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My Childhood Summary in English
On this page, Prof. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam tells us about his childhood years, and how he was born in the city of Rameswaram. His father’s first name was Jainulabdeen and his mother’s name was Ashiamma.
He tells that his family members were not wealthy or well-educated, but they were still wise people who contributed to society and their community through generosity. His mother was also very kind. A number of outsiders were invited over daily to eat with the family.
Abdul Kalam had three brothers and a sister. They lived in their ancestral, pucca house on Mosque Street in Rameswaram. It was a large house with everything necessary for everyday life. His father avoided luxuries set for himself, but the house had almost everything else needed for daily living. When the Second World War broke out, Abdul Kalam was 8 years old.
There was a great demand for tamarind seeds and Abdul Kalam was able to earn a lot of money over time through collecting those seeds and selling them in the market. He earned one anna (about six paise) a day by collecting and selling their seeds. It was enough money in those days, considering that he worked for his cousin who distributed papers in Rameswaram.
Abdul Kalam learned ethics from his father. Abdul Kalam was honorable and compassionate, traits he inherited from his mother. He had three very close friends as a child, including Ramanadha Sastry, Aravindan, and Sivaprakasan. They were all Hindus and never felt any religious differences among themselves. Every year, Kalam’s family would celebrate the Shri Sita Rama Kalyanam festival.
They would arrange boats to place idols of the Lord on the river. The main event of the day was when his father and teacher told them stories from Ramayana.
During the fifth grade when Abdul Kalam was in class, a new teacher came. The teacher had seen Abdul Kalam and his friend sitting together on the front row of their desk and requested for them to be forced sit on back bench. Both Abdul Kalam and Ramanadha felt sad and later, Ramanadha’s father reprimanded the teacher because of this mistake.
It was through Sivasubramania Ayyyer, who taught science at the school in which Abdul Kalam was studying, that Abdul Kalam first befriended Muslims. Ayyyer had a wife who believed in social and religious differences and who also refused to serve a Muslim boy at her home. Abdul Kalam ate a meal with his physical hands on the day before he died. He went to his teacher’s house for dinner the following week, but his wife served him food in her home kitchen.
When the Second World War came to an end, India’s freedom seemed imminent. Everyone was in high spirits with the good news. Abdul Kalam wanted to study at Ramanathapuram and his father allowed him to go.
My Childhood Summary in English (2) :
Kalam was born in a middle-class Tamil family and grew up with a secure childhood, both physically and emotionally. Kalam has been raised with the values of honesty, discipline, and kindness from his parents.
The Kalam family’s kitchen was very well-staffed. The had a large house, with no unnecessary luxuries, but they got everything they needed from their father. Kalam’s father would make sure that they were fed and had all necessities like food, clothes and medicine.
When the Second World War got underway, demand for tamarind seeds soared, so Kalam searched for and found these seeds. He sold them to earn a lot of money in just one day. His brother-in-law, Jallaluddin, always told him stories about how war impacted daily life in this region. Kalam would watch the headlines and try to figure out how the stories related to what he heard from his brother-in-law.
It was a mostly isolated place, so the war didn’t have a direct impact on it. It stopped at the train station, but the bundles of newspapers were thrown off the train. Kalam’s cousin Samsuddin asked for help from Kalam to catch these bundles of papers that now no longer came regularly. Kalam earned his first wages doing this, which gave him an immense sense of pride and self-confidence.
Kalam had three friends: Ramanadha Sastry, Aravindan and Sivaprakasan. They were close friends from socially orthodox Brahmin families from South India. Religion never influenced their relationship because they were all good friends first and they knew each other inside out. Later in the 1920s, Ramanadha took over the role of priest at Rameswaram temple, Aravindan began taking care of shipping pilgrims to India, and Sivaprakasan began doing catering for Southern Railways in India.
Kalam’s family used to organize floating boats during the main Shri Sita Rama Kalyanam ceremony to transport idols of Lord Rama from a temple to a pond near Kalam’s. When he was growing up, he heard the stories about Ramayana and the life of Prophet Muhammed from his mother and grandmother.
Certain incidents of his childhood left a deep impression on Kalam’s young mind. When he was in the fifth standard, a new teacher came to his class and did not like that Kalam, a Muslim boy, was sitting next to Ramanadha Sastry, a Brahmin. He sent Kalam to the back seat simply because it was in accordance with the social ranking of Muslims. Both Kalam and Ramanadha Sastry felt sad at this action of their teacher. Sastry wept and this had a deep impact on Kalam. Both the children went home and told their respective parents about it. Sastry’s father summoned the teacher and told him not to spread the poison of social inequality and communal intolerance in young minds. He told the teacher to either apologise or leave the school. This made the teacher not only regret his action but he was also reformed.
Another memorable incident of his childhood was when Sivasubramania Iyer, Kalam’s science teacher, invited him to his house for a meal. Sivasubramania lyer was an orthodox Brahmin and his wife was very conservative. She was horrified at the idea of inviting a Muslim boy to dine in her ritually pure kitchen.
When she refused to serve Kalam, Iyer did not lose his cool and not only served the boy with his own hands but also sat and ate with him. He invited Kalam the next weekend as well. Noticing Kalam’s hesitation in accepting his invitation, Iyer told the child to be prepared to face such situations if he wished to change any system. When Kalam visited Iyer’s house again, his wife took him to her kitchen and served him food with her own hands.
The freedom of India was in the offing when the Second World War ended. Following Gandhiji’s plea, the entire nation was hopeful of building their country themselves. Kalam too sought his father’s permission to go and study further in Ramanathapuram. His father permitted him willingly because he wanted his son to grow. He even convinced Kalam’s mother by telling her that parents should not thrust their ideas upon their children as they have their own way of thinking.
