NCERT Solutions for Class 5th The World Around Us Chapter 5 Closing questions — Let us reflect

Pick a language you will actually get to use, and say who you will use it with. That is what makes this a good answer instead of a guess.

Three sensible ways to choose:

1. The language spoken around you. A friend in class, a neighbour, a shopkeeper — you will get to practise every day.
2. A language of your own family. Many children understand a grandparent's language but cannot speak it. Learning it opens up your grandparent's stories.
3. A language you like the sound of. A song, a film or a poem is a perfectly good reason.

Sample answer: I would like to learn Tamil. Two families in our lane speak Tamil at home, and my friend Meena reads Tamil books that I cannot read. Tamil is also one of the oldest living languages in the world, with poems written more than two thousand years ago. I would start with everyday sentences — how are you, what is your name, thank you — and Meena has said she will teach me the letters.

Every note in the present series carries a famous Indian monument on its back. Here is the table filled in.

A quick look at each one:

• Sun Temple, Konark — a temple built as a giant stone chariot for the Sun God, with twenty-four carved wheels and seven horses.
• Ellora Caves — halls and temples cut straight into a hillside of rock, made by three different faiths side by side.
• Stone Chariot, Hampi — a small chariot carved out of stone in the ruins of the great city of Vijayanagara.
• Rani ki Vav — a stepwell that goes seven storeys down into the ground, its walls covered with hundreds of carvings.
• Sanchi Stupa — a great dome of brick and stone built to hold relics of the Buddha, begun in the time of Emperor Ashoka.
• Red Fort, Delhi — the red sandstone fort from where the Prime Minister addresses the country every Independence Day.

India's currency symbol is ₹ — the fourth one in the row. It is the rupee sign.

How to spot it. Look at the Devanagari letter र (ra). Now add a line across the top and a second short line lower down, like the two bars in an equals sign. That is ₹. It is the Devanagari र and the Roman R joined together, with the two bars standing for the two lines of the tricolour and for equality.

In the English edition the last symbol, the pound, is printed twice in two different type styles, so eight boxes are shown; the Hindi edition prints seven.

The clearest animals on a ten-rupee note are the lions of the National Emblem, printed on the front.

1. Lions. On the right of the front, beside the value, is the National Emblem — the Lion Capital of Ashoka. Three lions stand back to back on a round base. (A fourth lion is there, hidden behind the others.)
2. A horse and a bull. Look at the round base just under the lions. On that band are carved a galloping horse and a bull, with wheels between them. They are small, so hold the note in good light.
3. The carvings on the back. The back of the note shows the Sun Temple of Konark. That temple is built as the Sun God's chariot, drawn by horses, and its stone walls carry many carved animals, including elephants. Look closely at the carved wall printed beside the great wheel.

Look at the six portraits on page 92, row by row, from left to right.

Top row

1. Bhagat Singh — the young man in the brown felt hat and light shirt. He was a revolutionary freedom fighter from Punjab. He and his friends wanted the British to leave India at once, and he used the slogan Inquilab Zindabad — long live the revolution. He was hanged in 1931, when he was only 23. His courage at such a young age still stirs people.
2. Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi — the woman in the red headwrap with pearls and a red saree. She was the queen of Jhansi. When the British tried to take her kingdom, she refused to hand it over and led her soldiers herself in the great uprising of 1857. She died fighting, and she is remembered as one of the bravest leaders in our history.
3. Subhas Chandra Bose (Netaji) — the man in the green military uniform, cap and round glasses. He believed India would have to fight for its freedom, and he built the Azad Hind Fauj (the Indian National Army). His call was, Give me blood, and I will give you freedom. The greeting Jai Hind comes from him.

Bottom row

4. Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam — the smiling elderly man with silver hair. He was a scientist who led India's rocket and missile work, which is why he is called the Missile Man of India. He became the 11th President of India. He always said he wanted to be remembered as a teacher, and he spent his last years talking to school children.
5. Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan — the man in the white turban and round glasses. He was a great teacher and thinker, and later the first Vice-President and the second President of India. When his students wanted to celebrate his birthday, he asked them to keep it as a day for all teachers instead. That is why 5 September is Teachers' Day in India.
6. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj — the ruler with the pointed beard, pearl necklaces and a plumed turban. He founded the Maratha kingdom in the 17th century. He was a brilliant general who used the hills and forts of his land cleverly, built a navy to guard the coast, and was known for treating ordinary people, farmers and women with justice.

Great people are not only in books. Almost every district in India has someone worth knowing about, and the people who remember them are your own elders.

Step 1 — Make your group and split the work. Four or five children. One writes, one draws, one keeps time, one speaks for the group.

Step 2 — Decide whom to ask. Grandparents, an old neighbour, a retired teacher, the village head, the librarian, the oldest shopkeeper in the lane.

Step 3 — Ask these six questions. Write the answers down as you hear them.

1. Who is a person from our area that people still talk about?
2. When did they live, and what did they do?
3. What changed because of them?
4. Is there anything named after them here — a school, a road, a hospital, a statue?
5. Do you remember any story about them?
6. Who else should we ask?

Step 4 — Look for the kinds of people that get missed. A freedom fighter, yes. But also: the woman who started the first girls' school in the town; the doctor who ran a free clinic; the farmer who brought back a lost seed; the person who cleaned and saved a pond; a sportsperson; a folk singer; a craftsperson who kept an old craft alive.

Step 5 — Present it in three minutes. Name, place, dates, what they did, what changed, and one story. Add a photograph, a drawing or an object if you can.

Sample answer: Our group asked my grandmother about Shanti Devi of our town. In 1974 she began teaching six girls under a tree because there was no school for girls nearby. Parents did not want to send them at first, so she went to each house herself. Within ten years that class had become a proper school. The girls' school on Station Road still stands, and it is named after her. My grandmother was one of those first six girls, and she says the hardest part was not the studying — it was walking past the people who laughed.

A cultural fair is the whole chapter turned into one afternoon. Here is how to run it and how to end it well.

Step 1 — Divide and assign. Groups of four or five. Each group draws the name of one state or union territory from a bowl. Try to cover north, south, east, west and the north-east.

Step 2 — Each group fills this six-box chart for its state.

Step 3 — Build the booth. A poster with the state's outline map. Cut-outs of the dress. Pictures or clay models of the food. A small chart of ten words in the state's language. A drum or a rhythm the group can perform. Fold a chart into three so it stands on the desk by itself.

Step 4 — Run the fair. Half the group stays at the booth to explain; half goes visiting. Then they swap, so everyone gets both turns. Give each visitor a slip of paper to note one new thing from every booth.

Step 5 — The closing circle. Answer the two questions.

What are the unique features you found in each state?

Sample answer: Every state had something no other booth had. Kerala had a boat race and a meal served on a banana leaf. Rajasthan had a desert, a puppet show and a bright safa. Assam had a one-horned rhinoceros and tea gardens. Nagaland had a hornbill festival and a woven shawl in which the pattern itself tells who the wearer is. Kashmir had a shikara boat and a shawl so fine it passes through a ring. Tamil Nadu had a temple gopuram and a kolam drawn at the door in the morning.

What are the similarities or common values you found?

Sample answer: Underneath, the booths were surprisingly alike.

• Every state had a harvest festival — Baisakhi, Bihu, Onam, Pongal, Nuakhai, Lohri. Different names, the same thanks for the crop.
• Every state welcomed guests with food. The dish changed; the welcome did not.
• Every state had a dance and a drum, and used them at weddings and festivals.
• Every state honoured its rivers, hills and trees in its songs and stories.
• Every state respected elders and teachers, and had a way of greeting them.
• Every state had a craft made by hand, passed from parent to child.