My Childhood Class 9 Worksheet English Chapter 1

Multiple Choice Questions

Q1: Who influenced Prof. Kalam?
(a) His father
(b) His friends
(c) His society people
(d) None of these

Q2: When did Kalam become India’s 11th President? (My Childhood)
(a) 2003
(b) 2000
(c) 2001
(d) 2002

Q3: By whom and when did Kalam second time face discrimination and humiliation on the basis of religion?
(a) By teacher, when he was in elementary school
(b) By Sivasubramania's wife, when he was invited their home for a meal
(c) By the priest, during shri Sita Rama Kalyanam ceremony
(d) By students, when he went to higher studies

Q4: What did Kalam think and say about his parents?
(a) Wise
(b) All of these
(c) They were tall
(d) Handsome

Q5: Where was A.P.J Abdul Kalam born?
(a) Madurai
(b) Bangalore
(c) Chennai
(d) Rameswaram

Q6: Who was Kalam’s close friend?
(a) None of these
(b) His father
(c) Samsuddin
(d) Ramanadha Sastri

Q7: Which word in the lesson means unnecessary?
(a) Inessential
(b) Innecessity
(c) None of these
(d) Essential

Q8: In which standard, Abdul was, when the new teacher with a conservative mind had come to his class?
(a) 5th standard
(b) 6th standard
(c) 7th standard
(d) 4th standard

Q9: Which seeds did Kalam collect during the second world war?
(a) Guava seeds
(b) Flax seeds
(c) Mango seeds
(d) Tamarind seeds

Q10: Who said this statement, "Kalam, I want you to develop so that you are on par with the highly educated people of the big cities".
(a) Sivasubramania Iyer
(b) Pakshi Lakshman Sastry
(c) Jainulabdeen
(d) Samsuddin

Short Answer Questions

Q1: Kalam’s childhood was a secure one both materially and emotionally. Illustrate.
Q2: What kind of a person was Kalam’s father?
Q3: How was Kalam’s appearance different from that of his parents?
Q4: How did the Second World War give Abdul Kalam the opportunity to earn his first wages?
Q5: Had Kalam earned any money before that? In what way?

Long Answer Questions

Reference to Context

Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I was born into a middle-class Tamil family in the island town of Rameswaram in the erstwhile Madras State. My father, Jainulabdeen, had neither much formal education nor much wealth; despite these disadvantages, he possessed great innate wisdom and a true generosity of spirit. He had an ideal helpmate in my mother, Ashiamma.
(a) Where was Abdul Kalam born?
(b) What qualities did Abdul Kalam’s father possess?
(c) In what ways was Ashiamma an ideal helpmate for her husband?
(d) What characteristics does he say he inherited from his parents?

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I was one of many children – a short boy with rather undistinguished looks, born to tall and handsome parents. We lived in or ancestral house, made of limestone and bricks, on the Mosque Street in Rameshwaram. My austere father used to avoid all inessential comforts and luxuries. However, all necessities were provided for, in terms of food, medicine or clothes. In fact I would say a mine was a very secure childhood, both materially and emotionally.
(a) How was Kalam different from his parents in looks?
(b) What does Kalam tell us about his home?
(c) How do we know that Kalam’s father was austere?
(d) What kind of a childhood did Kalam have?

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
In fact, I would say mine was a very secure childhood, both materially and emotionally.
(a) In what way was Kalam’s childhood ‘secure’?
(b) What does Kalam mean by ‘material security’?
(c) What is meant by ‘emotional security’?
(d) How did his parents provide Kalam with material and emotional security?

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I used to collect the seeds and sell them to a provision shop on Mosque Street.
(a) Which seeds did the narrator collect?
(b) Why did he collect these seeds?
(c) What did he do with the collected seeds?
(d) What light does the extract throw on the narrator?

Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
The first casualty came in the form of suspension of train halt at Rameswaram station. The newspaper had now to be bundled and thrown out from the moving train on the Rameswaram road between Rameswaram and Dhanuskodi. That forced my cousin Samsuddin, who distributed the newspapers in Rameswaram to look for a helping hand and catch the bundles and as if naturally Ifilled the slot.
(a) What does he mean by first casualty?
(b) Who was Samsuddin? What did he do?
(c) Why did the cousin need a helping hand? How did he help Kalam earn a salary?
(d) How did Kalam feel later about his job?

Q6: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
During the annual Shri Sita Rama Kalyanam Ceremony, our family used to arrange boats with a special platform for carrying idols of the Lordfrom the temple to the marriage site situated in the middle of the pond called Rama Tirtha which was near our house.
(a) What was the annual event held in Rameswaram?
(b) Where did the boats carry the idols of the Lord?
(c) Who provided the boats for ferrying the idols of Rama and Sita to the marriage site?
(d) What light does this throw on the Rameswaram society?

Q7: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I inherited honesty and self-discipline from my father; from my mother, I inherited faith in goodness and deep kindness and so did my three brothers and sister. I had three close friends in my childhood – Ramanadha Sastry, Aravindan and Sivaprakashan. All these boys were from orthodox Hindu Brahmin families. As children, none of us ever felt any difference amongst ourselves because of our religious differences and upbringing.
(a) How does the author describe his father?
(b) In what way did Kalam’s father show his self-discipline?
(c) What was the difference between the writer and his friends?
(d) How did the difference affect the friendship between the boys?

Q8: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
One day when I was in fifth standard at Rameswaram Elementary School, a new teacher came to our class. I used to wear a cap which marked me Muslim and I always sat in the front row next to Ramanadha Sastry, who wore a sacred thread. The new teacher could not stomach a Hindu priest’s son sitting with a Muslim boy. In accordance with our social ranking, as the new teacher saw it, I was asked to go and sit on the back bench.
(a) Name the school, where Kalam studied.
(b) Which social groups existed in Rameswaram?
(c) How were these groups easily identified?
(d) What did the teacher ask Kalam to do?

Q9: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I felt very sad, and so did Ramanadha Sastry. He looked utterly downcast as I shifted to my seat in the last row.
(a) How did the teacher know that Kalam was a Muslim?
(b) Why did the narrator feel sad?
(c) Who looked “utterly downcast”? Why?
(d) Why was Kalam’s seat shifted?

Q10: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
After school, we went home and told our respective parents about the incident. Lakshmana Sastry summoned the teacher and in our presence, told the teacher that he should not spread the poison of social inequality and communal Intolerance in the minds of innocent children. He bluntly asked the teache/to either apologise or quit the school and the island. Not only did the teacher regret his behaviour, but the strong sense of conviction Lakshmana Sastry conveyed ultimately reformed this young teacher.
(a) What incident is the narrator talking about?
(b) Who was Lakshmana Sastry? What did he accuse the teacher of?
(c) What brought about a change in the teacher?
(d) What kind of society did the speaker live in?

Q11: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Sivasubramania Iyer was not perturbed, nor did he get angry with his wife, but instead, served me with his own hands and sat down beside me to eat his meal.
(a) Who was Sivasubramania Iyer?
(b) What was it that could have perturbed Sivasubramania Iyer?
(c) Why did Sivasubramania Iyer not get angry with his wife?
(d) Why did Sivasubramania sit down with Kalam to eat his meal?

Q12: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
His wife watched us from behind the kitchen door. I wondered whether she had observed any difference in the way I ate rice, drank water or cleaned the floor after the meal. When I was leaving his house, Sivasubramania Iyer invited me to join him for dinner again the next weekend.
(a) Whose wife is being referred to in Line 1?
(b) Why did she watch them from behind the kitchen door?
(c) Why did Sivasubramania invite Kalam again the next weekend?
(d) What was the narrator’s reaction to the teacher’s invitation?

Q13: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Sivasubramania Iyer invited me to join him for dinner again the next weekend. Observing my hesitation, he told me not to get upset, saying, “Once you decide to change they system, such problems have to be confronted. ” When I visited his house the next week, Sivasubramania Iyer’s wife took me inside her kitchen and served me food with her own hands.
(a) Why was the writer reluctant to join his teacher for dinner?
(b) What “system” was he talking about?
(c) What was the effect of this on Sivasubramania’s wife?
(d) What do you learn about Sivasubramania’s character from this episode?

Q14: Then the Second World War was over and India’s freedom was imminent “Indians build their own India ”, declared Gandhiji. The whole country was filled with unprecedented optimism. I asked my father’s permission to leave Rameshwaram and study at the district headquarters in Ramanathapuram
(a) What did the Indians expect after the Second World War was over?
(b) What did Gandhiji declare and what did he mean?
(c) Why was the whole country optimistic?
(d) Where did Kalam decide to go and why?

Q15: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
He told me as if thinking aloud, “Abul! I know you have to go away to grow. Does the seagull not fly across the Sun, alone and without a nest? ”
(a) Who is ‘he’ in the above lines?
(b) Why did ‘he’ say so to the listener?
(c) What do you learn about Kalam’s feelings from the speaker’s words?
(d) What do you learn about the speaker from the above lines?

Q16: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. ”
(a) Name the writer who wrote these lines.
(b) Who quotes these words and to whom?
(c) Why does he speak these words?
(d) What does he mean by ‘Sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself?

You can find Worksheets Solutions here: Worksheet Solutions: My Childhood