NCERT Solutions for Class 9th English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words (prose) — Check Your Understanding

Book page 207 Updated on2026-09-08

Q1.

I. Khetaram needs to submit information about himself for getting an identity card. While reading the text, fill up the following information sheet for Khetaram. Name — Khetaram Position — ______ Employer — ______ Official address — ______ Mode of transport used — ______ Key responsibilities — four blanks

Answer

Every entry can be taken straight from Part I of the text.

Name	Khetaram
Position	Gramin Dak Sewak (GDS) — “the sole postman of Somarad Branch Post Office”
Employer	India Post — the Department of Posts, Government of India (Rajasthan Western Region, whose Postmaster-General is quoted in the text)
Official address	Somarad Branch Post Office, on the Barmer–Chohtan side of the Thar desert, Barmer district, Rajasthan — about 120 km beyond the last railhead at Barmer and just 2.5 km short of the Indo-Pakistan border
Mode of transport used	On foot — his own mojri-clad feet, “along sand beds and dunes”, over sand “so soft that even bicycles can’t ply”. (The mail itself reaches him by mail train and then by bus; on the last stretch it is “hefted onto his shoulders”. Occasionally the BSF gives him a lift.)
Key responsibilities	Carrying and delivering the mail to the far-flung dhaanis — a load of up to 28 kilos, and up to 20 km on foot for a single delivery, within 24 hours of dispatch from Jodhpur, 330 km away Delivering the money orders on which the families of this arid land partly depend for survival Reading out letters to villagers and writing their replies “in his slightly shaky hand” Serving as the post office’s link with rural depositors, who “entrust their monthly savings to the post office in their area”

Why the exercise is set this way: an identity card asks for post, employer, address and duties — the dry official categories. Filling them in for Khetaram shows how much of his real work has no official box: reading a letter aloud to a family and writing the reply is nowhere in the job title, yet it is the part the villagers value most.

Q2.

II. Discuss with your teacher. 1. Why do you think Khetaram has taken up this challenging job?

Answer

Because it is the only assured income his family has — he says so himself. “Akaal or famine is a way of life here. In a good year, I get one crop of bajra. That cannot feed my family of five. We would starve without this job.”

Three things in the text explain the choice:

Farming cannot feed five people. One crop of bajra in a good year is the ceiling, and good years are not the rule.
The GDS post is designed for exactly this situation. The essential criterion for selection is that the applicant has another means of livelihood; the duty is five hours a day; and the salary gives “an assured income”. A man with a little land and no certainty of rain fits the post precisely.
It gave him standing as well as pay. The text says his appointment “gave him a new lease of life”, and he is “a warmly received man” at every threshold. He also gets to keep working past 60, till 65.

Careful: the honest answer is necessity first, pride second. The chapter never pretends Khetaram chose the desert out of romance — it lets him say “We would starve without this job” in his own words, and only later shows him saying “I am grateful.”

Q3.

II. 2. How do you think Khetaram would feel about taking up this challenging task every day?

Answer

Tired in the body, but settled in the mind — and quietly proud. The text gives evidence for both halves, and a good answer holds them together instead of choosing one.

What he would feel	Evidence in the text
Physical exhaustion	“Even a single delivery is tiring, as I have to cover 20 km for it.” His left shoulder is “slumped from years of carrying a mailbag.”
Endurance rather than complaint	He delivers even when the heat has crossed 50°C; when it is impossible he does not skip the delivery, he “postpones deliveries till after sundown”.
Acceptance of hardship as normal	“Water is too precious to waste on washing, so I can only wipe my body. When I finish, there is a sand dune at my feet every evening.” He says this without self-pity.
Being wanted	“People are kind to me; the BSF always gives me a lift… I get a cup of tea.” A piece of jaggery greets him when he brings good news.
Pride and gratitude	“I am grateful that as a Gramin Dak Sewak, I can serve the people even after 60.” And to the coming phone lines: “Main tayyar hoon” — I’m ready.

How the writer produces this impression: we are never told that Khetaram is patient or proud. We are shown a fact (the 20 km), then given his own sentence about it, and the adjective is left for us to supply. That is why the portrait convinces — the praise is in the facts, not in the adjectives.

Was this helpful? Report an error