NCERT Solutions for Class 5th The World Around Us Chapter 10 One Earth, One Family! — Write

It teaches us that the whole world is one family. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is an old saying from ancient India, and it means ‘the world is one family’. Not one country, not one village — the world.

Four things it teaches, in order:

1. Everyone belongs. All people, animals, trees, rivers, and even the air and the sky are part of this family. Not just human beings, and not just the people who live near you.
2. We depend on each other. We live together and we need one another. The tree gives you air, the river gives you water, the farmer grows your food, the bird protects the farmer's crop.
3. So we should behave like family. When you see the world as one family you learn to live with respect, care and love — for one another and for the Earth that supports us all.
4. Caring for the Earth is caring for each other. If you dirty the river, you have not harmed the river; you have harmed everyone downstream who drinks from it. The two things are the same thing.

In your own words means: do not copy the book's line. Say it the way you would say it to a younger child. Here are several ways of saying the same thing — write the one that sounds like you, or make your own.

Sample answers

• “The whole world is one big family, and everybody in it — people, animals, trees and rivers — is a relative of mine.”
• “There is really only one family on Earth, and all of us are in it. The borders are only lines on a map.”
• “Everyone on this planet is my own, so I should treat a stranger the way I treat my cousin.”
• “The Earth is one house. All of us live in different rooms of the same house, so we must keep it clean together.”
• “No one here is an outsider. The trees, the birds, the rivers and every person are part of one family with me.”

Two rules for writing it in your own words:

1. Use your everyday words. If you would say ‘apna’, ‘ghar’ or ‘sab log’ when talking to a friend, use words like that.
2. Add one example from your own life. That is what makes it yours: “…which is why my mother gives water to the sparrows in summer, even though they are not ours.”

By treating our differences as ordinary rather than as a problem — and by doing small, everyday things that show respect and care. Families are not made of people who are alike. Your own family has an old grandfather, a baby, a farmer and a student in it, and it still works.

Things you can actually do — this week, in your own school and street:

1. Learn a few words of a classmate's language. Learn how to say ‘thank you’ and ‘how are you’ in it. Nothing makes a person feel more welcome.
2. Never laugh at anyone's food, clothes, accent or name. This is the single most useful rule on the whole list.
3. Sit with someone new. Change your seat once a week. Talk to the child everyone leaves out.
4. Share. Share your tiffin, your colour pencils, your umbrella. Sharing is how a group of children becomes a class.
5. Mix the teams. When you pick teams for a game, do not pick only your own friends. Make sure the child who is picked last is picked earlier next time.
6. Listen before you argue. When there is a fight, let each side speak fully once, without being interrupted. Most quarrels shrink at that point.
7. Take part in festivals that are not yours. Eat the food, learn what it is for, and wish people. Curiosity is a form of respect.
8. Look after the things everybody uses. The classroom, the tap, the toilet, the playground, the bus stop. Keeping a shared place clean is a way of saying ‘these people are mine’.
9. Include animals and plants. Keep a bowl of water out in summer. Do not break branches. They are part of the family too, as the chapter says.
10. Help without being asked. Carry a heavy bag, pick up something that fell, explain a sum to someone who did not follow.