Vitamin-M: Class 9 Kaveri · Chapter 4

4.1 Before you read: growing old at home

Think of the oldest person you know well: a grandparent, a neighbour, the retired teacher who still walks to the market every morning. Which everyday jobs have become hard for them, and which ones would they hate to give up? This unit's story is about exactly that tug between needing help and wanting to stay in charge of your own life.

Compare notes with a partner. You might mention weak eyes or ears, aching joints, a fear of falling, forgetting medicines, loneliness, or simply being left out when the family decides things. Then talk about solutions that keep an older person both safe and respected.

4.2 Vitamin-M: the story, part by part

Read each part in your textbook first. Then use the summary and notes here to check that you have followed every event. The story is told in the third person, mostly through Ravi's eyes, and it falls into three parts.

• Grandpa: a 75-year-old retired lawyer, father of Ravi's mother, who has recently moved to the city.
• Vidya: Ravi's mother, who goes out to work and worries about her father.
• Ravi: her son, whose school holidays have just begun.
• Ravi's father: appears only at the end; he usually brings Grandpa his Tamil newspaper.

Setting: a small flat in a crowded Indian city, and the streets around it (a park, a tea stall, a barber's shop and a bus stop) on the first day of Ravi's holidays.

4.2.1 Part I: Grandpa in the city

The story opens with Ravi's mother sorting her father's tablets and wishing aloud that someone would invent a vitamin for memory, which she names Vitamin-M, for old people. Ravi hushes her in case Grandpa hears. She is sure his ears, eyes and memory are all failing, and she is relieved that Ravi's holidays have started, so that somebody will be at home with him.

We soon learn why she is so anxious. Grandpa joined the family only a month ago. Since then he has swallowed his medicines twice by mistake and landed in hospital, and he once lost his way home after a walk. Being forbidden to go out alone hurt his pride. A widower for ten years, he had cooked, shopped and kept house on his own, and he resents being moved into a cramped flat in a crowded city.

Grandpa still dreams of his little brick house in town, with its mango tree and its evening calm. Yet that house is also the reason he had to leave. One evening he slipped in the garden and lay helpless until morning, since he lived alone and could not get up by himself. After that, Vidya locked the house and brought her frail father to live with her.

Before leaving for work, Vidya orders Ravi never to let Grandpa out on his own and explains which medicines to give after lunch. Her voice turns loud and slow whenever she addresses her father, the way people talk to a toddler. Ravi winces with embarrassment on Grandpa's behalf, but Grandpa just keeps rocking in his chair.

Left alone with Ravi, Grandpa shows a different side. He is a calm, crafty chess player who can recall famous games between world champions, though the names of neighbours often slip his mind. Instead of playing, he announces that he will fetch his Tamil newspaper from the corner shop. When Ravi offers to go instead, Grandpa demands to know whether Vidya has told Ravi to keep him locked up like a toddler. Ravi stands up for his mother and denies it, and Grandpa neatly turns that denial against him: in that case, Ravi cannot object to his going out.

Grandpa sets off with his polished black walking stick, its brass handle carved like an eagle's head, and his bright yellow cap. Ravi is caught in a dilemma. If he insists on going along, Grandpa will feel hurt; if he lets him go alone, his mother will be furious. He decides to follow at a safe distance, without being seen.

4.2.2 Part II: Ravi turns detective

By the time Ravi reaches the street, the yellow cap is already turning a corner, and the chase begins. First Grandpa visits the children's park, where he munches peanuts on a bench and enjoys the children's games. Ravi crouches behind a hedge trimmed like an elephant. A small child takes it for a game of hide-and-seek and tries to help. Ravi shushes him, the boy's mother storms up with her umbrella raised, and Ravi makes his escape bent double, creeping from bench to bush.

Next, Grandpa stops at a tea stall. Ravi takes cover behind a banyan tree, but the women selling combs and ribbons under it take him for a rival vendor or a spy, and they crowd round him with very loud voices. He retreats behind a parked car. From there he watches Grandpa enjoy a sweet cup of tea, two bananas and an ice cream, all things he is not allowed at home.

Grandpa then weaves across a busy road while brakes screech and Ravi squeezes his eyes shut. He walks into a barber's shop, which is odd, because he has no hair at all. Ravi slips into the shop next door to keep watch, but it turns out to be a ladies' beauty parlour, and shrieking customers throw him out.

Outside again, Ravi spots the yellow cap hurrying to the bus stop and climbing on to a bus. He races after it and scrambles on board as it pulls away. When the cap comes off in the stuffy bus, Ravi sees thick grey hair underneath. The wearer is a stranger, dressed in white just like Grandpa, and the cap even carries Grandpa's old coffee stain. The man explains that a generous elderly man at the barber's pressed it on him because of the heat. It is exactly the sort of thing kind-hearted Grandpa would do. So where has he gone?

4.2.3 Part III: home again, and a surprise

Ravi searches the barber's shop and the park again, but Grandpa is nowhere to be seen. From a telephone booth he rings his mother's office, then his father's, but both numbers are engaged. Frantic, he trudges home. The moment he opens the door, gentle snores drift out of Grandpa's room: Grandpa has found his own way back.

Flooded with relief and love, Ravi kneels by the bed, rests his face against Grandpa's lined cheek, breathing in eucalyptus balm and shaving cream, and hugs him. He keeps his questions to himself, because asking them would give away his secret morning.

When Vidya comes home and asks about their day, Grandpa coolly reports that his morning was peaceful, but that Ravi went missing when he should have been on duty. Ravi is left speechless. Then Grandpa hands Ravi a wrapped present. Vidya reminds her father, a little impatiently, that Ravi's birthday is long past, and asks whether he has forgotten. Grandpa reminds her that he always gives every child in the family a gift on his own birthday, and asks whether she has forgotten. Vidya turns red: she had circled the date on her calendar herself. Grandpa has wrapped presents for Vidya and her husband as well; to him they are still his little ones.

Grandpa then remarks to Ravi's father that his daughter could do with some Vitamin-M. Ravi unwraps a thick collection of detective stories. With a perfectly straight face, Grandpa suggests it may teach him a trick or two, such as not being fooled when shadowing someone. Ravi's father, more puzzled than ever, doubts that Ravi plans a career in detection. Ravi says he is still making up his mind. Really, he is trying to work out whether Grandpa's eyes are shining with innocence or with mischief.

What the ending means. The story never says outright that Grandpa knew he was being followed, but the clues add up (Fig. 4.4). His claim that Ravi disappeared, the choice of a detective book and the tip about not being fooled all suggest that he spotted Ravi early and enjoyed leading him on a merry chase, perhaps even passing on his cap on purpose. The open ending lets the reader decide, just as Ravi must.

The final irony is that the forgetful person is not Grandpa at all. It is the daughter who wished for memory pills for old people, and who forgot her own father's birthday.

4.3 Characters, themes and message

Exam questions on this story often ask you to describe a character or to prove a point from the text. The safest method is trait + event + what it shows: name the quality, point to the moment that reveals it, and explain the link in one sentence.

Themes (big ideas) you can write about:

• Respect for the elderly. Old age may bring weak eyes and slow steps, but it does not take away a person's intelligence, pride or right to make choices.
• Care versus control. Vidya's care comes from love, but it slides into control. Ravi finds a middle path: he gives Grandpa freedom while quietly keeping him safe.
• Memory and forgetting. Everyone forgets things. The person who jokes about old people's memories turns out to be the forgetful one.
• Bonds between generations. Grandpa and Ravi grow closer through chess, a chase and a shared secret.

The title. Vitamin-M begins as Vidya's half-joking wish for a memory pill for old people. By the end Grandpa hands the joke back to her: she is the one who needs it. So the title points straight at the story's central irony and its gentle message that we should not judge people by their age.

4.4 Vocabulary and grammar from the story

The story's language work covers lively verbs, word study, prepositions, two kinds of questions, and reporting questions in indirect speech. Each part below gives the rule, examples and a short check.

4.4.1 Words for movement and sound

Writers make a scene vivid with exact verbs. In Part II, Asha Nehemiah rarely settles for walked or said. Her characters creep, duck and sprint, and voices boom. Some verbs tell us how someone moves; others tell us what we hear.

A word can belong to both groups. Bustle names busy movement and the noise it makes, and a car that screeches to a halt is both moving and making a sound. Decide from the sentence.

4.4.2 Word study: meanings, synonyms and antonyms

A synonym means nearly the same as a word; an antonym means the opposite. A good dictionary also gives the part of speech, which tells you how the word works in a sentence. Here are six useful words from the story.

4.4.3 Prepositions

Spot prepositions as you reread the story: Grandpa settles on a bench, Ravi peers through the windows of a parked car, and later he leaps on to a bus before it pulls away. Prepositions answer four common questions:

• Where? (place): in, on, at, under, behind, beside, between, among, near
• Where to? (direction or movement): to, into, towards, across, through, along, over, past
• When? (time): at six o'clock, on Monday, in June, before lunch, during the holidays, since 2020, for two hours
• How? (manner or means): by bus, with a stick, in a hurry, like a detective

Watch these pairs: between is for two people or things, among for more than two. Beside means next to, while besides means in addition to. Into shows movement from outside to inside, while in shows position.

4.4.4 Asking questions: two kinds of interrogative sentence

Most questions in English belong to one of two families. Look at the first word.

The story uses both kinds. Ravi's offer of a game, the little boy's hide-and-seek question and Grandpa's question to Vidya about her memory are Yes/No questions; the angry mother's demand to know who Ravi is, and Vidya's evening question about the day, are Wh- questions.

4.4.5 Reporting questions: direct to indirect speech

When we repeat someone's exact words inside quotation marks, we use direct speech. When we pass on what they said in our own sentence, usually later, we use indirect (reported) speech. To report a question:

1. Use a reporting verb such as asked, enquired or wanted to know.
2. For a Yes/No question, add if or whether. For a Wh- question, keep the question word (where, why, how …).
3. Turn the question into a statement: subject before verb, no do/does/did helper, and a full stop instead of a question mark.
4. Change pronouns to suit the reporter (you may become I, he or she).
5. If the reporting verb is in the past, move each tense one step back and change words of time and place.

• Neha asked her grandmother, “Do you take sugar in your tea?” → Neha asked her grandmother whether she took sugar in her tea.
• The doctor asked Dadaji, “Where does it hurt?” → The doctor asked Dadaji where it hurt.
• If the reporting verb is in the present (asks, wants to know), the tense does not change: Riya asks, “Is the shop open?” → Riya asks if the shop is open.

4.5 Listening, speaking and writing

4.5.1 Listening: a short talk on meditation

In class your teacher will play a short podcast on meditation. To practise the same skill at home, ask a family member or friend to open the box below and read the talk aloud to you once, at a normal speed, while you keep it closed. Then complete the notes, using no more than three words for each blank.

4.5.2 Speaking: the tune of a question

The same words can sound polite, puzzled or certain, depending on their tune. That tune, the rise and fall of the voice, is called intonation. Questions follow a few common patterns.

• Wh- questions usually fall at the end: What time does the train leave? ↘
• Yes/No questions usually rise: Is the shop open? ↗
• Question tags when you are fairly sure and expect agreement fall on the tag: You're Ravi's friend, aren't you? ↘
• Question tags that really ask, because you are not sure, rise on the tag: You haven't seen my keys, have you? ↗
• Choice questions rise on the first choice and fall on the last: Shall we walk ↗ or take a rickshaw ↘?

Practise in pairs. Pick six questions from the story, some asked by Grandpa, some by Ravi's mother and some by the people Ravi meets, and say each one aloud with the right tune. Your partner tells you whether you sounded sure, curious or annoyed.

4.5.3 Speaking: a short talk on caring for an older person

4.5.4 Writing: an article for the school magazine

An article shares information and opinion with many readers. It has a catchy title, the writer's name and well-planned paragraphs.

• Title at the top; your name and class just below it.
• Paragraph 1, introduction: state the main idea in two or three lines, without details.
• Paragraph 2, body: support the idea with examples, facts or a short quotation.
• Paragraph 3, body: show how older people overcame difficulties, and how that inspires you.
• Paragraph 4, conclusion: sum up and end on a thought that stays with the reader.
• Style: about 150 to 200 words; formal but warm; no slang.

4.6 Beyond the story

4.7 I Cannot Remember My Mother: before you read

The unit's second text is a short poem about a different kind of memory. Its speaker lost his mother so early that he has no picture of her, yet she has not vanished from his life.

4.8 Reading the poem, stanza by stanza

Read the poem in your textbook first, aloud if you can. It has three short stanzas and no rhyme. Each stanza opens with the same line, “I cannot remember my mother”, and then turns, with a small word such as only or but, to something the speaker can still sense.

4.8.1 Stanza 1: a tune among the toys

What happens: the speaker, still a child, has no picture of his mother at all, yet while he is lost in his games a half-remembered melody sometimes returns to him. What it means: the melody is a lullaby from his babyhood, from a time before he could store pictures, so the memory is one of sound, not sight (auditory imagery). It comes unasked, and the poet says it happens “only sometimes”, which shows how faint and precious it is. Even in his most carefree moments, she is quietly part of his world.

4.8.2 Stanza 2: the scent of an autumn morning

What happens: on early autumn mornings, the fragrance of shiuli blossoms mingles with the smells of dawn worship at a temple, and the speaker experiences that mixture as his mother's own scent. What it means: this memory works through smell (olfactory imagery). Shiuli, small white flowers with orange centres that open at night and drop by dawn, and temple prayers both suggest purity, gentleness and devotion, so he thinks of his mother as almost sacred. Because autumn returns every year, so does this sense of her.

4.8.3 Stanza 3: a gaze as wide as the sky

What happens: gazing from his bedroom window at the far-off blue sky, the speaker senses in its calm the steady, loving look his mother once gave him, now stretched across the whole sky. What it means: this is the poem's largest image, visual and a metaphor at once. The sky is vast, calm and always overhead, so her love seems to surround and protect him wherever he is. The poem ends not in grief but in quiet comfort.

4.8.4 Poetic devices

Tagore uses simple words, but a few poetic devices shape every line. Learn each one by name, with an example from the poem.

• Refrain: the opening line of each stanza is repeated. It returns like a slow, steady drumbeat, reminding us of the loss, even as each stanza discovers a new way in which the mother is present.
• Alliteration: the same first consonant sound in nearby words, as in “my mother” and “some song”.
• Onomatopoeia: a word that sounds like what it means. Hum imitates the low sound of singing with closed lips.
• Imagery: word pictures for the senses: the tune over the toys (hearing), the scent of shiuli and the temple (smell), and the distant blue sky (sight).
• Metaphor: the mother's still gaze becomes the sky itself, spread above the child.
• Free verse: there is no rhyme scheme and no fixed beat. The poem still pleases the ear through its refrain, its repeated sounds and its calm, prayer-like rhythm.

4.8.5 Mood, tone and title

Tone: tender, wistful and calm. The speaker is sad that he cannot recall his mother, but he does not complain or weep. He gathers the small signs of her with quiet gratitude, so the tone moves from loss towards comfort and peace.

Title and mood: the title states a loss, so we expect grief. The poem then surprises us: a person we cannot remember can still live in our senses. This tension between forgetting and feeling gives the poem its gentle, nostalgic mood.

Message: love leaves traces deeper than memory. A mother's care survives in sounds, smells and sights long after the details have faded. Notice the link with the story: both texts ask what memory really is.

4.9 Vocabulary: words for the senses

The poem shows how much a few sensory words can do: they let a reader see, hear, smell, touch or taste a scene. Grouping them by sense helps you choose the exact word when you write.

• Visual (sight): glittering, misty, scarlet, towering, dim
• Auditory (hearing): crackle, murmur, clang, shrill, buzz
• Olfactory (smell): fragrant, musty, smoky, aroma, rotten
• Tactile (touch): silky, prickly, damp, icy, rough
• Gustatory (taste): tangy, bitter, sugary, salty, spicy

Many words fit more than one sense. Sharp can describe a taste, a smell, a sound or a knife's edge, and fresh can describe bread, air or a breeze. Decide from the sentence.

4.10 Listening, speaking and writing

4.10.1 Listening: four childhood memories

In class you will hear four people describe their childhood. To practise at home, ask a partner to read the four short talks in the box aloud, one at a time, while you keep it closed. Then match each statement to its speaker. Two statements fit nobody.

4.10.2 Speaking: a memory that matters

4.10.3 Writing: a diary entry

A diary entry is a personal record of what happened and how you felt about it, usually written on the same day. Its format is simple:

• Day, date and time at the top.
• An optional greeting such as Dear Diary.
• First person (I, my, we), mostly in the past tense.
• Sensory details: what you saw, heard, smelt, tasted and touched.
• Feelings, not just facts; focus on the moments that mattered most.
• A closing reflection, then your name or initial.
• About 120 to 150 words.

4.11 Beyond the poem

The shiuli in the poem is one of many Indian flowers with a story. Start a class chart with these and add more from your own state.