Chapter 4 — Vitamin-M

It is a fictional vitamin Ravi's mother wishes someone would invent to help elderly people improve their memories. She suggests it could be called Vitamin-M and given to old people like Grandpa.

The story is written by Asha Nehemiah and appears as Chapter 4 in the NCERT Class 9 English textbook Kaveri.

He was getting too old to live on his own. He had accidentally taken a double dose of his medicines and was admitted to hospital, got lost on a walk and forgot the way home, and fell in his garden at night with no one to help him up.

Grandpa hated the noise and bustle of city life and longed for his small brick house in town with a big mango tree in the garden, where it was so quiet that at dusk you could hear a leaf fall.

Grandpa asked Ravi if his mother had told him to keep Grandpa a prisoner. When Ravi denied it, Grandpa said craftily, "then you'll have no objection to my going out," leaving Ravi in a dilemma.

His mother had instructed him not to let Grandpa go out alone. But if he insisted on accompanying him, Grandpa would feel hurt and treated like a child. So Ravi decided to follow Grandpa secretly at a safe distance.

Grandpa drank a sugary cup of tea, ate two bananas, and had an ice cream from a cart. The story notes that sugar was forbidden for him at home, and bananas were another banned item — showing Grandpa's independent streak.

Ravi spotted a yellow cap like Grandpa's in the front of the bus, pushed his way forward, and found it was a total stranger wearing the same attire as Grandpa. The man told Ravi that a kind old gentleman at the barber shop had insisted he take the cap because it was a hot day — Grandpa had given it away.

Grandpa gave Ravi a hardcover book, "The Best Detective Stories," saying it contained good tips on how to be a detective — including how to avoid getting fooled when trailing a suspect. This strongly hints that Grandpa was aware Ravi had been following him all day.

Ravi's mother had forgotten Grandpa's birthday despite marking it in red on the calendar at the start of the year. Grandpa, who never forgot and had gifts for everyone, turned to Ravi's father and said Ravi's mother was the one who needed Vitamin-M — reversing the story's premise.

Although Grandpa forgets names of people he meets often, he remembers thousands of chess games in detail (quoting moves by Karpov, Bobby Fischer, and Spassky). The ending reveals he also remembered his own birthday and noticed Ravi's secret surveillance — showing his memory and wit are sharper than assumed.

The story explores the dignity and independence of the elderly, the tension between caring for aging relatives and respecting their autonomy, and the irony that younger family members can be quicker to forget than the old people they worry about.

Yes — the full NCERT Kaveri PDF is available free to read and download on cbseprepmaster.com with no sign-up required.