Q1.
How do you and your family members commute to nearby and far-off places?
Answer
This is a question about your own household, so answer it from what your family actually does. The useful way to do it is to sort journeys by distance, because the mode changes with distance.
Method. Make a three-column list — Journey · Distance · How we travel — and fill it in for one week. Then mark against each mode the piece of infrastructure it needs (a road, a railway line, an airport, a jetty), because that is what the chapter is asking you to notice.
| Distance | Common modes | Infrastructure it depends on |
|---|---|---|
| Within the neighbourhood | On foot, cycle, cycle-rickshaw | Local roads, footpaths, street lighting |
| Across the town or city | Bus, autorickshaw, two-wheeler, car, metro | City roads, flyovers, bus stands, metro lines and stations |
| To another town or district | State transport bus, shared taxi, train | State highways, railway lines and stations |
| To another state | Train, long-distance bus, car on a national highway or expressway, sometimes a flight | National highways and expressways, railway network, airports |
Sample answer: “I walk about 10 minutes to school on our colony road. My mother takes an autorickshaw to the market, about 3 km away, on the main road. My father goes to his office 14 km away by bus, crossing a flyover on the way. Once a year we visit my grandparents 600 km away — we take a night train, and reach the railway station by autorickshaw. Last year my uncle came from Bengaluru by flight, and we brought him home from the airport by car. So in one year our family used a footpath, a colony road, a city road, a flyover, a railway line, an airport and a national highway.”
Why it matters: writing the list out shows that no single mode is enough. Even a flight ends with a road journey. This is the “pieces of a puzzle” idea the chapter used for Satish, seen now in your own week.