My Childhood Summary & Notes - CBSE Class 9 English Beehive

Summary of My Childhood

Chapter 6 of the Class 9 English textbook ‘Beehive’ has a prose piece named My Childhood which deals with the autobiography “Wings of Fire” by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. He speaks about his life as a child in it. Want to know more? Here’s the prose summary in CBSE English Notes Class 9 format to read and explore details of his childhood. CBSE Class 9 students can access the prose summary of the CBSE Class 9 English Prose Notes – My Childhood.

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CBSE Class 9 English My Childhood Summary

My Childhood is an extract from “Wings of Fire”, the autobiography of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. This chapter explores 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; 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 about 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 arrangements 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 on the back bench and seeing this, his friend Ramanandha started weeping. This incident left a lasting impression on 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. He also stated that he’d have to quit the job right away in case he refused to apologise. In no time, the young teacher apologised and reformed his behaviour and started treating everyone equally from then on.

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 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 go to 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 doesn’t indicate that they can force their thoughts and decisions on their children.

Conclusion of My Childhood

The chapter – My Childhood portrays the childhood memories of one of India’s greatest aerospace scientists, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and how he spent his early days. He also served as the eleventh President of India from the year 2002 to 2007. We hope this CBSE Class 9 English Beehive Prose Summary of My Childhood guides students to have a thorough understanding of the chapter. They can visit the BYJU’S website to access other resources such as CBSE Notes and CBSE study material and access different years’ question papers and CBSE sample papers. Moreover, they can download BYJU’S – The Learning App and access a huge pool of resources on different subjects that would prove helpful in their studies.