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NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 5 A Homage to Our Brave Soldiers — Let us explore

Book page 198 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
Every branch of the Armed Forces has a motto. Read the mottos given below. 1. Indian Army — Sevā Paramo Dharmaḥ (Service Before Self) 2. Indian Air Force — Nabhaḥ Spr̥śaṁ Dīptam (Touch the Sky with Glory) 3. Indian Navy — Sham No Varunah (Be Auspicious Unto Us Oh Varuna)
Answer

Read each motto aloud, then discuss what it promises.

ForceMottoWhat it says
Indian ArmySevā Paramo Dharmaḥ — Service Before SelfServing others is the highest duty. A soldier's own comfort, and even his life, come after the task.
Indian Air ForceNabhaḥ Spr̥śaṁ Dīptam — Touch the Sky with GloryA line from the Bhagavad Gita (11.24). The sky is the Air Force's field of work, and it is to be entered with honour, not merely crossed.
Indian NavySham No Varunah — Be Auspicious Unto Us Oh VarunaA prayer from the Vedas to Varuna, lord of the waters, for a safe voyage — the sailor's respect for a sea that no fleet can command.
Try this: write a one-line motto for your own class in Sanskrit, Hindi or your mother tongue, with its English meaning below. Notice that not one of these three mottos boasts about defeating anybody — they speak of service, honour and a prayer.
Q2.
India has many other Forces that serve the nation. For example, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). Find out about such Forces and discuss with the teacher.
Answer

Besides the three Armed Forces, India has several Central Armed Police Forces and other uniformed services. Find out what each one does, and where you have seen them:

ForceWhat it does
CRPF — Central Reserve Police ForceThe country's largest central police force; internal security, election duty, riot control.
BSF — Border Security ForceGuards the land borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh in peace time.
ITBP — Indo-Tibetan Border PoliceGuards the high Himalayan border; trained for extreme altitude.
SSB — Sashastra Seema BalGuards the borders with Nepal and Bhutan.
CISF — Central Industrial Security ForceProtects airports, ports, metro systems, power plants and other key installations.
Assam RiflesIndia's oldest paramilitary force, serving in the North-East.
NSG — National Security GuardCounter-terrorism and hostage rescue.
Indian Coast GuardGuards the coastline, rescues fishermen, checks smuggling and oil spills.
NDRF — National Disaster Response ForceRescue and relief in floods, earthquakes, cyclones and building collapses.
State Police and Fire ServicesEveryday safety in your own town — the force you are most likely to meet.
How to research: use each force's official website, an atlas to see where it is deployed, and the newspaper for a recent rescue or operation. Bring one photograph and one fact each to class.
Q3.
Create a collage capturing the lives and stories of people that inspire us. In groups of four, prepare a collage on a chart paper on any such person and present it in the class.
Answer

This is the very project Ananda suggests at the end of her letter, so do it the way she describes it — “capturing the lives and stories of people that can inspire us each day.”

Method

  1. Choose one person as a group — a soldier such as Lance Naik Albert Ekka or Captain Anuj Nayyar, a scientist, a sportsperson, a social worker, or someone in your own town.
  2. Divide the work: one collects pictures, one writes the captions, one designs the layout, one prepares the two-minute talk.
  3. Collect material — printed photographs, newspaper cuttings, a map showing where the person worked, a short quotation, dates.
  4. Lay it out before pasting. Put the largest picture slightly off-centre, arrange the rest around it, leave a border, and keep the title in the biggest letters.
  5. Caption everything. A collage without captions is only decoration; one line under each picture turns it into a story.

What a good collage must contain: the person's name and dates; three or four moments from the life, in order; one line saying why the group chose this person; the sources used.

Presentation tip: do not read out the chart. Point to one picture at a time and tell what happened there — that is what Soumya's class did in their school assembly.
Q4.
Many women have joined the Armed Forces and are serving the nation. Have a discussion in the class with examples.
Answer

The letter itself makes the point — the freedom we enjoy is owed to “the many brave men and women who have served in the Indian Armed Forces over decades”, and the poem's note on page 200 says that when Kalam writes ‘great sons’ he means “all the soldiers (men and women) serving the nation”.

Examples you can bring to the discussion

  • Flight Lieutenant Nivedita Choudhary, Squadron Leader Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh — among the first women fighter pilots of the Indian Air Force.
  • Captain Lakshmi Sahgal — a doctor who commanded the Rani of Jhansi Regiment of the Indian National Army during the freedom struggle.
  • Lieutenant General Punita Arora — the first woman in India to reach that rank.
  • Women officers of the Army Medical Corps and the Military Nursing Service, who have served in every war and in every disaster-relief operation since 1947.
  • Women contingents at the Republic Day parade, and women officers now granted permanent commission in most branches.

Questions to steer the discussion: What jobs in the Forces were once closed to women and are now open? What changed? What does an all-women contingent marching down Kartavya Path say to a girl watching it?

Sample opening line: “I read that in 2016 three women became fighter pilots for the first time in the IAF. My grandmother was not allowed to cycle to school. In one lifetime, that much has changed.”
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