NCERT Solutions for Class 9th English Chapter 4 Vitamin-M
Updated on 2026-09-19
About this chapter
Vitamin-M (prose, pages 97–125) is built on one long irony. Ravi’s mother wants a memory pill for “old people”; by the last page Grandpa is saying, “My daughter needs some Vitamin-M, I think—for her memory,” because she has forgotten his birthday although she herself “circled the date in red” on the calendar at the beginning of the year. Grandpa is seventy-five, a retired lawyer, and has been moved out of “his small brick house in town” into a “poky little flat” after he slipped in the garden and “lain outside all night”. What he resents is not the care but the loss of standing: “I’ve been looking after myself for the better part of my seventy-five years… and then you think you have the right to forbid me to go out on my own!” The middle of the story is farce. Ravi shadows Grandpa through
- Vitamin-M (prose)
- I Cannot Remember My Mother (poem)
Quick revision
| Word or term | What it means | Where it appears in the chapter | Used in a fresh sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| frail | weak and delicate, usually because of old age | “pointing to the frail old figure sitting in the rocking chair” (page 98); vocabulary item II, page 98 | The frail old woman held the railing with both hands. |
| shuddered | trembled suddenly with fear or distaste | “she stopped and shuddered at the memory” (page 99) | He shuddered when he remembered the screech of brakes. |
| poky | unpleasantly small and cramped | “you force me to come and live with you in this poky little flat” (page 99) | Three of us shared one poky room near the station. |
| forbid | order somebody not to do something | “you have the right to forbid me to go out on my own!” (page 99) | The doctor forbade him to lift anything heavy. |
| pottering | moving about doing small, unhurried jobs | “he was pottering around” in the garden (page 100) | Grandmother spends her mornings pottering among her tulsi pots. |
| winced | showed an expression of embarrassment or pain (book’s gloss, page 100) | “Ravi winced at the over-loud tone his mother used” (page 100) | I winced when my friend read my old poem aloud. |
| bustle | busy activity (book’s gloss, page 99) | “Grandpa hated the noise and bustle of city life” (page 99) | The bustle of the vegetable market begins before sunrise. |
| jauntily | happily and confidently (book’s gloss, page 102) | “twirling his walking stick jauntily” (page 102) | He set off jauntily, whistling all the way to the bus stop. |
| craftily | in a clever, sly way, to get what one wants | “‘Good,’ said Grandpa craftily” (page 101) | She craftily left the last laddoo where only she could reach it. |
| dilemma | a situation in which one must choose between two equally hard options | “leaving Ravi in a dilemma” (page 102); vocabulary item II, page 113 | I was in a dilemma — tell the truth and lose a friend, or stay silent. |
| deterred | prevented from doing something (book’s gloss, page 105) | “would have deterred a lesser detective, but not Ravi” (page 105) | The rain did not deter the players from finishing the match. |
| attire | clothes, especially of a particular kind | “a white pyjama and shirt, which was Grandpa’s standard attire” (page 105) | Formal attire is expected at the prize-giving. |
| humiliation | the feeling of being made to look foolish and losing self-respect | “The ultimate humiliation was when Ravi had to crawl out of the park” (page 103) | Losing to the junior team was a humiliation he did not forget. |
| countered | replied to an argument | “countered Grandpa, very seriously” (page 108); matching item IV, page 113 | She countered every objection with a fact. |
| stricken | affected severely by an unpleasant feeling | “darted a stricken look at the calendar” (page 108); matching item IV, page 113 | He gave a stricken look at the empty seat. |
| trailing | following (book’s gloss, page 109) | “How to avoid getting fooled when one is trailing a suspect” (page 109) | The cat spent the afternoon trailing a butterfly. |
| shiuli | a type of flower — coral jasmine, also called Parijat or Harsingar | “the smell of the shiuli flowers floats in the air” (poem, page 127); matching item III, page 126 | The shiuli fell all night and lay white on the grass by morning. |
| hover | linger or remain near a place | “a tune seems to hover over my playthings” (poem, page 127) | A kite hovered above the field without moving. |
| gaze | a long, steady look | “my mother’s gaze on my face / has spread all over the sky” (poem, page 127) | Her gaze never left the door. |
| refrain | a line or group of lines repeated at regular intervals in a poem | defined on page 129; “I cannot remember my mother” opens all three stanzas | ‘Sare jahan se achchha’ returns as a refrain after every stanza. |
| symbolism | using an object or idea to stand for something beyond its literal meaning | defined on page 129; the cradle, the shiuli, the sky | The empty chair on stage was pure symbolism. |
| onomatopoeia | a word that imitates the sound it names | poem item III.2, page 128 — “hum” | ‘Buzz’, ‘clang’ and ‘whirr’ are all onomatopoeia. |
Exercises
- Vitamin-M (prose) — Reflect and Respond Page 97–98
- Vitamin-M (prose) — Check Your Understanding Page 102
- Vitamin-M (prose) — Check Your Understanding Page 106–107
- Vitamin-M (prose) — Check Your Understanding Page 109
- Vitamin-M (prose) — Critical Reflection Page 109–111
- Vitamin-M (prose) — Vocabulary and Structures in Context Page 111–116
- Vitamin-M (prose) — Listen and Respond Page 116–117
- Vitamin-M (prose) — Speaking Activity Page 117–118
- Vitamin-M (prose) — Writing Task Page 119
- Vitamin-M (prose) — Learning Beyond the Text Page 119–125
- I Cannot Remember My Mother (poem) — Reflect and Respond Page 126
- I Cannot Remember My Mother (poem) — Check Your Understanding Page 127–129
- I Cannot Remember My Mother (poem) — Critical Reflection Page 129–131
- I Cannot Remember My Mother (poem) — Vocabulary in Context Page 131–133
- I Cannot Remember My Mother (poem) — Listen and Respond Page 133–134
- I Cannot Remember My Mother (poem) — Speaking Activity Page 134
- I Cannot Remember My Mother (poem) — Writing Task Page 135
- I Cannot Remember My Mother (poem) — Learning Beyond the Text Page 135–136