My Childhood by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
Quick answer: My Childhood by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Class 9 Beehive: summary of the Wings of Fire excerpt, Rameswaram, the new teacher, Sivasubramania Iyer, themes and exam answers.
A boy in Rameswaram earns his first wages during the Second World War by catching newspaper bundles thrown from a moving train. My Childhood, sixth in the Class 9 Beehive textbook, is an excerpt from A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's autobiography Wings of Fire, published in 1999.
The chapter in brief
Kalam is born to Jainulabdeen, a devout, unschooled boat owner, and Ashiamma, who fed more people than her own family every day. When the war cancels the train's halt at Rameswaram, his cousin Samsuddin gives him work catching the papers. His closest friends, Ramanadha Sastry, Aravindan and Sivaprakasan, are Brahmin boys.
In the fifth standard a new teacher sees Kalam in his cap beside Ramanadha, who wears the sacred thread, and sends him to the back bench. Both boys weep. Ramanadha's father, Lakshmana Sastry, the temple priest, tells the teacher not to spread the poison of inequality among children, and the teacher reforms. His science teacher Sivasubramania Iyer invites Kalam to dinner; when his wife refuses to serve a Muslim boy, Iyer serves him himself and invites him again, and next week she serves him from the kitchen. After the war Kalam asks to study in Ramanathapuram, and his father agrees, quoting Khalil Gibran to a reluctant mother.
The people
- Kalam: a curious boy of few needs who wants to learn beyond the island.
- Jainulabdeen and Ashiamma: austere, generous parents who give him honesty and self-discipline.
- Lakshmana Sastry and Sivasubramania Iyer: Brahmin elders who confront prejudice in classroom and dining room.
Themes and meaning
Exams ask about communal harmony, the influence of teachers and a simple upbringing. The sharper reading is that Kalam credits his freedom from bigotry to Hindus who refused it on his behalf. Both central episodes show a Brahmin correcting a Brahmin, and Kalam lets them stand without commentary, which is why the chapter persuades where a sermon would not.
The craft of memoir
The excerpt is a sequence of small scenes, and its turn is the back-bench humiliation, the one conflict in an idyllic account. Kalam resolves it within the paragraph, then repeats the pattern with Iyer's wife: prejudice, correction, changed behaviour. Two matched episodes argue more firmly than ten scattered ones, and a departure closes a childhood chapter.
For the exam
Summary in 100 words: Abdul Kalam recalls a secure childhood in Rameswaram with honest, generous parents. During the Second World War he earns his first money catching newspaper bundles thrown from a train. His Brahmin friends and he are inseparable until a new fifth-standard teacher separates them by caste; the priest Lakshmana Sastry forces the teacher to apologise. His science teacher Sivasubramania Iyer invites him to dinner and, when his wife refuses to serve a Muslim boy, serves him himself, changing her attitude. After the war Kalam wins his father's permission to study at Ramanathapuram, leaving home with his parents' blessing.
- Word meanings: austere (simple, without luxury), innate (inborn), orthodox (strictly traditional), conviction (firm belief), segregation (separation by group), rebel (one who resists authority).
- Character sketch of Sivasubramania Iyer (60 words): Sivasubramania Iyer is Kalam's science teacher, an orthodox Brahmin married to a conservative wife. He believes in breaking social barriers and shows it by inviting the Muslim boy home. When his wife refuses to serve, he serves the meal himself and repeats the invitation. His quiet persistence changes his wife's behaviour and shapes Kalam's faith in reform.
- Long answer: How did Lakshmana Sastry respond to the new teacher? Model answer: He summoned him and said he must not spread communal intolerance among innocent children; the teacher regretted his act and reformed.
- Long answer: What did Kalam learn from his parents? Model answer: Honesty and self-discipline from his father, faith in goodness and deep kindness from his mother, and security from their simple life.
- Long answer: How did Kalam's father react to his wish to leave? Model answer: He agreed at once and consoled the anxious mother with Khalil Gibran's words that children belong to life, not to parents.
What writers can take from this
- Name the three friends and the two teachers; questions on this chapter are mostly about people.
- Structure the harmony answer around the two matched episodes of prejudice and correction.
- For the parents question, use the words honesty, self-discipline and generosity with an example each.
- Memoir writers: pair two episodes with the same shape and let readers draw the conclusion.
- Close a childhood chapter on a departure, as Kalam does.
Try it yourself
Write a memoir chapter about a childhood friendship across a social line, built from exactly two episodes in which an adult corrects another adult's prejudice, and end with the narrator leaving home.
Questions
What happened when the new teacher separated Kalam from Ramanadha Sastry?
The teacher moved Kalam to the back bench because he was a Muslim sitting beside a Brahmin boy. Both children wept, and Ramanadha's father, the temple priest, made the teacher apologise and stop spreading intolerance.
How did Sivasubramania Iyer break social barriers?
He invited Kalam to his home for a meal. When his wife refused to serve a Muslim boy, Iyer served the food himself and invited Kalam again, and the following week his wife served him from the kitchen.
How did Kalam earn his first wages?
During the Second World War the train stopped halting at Rameswaram. His cousin Samsuddin employed him to catch newspaper bundles thrown from the moving train and distribute them.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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