnt it from her mother in a village near Thanjavur, and she has
never once measured anything; she says the jaggery is ready when it “sings” in the pan. The
kitchen smells of roasted sesame for two days afterwards, and that smell is my whole childhood
in one breath. What it means to me is that a recipe can be a kind of memory that lives in the
hands rather than in a book. It connects me to my growing-up years because I used to be given
the job of rolling the balls when they were still too hot, and I would drop them and get scolded
and laugh. Last Pongal she let me judge when the jaggery was ready, and I got it right. I
understood then that I was being handed something.

Why this question comes before the story: Vitamin-M is about what an old person
still holds that no one in the family thinks to ask for. Grandpa remembers Karpov,
Fischer and Spassky, and he remembers a family custom the family itself has
forgotten. This question makes you notice, before you read, that you are already
carrying something an elder gave you.

Check Your Understanding — Page 102
Vitamin-M (prose) — after Part I

COMPREHENSION

Q1 I. Why did Grandpa dislike living in the city with his daughter?

Grandpa disliked it because the move cost him both the place he loved and the independence
he had earned — and the second loss hurt far more than the first.

The place. “Grandpa hated the noise and bustle of city life,” and he calls his daughter’s home
“this poky little flat, in this horrible, crowded city”. Against that he sets his own house: “Such
a wonderful place…! With that big mango tree in the garden! It is so quiet that at dusk you
can even hear a leaf fall!”

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The loss of standing. His real complaint is stated in one sentence, spoken “with a trace of
the firmness that had been a natural part of his job as a lawyer”: “I’ve been looking after
myself for the better part of my seventy-five years. After your mother died ten years ago, I
took over her duties as well and have been cooking, shopping and keeping house too. First
you force me to come and live with you… and then you think you have the right to forbid me
to go out on my own!”
The way he is spoken to. His daughter uses an “over-loud tone… as though she were
speaking to a child who couldn’t hear or understand too well”, and discusses his memory in
front of him. Even his food is policed — sugar and bananas are “banned”.

How the writer builds this: notice the two words the story places side by side —
poky for the flat and wonderful for the brick house. The contrast is not really about
size. One house is a place where he decided things; the other is a place where things
are decided for him. That is why the sentence about the falling leaf matters: it
measures a silence he is no longer allowed.

Q2 II. Why did Vidya not want her father to go out alone?

Because in the single month since he moved in, three things had gone wrong, and each of them
could have been fatal.

1. He “absent-mindedly took a double dose of his medicines” and had to be admitted to
hospital.
2. He “got lost on one occasion he went for a walk and forgot the way back home”, giving the
family “several anxious moments”.
3. Before the move, he had “slipped and fallen in the garden late one evening… and lain outside
all night because there was no one at home to help him up”. That fall is the reason she
locked up the brick house in the first place.

Added to this is his failing health: “He doesn’t hear too well, or see too well, or even remember
too well these days.” He reads a newspaper “holding it inches from his nose”.

Why the story is fair to her: Asha Nehemiah does not make Vidya a villain. She
“stopped and shuddered at the memory”; Ravi looks at “his mother’s anxious face”
and “felt sorry for her”. Her instruction — “Whatever happens, Ravi, you’re not to let
Grandpa go out on his own. It’s too dangerous” — comes from fear, not contempt.
The story’s criticism is aimed at her manner, not her motive: she is right to worry and
wrong to talk about him as though he were not in the room.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 III. Was Ravi in favour of his mother treating Grandpa like a child? How can you say
so?

No, he was not — and the story shows it three times before Ravi ever says a word about it.

His body reacts before his mouth does. “Ravi winced at the over-loud tone his mother used
when speaking to Grandpa, as though she were speaking to a child who couldn’t hear or
understand too well.” To wince is to flinch; he is embarrassed on his grandfather’s behalf.
He denies it loyally when challenged. When Grandpa asks, “Has she told you not to let me
go out on my own? Told you to keep me a prisoner here, has she?”, Ravi “felt guilty for a
moment, then quickly recovered to say loyally, ‘Of course not, Grandpa. Mamma would never
treat you like a baby … or a prisoner.’” The word guilty admits that the accusation is true; the
word loyally shows whose side he is on.
His solution respects Grandpa. He does not block the door or telephone his mother. “His
grandfather would feel hurt if he insisted on accompanying him” — so he follows “secretly, at
a safe distance”. He chooses the one plan that keeps Grandpa safe and keeps him free.

Tip: when a question asks “How can you say so?”, the marks are in the evidence, not
the opinion. One quoted line is worth more than three sentences of agreement.

Q4 IV. Would Ravi be able to keep up his promise to his mother?

Not as she meant it. His mother’s instruction was absolute — “you’re not to let Grandpa go out
on his own” — and Ravi breaks it within minutes of her leaving, because Grandpa gives him no
way to refuse without insulting him: “then you’ll have no objection to my going out.”
But there were really two promises, and he keeps the second. To his mother he also said, “Don’t
worry, Mamma… Grandpa’ll be fine at home with me.” The spirit of that promise is see that no
harm comes to him, and Ravi honours it at real cost — crouching behind a bush, crawling out of
the park “on all fours”, sprinting after a moving bus. He is “hot, bothered and close to fainting”,
and he never once gives up.
So the honest prediction is: he will fail the rule and keep the purpose — and by the end even
that will be turned upside down, because the person who never needed protecting was
Grandpa.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the writer sets up this dilemma: the whole story is engineered so that Ravi
cannot obey his mother and respect his grandfather at the same time. Asha
Nehemiah calls it exactly that — “leaving Ravi in a dilemma”. A dilemma is not a hard
choice between good and bad; it is a choice between two things you owe. That is
what makes Ravi’s compromise — follow, but secretly — the only decent move
available to him.

Check Your Understanding — Pages 106–107
Vitamin-M (prose) — after Part II

COMPREHENSION FLOW CHART

Q1 I. Complete the flow chart by describing Grandpa’s day out.

buys 2. ______
Grandpa goes out to Ravi follows Grandpa first stops
______ and
get Tamil newspaper. Grandpa at 1. ______
watches ______.

Ravi gets scolded by Ravi hides behind a
Grandpa next goes Ravi hides behind
4. ______ and banyan tree and
to 3. ______ a bush to observe.
________ watches.

Next Grandpa walks Ravi enters the bus
Grandpa drinks Grandpa then crosses
quickly to a only to discover
5. ______ and the road and enters
7. ________ and that he had been
eats ________ a 6. __________
__________ fooled.

The flow chart as printed on page 106 — read it left to right along the top row, right to
left along the middle row, and left to right along the bottom row.

The chart follows the route in order. Every blank can be filled from Part II of the story.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
BLANK ANSWER THE LINE IT COMES FROM (PART II)

m as e
1.
.co
the children’s park
a g l
“Grandpa’s first stop was the children’s park”

se m a paper-cone of peanuts … and watches
g l a “he bought himself a paper-cone of peanuts and
a
2.
the children play settled on a bench, watching the children play”

m
.co ag
3. the tea stall “Grandpa’s next stop was the tea stall”

em
the old lady selling plastic combs …sand
a
l (the
gclips
4. “‘This area is booked by us,’ said one lady who was
the vendor selling ribbons and
a
group of vendors under the banyan
selling plastic combs”; “another vendor selling
ribbons and clips asked… A group of them
tree) surrounded Ravi.”
co m
em.
com l as
5. a sugary cup of tea … and eats two “Grandpa took his time sipping a sugary cup of tea

. a g
m
bananas (and then an ice cream) (he was forbidden sugar at home), then ate two

ase
agl
bananas (another banned item), then tucked into
an ice cream”

a s
com the barber shop”
“opened them just in time to see Grandpa entering

agl
6. barber shop

m .
e
as bus that
bus stop … and boards thelfirst
7.
stops there a g “making his way briskly towards the bus stop, and,
oh no, boarding the first bus that stopped there”

co m
m .
What the chart quietly proves: laid out in a line, Grandpa’s morning is a perfectly
m as e
.co
ordinary, perfectly competent outing — newspaper, park, tea, haircut, bus home.
a g l
s e m
Nothing in it goes wrong. Everything that goes wrong happens in the other row of

ag la boxes, the one about Ravi. The chart is the story’s argument in diagram form: the old
man managed; the minder did not.
se m
com g l a
m. a
ase
Q2 agl
II. Was Grandpa lost as feared by Ravi’s mother?

co m
m .
e

com g l as
.
No. Grandpa was never lost for a moment — the only person who lost his way that morning was
a
sem
Ravi.
a
agl Grandpa moved through the city with complete confidence: he “settled on a bench”, “took his
c
time sipping a sugary cup of tea”, and later went “briskly towards the bus stop”. He crossed a
m .
m a s e
co agl
busy road and boarded a bus alone. He reached home before Ravi did, and when Ravi opened

m .
the front door “the first thing he heard was the gentle whirr of Grandpa snoring in his

ase
bedroom”.
a g l

co m
m .
m as e
.co


a g l Page 9 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

More than that, he was in charge of the whole morning. He gave his yellow cap away in the
barber shop “because it was such a hot day” — an act of generosity that also happened to send
his shadow off on the wrong bus. Ravi ends the section asking, “But where was Grandpa?” The
question is the measure of who was really lost.

Check it yourself: count the mishaps in Part II. Every one of them — the child, the
umbrella, the vendors, the salon, the wrong cap — belongs to Ravi. Grandpa suffers
none. That imbalance is the writer’s reply to the mother’s fear.

Q3 III. How would Ravi feel after seeing Grandpa?

Two very different feelings, one after the other.
On the bus, when he sees the cap-wearer: first shock — Grandpa is “as bald as a table tennis
ball”, so “a full head of grey hair” makes no sense, and “Ravi was startled”. Then a flicker of
triumph as the detective in him spots the clue: “But wait, the cap had a coffee-strain on its rim
just like Grandpa’s!” Then the drop — “It was a total stranger!” After all the crawling, hiding and
sprinting, he has followed the wrong man, and he does not know where his grandfather is. He is
embarrassed, alarmed, and frightened for Grandpa all at once.
When he finally finds Grandpa at home: pure relief and a rush of love. He goes home “sick
with worry”, and then, “to his great delight and relief”, hears him snoring. “He knelt down near
the bed and put his cheek against the old man’s face… Ravi was suddenly overcome with
affection for his grandfather and gave him a hug.” Mixed into the relief is guilt, which is why “he
decided not to question Grandpa” — any question would expose the following.

How the writer manages the change: the shift is carried by detail, not by
statement. In the bus we get sharp, quick clues — a bald head, grey hair, a coffee
stain. At the bedside the details slow down and become tender: “Grandpa’s wrinkled
skin had more creases than lines on a map. Grandpa smelt of eucalyptus ointment
and shaving cream.” Ravi has stopped watching his grandfather like a suspect and
started noticing him like a person. That is the real change the day produces.

Q4 IV. Do you think Ravi’s mother will get to know about what had happened?

Most likely not the whole truth — and that is exactly how both Ravi and Grandpa want it. But
she is left with more than enough clues to guess.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why she will not be told: Ravi cannot tell her without confessing that he let Grandpa go out
alone, and “he decided not to question Grandpa because then he would have to reveal that he
had been following him”. Grandpa will not tell her either — he could have exposed his grandson
in one sentence and instead chose a joke: “I had a quiet morning, but I don’t know about Ravi.
He just disappeared instead of staying at home to look after me like you told him to.” That
protects him while making him squirm.
Why she may still work it out: she is given three loose threads in a single evening — Ravi “just
looked confused and embarrassed”; the gift is The Best Detective Stories; and Grandpa’s advice,
delivered “solemnly”, is about “how to avoid getting fooled when one is trailing a suspect”. Even
Ravi’s father notices something is off — he “looked even more confused”. And by then she has
her own embarrassment to deal with, having forgotten her father’s birthday.
So the defensible answer is: she will probably never be told, but she will not stay entirely in
the dark.

Tip: a question beginning “Do you think…” expects a clear position plus evidence for
it. Take a side in the first line, then justify it — do not answer “maybe yes, maybe no”.

Check Your Understanding — Page 109
Vitamin-M (prose) — after Part III

COMPREHENSION INFERENCE

Q1 I. Describe how Ravi’s emotional reaction upon finding Grandpa safe at home
reveals his feelings towards his grandfather.

His reaction is physical, wordless and tender — and that is what shows how much the day has
changed him.
He arrives home “sick with worry”, and the relief comes before the sight: “the first thing he
heard when he opened the front door was the gentle whirr of Grandpa snoring in his bedroom”.
Then comes the passage that answers the question:

“He knelt down near the bed and put his cheek against the old man’s face.

Grandpa’s wrinkled skin had more creases than lines on a map.

Grandpa smelt of eucalyptus ointment and shaving cream.

Ravi was suddenly overcome with affection for his grandfather and gave him a hug.”

Three things in that passage do the work:

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

He kneels. He does not stand at the door and check; he lowers himself to the level of the
bed. It is the posture of care, not of supervision.
He touches, cheek to cheek. All morning he has kept “a safe distance”, watching from
behind bushes and cars. Now the distance collapses completely.
He notices the small, unglamorous details — the creased skin “like lines on a map”, the
smell of eucalyptus ointment and shaving cream. Earlier Grandpa was a responsibility to be
tracked; here he is an old man with a face and a smell of his own.

Notice also that the hug gets no response — “Grandpa only grunted in his sleep.” Ravi is not
performing affection for anyone. It is simply what he feels.

Why the comparison matters: “more creases than lines on a map” is the one image
the writer allows herself in this quiet scene, and it is doing two jobs. A map is a
record of journeys, so the wrinkles become a record of seventy-five years —
including the morning’s journey Ravi has just failed to follow. The boy who set out to
keep track of his grandfather ends up reading him instead.

Q2 II. What might be the significance of Grandpa’s habit of giving gifts to everyone on
his birthday rather than receiving them?

It is his way of remaining the giver in a house where everyone has decided he is a dependant.

It reverses the roles the family has assigned him. All day he is the one who is fed, dosed,
escorted and forbidden. On his birthday he hands out gifts to Ravi, to his daughter and to his
son-in-law — “for Grandpa still considered them his ‘babies’”. In one phrase he restores the
order of the family as he knows it.
It is proof of the memory he is supposed to have lost. Vidya’s first reaction is to correct
him — “But, Papa, Ravi’s birthday was three months ago. Have you forgotten?” — and his
reply turns the accusation round: “No. But you know I always give a gift to every child in the
house on my birthday. Have you forgotten?” She then “darted a stricken look at the calendar
on which she had, at the beginning of the year circled the date in red and written ‘Papa’s
birthday’.”
It fits everything else we know of him. He hands his own yellow cap to a stranger in the
barber shop “because it was such a hot day”. “That was typical of Grandpa, always
generous.” Giving is not a birthday performance; it is his character.
It is dignity, not display. A person who can still give is not a burden. This custom lets him
keep, on one day a year, the standing he had every day in his own brick house.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Did you know? The custom is a real and common one in many Indian families — the
person whose birthday it is distributes sweets or small gifts rather than collecting
them. Asha Nehemiah chooses it deliberately: it is the one occasion on which an
elder is supposed to be the source of the household’s pleasure.

Q3 III. Why do you think Grandpa gave Ravi a detective story book as a gift? What
might this suggest about Grandpa’s awareness of Ravi’s actions earlier in the day?

He gave it as a joke with a point in it — the gentlest possible way of telling Ravi, I knew you were
behind me all morning, and you were not very good at it.
The book is The Best Detective Stories, and the words that come with it are precisely aimed:

“Great stories, Ravi. You can pick up some really good tips on how to be a detective.

How to avoid getting fooled when one is trailing a suspect, for instance,” Grandpa said

solemnly.

What it suggests about his awareness: he knew all along, and the evidence runs right through
the story.

1. He suspected before he even left: “Has she told you not to let me go out on my own? Told
you to keep me a prisoner here, has she?”
2. He extracted Ravi’s permission with a lawyer’s move — “‘Good,’ said Grandpa craftily, ‘then
you’ll have no objection to my going out.’”
3. The yellow cap. Giving away the one thing that marked him out, in the middle of a tail, is not
coincidence — it is a decoy, and it worked perfectly.
4. To Vidya he said, “I had a quiet morning, but I don’t know about Ravi. He just disappeared.”
He knew where Ravi had been; he simply declined to say so.
5. The word “solemnly”. Nobody says a line like that seriously unless they are enjoying it
enormously.

And he never accuses Ravi outright. He does not tell his daughter, does not scold, does not take
away the boy’s dignity — which is exactly the courtesy the family has not been showing him.

Page 13 of 79

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Why the story ends where it does: Asha Nehemiah refuses to confirm any of this.

m l a se
The last line leaves Ravi “too busy trying to decide whether the twinkle in Grandpa’s
o
.c innocent gleam or a mischievous one.” Had she written
a g “Grandpa smiled,
m
eye was an
sehad known all along”, the joke would collapse into information. By leaving the
forahe
l
g
atwinkle unread, she keeps Grandpa one step ahead of the boy and of the reader —
which is the whole argument of the story about what old people still are.
co m
e m . ag
g l as
Critical Reflection — Pages 109–111
a

co m
m.
Vitamin-M (prose)

as e
com l
EXTRACT-BASED ANALYSIS

. a g
e m
as I. Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow. 1. Grandpa
agl
Q1
hated the noise and bustle of city life and when they were on their own, he often

m
spoke longingly of his small brick house in town. “Such a wonderful place…! With
a s
em
.co
that big mango tree in the garden! It is so quiet that at dusk you can even hear a
agl
a s
gl and lain outside all night because there was no one
leaf fall!” But then Grandpa had slipped and fallen in the garden late one evening
while he was potteringaaround
at home to help him up. (i) Choose the emotion displayed by the Grandfather. A.

co
regretful B. apologetic C. nostalgic D. wistful (ii) Complete the following sentence m
m .
se
with a reason. Grandpa hated the busy and noisy city life because ___________. (iii)

o m l a
g fall’. A. end of one’s life
.cexpression similar in meaning to, ‘you can even hear aaleaf
Why did Grandpa come to the city despite his dislike for city life? (iv) Choose an

s e m
a
agl
B. arrival of autumn C. sign of good luck D. pin drop silence (v) State one advantage
and one disadvantage of the Grandfather living in the house in town.

se m
com g l a
m . a
e

g l as Grandpa “often spoke longingly” of a house he no longer
a is in the past — the mango tree, the garden, the dusk silence.
(i) C. nostalgic. Read only the extract.
lives in, and everything he names

m
Longing for a remembered place is exactly what nostalgic means.

. co
em
as
A. regretful — he regrets nothing he did; he is not blaming himself.
m l
.co a g
B. apologetic — there is no apology anywhere in the extract; the tone is the opposite,

a s em almost boastful (“Such a wonderful place…!”).

agl D. wistful is the near miss, and you should be able to say why it is second best. Wistful

.c
m
means a vague, gentle sadness for something unlikely to happen. Grandpa is not vague —

m a s e
co agl
he is specific about a real house he owned, and his feeling is warm rather than faint. The

m .
e
exclamation marks give him energy, not melancholy.

g l as
a

com
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

(ii) Grandpa hated the busy and noisy city life because it was the exact opposite of the quiet,
open home he had run for himself — a house with a mango tree and a garden, “so quiet
that at dusk you can even hear a leaf fall”, whereas the city offered him only “noise and
bustle” and a “poky little flat” in which he was not even allowed to step out alone.

Tip: a “complete the sentence with a reason” item is marked for the because-clause.
Do not simply repeat the stem in other words; supply the cause, and where possible
take the words for it from the extract.

(iii) He did not come by choice — he was brought. The extract itself gives the immediate cause:
“Grandpa had slipped and fallen in the garden late one evening while he was pottering around
and lain outside all night because there was no one at home to help him up.” After that night, as
the story tells us, it “made Ravi’s mother lock up the tiny brick house and bring Grandpa to live
with them”, because he was “getting too old to live on his own”. Grandpa’s own summary is
blunt: “First you force me to come and live with you in this poky little flat.” So the reason is his
daughter’s fear for his safety after a serious fall, not any change of heart in him.
(iv) D. pin drop silence. The phrase measures how quiet the place is by naming the smallest
possible sound that can still be heard there. A falling leaf makes almost no noise, so if you can
hear one, the silence is total — which is precisely what “pin drop silence” means. B is a trap:
leaves do fall in autumn, but the sentence is about hearing, not about the season; nothing in
the extract mentions autumn or the passing of time.
(v)

POINT EVIDENCE FROM THE EXTRACT

Advantage Peace, space and independence — his own garden “Such a wonderful place…! With that
with a big mango tree, and a silence deep enough to big mango tree in the garden! It is
hear a leaf fall. He ran that house himself, “cooking, so quiet that at dusk you can even
shopping and keeping house too”. hear a leaf fall!”

Disadvantage He lived entirely alone, so an accident could not be “lain outside all night because there
dealt with. When he fell, he lay in the open all night. was no one at home to help him up”

Why the extract is built this way: look at the hinge word — “But then”. The first
half of the passage is Grandpa’s voice, full of exclamation marks; the second half is
the narrator’s voice, flat and factual. In three lines the writer gives you both sides of
the family argument and refuses to settle it. The house really was wonderful; the fall
really did happen. That is why the story has no villain.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 I. 2. “I had a quiet morning, but I don’t know about Ravi. He just disappeared
instead of staying at home to look after me like you told him to,” answered
Grandpa coolly, while Ravi just looked confused and embarrassed. Grandpa had
another surprise for Ravi. A gift-wrapped parcel! “But, Papa, Ravi’s birthday was
three months ago. Have you forgotten?” exclaimed Ravi’s mother, impatiently. (i)
Choose the option that displays the tone of the Grandfather’s response. A.
apologetic B. hurtful C. calm D. puzzled (ii) Why was Ravi confused and
embarrassed? (iii) Complete the sentence with a suitable reason. Ravi’s mother was
impatient because _________________. (iv) State whether the following sentence is true
or false. Grandfather forgot that Ravi’s birthday was three months ago. (v) Why did
Grandpa say he didn’t know what kind of morning Ravi might have had?

(i) C. calm. The extract supplies the adverb itself — “answered Grandpa coolly”. Coolly means
without heat or agitation, which is calm. Test the others against the extract: he offers no apology
(A); he is teasing rather than wounding, and takes care not to expose Ravi to his mother (B); and
he is not puzzled — he is the only person in the room who knows exactly what happened (D).
The contrast is placed right beside him: Grandpa is cool, while “Ravi just looked confused and
embarrassed” and, a line later, his mother speaks “impatiently”.
(ii) Because every word Grandpa said was true, and Ravi could not defend himself with the
truth. He had disappeared; he had spent the morning crawling out of a park, hiding behind a
banyan tree and chasing a stranger’s cap. To explain where he had been, he would have had to
confess that he let Grandpa go out alone and then spied on him — breaking his promise to his
mother twice over. On top of that, the wording is too precise to be accidental (“instead of staying
at home to look after me like you told him to”), so Ravi realises, in that moment, that Grandpa
knows. He is caught between a lie he cannot tell and a truth he dare not tell.
(iii) Ravi’s mother was impatient because she assumed her father’s memory had failed him
yet again — she thought he had forgotten that Ravi’s birthday was over three months ago
and was giving a gift for no reason, which to her was one more proof that he needed the
“Vitamin-M” she had joked about that morning.
(iv) FALSE. Answer strictly from the extract and the reply that follows it. Grandpa had not
forgotten anything — the gift had nothing to do with Ravi’s birthday. His answer is, “No. But you
know I always give a gift to every child in the house on my birthday. Have you forgotten?” It is
his own birthday, and it is his daughter who has forgotten, though “she had, at the beginning of
the year circled the date in red and written ‘Papa’s birthday’.” The statement inverts the facts of
the story.
(v) Because he knew exactly what kind of morning Ravi had had, and saying so outright would
have given the boy away. “I don’t know about Ravi” is irony — the speaker says the opposite of
what he means, and expects one listener to catch it. Grandpa had spotted the tail, shaken it off
with the cap, and come home first; his “I don’t know” is really I could tell you every step of it. He
uses it for three purposes at once: to enjoy his small victory, to warn Ravi that his secret is not a

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

secret, and — most importantly — to avoid reporting him to his mother. It also does something
for Grandpa himself: a man who can time a joke that precisely is not a man whose memory has
gone.

How the writer keeps the joke alive: Grandpa never states his knowledge; he only
ever implies it — “coolly”, “I don’t know about Ravi”, “solemnly”, and finally the
twinkle that Ravi cannot classify. Every one of these leaves room for an innocent
reading. That is what makes the ending funny rather than smug: the old man wins
without ever claiming the win.

Q3 II. 1. Grandpa is portrayed as a person with failing memory in the beginning of the
story. Give two evidences to disprove the statement.

The story sets up the charge in its first paragraph — the wish for a memory pill for “old people”
— and then quietly demolishes it. Two pieces of evidence are enough, and these are the
strongest.

1. His recall of chess history is exact and detailed. Playing with Ravi he says, “That’s the
opening move Karpov made when he played against the computer,” and “You’re making the
same mistake that Bobby Fischer made in his historic match against Spassky.” These are
specific games, specific players, specific moves. Ravi himself is struck by it: “How can he
remember all those thousands of chess games and still forget the names of people he meets
often!”
2. He remembers his own birthday and the family custom attached to it, when his
daughter does not. He arrives with gift-wrapped parcels for Ravi, for Vidya and for Ravi’s
father, and explains, “you know I always give a gift to every child in the house on my
birthday.” Vidya then “darted a stricken look at the calendar on which she had, at the
beginning of the year circled the date in red and written ‘Papa’s birthday’.” She had written it
down and still forgot; he had not written it down and did not.

A third, if you want it: he leaves the flat alone in a city he dislikes, walks to the park, the tea stall,
the barber shop and the bus stop, crosses a busy road and gets home before Ravi does — and
then recalls the morning well enough to tease his grandson about “trailing a suspect”.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The distinction the story is drawing: Grandpa does forget some things — names
of people he meets often, a dose of medicine, a route on one bad day. What he has
not lost is judgement, wit, planning and the memory of what matters to him. The
family treats one kind of forgetting as if it cancelled the whole person. That is the
mistake the story exists to expose — and it is why the title lands on Vidya in the end,
not on Grandpa.

Q4 II. 2. Give two characteristic traits of each of the following characters. (i)
Grandfather (ii) Ravi (iii) Ravi’s mother

Two traits each, with the line that proves them.

Page 18 of 79

as e
Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
CHARACTER TRAIT EVIDENCE FROM THE STORY

mIndependent and as e
(i) Grandfather
.co spirited — he refuses to a g l
“I’ve been looking after myself for the better part of my

a s em seventy-five years… and then you think you have the right

ag l be managed to forbid me to go out on my own!” — said “with a trace of
the firmness that had been a natural part of his job as a
lawyer”.

co m
m . ag
seto my going out.’”; he gives his cap to a stranger “because it
Shrewd and “‘Good,’ said Grandpa craftily, ‘then you’ll have no objection

l a
ag was such a hot day” — “always generous”; and he gifts Ravi
mischievous, yet
generous
a book on “how to avoid getting fooled when one is trailing
a suspect”.
co m
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m l a
.co
(ii) Ravi Caring and dependable “Don’t worry, Mamma… Grandpa’ll be fine at home with

m ag half the city, “hot,
me.” He then follows Grandpa across

se
— he takes the

l a
responsibility seriously bothered and close to fainting”, rather than let him come to

a g harm.

om a s
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Sensitive to his “Ravi winced at the over-loud tone his mother used”; “His

. c
semhim”, so he follows “secretly, at a safe distance”.
grandfather’s dignity grandfather would feel hurt if he insisted on accompanying

a g la
(iii) Ravi’s Anxious and protective “she stopped and shuddered at the memory”; “Whatever

m
mother happens, Ravi, you’re not to let Grandpa go out on his own.

. co
It’s too dangerous.” Ravi sees “his mother’s anxious face”
and “felt sorry for her”.
se m
m l a
m .co g “old people” in his hearing;
She discusses “Vitamin-M”afor

ase
Well-meaning but

agl
tactless — she talks she uses an “over-loud tone… as though she were speaking
about her father instead to a child”; and she forgets his birthday even after circling it
of to him in red.
se m
com g l a
m . a
ase
agl
Tip: in a “characteristic traits” question, an adjective on its own earns very little. Write
trait + proof — “generous, because he gave away his own cap on a hot day” — and
you have answered the question completely in one sentence.

co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
a s emQ5 II. 3. Why was Ravi worried about what Grandfather had at the tea stall?

agl
.c
s e m
com a
.
Because every single item on that menu was banned at home for the sake of Grandpa’s health,
mhim that day.
and Ravi was the one in chargeeof
agl
a s
agl

co m
m .
m as e
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

“Grandpa took his time sipping a sugary cup of tea (he was forbidden sugar at home),

then ate two bananas (another banned item),

then tucked into an ice cream bought from the cart. (Mother would faint if she saw this!)”

Ravi’s worry has two layers. The first is genuine concern: Grandpa had been hospitalised only a
month earlier after a mix-up with his medicines, so a restricted diet is not fussiness. The second
is self-preservation — his mother had left him with one instruction, and if anything went wrong
the fault would be his. His own body registers the panic: “Ravi himself felt hot, bothered and
close to fainting by the time Grandpa finished his snack.”

How the humour is made: the three worries are pushed into brackets. Brackets
normally hold information the writer thinks is minor — so putting Ravi’s alarm there
makes it sound like a whisper he cannot help letting out. The last one even drops the
pretence of reporting and becomes his own voice: “Mother would faint if she saw
this!” In three short asides Asha Nehemiah gives us the boy’s rising panic without
ever stopping the scene to describe it. Meanwhile Grandpa “took his time” — the
calm of one phrase against the fluster of the other is the whole joke.

Q6 II. 4. Do you think it was easy for Ravi to follow his Grandfather? If yes, why? If no,
why not?

No — it was extremely difficult, and the story is deliberately built as a chain of small disasters,
each worse than the last.

At the park: he had to “crouch behind a bush trimmed in the shape of an elephant”, was
spotted at once by a small child (“Are you playing hide and seek? I can show you a better
place to hide”), was then threatened by the child’s mother with an umbrella, and finally
suffered “the ultimate humiliation… when Ravi had to crawl out of the park on all fours,
ducking behind the benches, creeping behind the bushes”.
At the tea stall: hiding behind a banyan tree put him among the vendors, who assumed he
was a rival hawker — “This area is booked by us… There’s no room for any new vendors” —
and “a group of them surrounded Ravi”. He had to give up his position and duck behind a
shiny silver car instead.
Crossing the road: he watched Grandpa “zigzagging through the trafÏc”, heard “the screech
of brakes”, and shut his eyes in panic.
At the barber shop: he dived into the wrong door and was “evicted a moment later amidst a
volley of feminine shrieks because it happened to be a Ladies’ Hairdressing Salon”.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

At the bus stop: he had to sprint and jump on to a moving bus and then push his way to the
front, panting.

Physically he was “hot, bothered and close to fainting”; socially he was scolded, surrounded and
thrown out; and at the end of all of it he had been following the wrong man.

Why the writer piles it on: comedy works by repetition with escalation — child,
then mother, then a whole group of vendors, then a shop full of shrieking strangers.
Each failure is louder than the one before, while Grandpa moves through the same
streets in perfect peace. The contrast is the argument: the “helpless” old man
handles the city better than the boy sent to guard him.

Q7 II. 5. ‘Ravi is a good detective’. Give one argument in favour of and against the given
statement.

In favour. He shows the two qualities that matter most in a tail — persistence and an eye for
detail. He never abandons the chase, even when it means sprinting after a moving bus:
“Sprinting for the bus and jumping on to it seconds before it started would have deterred a
lesser detective, but not Ravi.” And in a crowded bus, with the wrong head in front of him, he
still picks out the one clue that any casual observer would miss: “But wait, the cap had a coffee-
strain on its rim just like Grandpa’s!” He also thinks about the person he is following, not only
the task — he keeps “a safe distance” precisely so that Grandpa will not be hurt.
Against. He is seen by almost everyone he tries to hide from. A small child spots him instantly
and offers him a better hiding place; the boy’s mother threatens him with an umbrella; the
vendors surround him; a whole salon evicts him. Worse, he commits the basic error of tracking
the disguise instead of the man — he follows a yellow cap on to a bus and finds “a total
stranger”. He loses his subject completely, and has to go home not knowing where his
grandfather is.
The story itself delivers the verdict, and it is on the side of the second argument: Grandpa gives
him The Best Detective Stories so that he can “pick up some really good tips… How to avoid
getting fooled when one is trailing a suspect”.

Tip: a “for and against” question is testing balance. Give each side a full argument
with its own evidence, and only then, if you wish, say which side you find stronger.
Never give three lines to one side and half a line to the other.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q8 II. 6. Was Grandfather aware that Ravi was following him? How do you know?

Yes — almost certainly from the start. The writer never says so directly, so the answer has to be
assembled from what Grandpa does. Five pieces of evidence, in the order they appear:

1. He suspects the arrangement before he leaves. “Has she told you not to let me go out on
my own? Told you to keep me a prisoner here, has she?” He knows his daughter and he
reads Ravi’s guilty face.
2. He gets Ravi’s permission by a trick. “‘Good,’ said Grandpa craftily, ‘then you’ll have no
objection to my going out.’” The adverb is the writer’s hint: this is a lawyer closing a loophole.
3. The cap. He gives his bright-yellow cap — his one distinguishing mark, coffee stain and all —
to a stranger in the barber shop, on a man wearing “a white pyjama and shirt, which was
Grandpa’s standard attire”. As a kindness it is entirely in character; as a manoeuvre it is a
perfect decoy, and it works.
4. His report to Vidya. “I had a quiet morning, but I don’t know about Ravi. He just
disappeared instead of staying at home to look after me like you told him to.” He knows the
boy left, and knows why.
5. The gift and the line that goes with it, delivered “solemnly”: a book of detective stories
with “tips… on how to avoid getting fooled when one is trailing a suspect”. There is no
innocent reason to say that sentence on that evening.

And the last line keeps the case just short of proved: Ravi is left “trying to decide whether the
twinkle in Grandpa’s eye was an innocent gleam or a mischievous one.”

Why this is better storytelling than a confession: if Grandpa had announced “I
saw you behind the banyan tree”, he would have shamed Ravi and the story would
have ended in an argument. By hinting instead, he makes his point, keeps his
grandson’s dignity intact, and stays — as he has been all day — one move ahead. It
is the same courtesy the family owes him and does not give.

Q9 II. 7. In your opinion, who needs Vitamin-M? And why?

Ravi’s mother, Vidya, needs it far more than Grandpa does — and the story is constructed to
make exactly that point.
She opens the story wishing for the pill: “I wish… that somebody would invent a memory —
Vitamin-M, they could call it, and we could give it to old people to help them improve their
memories.” By the last page her father hands the wish back to her: “My daughter needs some
Vitamin-M, I think—for her memory.” The proof is already on her own wall — she had “circled

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

the date in red and written ‘Papa’s birthday’” at the beginning of the year, and she still forgot it.
Grandpa, who is supposed to be the forgetful one, remembered without any calendar, and had
gifts ready for all three of them.
But the deeper answer is that what she has forgotten is not a date. She has forgotten who
her father is: a man who practised law, who ran his own home for ten years after his wife died,
who plays chess well enough to quote Karpov and Fischer. She still loves him — she worries, she
arranges his medicines, she goes out to work — but she has stopped seeing him. A memory pill
would not fix that; only attention would.

Another defensible answer: you could argue that nobody needs Vitamin-M, and
that this is the story’s joke. Grandpa’s memory is fine, Vidya’s lapse is ordinary, and
Ravi’s morning proves that the real shortage in the house is not memory but respect.
Either position earns full marks as long as you argue it from the text.

Why the title is so well chosen: “Vitamin-M” enters as a joke made at an old man’s
expense, in his hearing. It leaves as a joke made by that old man at his daughter’s
expense, in front of her husband. Nothing about the words changes; only the
direction they point. That reversal is the whole story in two syllables.

Q10 II. 8. Some people believe society shows bias based on age (being young or old).
Give an example where you might have experienced or observed such
discrimination, when opinions were disregarded because of age.

This is a personal-experience question, so it must be answered with one specific incident, not
with general statements about society. The examiner is looking for: the situation, whose opinion
was ignored, the reason given (age), and what you concluded from it.

Page 23 of 79

as e
Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
What a good answer needs:

m as e
.co
One incident, told briefly — where, who was present, what was being decided.
a g l
a s
Theem
exact kind of dismissal: “You are too young to understand” / “Let it be, at

a gl your age why worry about all this” / speaking about the person to someone else
while they are in the room.

c om
Whether the ignored opinion turned out to be right — that detail is what proves
. ag
s em
the bias was unfair, not merely rude.
a
a glstory, since ageism against the old is what Vitamin-
One sentence linking it to the
M is about.
Bias runs both ways. You may write about the young being dismissed, the old
co m
em.
as
being dismissed, or both.
m l
m .co a g
l a se
g
Sample answer: Last year my family was deciding whether to repair our old ceiling fan or buy a
a new one. My grandfather, who worked as an electrician for thirty years, said the fan only needed
s
a new capacitor. My uncle did not even reply to him; he turned to my father and said, “Appa is

om a
. c agl
from another time, these old motors are finished.” They bought a new fan. Two weeks later the

s e
mechanic who came to fit it looked at the mold one lying in the store room and said the capacitor
a g la had said. What struck me was not that my grandfather was
had gone, exactly as my grandfather
right, but that nobody had thought it worth listening to him in the first place — his experience

m
was treated as out of date simply because he was. I have seen the same thing from the other
. co
m
side too: when I suggested at a housing-society meeting that we compost our wet waste, one

o m l a se
member laughed and said, “School students should study, these things are for elders.”
.c Vitamin-M made me recognise both moments. Ravi’s mother
a g is not cruel — but she
m
se about her father’s memory while he is sitting three feet away, and uses “an over-loud
Reading

g l a
a
talks
tone… as though she were speaking to a child”. Bias by age rarely looks like hostility. It usually

se m
com a
looks like not bothering to ask.

. a g l
m
gl ase
a in Context — Pages 111–116
Vocabulary and Structures

co m
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.co a g l
se m
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m a s e
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g l as
a

com
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m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Vitamin-M (prose)

VOCABULARY GRAMMAR

Q1 I. Classify the words given in the box on the next page into movement words in
Column 1 and sound words in Column 2. One example has been done for you. [Word
box on page 112] pottering | boomed | twirling | crouch | bustle | crawl | creeping
| thudded | ducked | shrieks | zigzagging | whirr | evicted | briskly | sprinting |
grunted | jumping | darted | trailing | snoring Column 1: pottering Column 2:
boomed Now, fill in the blanks with appropriate words from Column 1 or Column 2.
Detective Shankar, 1. _____ the mysterious suspect through the dimly lit side lanes,
away from the 2. _____ of the city, quickened his pace 3. _____. The suspect’s heavy
footsteps 4. _____ across the street, unaware of the pursuit. Shankar 5. _____ his
magnifying glass had to 6. _____ behind the market stalls, 7. _____ through the lanes
to avoid being seen. Shankar 8. _____ when he hit himself against a pole. This
alarmed the suspect and he 9. _____ into the night leaving only the distant 10. _____ of
the sleeping city behind.

The classification. Ask of each word: does it name a way of moving or a noise?

Page 25 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

COLUMN 1 — MOVEMENT WORDS COLUMN 2 — SOUND WORDS

pottering (example) boomed (example)

twirling thudded

crouch shrieks

crawl whirr

creeping grunted

ducked snoring

zigzagging — and bustle, if you hear it as noise

evicted

briskly

sprinting

jumping

darted

trailing

bustle

The one word that can go either way: bustle. The book glosses it on page 99 as
“busy activity”, which is movement — so Column 1 is the safer answer. But the story
writes “the noise and bustle of city life”, and a bustling market is certainly something
you hear, so Column 2 is defensible if you say why. Also note that the printed grid
has more rows than there are words; twenty words do not divide evenly between the
two columns.

The passage. Fill each blank by asking what the sentence needs — a way of moving, or a noise
— and then which form of the word fits the grammar.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

NO. WORD WHY

1. trailing Following a suspect — the very word Grandpa uses on page 109, glossed as
“following”.

2. bustle Needs a noun after “away from the ___ of the city”; the story uses the identical
phrase, “the noise and bustle of city life”.

3. briskly “Quickened his pace ___” needs an adverb of manner; briskly means quickly and
energetically.

4. thudded The sound heavy footsteps make — a dull, heavy noise. Past tense fits the narrative.

5. twirling An -ing form describing what his hands are doing as he moves, exactly like “twirling
his walking stick jauntily” on page 102.

6. crouch “Had to ___” needs the base form, and only crouch and crawl are in the base form.
Bending low behind a stall is crouching — see page 103, where Ravi has to “crouch
behind a bush”.

7. creeping Moving slowly and quietly “to avoid being seen” — the story’s own phrase is
“creeping behind the bushes”. Zigzagging is possible grammatically, but it describes
the shape of a path, not secrecy.

8. grunted A short involuntary noise made on being hurt — he has walked into a pole. Past
tense.

9. darted Moved suddenly and very fast: “darted into the night”. It matches “alarmed” in the
previous clause.

10. whirr “the distant ___ of the sleeping city” needs a noun naming a low continuous sound
— compare “the gentle whirr of Grandpa snoring” on page 107. (Snoring is arguable,
but whirr suits a city.)

Why this exercise sits in this story: almost every word in the box is lifted from
Vitamin-M itself, because the story runs on verbs of movement and noise — Ravi
crawling, crouching, ducking and sprinting; the vendors booming and shrieking. The
comedy is physical, so the vocabulary is physical. Doing this exercise is really a way
of noticing how the writer built the chase.

Page 27 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 II. Study the highlighted word in the given sentence from the text and fill in the
boxes with synonymous words. You may refer to a dictionary. Off he went, twirling
his walking stick jauntily, leaving Ravi in a dilemma. 1. QU_ ND_ _ Y DILEMMA 2. PR_
D _ C _ M _ NT

1. QUANDARY 2. PREDICAMENT

WORD MEANING THE SHADE OF DIFFERENCE

dilemma a situation in which one must choose between Stresses the choice. Ravi must either hurt
two options, both of them difficult Grandpa or disobey his mother.

quandary a state of uncertainty about what to do Stresses the confusion — being stuck,
unable to decide.

predicament an unpleasant situation that is hard to get out Stresses the trouble itself; there may not
of even be a choice to make.

My own sentences: I was in a quandary about whether to tell my brother that I had broken his
cricket bat. Having lent my only pen to a friend in the next row, I found myself in a predicament
when the answer sheets were handed out.

Why dilemma is the exact word here: Ravi is not merely confused and not merely
stuck — he has two real duties pulling in opposite directions, and the story spells
both of them out in the very next sentence: “His grandfather would feel hurt if he
insisted on accompanying him and his mother would be furious if she knew Ravi had
let him go out on his own.” Two options, both costly. That is a dilemma in the strict
sense.

Page 28 of 79

as e
Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
III. Fill in the table given below. Check your answers with the help of a dictionary.
e
Q3

m l as
.co a g
a s emWORD
a gl MEANING PART OF SPEECH SYNONYM ANTONYM

m
1. craftily

. co ag
e m
as
2. dilemma

3. furious a g l

co m
m.
4. boomed

m ase
.co g l
5. humiliation

m 6. attire a
l a se
a g
The table as printed on page 113.

m a s
m .co agl
l a se
a g
m
.co
WORD MEANING PART OF SYNONYM ANTONYM
SPEECH
se m
com g l a
. cunningly,aslyly,
sem
1. craftily in a clever, sly way, so as adverb openly, honestly,

a
agl
to get what one wants shrewdly artlessly

se m
2. dilemma a situation requiring a noun quandary, certainty, solution
choice between two
com
predicament
g l a
equally difficult options
m . a
ase
3. furious extremely angry
agl adjective enraged, livid,
incensed
calm, pleased,
delighted

co m whispered,
4. boomed spoke or sounded in a verb (past
m
thundered, bellowed,
.
a se
com
deep, loud, resonant tense of roared murmured,

g l
m. a
voice boom) muttered

ase 5.
a g l the feeling of being noun embarrassment, pride, dignity,
humiliation made to look foolish and mortification, honour
.c
of losing one’s self- disgrace
s e m
m a
. co agl
respect

se m
6. attire
particular a
l a
orgformal kind
clothes, especially of a noun (also a
verb: to
clothing, dress, garb —; the nearest is
undress /
attire) nakedness

co m
m .
m as e
.co


a g l Page 29 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Each word in its place in the story: “‘Good,’ said Grandpa craftily” (101) · “leaving Ravi in a
dilemma” (102) · “his mother would be furious” (102) · “a loud voice boomed” (103) · “The ultimate
humiliation was when Ravi had to crawl out of the park” (103) · “a white pyjama and shirt, which
was Grandpa’s standard attire” (105).

Tip on parts of speech: the -ly of craftily marks the adverb (compare the adjective
crafty), and the -tion of humiliation marks the noun made from the verb humiliate.
Word endings are the quickest reliable clue in this column. Note also that attire has
no true opposite — some words simply do not have one, and saying so is a better
answer than inventing a wrong pair.

Q4 IV. Match the emotions/expressions in Column 1 with their meanings in Column 2.
One meaning is extra. Column 1 (Emotions/Expressions): 1. embarrassed 2.
countered 3. flushed 4. stricken 5. gleam Column 2 (Meanings): (i) affected severely
by an unpleasant feeling (ii) to be confused (iii) expression of emotion (iv) reply to
an argument (v) felt uncomfortable (vi) became red in the face

COLUMN COLUMN 2 THE LINE IN THE STORY THAT SETTLES IT
1

1. (v) felt uncomfortable “feeling most embarrassed when the vendors sitting under
embarrassed the tree gave him quizzical looks” (page 103)

2. countered (iv) reply to an argument “‘Have you forgotten?’ countered Grandpa, very seriously”
(page 108) — he is answering her charge with a charge of
his own

3. flushed (vi) became red in the face “Ravi’s mother flushed…” and then “flushed a darker shade of
red” (page 108)

4. stricken (i) affected severely by an “darted a stricken look at the calendar” (page 108) — the
unpleasant feeling look of someone struck by a realisation

5. gleam (iii) expression of emotion “whether the twinkle in Grandpa’s eye was an innocent
gleam or a mischievous one” (page 109)

The extra meaning is (ii) “to be confused” — it has no partner in Column 1. It does describe
Ravi (“Ravi just looked confused and embarrassed”), but no word in the left column actually
means confused.

Page 30 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Notice what these five words have in common: all of them are ways of showing
feeling without saying it — a red face, a struck look, a light in the eye. That is how the
last two pages of this story work. Nobody announces anything: Vidya’s guilt is a
flush, Grandpa’s triumph is a gleam, and Ravi’s guilt is a confused face. The
vocabulary exercise is teaching you to read exactly the signals the ending depends
on.

Q5 V. Read the highlighted words in the following phrases from the story. Now, revisit
the story and underline the prepositions. 1. I’ll just walk across to the corner shop…
2. … he felt a shadow fall over him… 3. …the vendors sitting under the tree… 4. Ravi
took position behind a big banyan… [Box on page 114: Prepositions are words used
to show the relationship of a noun or pronoun to other words in a sentence, often
indicating direction, location, time, or manner.] Now, fill in the blanks with
appropriate prepositions. I walked (i) _____ (through, between, against) the village,
crossed a bridge (ii) _____ (over, under, beside) a brook, and found a quiet garden (iii)
_____ (among, near, across) a cottage. Sitting on a bench (iv) _____ (on, at, in) the
garden, I enjoyed the peaceful surroundings. Later, I strolled (v) _____ (beside,
through, along) a riverbank, exploring the forest and heading (vi) _____ (into,
towards, beyond) the unknown.

The prepositions to underline are the words that fix each noun in space:

1. I’ll just walk across to the corner shop… — across shows movement from one side to the
other
2. … he felt a shadow fall over him… — over shows position above
3. …the vendors sitting under the tree… — under shows position below
4. Ravi took position behind a big banyan… — behind shows position at the back of

The passage:

Page 31 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

NO. ANSWER REASON

(i) through You pass in at one end of a village and out at the other — through is movement
inside and out again. Between needs two things; against means opposition or
contact.

(ii) over A bridge is built above the water and you cross over it. Under would put you in the
brook.

(iii) near Simple proximity — the garden is beside the cottage. Among needs three or more
things; across would mean on the far side.

(iv) in A garden is treated as an enclosed area, so you sit in it. (Compare: on a bench, at a
table.)

(v) along Along means following the length of something — a riverbank is a line, so you
stroll along it. Through would take you into the water.

(vi) into “Heading into the unknown” is the fixed expression — entering something.
Towards is also acceptable, but it stops short of entering, which weakens the
sense of the sentence.

Why this story is a good place to learn prepositions: the entire chase is told
through them — Ravi crouches behind a bush, crawls out of the park, ducks behind
the benches, creeps behind the bushes, hides behind a banyan tree, peers through
the windows of a car, and pushes his way to the front of the bus. Take away the
prepositions and there is no chase left at all — you would know what Ravi did, but
not where he was in relation to his grandfather, which is the only thing that matters
in a tail.

Page 32 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q6 VI. Read the following dialogues from the story. 1. “Shall we play chess or watch the
cricket match on TV, Grandpa?” asked Ravi. 2. “Who are you?” said the little boy’s
mother. 3. “What did you both do today?” asked Ravi’s mother. 4. “Have you
forgotten?” countered Grandpa. 5. A small child came up to him and asked, “Are you
playing hide and seek?” Now, choose the correct answer. A. The words in the quotes
are (i) _____ (exclamatory/interrogative) sentences. B. Sentences 1, 4, and 5 are (ii)
_____ (Wh-/Yes, No type) interrogative sentences. C. Sentences 2 and 3 are (iii) _____
(Wh-/Yes, No type) interrogative sentences. So, there are (iv) _____ (two/three) types
of interrogative sentences. [Box on page 115: The words in quotes are the exact
words of the speaker, hence known as direct speech. In indirect speech or reported
speech, somebody else reports these words at some other time and at some other
place.] D. Let us have a quick glance at a few guidelines to remind you of the
changes while transforming from direct form of speech to indirect. You can ask
your teacher for more inputs. [Tables on page 115: Present → Past; Past → Past
Perfect; Present Progressive → Past Progressive; Past Progressive → Past Perfect
Progressive; here → there; today → that day; tomorrow → the following day; now →
then. Pronouns: I → he/she; we → they; you → he/she/they; our → their. Steps to
Remember: Both Wh- type and Yes/No type — convert the interrogative sentence
into a declarative sentence; Yes/No type — use ‘if’ or ‘whether’ next to the reporting
verb; Wh- type — use the same ‘wh’ word next to the reporting verb.]

(i) interrogative. Every one of the five ends in a question mark and asks for information. An
exclamatory sentence expresses sudden feeling and ends in an exclamation mark — as in
“Grandpa’s cap!” — which none of these does.
(ii) Yes, No type. Sentences 1, 4 and 5 begin with a verb — Shall, Have, Are — and can be
answered with yes or no.
(iii) Wh- type. Sentences 2 and 3 begin with a question word — Who, What — and cannot be
answered with yes or no; they demand information.
(iv) two.

Page 33 of 79

as e
Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
SENTENCE TYPE TEST

as e
coTV,mGrandpa?”
cricket match .on a g l
Begins with the auxiliary Shall. (It offers a choice, but
1. “Shall we play chess or watch the Yes/No

a s em type it is still built on a helping verb, not a wh- word.)

l are you?”
a2.g“Who Wh- Begins with Who; the answer must be a name or
type description.

. om with What; the answer must be an account.
cBegins ag
3. “What did you both do today?” Wh-
e m
g l
type
as
4. “Have you forgotten?”
a Yes/No Begins with Have; answer: yes or no.
type
co m
e m.
com l as
5. “Are you playing hide and seek?” Yes/No Begins with Are; answer: yes or no.

. a g
m
type

ase
agD.l Applying the guidelines. The two rules that matter are: (a) the reported question must be
turned into declarative word order — subject before verb, no question mark; and (b) the link

om change with the new speaker. a s
cwords agl
word is if/whether for a Yes/No question, and the same wh- word for a Wh- question. Tenses
.
s em
shift back one step, and pronouns and time
a
DIRECT SPEECH agl INDIRECT (REPORTED) SPEECH

c o m
.
“Shall we play chess or watch the cricket match on Ravi asked Grandpa whether they should play chess or
watch the cricket match on TV. m
se
TV, Grandpa?” asked Ravi.

co m l a
g who he was.
m . The little boy’s motheraasked
se
“Who are you?” said the little boy’s mother.

l a
ag “What did you both do today?” asked Ravi’s mother. Ravi’s mother asked what they had both done that day.

se m
“Have you forgotten?” countered Grandpa.
c o m Grandpa countered by asking if she had forgotten.
g l a
m . a
ase
agl
A small child asked, “Are you playing hide and A small child asked if he was playing hide and seek.
seek?”

co m
Check it yourself: the commonest mistake is leaving the question word order in
m .
o m l a se
place — “Ravi’s mother asked what did they do that day.” Once a question is reported
ag So: “asked what they
.cit is no longer a question; it is a statement about a question.
m had done”.
l a se
ag
.c
s e m
m a
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m as e
.co


a g l Page 34 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q7 VII. Read the following conversation. Arvind: Do you help in taking care of your
grandparents at home? Priya: Yes, I do. We take turns making sure they’re alright.
Do you have grandparents living with you? Arvind: No. My parents and I visit my
grandpa every weekend. How do you manage your grandparents’ medical needs?
Priya: We have a schedule for giving medications and visits to the doctor. Now,
complete the following sentences in reported speech. Arvind asked Priya if she 1.
_______________ for which Priya replied in the afÏrmative and said that they 2.
_____________. Priya further asked Arvind 3. _______________. Arvind replied in the
negative and said that 4. _______________ every weekend. He further enquired 5.
_______________. Priya responded by saying that they 6. _______________.

The completed paragraph:

Arvind asked Priya if she 1. helped in taking care of her grandparents at home, for which

Priya replied in the afÏrmative and said that they 2. took turns making sure they were
alright. Priya further asked Arvind 3. if he had grandparents living with him. Arvind

replied in the negative and said that 4. his parents and he visited his grandpa every

weekend. He further enquired 5. how she managed her grandparents’ medical needs.

Priya responded by saying that they 6. had a schedule for giving medications and visits to

the doctor.

The three changes to make in every blank:

CHANGE RULE SEEN HERE

Word order A reported question becomes a statement “Do you help…?” → “if she helped…” (not “if
— subject first, no question mark, and no did she help”)
do/does/did as a question-forming auxiliary

Tense Present → Past; Present Progressive → help → helped; take → took; are → were;
Past Progressive have → had; manage → managed; visit →
visited

Pronouns I → he/she; we → they; you → he/she; your “your grandparents” → her grandparents;
→ her/his “We take turns” → they took turns; “My
parents and I” → his parents and he

Link words: blanks 1 and 3 report Yes/No questions, so they take if (or whether); blank 5 reports
a Wh- question, so it keeps how. Blanks 2, 4 and 6 report statements, so they take that —
already supplied in the printed sentence.

Page 35 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Tip: the phrases “replied in the afÏrmative” and “replied in the negative” are how
reported speech handles a bare “Yes, I do” and “No”. You do not report the word yes
or no itself.

Listen and Respond — Pages 116–117 (Transcript for teacher, Appendix
page 266)
Vitamin-M (prose)

LISTENING

Q1 I. You will listen to a podcast on meditation. As you listen, complete the sentences
with not more than three exact words that you hear. (Transcript for teacher on page
266) 1. Meditation is a form of yoga that usually refreshes the mind and helps with
___________________. 2. Meditation leads to a better health condition both ________________.
3. Meditation also aids in lessening undesirable feelings and improving
__________________. 4. It is advised that we meditate every day so that it becomes a
_______________. 5. Meditating on a daily basis is beneficial in comfortably tackling
________________.

All five answers come from the podcast printed on Appendix page 266. The task allows a
maximum of three words, and they must be the exact words heard — so match each printed
sentence to the line in the transcript that paraphrases it.

NO. ANSWER THE LINE IN THE TRANSCRIPT (PAGE 266)

1. stress management “Meditation is an important yogic practice which is commonly used for
relaxation and stress management.”

2. physically and “This, in turn, results in an enhanced state of well-being, physically and
emotionally emotionally.”

3. self-awareness “meditation also helps to reduce negative emotions and increases self-
awareness.”

4. routine “start practising meditation on a regular basis and make it your routine.”

5. exam-related “practising meditation regularly can help lessen exam-related pressure,
pressure allowing you to manage them with ease.”

Page 36 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How to work an exact-words listening task:

The printed sentence is always a paraphrase, so listen for the synonym, not the
word on your paper. “Undesirable feelings” in the question = “negative emotions”
in the podcast; “a better health condition” = “an enhanced state of well-being”.
Find the grammar slot first. Blank 2 follows “both”, so the answer must be a pair
— “physically and emotionally”. Blank 4 follows “a”, so it must be a singular noun
— “routine”, not “regular basis”.
Never exceed the word limit and never substitute your own word, however close
in meaning.

Why this listening piece is placed in this chapter: the podcast promises that
meditation “will contribute to your overall well-being and positively influence your
memory power”. The story has just finished making fun of the idea of a memory pill.
Put side by side, the two suggest the chapter’s real position — memory is looked
after by habits, attention and calm, not by a tablet on a saucer.

Speaking Activity — Pages 117–118
Vitamin-M (prose)

SPEAKING

Q1 I. Intonation refers to the pitch of the voice while speaking. In questions,
intonation can indicate the sentiment or the expected response. For example: •
What is your name? (In Wh and How questions we use a falling intonation towards
the end.) • Are you feeling okay? (In Yes or No questions we use a rising intonation
towards the end.) • This is your notebook, isn’t it? (When we have an afÏrmative
main clause and negative question tag, we use a rising intonation to show we are
fairly sure of the answer.) • You weren’t in the library yesterday, were you? (When
we have a negative main clause and afÏrmative question tag, we use a falling
intonation to show we are unsure of the answer.) • Shall we read this storybook or
borrow another one? (When we have a question with choices, we use rise-fall
intonation.) Now, revisit the story and select different questions. Work in pairs and
practise speaking them aloud according to the examples shared.

This is a pair-work speaking task, so the marks are for producing the right tune, not for writing
anything. Work in this order: sort the questions by type, mark the arrow, then say each one
twice — once flat and once with the tune — so you can hear the difference yourself.

Page 37 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Questions from the story, sorted by the five patterns:

QUESTION FROM THE STORY TYPE TUNE

“Who are you?” (the little boy’s mother, Wh- falling ↘ on you
page 103)

“What did you both do today?” (Ravi’s Wh- falling ↘ on today
mother, page 107)

“Who’s talking loudly?” (the comb-seller, Wh- falling ↘ on loudly
page 103)

“How dare you shoo my child?” (page 103) Wh-, spoken in anger falling ↘, but starting from a high pitch
— that is what makes it sound furious

“Are you playing hide and seek?” (the Yes/No rising ↗ on seek
small child, page 103)

“Have you forgotten?” (Grandpa, page Yes/No rising ↗ on forgotten
108)

“Do I look as though I’m selling Yes/No, rhetorical rising ↗, with extra stress on look — the
anything?” (Ravi, page 103) rise plus the stress carries the sarcasm

“Shall we play chess or watch the cricket choice question rise ↗ on chess, fall ↘ on TV
match on TV, Grandpa?” (Ravi, page 101)

“I don’t think he wants to be a detective, do negative main clause falling ↘ on the tag — he genuinely does
you, Ravi?” (Ravi’s father, page 109) + afÏrmative tag not know the answer

“Told you to keep me a prisoner here, has afÏrmative clause + rising ↗ on has she — Grandpa is fairly
she?” (Grandpa, page 101) tag sure he is right, and wants Ravi to
confirm it

How to practise in pairs: one of you reads the question, the other says only “rise” or
“fall” without looking at the page. Then swap. If your partner guesses wrong,
exaggerate the last syllable and try again — intonation is carried almost entirely by
the final stressed word. Recording yourselves on a phone and playing it back is the
quickest way to hear what you are actually doing.

Page 38 of 79

as e
Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Why intonation matters in this story: the two most important questions in

m l a se
Vitamin-M are the same three words — “Have you forgotten?” Vidya says it to
o
c a few lines later Grandpa says it back to her. On theagpage they look
Grandpa,.and
m
se Said aloud, hers rises quickly and impatiently, while his is slow and level
l a
g the rise held back to the very end — because he already knows the answer and
identical.
awith
is giving her time to arrive at it. The whole reversal of the story is in that difference
co m
of tune.
e m . ag
g l as
a
Q2 II. Make a presentation about a brief personal experience related to taking care of
co m
se m.
an older person. For example, mention a specific individual you cared for or an

o m l a
.c to structure your narration. • Background of youragexperience — The person
occasion when you provided assistance to that person. You may use the following

m
se I had the privilege of taking care of was… / I found myself in a caregiving role for… /
prompts
a
agl I took on the responsibility of caring for… • Reflect on what you learned about

s
yourself during this caregiving experience. Did you discover any new qualities or
m a
.co agl
strengths in yourself? How did this experience contribute to your personal growth?

a s em
• Caring for someone taught me valuable lessons about myself, including… / In this

a gl the ability to… / One significant realisation about me
role, I learned that I possess
during this experience was … • Discuss what you learned about the older person
you were caring for. What insights did you gain into their needs, preferences, or
com
m .
se
challenges? How did your understanding of aging evolve through this experience? •

o m l a
g such as… / Caring for
.cTheir challenges offered insights into the difÏculties ofaaging,
Understanding the needs and preferences of the older person, I learned that… /

se m them deepened my understanding of the ageing process, particularly…
g l a
a
se m
com l a

. a g
e m
This is a spoken presentation, so structure and delivery are being assessed as much as content.

g l as
The book’s prompts give you a three-part shape — keep to it and you cannot ramble.
a

co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

com
m .
m ase
.co


a g l Page 39 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What a good presentation needs:

Part 1 — the situation (about 30 seconds). Who, when, why. One person, one
stretch of time. Not “my grandparents in general”.
Part 2 — what you learnt about yourself. Name a specific quality and give the
moment that proved it: patience, steadiness under panic, the ability to keep
talking when a task is unpleasant.
Part 3 — what you learnt about the older person and about ageing. This is
the part most students skip, and it carries the most credit. Move past “they need
help” to something you did not expect — a preference, a fear, a skill they still
have.
Delivery: speak for two to three minutes; look up at the class; use the past tense
throughout; end on the reflection, not on the illness.
One caution: do not turn a person into a case study. Use their name.

Sample answer (a presentation you can adapt):
“The person I had the privilege of taking care of was my father’s mother, whom we call Ajji. Two
winters ago she fractured her wrist slipping on the wet floor of the bathroom, and for six weeks
her right arm was in a cast. My parents were both at work in the mornings, so from seven to
one o’clock, I was in charge.
What I had to do sounds small: tie her sari petticoat, plait her hair, hold the tumbler while she
drank her coffee, and read out the Kannada newspaper because she could not hold it open with
one hand. The first two days I was efÏcient and quick, and I was quite pleased with myself. On
the third day she said, very quietly, that I was doing everything so fast that she felt like a piece
of work being finished. That sentence has stayed with me.
Caring for her taught me that I possess more patience than I believed, but that I had to choose
it — my first instinct was speed, not attention. I learnt to sit down before starting, instead of
standing over her.
Understanding her needs, I learnt that what she minded was not the pain but the asking. She
would wait until she was very thirsty before calling me, because each request cost her
something. Her challenges offered insights into the difÏculties of ageing that I had never
thought about: not only weak bones, but the arithmetic of how many favours you can ask in one
morning. Caring for her deepened my understanding of the ageing process, particularly the
part that has nothing to do with the body. When her cast came off she went straight back to
plaiting her own hair, and she was happier that day than she had been in six weeks.
What I would say now is that helping an old person well means helping them stay someone who
does not need help.”

Page 40 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why this connects to the story: Ravi arrives at the same conclusion by a longer
route. He could have stood at the door and refused to let Grandpa out — that would
have been care of the efÏcient kind. Instead he follows “at a safe distance” so that his
grandfather can have his morning and his self-respect at once. The presentation is
asking you to notice the difference between keeping someone safe and keeping
someone whole.

Writing Task — Page 119
Vitamin-M (prose)

WRITING

Q1 I. As you read in the story, we have a lot to learn from our elderly. Based on the
lessons learned from them, write an article for your school magazine on the topic
‘Our Inspiring Elderly’. Organise the article in the manner given below. • Write the
title at the top and your name and grade below it. • Paragraph 1: Give a brief
introduction to the topic. Focus on the main idea, but do not give any details. •
Paragraph 2: Give details to support the main idea—how the elderly inspire. Include
examples, facts, and quotations. • Paragraph 3: Elaborate on how they overcame
challenges and the inspiring impact on you. • Paragraph 4: Conclude with a final
comment on the topic and leave the reader with the most important ideas to think
about.

What the marker is looking for:

Format: title at the top, then your name and grade below it. Nothing else — an
article is not a letter, so there is no address, date or salutation.
Four paragraphs in the given order, each doing only its own job. Paragraph 1
must stay general; the details belong in Paragraph 2.
Evidence in Paragraph 2 — the book asks for “examples, facts, and quotations”.
Use at least one real example and one quotation, and attribute it.
Register: third person and formal-but-warm; a school magazine has a general
readership. Avoid slang and avoid addressing “you, dear readers”.
Length: about 150–200 words for Class 9.

Sample answer:

Page 41 of 79

Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

OUR INSPIRING ELDERLY

by Meera Raghunath, Grade IX-B

We are used to thinking of the elderly as people who need looking after. It is worth turning the
sentence round. In most families, the oldest member is also the one who has survived the most,
and a household that listens to its elders is quietly better informed than one that does not.
The evidence is not hard to find. It was my grandmother who taught our street to store
monsoon water in the old cement tank, a practice everyone had abandoned; the tank now
serves four houses through April and May. India’s public life offers the same lesson on a larger
scale — Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was seventy-three when he was still telling students, “Dream,
dream, dream. Dreams transform into thoughts and thoughts result in action.” The elderly also
hold what is not written down: recipes, songs, remedies, the correct way to say a word in a
dialect no textbook records. Ask an eighty-year-old about a village name and you will usually get
a story, not a fact.
What impresses me most is not what they know but what they have come through. My own
grandfather lost his shop in a fire in 1987, borrowed from three neighbours, and reopened
within a year; he has never once described this as brave. In Asha Nehemiah’s story Vitamin-M,
Grandpa is seventy-five, half deaf, half blind, and has been moved out of his own house — and
he still says, with perfect dignity, “I’ve been looking after myself for the better part of my
seventy-five years.” Watching such steadiness has changed how I meet a bad result or a lost
match. Complaint, I have noticed, is a habit of the comfortable.
Caring for our elders is a duty, and we should perform it. But it is only half of what we owe
them. The other half is to ask them things, and then to be quiet long enough to hear the answer
— because the day will come when the family has a question and there is nobody old enough
left to answer it.

The one structural trick worth copying: notice that Paragraph 1 makes a claim and
gives no proof, and Paragraph 2 gives nothing but proof. Beginners mix the two and
end up repeating themselves. Keep the general and the particular in separate
paragraphs and the article organises itself.

Learning Beyond the Text — Pages 119–125

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Vitamin-M (prose)

PROJECT EXTENDED READING

Q1 I. Revisit the story and choose the image that correctly displays Grandpa’s walking
stick.

The four walking sticks printed on page 119, each with an empty box below it.

The second stick from the left is the correct one.
The description in the story gives three tests, on page 102:

“He picked up his beautiful shiny-black mahogany walking stick with a brass handle

carved in the shape of an eagle’s head…”

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as e
Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
PICTURE WHAT IT SHOWS VERDICT

as e
1
om at all
.ccarving
Plain black curved handle with a brass band; no
a g l
✗ — the handle is not brass and is

a s em not carved as any bird

a2g l Brass handle carved as a bird’s head with a hooked ✓ — this is the eagle’s head in brass
beak and feathered crest, brass collar

com
3
e m
Silver handle carved as a dog’s head . ✗ — wrong metal and wrong ag
g l as creature

4
a
Ornate gold crook, no animal head ✗ — no carving of a head

co m
se m.
The decisive detail is the carved eagle’s head in brass, and only picture 2 has it. Be honest

o m
c wood rather than “shiny-black mahogany”. Since noapicture l a
g combines a black
as.brown
about the one point where the illustration does not match the text: the shaft in picture 2 is
drawnm
l a sewith a brass eagle head, the head is the identifying feature and picture 2 is the intended
ag
shaft
answer.

m a s
m .co
How to do a picture-identification task: list the separate features named in the text agl
l a se
g
— here material of the handle, shape of the carving, colour of the shaft — and score
a
each picture against each feature. Never decide on one glance and never decide on
the shaft colour alone; a detail that several pictures share cannot tell them apart.
co m
m .
m as e
.co a g
Why the stick is described so carefully: Grandpa’s three possessions get more l
s e m than anything else he owns — the eagle-headed stick, the bright-yellow cap
detail

agla with a coffee stain, and the white pyjama and shirt. All three are things you could
recognise from a distance, which is exactly what a person tailing someone needs.
se m
com
The writer plants them so that the cap can be handed to a stranger later and the
g l a
m . a
ase
whole plot can turn on it.

agl

. c om
II. A picture is worth a thousand words! Explore and revisit memories. Collect a few
ema slide show. Mention
Q2

m a
memorable photographs of yourself and your family. Make
s
m aglare the people in the
.co the following: • When and where was it clicked? • Who
l a se photograph? • Why is it memorable for you?

ag
.c
s e m
. com a gla
This is a project, and it is assessed on the captions rather than on the photographs. Every slide

a s emand the third — “Why is it memorable?” — is where the marks
must answer all three questions,
are.
agl

co m
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Method:

Choose 5–8 photographs, not thirty. Pick a range: an old black-and-white one
from your grandparents’ time, a festival, an ordinary day, a photograph of a place
rather than a person.
Ask an elder first. The best details on any old photograph are not in the picture
— who took it, what happened just before, who is missing from it. This is where
the assignment connects to the chapter.
One slide, one photograph, three lines. When and where · who · why it matters.
Order the slides either oldest to newest, or by theme (festivals, journeys,
everyday). A slide show with an order feels like a story; one without feels like a
folder.
Check that everyone in the photographs is happy to be shown to the class.

Sample answer (one slide, written out):

Slide 3 — “The last Deepavali at the old house”

When and where: November 2019, in the front courtyard of my grandparents’ house in

Sirsi, Karnataka.
Who: my grandfather Ramachandra, my grandmother Sarojini, my father, my cousin Anusha

and me. My mother is not in the picture because she took it.

Why it is memorable: It is the only photograph in which all five of us are standing in that

courtyard, and the house was sold eight months later. I did not know while it was being taken

that it would become the last one. My grandfather is holding the brass lamp his own mother

used, and he is looking at the lamp rather than at the camera — which, my grandmother says,

is what he always did.

Why the book sets this task here: the chapter is about memory that survives
without a photograph. Grandpa remembers his birthday custom with nothing
written down; Tagore’s speaker recovers his mother through a tune, a scent and the
sky. Making this slide show is the opposite experiment — you start from the image
and try to recover the story. Do it properly and you will find the same thing the poem
finds: the part worth keeping is the part no camera caught.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 III. You must have read stories about taking care of the family members of all age
groups in English and also in your own language. Now, read the story given below.
Discuss with your classmates and teacher. [‘The Lost Child’ by Mulk Raj Anand,
printed on pages 120–125.]

This is a reading-and-discussion task, so what is wanted is a set of things worth saying about the
story, and a comparison with Vitamin-M. Read the story once for the plot and a second time
watching only for the repetitions — that is where its design lies.
The story in one line: a small boy, taken to a spring fair, wants a toy, a burfi, a garland, balloons
and the roundabout, and is refused or expects to be refused each time; the moment he is lost, a
kind stranger offers him every one of those things and he refuses them all, crying only, “I want
my mother, I want my father!”
Four things to bring to the discussion:

The structure is a mirror. The first half is a list of desires; the second half is the same list in
the same order — roundabout, snake-charmer, balloons, flowers, sweets — offered and
rejected. Mulk Raj Anand does not have to explain what the boy has learnt; the shape of the
story says it.
The refrain. “Come, child, come” is repeated by the parents four times, and “I want my
mother, I want my father!” five times by the child. The first refrain is a summons the boy
keeps ignoring; the second is a summons nobody can answer. Compare this with the refrain
in the poem you are about to read — “I cannot remember my mother” — which works the
same way, opening each stanza and gathering weight each time.
The desires are ranked by the parents’ imagined objections — the burfi is refused
because “he was greedy”, the garland because “they were cheap”, the balloons because “he
was too old”. The boy has memorised his parents’ voices so thoroughly that he refuses
himself before they can. That is characterisation done entirely through what does not get
said aloud.
The ending is withheld. Anand stops before the parents are found. We are left at the sweet
shop with the child turning his face away. The refusal to resolve is the point: nothing on offer
is a substitute.

Comparing the two stories in this chapter:

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

VITAMIN-M THE LOST CHILD

Who is the old man the small boy
thought to
need looking
after

Who is Ravi, the minder the child — genuinely, and at once
actually lost

Tone comic, affectionate, ironic tender, then frightening

What both say Being cared for and being valued are not the same thing. Grandpa is fed, dosed and guarded,
and what he wants is to be treated as a person. The lost child is offered sweets, music and
balloons by a kind stranger, and what he wants is the two people who were not treating him
particularly kindly at all.

Questions to open the discussion with: Why does the writer make the child refuse
the very things he begged for? · Are the parents unkind, or ordinary? · Whose voice
do we hear in “he was too old to play with such toys”? · Which is the more frightening
moment — the child losing his parents, or the child realising the stranger will not
do?

Reflect and Respond — Page 126
I Cannot Remember My Mother (poem) — Rabindranath Tagore

BEFORE YOU READ

Q1 I. Work in pairs. Discuss the memories from your childhood that you remember. List
them and share with your classmates and teacher.

This is pair work, and the useful part is the listing: write short, concrete entries rather than
sentences, so that patterns show up when you compare lists.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Method:

Give yourselves five minutes and write everything down without judging it. Aim
for ten entries each.
Write each memory as a sensation, not a summary — not “holidays at my uncle’s
house” but “the smell of wet coir matting when the fan was switched on”.
Then sort your list by sense: sound, smell, sight, taste, touch. You will almost
certainly find that the earliest memories are smells and sounds and the later ones
are pictures.
Compare lists with your partner and mark any memory that neither of you can
date. Those are the ones worth reading the poem with.

Sample answer (a list one student might produce):

The cold of the red-oxide floor in my grandmother’s hall in summer.
The pressure cooker whistling three times before school.
Being carried home asleep from a wedding and half-waking at the gate.
The smell of a new school notebook when you press it open.
My mother singing the same two lines of a film song while plaiting my hair — I know the
tune and I have never known the words.
Sitting on the back of a cycle, holding the seat, watching the road go backwards.
The taste of rainwater caught in cupped hands off the roof.

Why the book asks this first: almost nobody’s list is a list of events. It is a list of
textures, smells and sounds, often without a date or a story attached. That is
precisely the kind of memory Tagore’s poem is made of. Notice too how many
entries in a typical list involve a mother or a grandmother without the person being
the point — the tune, the plait, the food. The poem will do exactly that: it will keep
the tune and lose the face.

Q2 II. Discuss how children’s relationship with their mother can influence their
emotions and memories.

Take a clear position and support it, rather than listing pleasant generalities. A strong discussion
answer covers three points.

The earliest memories are formed before language, so they are stored as sensation. A
child of two cannot narrate, but can register a voice, a smell, a rhythm of rocking. That is why
what survives from the very first years is usually a lullaby or a smell rather than an incident

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

— and why such memories feel certain even when they cannot be dated or explained.
co m
se
A mother is a child’s first standard of safety, so her presence becomes attached to
m.
o m l a
g learnt. The feeling
.ccalm for decades because they were present when calm was
whatever surrounds it. The kitchen, a particular flower, a time of day or a song can go on

e m a
stransferred
producing
l a
ag
gets to the setting. This is why grown adults are unexpectedly moved by a smell
they cannot name.

m
The relationship also shapes how emotions are handled, not only what is remembered.
. co ag
m
A child who is comforted learns that distress passes; a child whose fear is dismissed learns to

as e
l
hide it. That pattern is carried forward into every later friendship.
a g
And the honest complication: the influence is not automatic and not always warm. Children

m
separated from a mother early — as Tagore was, and as the speaker of this poem is — may keep
co
m.
no image at all, and the relationship survives instead as fragments: a tune, a scent, a sense of

o m l a se
being watched over. Some children remember chiefly absence. A good discussion should say

m .cthan pretend every memory of a mother is a happy one. ag
this rather

l a se
ag The link to the poem: Tagore’s speaker is the extreme case that proves the general
point. He has lost the face entirely — “I cannot remember my mother” — and yet a
m a s
.co
hummed tune, the smell of shiuli and the stillness of the sky all reach him as her. If
em agl
a s
agl how the whole world feels.
the relationship influenced only what we could recall, he would have nothing. The
poem argues that it influences

com
m .
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a
se m
com g l a
m . a
ase
agl

co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 III. Match the words given in Column 1 with their meanings in Column 2. Column 1:
1. hover 2. hum 3. cradle 4. shiuli 5. morning service 6. gaze Column 2: (i) sing a tune
with your lips closed (ii) a type of flower (coral jasmine) (iii) look steadily for a long
time (iv) rituals conducted in a temple (v) linger or remain near a place (vi) a small
bed for a baby

COLUMN 1 COLUMN 2 THE LINE IT BELONGS TO IN THE POEM

1. hover (v) linger or remain near a “a tune seems to hover over my playthings”
place

2. hum (i) sing a tune with your lips “the tune of some song that she used to hum while
closed rocking my cradle”

3. cradle (vi) a small bed for a baby “…while rocking my cradle”

4. shiuli (ii) a type of flower (coral “the smell of the shiuli flowers floats in the air”
jasmine)

5. morning (iv) rituals conducted in a “the scent of the morning service in the temple”
service temple

6. gaze (iii) look steadily for a long “my mother’s gaze on my face / has spread all over the
time sky”

Did you know? The shiuli (also called parijat or harsingar, and in English coral
jasmine or night-flowering jasmine) opens only after dark and drops its flowers
before sunrise, so a Bengali child wakes in early autumn to find the ground under
the tree already white. It flowers exactly at the time of Durga Puja. That is why
Tagore can rely on it: the smell of shiuli means autumn morning, festival, childhood to
his readers before the poem argues anything at all.

Look at the words the exercise has selected: two of them are sounds (hum), or
near-sounds; two are objects of care (cradle, morning service); one is a smell (shiuli);
and two — hover and gaze — are about something that stays near without touching.
Between them they map the whole poem in advance: a mother who is present as
sound, scent and a steady look, but never as a body.

Check Your Understanding — Pages 127–129

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

I Cannot Remember My Mother (poem)

COMPREHENSION POETRY APPRECIATION

Q1 I. Fill in the blanks with appropriate words. Stanza 1 1. The poet remembers his
mother while he ____________. 2. The poet remembers the ____________ but not the
____________. Setting: ____________ (outdoor/indoor) Stanza 2 1. The poet remembers his
mother in the ____________ season. 2. The poet remembers his mother by the smell of
____________. Setting: ____________ (outdoor/indoor) Stanza 3 1. The poet feels that his
mother ____________ at him from the ____________. Setting: ____________ (outdoor/indoor)

STANZA BLANK ANSWER THE LINE IT COMES FROM

1 1. plays (is in the middle of his “only sometimes in the midst of my play”
play / is playing with his
playthings)

2. tune (of the song she used to “a tune seems to hover over my playthings, /
hum) … but not the mother the tune of some song that she used to / hum
(her face, herself) while rocking my cradle”

Setting indoor He is among his playthings, and the memory
attached to the place is of a cradle being
rocked — both belong inside the house.

2 1. early autumn “but when in the early autumn morning”

2. the shiuli flowers (together “the smell of the shiuli flowers floats in the air /
with the scent of the morning the scent of the morning service in the temple
service in the temple) / comes to me as the scent of my mother”

Setting outdoor The scent “floats in the air” of an autumn
morning and drifts from a temple — open air,
outside the house.

3 1. gazes (looks steadily) … from “I feel that the stillness of / my mother’s gaze
the sky on my face / has spread all over the sky”

Setting indoor “from my bedroom window I send / my eyes
into the blue of the distant sky” — he is inside
a room, looking out.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What the ‘Setting’ column is really testing: put the three answers in order —
indoor → outdoor → indoor looking out — and notice what happens to the space of
the poem. Stanza 1 is the smallest world there is: a cradle and a floor of toys. Stanza
2 opens the door and lets in a whole autumn morning and a temple down the road.
Stanza 3 keeps the body indoors but sends the eyes “into the blue of the distant
sky”, so the poem ends larger than it can physically be. The mother grows at exactly
the same rate as the setting: a voice by a cradle, then a scent over a neighbourhood,
then a gaze “spread all over the sky”. The fill-in-the-blanks is quietly asking you to
notice the poem expanding.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 II. The senses of olfactory (smell), auditory (hearing), and visual (sight), are three of
the five basic senses in humans. Give examples of references to senses from the
poem. Complete the table given below.

STANZA LINES FROM THE POEM SENSES

1. ________________________
________________________
________________________
________________________

3. …the tune of some song that she used to hum while rocking
my cradle

2. ________________________ olfactory
________________________
________________________
________________________

The table as printed on page 128 — two cells are already filled in for you.

STANZA LINES FROM THE POEM SENSES

1 “a tune seems to hover over my playthings, / the tune of some song that she auditory
used to / hum while rocking my cradle” (the line printed as the example)

2 “the smell of the shiuli flowers floats in the air / the scent of the morning olfactory
service in the temple / comes to me as the scent of my mother”

3 “from my bedroom window I send / my eyes into the blue of the distant sky, / I visual
feel that the stillness of / my mother’s gaze on my face / has spread all over the
sky”

A note on the printed table: the example line — “the tune of some song that she
used to hum while rocking my cradle” — is printed in the row numbered 3, but that
line belongs to Stanza 1 of the poem, and the row whose sense is already given as
“olfactory” must be Stanza 2. Fill the table by matching the lines and the sense, as
above, and note the discrepancy in the row numbers when you show it to your
teacher.

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ase
Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

c om
Two extra observations worth adding under the table:
.
m and “I
Stanza 3 is not purely visual — “the stillness of my mother’s gaze” brings in esilence,
m a s
.
feel” bringscoin touch. The senses begin to blur as the poem widens. agl
a s em
l
Stanza 1 also carries a kinaesthetic image — the rocking of the cradle — which is why the

agstanza has a swaying movement when read aloud.

. c om
Why one sense per stanza: Tagore is describing a mother he cannot picture, so he
ag
a s em
cannot use the ordinary method of description. Instead he gives each stanza a single

a glThe order matters too. Hearing and smell are the
sense and lets it do all the work.
senses that survive earliest infancy and reach us without being asked for; sight is the

c o m
one that fails him — he cannot see her face. So the poem saves sight for last and
.
m where she
s e
then uses it on the sky rather than on her. He looks in the only direction

c bemfound.
can still o
. a gla
a s em
a gl
m
III. Read the poem silently once again and complete the following. 1. Two examples
a s
.co agl
Q3

em
of alliteration from the poem are (i) __________ and (ii) ___________. 2. An example of

a s
a l have a rhyme scheme, it is enjoyable because
onomatopoeia is ________________. 3. The poem uses imagery extensively. Explain. 4.
Although the poem doesgnot
______________. 5. What is the tone of the poet? Why do you say so? 6. What impact

com
does the title of the poem have on the overall mood of the poem? 7. The poet uses ‘I

m .
se
cannot remember my mother’ as a refrain because __________________. 8. The poet uses

o m l a
g device in which a
.cused in the poem. [Boxes on page 129: Symbolism is a literary
symbolism to indicate the memory of his mother’s presence. Identify the symbols

e m a
a s
agl
writer uses a tangible object, abstract idea, or phenomenon that represents
something beyond the literal meaning. It helps the poet convey deeper meanings

se m
m a
and to connect with readers on an emotional level. Refrain is a poetic device

.c o a g l
m
defined as a line or a group of lines that is repeated at regular intervals in a poem.]

l a se
ANSWER ag
m
1. Alliteration — the repetition of the same consonant sound at the start of nearby words.

. co
e m
(i) “my mother” — the repeated /m/, which returns at the head of every stanza. It is also the
m l as
.co g
softest, most closed-mouth consonant in English, and the sound a hum is made of.

em drift. a
s
(ii) “the smell of the shiuli flowers floats in the air” — the repeated /f/ makes the line itself
l a
ag c
m .
e
Also acceptable: “some song … she used to” (/s/), and “hover … hum” (/h/).

om a s
. c agl
2. Onomatopoeia — a word that imitates the sound it names: hum. Saying it aloud produces

s e m so the word does the mother’s singing rather than
a
the low continuous sound it describes,

agl
reporting it.

com
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

3. Imagery. The poem has almost no statement in it — it is built out of images, one for each
sense, and they widen as the poem goes on.

IMAGE SENSE WHAT IT DOES

“a tune seems to hover over my auditory The verb hover holds the tune in the air — neither
playthings” settling nor going away. That is precisely the
condition of a half-memory.

“hum while rocking my cradle” auditory + Sound plus movement; the reader feels the sway as
kinaesthetic well as hears the song.

“the smell of the shiuli flowers olfactory A scent cannot be summoned or refused. It arrives —
floats in the air” which is exactly how this memory behaves.

“the scent of the morning olfactory Incense and flowers, so the mother’s memory takes
service in the temple” on the atmosphere of worship.

“I send / my eyes into the blue visual “Send my eyes” makes looking an act of travel; the
of the distant sky” boy reaches out from a window he cannot leave.

“the stillness of / my mother’s visual + tactile An expression on a face is stretched to the size of the
gaze … has spread all over the horizon.
sky”

Taken together the images move from small and enclosed (playthings, cradle) to open air
(autumn morning, temple) to infinite (the whole sky). That widening is the poem’s meaning: the
less he can picture her, the larger she becomes.
4. Although the poem does not have a rhyme scheme, it is enjoyable because its music comes
from other sources — the refrain that opens each stanza like a returning note, the soft
repeated /m/, /s/ and /h/ sounds, the long vowels in “hover”, “floats” and “blue” that slow
the lines down, and the run-on lines (enjambment) that let each sentence drift across the
line break the way a memory drifts into the mind. The absence of rhyme also keeps the
voice close to ordinary speech, so the feeling sounds confided rather than composed.
5. Tone. The tone is tender, wistful and serene — affectionate and quietly accepting rather
than grieving. The evidence is in the choice of words:

The qualifiers are gentle and modest — “only sometimes”, “seems to hover”, “I feel that”. He
never insists.
There is no exclamation mark, no protest, no “why”. A poem of grief would complain; this
one simply notices.
The key nouns are calm ones — stillness, scent, tune, blue.
Every stanza ends in comfort rather than in loss: a lullaby, a scent “of my mother”, a gaze
covering the sky.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

6. Impact of the title on the mood. The title is a statement of loss, and it is the first thing the
reader meets, so the poem begins in a mood of absence. But every stanza then contradicts it —
he says he cannot remember, and then remembers. The mood that results is therefore
bittersweet rather than sad: each recovered detail feels like something rescued, and the
reader is made to hold the loss and the recovery at the same time. Had the poem been called
“Memories of My Mother”, the same images would have felt merely pleasant. The negative title
is what gives them their weight.
7. The poet uses ‘I cannot remember my mother’ as a refrain because it holds the poem
together and measures what memory can do without a face. Repeating it at the head of
each stanza makes it a fixed point that the three sensory memories can grow out of; the
repetition gives the free verse the rhythm of a returning thought, echoing the very
rocking and humming the poem describes; and, most importantly, it is disproved every
time it is spoken — three lines after each “I cannot remember”, something of her arrives.
The refrain therefore turns from a confession of loss into a measure of what survives.
8. Symbolism. Every concrete object in the poem stands for something larger:

SYMBOL WHAT IT STANDS FOR

the hummed tune the mother’s voice and the care it carried — love that survives as sound after the face is
gone

the cradle infancy itself, and her constant nurturing presence in the years he cannot recall

the shiuli flowers purity, and the autumn festival season of a Bengali childhood; a flower that falls before
dawn, so it stands for something given and lost every night

the scent of the the sacredness of the mother — she is placed on a level with worship
morning service

the blue of the distant her infinite, encompassing presence — vast, constant, above him wherever he goes
sky

the stillness of her calm, watchful, protective love that asks nothing and does not go away
gaze

How the symbols are chosen: not one of them can be held. A tune, a scent, a sky, a
look — all of them reach the boy without being touched and without being kept.
Tagore could have chosen a photograph, a sari, a piece of jewellery. He chose only
things that arrive on their own, because that is how this mother comes back.

Critical Reflection — Pages 129–131

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

I Cannot Remember My Mother (poem)

EXTRACT-BASED ANALYSIS

Q1 I. Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow. 1. I cannot
remember my mother only sometimes in the midst of my play a tune seems to
hover over my playthings, (i) Complete the following sentence appropriately. The
poet is reminded of his mother during his ________________. (ii) What is the primary
emotion conveyed by the line ‘a tune seems to hover over my playthings’? A. It
enhances the joy of play. B. It disrupts the playtime atmosphere. C. It activates
memories of the mother. D. It symbolises the carefree nature of childhood. (iii) In
the context of the poem, what role does the hovering tune play during the
speaker’s playtime? (iv) State whether the following sentence is true or false. The
poet experiences the tune lingering over playthings only occasionally during
playtime. (v) How could the poet feel his mother’s presence, even though she isn’t
there?

(i) The poet is reminded of his mother during his play / playtime — the extract says “only
sometimes in the midst of my play”, and the tune settles “over my playthings”.
(ii) C. It activates memories of the mother. Work it out from the extract alone. The tune is not
a real sound in the room — “seems to” marks it as something felt rather than heard — and the
line that follows in the poem identifies it as “the tune of some song that she used to hum”. So
the tune’s function is to bring the mother back.

A is wrong: nothing in the extract says his play becomes more enjoyable; the tune is not part
of the game.
B is wrong: hover is a gentle word — something floating quietly above. Nothing is disrupted
or broken off.
D is wrong: the playthings do suggest childhood, but the line is about the tune, and the tune
is a link to the past, not a symbol of carefree living. The whole extract is framed by loss — “I
cannot remember my mother”.

(iii) The hovering tune acts as a bridge between the present and a past he cannot otherwise
reach. While his hands are busy with toys in the present, the tune arrives from infancy and
turns an ordinary hour of play into an act of remembering. It is the only fragment of his mother
he still possesses, so it does the work a photograph or a face would normally do. The verb is
exact: something that hovers neither lands nor leaves — it stays just out of reach, which is the
condition of a memory he can feel but not hold. And “only sometimes” means he cannot
summon it; it comes when it chooses.
(iv) TRUE. The extract states it directly — “only sometimes in the midst of my play”. The words
only sometimes mean occasionally, not always; and seems to hover confirms it is intermittent and
uncertain rather than continuous.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

(v) Through the senses rather than through recollection. He has no image of her face, but three
things reach him unasked: a sound (the tune of the song she hummed at his cradle), a smell
(“the smell of the shiuli flowers”, “the scent of the morning service in the temple”), and a sight
that is really a feeling (“the stillness of my mother’s gaze… has spread all over the sky”). Sound
and smell are the senses that record earliest and last longest, so they survive from the years
before he could form pictures or words. She is present to him as sensation and atmosphere —
in the air, in the season, in the sky — rather than as a person he can call to mind.

The paradox the extract sets up: the poem opens by denying memory and then
immediately produces one. That contradiction is the engine of all three stanzas.
What the speaker cannot do is picture her; what he cannot stop doing is sensing her.
Tagore is making a distinction we all recognise but rarely state — that remembering
a person and being reminded of them are two different things, and only the second
is beyond our control.

Q2 I. 2. I feel that the stillness of my mother’s gaze on my face has spread all over the
sky. (i) What does the poet suggest about the stillness of his mother's gaze
spreading over the sky? A. The mother’s gaze is physically present in the sky. B. The
sky is a symbolic extension of the mother’s presence. C. The sky mirrors the
mother’s emotions. D. The stillness is fleeting and unrelated to the mother. (ii) What
emotion does the poet associate with the ‘stillness’ of his mother’s gaze? A. a sense
of grief B. a sense of anticipation C. a sense of nostalgia D. a sense of serenity (iii)
State whether the following sentence is true or false. The poet suggests that the
mother’s gaze has a tangible and visual effect on the sky. (iv) What is the purpose of
likening the mother’s gaze to the sky? (v) Complete the sentence appropriately. The
tone of the poet in the given extract is _____________ because _____________.

(i) B. The sky is a symbolic extension of the mother’s presence. The extract begins “I feel
that…”, which marks everything after it as the speaker’s inward sense, not a fact about the
weather. The sky is being used to stand for a presence that is calm, vast and everywhere — that
is symbolism.

A is a literal misreading: nothing is physically in the sky, and the poem says “I feel”, not “I
see”.
C reverses the direction. The sky is not reflecting her feelings back at us; her stillness has
spread outward into it.
D contradicts the extract twice over — the stillness is her gaze, and it has “spread”, not
vanished.

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Class 9 English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M
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(ii) D. a sense of serenity. The word the poet has chosen is stillness, and stillness is calm,
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unmoving quiet. A gaze that is still is steady and untroubled; spread across a whole sky, it
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there is none.cin these three lines; anticipation (B) requires waiting for something,
becomes peace on a very large scale. Test the others: grief (A) would need loss or weeping, and

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and nothing
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a extract does not look back at all — it describes a present feeling of being watched over.
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Serenity is what the lines actually deliver.

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(iii) FALSE. The effect is imagined and felt, not tangible. The controlling verb is “I feel that”,

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and the poem is describing an impression, not an event. Tangible means able to be touched or
agtouched, and nothing about the sky is actually altered. The
physically verified; a gaze cannot be
image is vivid, which is why the statement is tempting — but a vivid image is still figurative. Had

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Tagore meant something physical, he would have written “I see”.

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(iv) The comparison does three things at once.
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.c the poem’s problem. He cannot remember her face, soahe g cannot describe it. By
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her look to the sky, he gives her the only face still available to him — one he can

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It makes her love limitless and constant. The sky is the largest thing there is, it is always
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overhead, and it is above him wherever he goes. A gaze that has “spread all over” it is a
agl
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aglA mother’s watchful look is silent, unhurried and
protection with no edges and no interruption.
It matches quality to quality.
undemanding — and so is a clear sky. The shared quality is named in the line itself: stillness.

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em to the whole
Technically this is a metaphor, supported by personification — a human expression is given to

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the sky — and it is the poem’s final movement outward, from cradle to garden
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(v) The tone of the poet in the given extract is calm, reverent and comforted because he
a speaks not of losing his mother but of finding her everywhere: the word “stillness” sets a
hush over the lines, the long open vowels of “gaze”, “face” and “sky” slow the reading to
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the pace of someone looking up, and the verb “I feel” shows quiet acceptance rather than
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protest — there is no complaint, no exclamation and no question anywhere in the three
lines.
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Why this is the right place to end the poem: stanza 1 gave him a tune above his
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toys, stanza 2 a scent over a neighbourhood, and now a gaze over the entire sky.
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Each stanza has enlarged the mother, and this one can go no further — there is

s e m nothing bigger than the sky. The poem stops the moment the expansion is
agla complete, which is why the last line feels final without needing a rhyme to close it.
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