Vitamin-M Class 9: Summary, Characters and Question-Answers

Vitamin-M is chapter 4 of the Class 9 English book. It is a funny and tender story about Ravi, who tries to secretly guard his grandfather in the city, and it is paired with Rabindranath Tagore's poem I Cannot Remember My Mother. This guide gives you the full summary, the characters, themes, language points and board-style questions with answers.

Before the story: the needs of the elderly

The chapter opens by thinking about older people. As people age they may hear less, see less clearly and forget things. Daily tasks can become hard or even dangerous, and losing independence is hard to accept. Older people also need emotional support and respect. When younger family members treat them like children, they can feel frustrated, even like prisoners in their own homes.

Summary: Grandpa comes to the city

Grandpa is a former lawyer who lived independently for seventy-five years. He misses his small brick house in the town, where he could hear a leaf fall at dusk. To him the city is horrible, crowded and noisy.

He moved because of an accident. Late one evening he slipped and fell in his garden and had to lie outside all night, as no one was home to help him up. His daughter Vidya, Ravi's mother, brought him to her city flat so he would be supervised. She acts out of love and worry; Grandpa feels restricted and insulted at being treated like a child who cannot walk alone. Ravi's mother even wishes someone would invent Vitamin-M, a memory vitamin, because Grandpa's forgetfulness had led to dangerous situations.

Ravi notices something odd. Grandpa forgets the names of people he sees often, yet remembers thousands of chess moves from famous games involving players like Karpov and Bobby Fischer. Memory, it seems, is not a simple on-off switch.

Summary: the young detective

One day Grandpa insists on going to the shop alone. Ravi is stuck: he does not want to hurt Grandpa by acting like a guard, but he fears his mother's fury if something goes wrong. So he follows Grandpa secretly, like a detective.

1. Grandpa stops at the children's park for peanuts. Ravi crouches behind an elephant-shaped bush, gets scolded by a mother who thinks he is shushing her child, and crawls away on all fours.
2. At a tea stall, Grandpa enjoys forbidden treats: a sugary cup of tea, two bananas and an ice cream. Ravi hides behind a banyan tree and is mocked by the vendors.
3. Ravi sees a man as bald as a table tennis ball enter a barber shop and assumes it is Grandpa. Trying to look closer, he stumbles into the Ladies' Hairdressing Salon next door.
4. He sprints after a yellow cap onto a bus. When the man takes the cap off, he is a stranger with a full head of grey hair, though the cap has a coffee stain exactly like Grandpa's.

All day it is Ravi who is hot, bothered and close to fainting, while Grandpa seems to be having fun.

Summary: the twist

Ravi rushes home in a panic and finds Grandpa peacefully snoring. Then Grandpa hands out birthday gifts. He gives Ravi a book, The Best Detective Stories, and mentions its tips on how to avoid being fooled when trailing a suspect. He knew all along that Ravi was following him. Giving his cap to the stranger in the barber shop was a planned trick to mislead his detective grandson. Grandpa ends with a joke: it is Ravi's mother who needs Vitamin-M, because she forgot it was his birthday. The tables are turned.

Characters and themes

• Grandpa: proud, independent and far sharper than his family thinks; his mischievous twinkle shows he uses his wits to keep his freedom.
• Ravi: caring and anxious, caught between loyalty to Grandpa and fear of his mother; his detective work is comic.
• Vidya (Ravi's mother): loving but over-protective and anxious about her father's safety.

Themes

• Ageing and independence: older people want respect and freedom, not to be treated as children.
• Memory: it can be selective, sharp for long-term passions.
• Care versus control: love can turn into over-protection.
• Humour and role reversal: the watched one becomes the clever one.

The poem: I Cannot Remember My Mother

In this poem by Rabindranath Tagore, the speaker cannot consciously remember their mother's face, yet feels her presence through the senses.

The refrain 'I cannot remember my mother' stresses the gap left by her absence, which the senses then fill. The message: a person who is gone becomes part of the world around us. The sky works as a symbol of the mother's gaze.

Language study

Reported speech. Wh- questions keep the question word; yes/no questions use if or whether; and the word order becomes a statement.

• Direct: "Who are you?" said the little boy's mother. Indirect: The little boy's mother asked who he was.
• Direct: "Are you playing hide and seek?" asked the child. Indirect: The child asked if he was playing hide and seek.

Vivid words. Movement words: zigzagging, sprinting, pottering, jauntily, briskly. Sound words: boomed, shrieks, whirr, thudded, grunted, snoring. Emotion words: wince, flush, stricken.

Board-style questions and answers

1. Why did Ravi's mother wish for Vitamin-M? She wanted a memory vitamin to help elderly people like Grandpa, whose failing memory had caused dangerous situations.

2. What incident made her bring Grandpa to the city? He slipped in his garden one evening and lay outside all night because no one was home to help him.

3. What surprises Ravi about Grandpa's memory? Grandpa remembers thousands of chess games and moves by famous players but forgets the names of people he sees often.

4. Why does Ravi follow Grandpa secretly? He does not want to hurt Grandpa by acting like a guard, but he fears his mother's fury if anything goes wrong.

5. What forbidden items does Grandpa enjoy at the tea stall? A sugary cup of tea, two bananas and an ice cream, all restricted at home for his health.

6. How does Grandpa show he knew Ravi was following him? He gives Ravi The Best Detective Stories and mentions its tips on avoiding being fooled while trailing a suspect.

7. What is a refrain? Give an example. A line repeated at intervals in a poem, such as 'I cannot remember my mother'.

8. Change to indirect speech: Grandpa said, "I'll be back home soon." Grandpa said that he would be back home soon.

9. What does walking jauntily mean? Walking in a happy, confident, carefree way, as Grandpa did when he left the house.

To practise more questions on this story and poem, study this chapter with Joy.