summary on my childhood in english 7unit readingA for 10th class
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My Childhood is an extract from “Wings of Fire”, the autobiography of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. This chapter mentions his childhood and several incidents from his early days. He was born in a middle-class Tamil Muslim family in the island town of Rameswaram. His family included his parents, three brothers and a sister. His parents were very hardworking and kind people who always helped others. He along with his siblings spent their childhood in their ancestral home.
Kalam’s father believed in simple living and provided all the essential necessities to his family. Although his parents had no formal education, they treated others equally and many outsiders would eat with the family regularly. Kalam credits his parents for instilling qualities like self-discipline and honesty in him and his siblings. His family had a secular mindset and they participated in the festivities of Hindus. He further mentioned that he had heard several tales from the Ramayana and the Prophet Muhammad from his mother and grandmother. All of this depicts that his family believed in secularism and never stopped him from mingling with children of other communities.
While growing up in Rameswaram, friendship played an instrumental role in Kalam’s life. He had three close friends – Ramanadha Sastry, Aravindan and Sivaprakasan who belonged to orthodox Hindu Brahmin families. He and his friends never discriminated against each other on the basis of religion or caste. When they grew up, he and his friends took up different professions. Ramanadha Sastry became a priest of the Rameswaram temple; Aravindan undertook the business of transport arrangement for visiting pilgrims and Sivaprakasan became a contractor for providing catering services in the Southern Railways.
One day, while Kalam was in his fifth standard, a new teacher came to his class and saw him wearing a cap that marked his Muslim identity. When the teacher saw that Kalam being a Muslim was seated next to Ramanandha, a Hindu priest’s son, he couldn’t tolerate it. Consequently, he asked Kalam to sit in the back bench and seeing this, his friend Ramanandha started weeping. This incident left a lasting impression in Kalam’s mind. Later, they discussed this incident with their respective families. Hearing this, Ramanandha’s father immediately summoned the teacher and asked him not to spread communal hatred or social inequality among young minds. He demanded an apology from the teacher for his ill-behaviour towards the children. In case he refused to apologise, he should quit the job right away. In no time, the young teacher apologised and reformed his behaviour and started treating everyone equally from then on, irrespective of caste or creed.
Furthermore, Kalam mentioned that his science teacher, Sivasubramania Iyer was an orthodox Hindu Brahmin but treated all his students with equality. On one such occasion, his teacher invited Kalam to his home for a meal. However, Mr Iyer’s wife was a conservative person who refused to serve Kalam or let him sit inside her kitchen to eat the meal. Seeing this, Mr Iyer wasn’t perturbed about his wife’s ill-behaviour. Instead, he served the meal to young Kalam and sat next to him and ate the food. His wife observed all this from behind the kitchen door. After winding up the meal, his science teacher invited Kalam for dinner again for the following weekend. This time, Mr Iyer’s wife served Kalam with her own hands and let him sit inside her kitchen.
As Kalam was growing up, the Second World War soon came to an end and the Indian people started their fight for Independence. The whole country was filled with an extraordinary sense of optimism to achieve India’s Independence at all costs. Soon, Kalam asked his father’s permission to leave Rameswaram and study at Ramanathapuram to pursue higher studies. To this, his father stated that children come to this world and receive the love of their parents and near and dear ones. However, this love didn’t indicate that they can force their thoughts and decisions on their children.
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