My Childhood — RBSE Class 9 English (Beehive)
Before he was "the Missile Man" and a President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was a small boy in Rameswaram selling tamarind seeds and newspapers. In this gentle memoir he remembers an austere but loving home, friends of every faith, and the teachers who taught him that talent and goodness know no religion.
RBSE note (2026-27). Class 9 English follows the NCERT Beehive reader; BSER (Ajmer) sets the exam.
1. Summary
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam grew up in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, in a middle-class Tamil Muslim family. His father, Jainulabdeen, was honest, generous and austere; his mother, Ashiamma, fed many people daily. The home was simple but secure in material and emotional terms.
His three close childhood friends — Ramanadha Sastry, Aravindan and Sivaprakasan — were all Hindus (Brahmins); differences of religion never came between them. During the Second World War, young Kalam earned his first wages by collecting and selling tamarind seeds, and later by helping his cousin Samsuddin distribute newspapers when train stops at Rameswaram were suspended.
Two incidents about prejudice and its defeat stand out:
- A new teacher at school could not bear a Muslim boy (Kalam) sitting beside a Hindu priest's son (Ramanadha Sastry) and made Kalam move to the back. Both boys were unhappy; the priest and others rebuked the teacher, who later reformed.
- His science teacher Sivasubramania Iyer, an orthodox Brahmin, deliberately broke social barriers: he invited Kalam home for a meal. His wife at first refused to serve a Muslim in her kitchen, but the teacher served Kalam himself and invited him again — and the next time she served him in the kitchen, her prejudice overcome.
When Kalam wished to leave Rameswaram to study further, his father gave a wise blessing, comparing him to a seagull that must fly across the sun, alone and without a nest — children must leave to grow.
2. Themes
- Secularism and communal harmony — friendships and respect across religions.
- Breaking social barriers — courageous teachers and elders defeating prejudice.
- Hard work and humble beginnings — first earnings, simple values.
- The role of family and mentors in shaping a great life.
3. Characters
- A.P.J. Abdul Kalam — the narrator; curious, hardworking boy.
- Jainulabdeen — his wise, austere, generous father.
- Ashiamma — his caring mother.
- Ramanadha Sastry & friends — his Hindu childhood companions.
- Sivasubramania Iyer — the science teacher who broke convention.
- The new teacher — embodies prejudice, later reformed.
4. Quick recap
- Kalam's boyhood in Rameswaram; austere but secure home (father Jainulabdeen, mother Ashiamma).
- Close Hindu friends; first earnings from tamarind seeds and newspapers (WWII).
- A prejudiced new teacher is rebuked and reforms; Sivasubramania Iyer breaks social barriers.
- Father's blessing: the seagull must fly alone to grow.
- Themes: secularism, breaking barriers, hard work, mentors.
- Paired poem "No Men Are Foreign" (James Kirkup): all people are one; war harms us all.
