M. Visvesvaraya was a civil engineer. His vocation was engineering — the designing and building of dams, canals and water systems. He planned and built the Krishna Raja Sagara dam across the Kaveri river in Karnataka, which still gives water to farms and to the city of Mysuru. He designed a system of gates for dams that let water out safely, and he planned flood protection for the city of Hyderabad. He later served as the Diwan of Mysore , where he started schools, factories and a bank. Did you know? His birthday, 15 September , is celebrated all over India as Engineers’ Day .

Janaki Ammal was a botanist — a scientist who studies plants. Her vocation was plant science . She studied the tiny parts inside plant cells to understand how plants change and how new kinds are formed. She worked on sugarcane , and helped develop sweeter varieties that could grow well in India. She travelled through the forests of India studying wild plants, and she spoke up for saving the forests of the Silent Valley in Kerala. She was one of the first Indian women to become a leading scientist, at a time when very few women could. In one line: Janaki Ammal — botanist and plant scientist, remembered for her work on sugarcane and on the wild plants of India.

Salim Ali was an ornithologist — a scientist who studies birds. His vocation was the study of birds . The word ornithologist is made of two parts: ornith , which means bird, and ologist , which means one who studies. He travelled all over India with a notebook and a pair of binoculars, counting birds and writing down where each kind lived. He wrote The Book of Indian Birds , which taught two generations of Indians how to recognise the birds around them. He worked hard to protect bird homes such as the Bharatpur bird sanctuary in Rajasthan. He is called the “Birdman of India” . Person Vocation Best known for A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Aerospace scientist and engineer; President of India India’s missile and space programmes; the “Missile Man of India” M. Visvesvaraya Civil engineer The Krishna Raja Sagara dam; Engineers’ Day is his birthday Janaki Ammal Botanist (plant scientist) Work on sugarcane and on India’s wild plants M.S. Subbulakshmi Carnatic classical singer Singing at the United Nations; first musician to receive the Bharat Ratna Salim Ali Ornithologist (bird scientist) The Book of Indian Birds ; the “Birdman of India” What the five have in common: Not one of them did an ordinary job in an ordinary way. Each turned his or her work into a lifetime’s calling — which is exactly what the word vocation means.

NCERT Solutions for Class 5th English Chapter 9 . What’s missing? · 2. Vocations in your family · 3. Five well-known Indians — Let us Write

Book page 1141 Updated on2026-09-19

Q1.

What’s missing? The child sees only the fun part of each job. What do you think might be the difficult or boring part of being a hawker, a gardener or a watchman? Write a paragraph to express your thoughts.

Answer

How to build this paragraph:

Start with one sentence saying what the child saw — the free, happy side.
Take the three workers one by one. For each, name one hard thing and one dull thing.
Think about the body (tired legs, sun, rain, no sleep) and about money (a day with no sale).
End with one sentence saying that the work is still worth respect. Do not end by saying the child was silly — his wish was a real one.

What a good answer needs: real difficulties, not made-up ones; one for each of the three workers; and a respectful last line. The chapter is called Work is Worship, so the paragraph should end by respecting the worker, not by pitying him.

Sample answer:

The child watches each worker for only a minute, and in that minute the work looks like freedom. But he does not stay long enough to see the rest of the day.

The hawker walks from street to street for hours with a heavy load of bangles on his head. His legs ache, and he must call out again and again in the heat until his throat is dry. Some days nobody buys, and then he has walked all day for very little. He cannot stop when he is tired, because he earns only when he sells.

The gardener does what he likes with his spade, but digging is hard work. His back and shoulders hurt by the afternoon. He works in the burning sun of May and in the rain of July, and the dust he gets on his clothes has to be washed off by somebody at the end of the day. Watering and weeding must be done again the next morning, and the morning after that — the same work, over and over.

The watchman stays awake all night while the whole lane sleeps. Night after night he walks up and down the same street, and there is very little to see. It is cold in winter and lonely always, and he must sleep in the daytime, when children are playing and shops are open. If anything goes wrong in the lane, it is he who must face it first.

So the child’s wish is a lovely one, but it is only half the picture. These are three real jobs, done by three people who work hard and are needed. That is worth knowing, and worth respecting.

Why the book asks this: The heading is “What’s missing?” The poem is honest about what the child sees. This task asks you to fill in what he does not see — so that you admire the workers for the right reason.

Q2.

In the poem, the speaker tells us about the vocations of different people. Write the vocations of any three of your family members, in 50-60 words each, from the list below. Mother, Grandmother, Aunt, Sister, Father, Brother, Uncle

Answer

How to write each paragraph:

Begin by naming the person and the vocation: “My mother is a …”
Say where she works and what she does in a day.
Name one tool or thing she uses.
End with one line about why her work matters.
Count your words. The book asks for 50 to 60 words for each person — that is about four or five sentences.

One important point: Work at home is work too. Cooking, washing, cleaning, caring for a baby, milking the cow, looking after a grandparent — all of that is real work, even though nobody pays a salary for it. If a family member works at home, write about that work with the same respect you would give any other vocation.

Sample answer — three paragraphs, each about 55 words:

My mother. My mother is a homemaker. She runs our whole house. She wakes at five, cooks breakfast and packs three tiffins, then washes clothes and cleans the rooms. In the afternoon she stitches blouses for two neighbours on her sewing machine and earns a little from it. Her work never stops, and nothing in our home would run without her. (56 words)

My father. My father is an electrician. He works in the shops and houses of our locality. When a fan stops or a wire burns, people call him and he goes with his bag of tools. He uses a screwdriver, a tester and a roll of black tape. His work keeps the lights and fans of many homes working. (56 words)

My uncle. My uncle is a farmer in our village. He grows wheat in winter and paddy in the rainy season. He is in the field by six in the morning, watering the crop and pulling out weeds. At harvest time he cuts the wheat with a sickle. Because of farmers like him, we all have food on our plates. (57 words)

Check your own writing: Count the words of each paragraph on your fingers, ten at a time. If you are under fifty, add a sentence about a tool or a working hour. If you are over sixty, take out the sentence that repeats something.

Q3.

What vocations are the following people associated with? • A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Answer

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was a scientist and an engineer — and later the President of India.

His vocation was aerospace science and engineering. He worked at ISRO, our space organisation, and at DRDO, which builds equipment for our defence.
He helped build India’s first satellite launch vehicle and later led the work on our missiles. Because of that work people call him the “Missile Man of India”.
He became the eleventh President of India and served from 2002 to 2007.
He also loved teaching. Even as President he said he liked being called a teacher best of all, and he spent much of his later life speaking to schoolchildren.

In one line: A.P.J. Abdul Kalam — aerospace scientist, missile engineer, teacher, and President of India.

Q3.

• M. Visvesvaraya

Answer

M. Visvesvaraya was a civil engineer.

His vocation was engineering — the designing and building of dams, canals and water systems.
He planned and built the Krishna Raja Sagara dam across the Kaveri river in Karnataka, which still gives water to farms and to the city of Mysuru.
He designed a system of gates for dams that let water out safely, and he planned flood protection for the city of Hyderabad.
He later served as the Diwan of Mysore, where he started schools, factories and a bank.

Did you know? His birthday, 15 September, is celebrated all over India as Engineers’ Day.

Q3.

• Janaki Ammal

Answer

Janaki Ammal was a botanist — a scientist who studies plants.

Her vocation was plant science. She studied the tiny parts inside plant cells to understand how plants change and how new kinds are formed.
She worked on sugarcane, and helped develop sweeter varieties that could grow well in India.
She travelled through the forests of India studying wild plants, and she spoke up for saving the forests of the Silent Valley in Kerala.
She was one of the first Indian women to become a leading scientist, at a time when very few women could.

In one line: Janaki Ammal — botanist and plant scientist, remembered for her work on sugarcane and on the wild plants of India.

Q3.

• M.S. Subbulakshmi

Answer

M.S. Subbulakshmi was a singer — a great Carnatic classical vocalist.

Her vocation was music. She sang Carnatic music, the classical music of South India, and also devotional songs and bhajans that ordinary people loved.
She sang at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 1966 — the first Indian musician to do so.
She was the first musician to be given the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award.
Many people in South India still wake to a recording of her voice singing the Suprabhatam in the early morning.

In one line: M.S. Subbulakshmi — Carnatic classical singer, whose voice carried Indian music to the whole world.

Q3.

• Salim Ali

Answer

Salim Ali was an ornithologist — a scientist who studies birds.

His vocation was the study of birds. The word ornithologist is made of two parts: ornith, which means bird, and ologist, which means one who studies.
He travelled all over India with a notebook and a pair of binoculars, counting birds and writing down where each kind lived.
He wrote The Book of Indian Birds, which taught two generations of Indians how to recognise the birds around them.
He worked hard to protect bird homes such as the Bharatpur bird sanctuary in Rajasthan. He is called the “Birdman of India”.

Person	Vocation	Best known for
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam	Aerospace scientist and engineer; President of India	India’s missile and space programmes; the “Missile Man of India”
M. Visvesvaraya	Civil engineer	The Krishna Raja Sagara dam; Engineers’ Day is his birthday
Janaki Ammal	Botanist (plant scientist)	Work on sugarcane and on India’s wild plants
M.S. Subbulakshmi	Carnatic classical singer	Singing at the United Nations; first musician to receive the Bharat Ratna
Salim Ali	Ornithologist (bird scientist)	The Book of Indian Birds; the “Birdman of India”

What the five have in common: Not one of them did an ordinary job in an ordinary way. Each turned his or her work into a lifetime’s calling — which is exactly what the word vocation means.

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