Vitamin-M – Class 9 English Chapter 4 Notes & NCERT PDF

Overview

Chapter 4 of Kaveri is about family, memory and caring for the elderly. It has a funny and touching story, Vitamin-M, a short poem by Rabindranath Tagore, I Cannot Remember My Mother, and two extra readings for enjoyment: Mulk Raj Anand's story The Lost Child and Thomas Hood's poem I Remember, I Remember. Together they show how memories connect generations, and how we sometimes misjudge older people.

Vitamin-M (story) — Asha Nehemiah

Type: humorous short story told in three parts.

Part I — the worry at home. Ravi's mother, Vidya, wishes someone would invent a memory vitamin, "Vitamin-M", for old people. Her father, Grandpa, is seventy-five, a retired lawyer, and has recently come to live in their "poky little flat". A month ago he had slipped and fallen in the garden of his small brick house in town and lain outside all night, and in the city he took a double dose of medicine and once got lost on a walk. So Vidya forbids him to go out alone and tells Ravi, now on holiday, to look after him. Ravi winces at the over-loud way she talks to Grandpa, "as though she were speaking to a child".

Grandpa is still sharp in many ways. He plays "a great game of chess, very cool and cunning" and remembers the moves Karpov and Bobby Fischer made. When he says he will walk to the corner shop for the Tamil newspaper, he cleverly traps Ravi: "Has she told you not to let me go out on my own? Told you to keep me a prisoner here, has she?" Ravi loyally says no, so Grandpa goes out "twirling his walking stick jauntily" (black mahogany, with a brass eagle's-head handle). Ravi decides to follow him secretly.

Part II — the comic chase. Ravi's "detective work" goes badly:

Part III — the twist. Ravi rushes home and finds Grandpa snoring in bed. He hugs him with sudden affection. At dinner Grandpa says, "I had a quiet morning, but I don't know about Ravi. He just disappeared…" He then gives everyone gifts, because he always gives a gift to every child in the house on his own birthday. Vidya had forgotten the date even though she had circled it in red on the calendar, so Grandpa says she is the one who needs Vitamin-M. Ravi's gift is *The Best Detective Stories, with tips on "how to avoid getting fooled when one is trailing a suspect"*. Ravi wonders whether the twinkle in Grandpa's eye is innocent or mischievous.

Message: Old people deserve respect and independence, not to be treated like babies. Grandpa's memory is sharper than anyone thought.

I Cannot Remember My Mother (poem) — Rabindranath Tagore

Type: short free-verse lyric in three stanzas. Each opens with the refrain "I cannot remember my mother".

The poet has no clear picture of his mother, yet he feels her presence through his senses:

Devices: refrain, imagery (auditory, olfactory, visual), symbolism (tune, shiuli, sky = the mother's presence) and alliteration. The mood is quiet, tender and serene. The shiuli flower is also called Parijat or Harsingar, has a sweet fragrance and blooms only at night.

Beyond the Text

Word Power

Grammar & Language Focus

- Turn the question into a statement.

- For Yes/No questions, use if/whether. For Wh- questions, keep the wh-word.

- Shift the tense back: present → past, today → that day, now → then.

- Example: "Do you help your grandparents?" → Arvind asked Priya if she helped her grandparents.

Speaking & Writing Tasks

Common Mistakes