My Childhood Summary

My Childhood Summary – My Childhood” is an extract taken from the biography of APJ Abdul
Kalam – ‘Wings of Fire’. He was a great scientist and also the 14th President of India. He was
born in a middle-class Muslim family in 1931 in the island town of Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu.
In his childhood, he was greatly influenced by his parents, his teachers, and his friends. His
father, Jainulabdeen, was not highly educated but he was a generous and kind person. He
was not rich but provided a secure childhood to Abdul and his siblings. Abdul inherited
honesty and self-discipline from his father and faith in goodness and deep kindness from his
mother.
Kalam earned his first wages by working as a helping hand to his cousin, Samsuddin, who
distributed newspapers in Rameswaram.
In his childhood, he had three close friends- Ramanadha Sastry,Aravindam, and Sivaprakash.
Once when he was in the fifth standard, a new teacher asked him not to sit in the front row
along with the high caste Brahmin boys.
Abdul found Ramanadha Sastry weeping as he went to the last row. This made a lasting
impression on Abdul.

Abdul was also greatly influenced by his science teacher, Sivasubramania Iyer. He learned the
lesson of breaking social barriers from him. Iyer invited him to his home for a meal. His wife
refused to serve food to a Muslim boy in her pure kitchen.
Iyer served him with his own hands and sat down beside him to eat his meal. He convinced
his wife to serve the meal with her own hands and thus was successful in changing her
conservative attitude.
For higher education, Abdul Kalam sought permission from his father to leave Rameswaram
and study at the district headquarters in Ramanathapuram. His father said that Abdul had to
go a long way in life just like a seagull bird that flies long distances.
He calmed down APJ’s reluctant mother by quoting Kahlil Gibran’s poem ‘Your children. He
said that her children could not be dominated by her because they had their own thoughts.
They did not belong to her but were a result of life’s desire for itself. He asked her to give
them the freedom to fulfill their thoughts.
The last leaf summary in short
This article contains the last leaf summary. It is all about the last leaf summary in short. The
last leaf summary starts with two girls namely Sue and Johnsy lived together in a small flat.
Both were artists. They resided on the third floor of an old house.
Johnsy fell critically ill in November. She suffered from pneumonia and used to lie in her bed
without moving. She continuously gazed out of the window. Sue, her friend, became very
worried. She called the doctor. Although he came every day, yet Johnsy’s condition showed
no improvement.
The doctor confirmed that Johnsy was not willing to live. As a result, the medicines were
ineffective to cure her ill-health.
Sue tried her greatest to make Johnsy take an interest in things around her. She talked about
clothes and fashion. However, Johnsy was irresponsive. She continued to lie still on her bed.
Sue brought her drawing-board into the room and began to paint.
Suddenly Sue heard Johnsy whispering something. She speedily rushed to the bed and heard
Johnsy counting backward. She speedily rushed to the bed and heard Johnsy counting
backward. Looking out of the window, she was saying, “Twelve!”
However, after some time she whispered “eleven”, then “ten” and so on. She saw an old ivy
creeper climbing half-way up the brick wall opposite to the window. Also, the creeper was
shedding its leaves in the strong wind.

Johnsy was very depressed. She created a thought that she would die when the last leaf fell.
Moreover, she did not accept the soup offered to her.
Later, in the last leaf summary, Sue tried to show affection towards Johnsy. Sue told her that
she would not die. She kept the curtain open as she needed the light to complete her
painting. She desired to fetch money for them by selling it. Sue pleaded Johnsy not to look
out of the window.
Also, she told Johnsy that she would not die. She has to live for her friends. Moreover, Sue
would become lonely without Johnsy. But Johnsy was sure that she would die as soon as the
last leaf falls.
She added that she would sleep after the last leaf falls and would sleep forever. Sue was very
worried about her friend’s condition. She was helpless.Sue rushed to the ground floor to seek
help from a 60-year-old painter. His name was Behrman. His lifelong dream was to paint a
masterpiece. Unfortunately, it remained a dream only.
Sue told the condition of his friend to Behrman. She refused to eat and continuously looked
outside the window. She declares that she would not survive after the falling of the last leaf.
He condemned Johnsy for being silly. However, he agrees to paint the last leaf for Johnsy so
that she could recover.

Johnsy woke up the next morning. To her surprise, the last leaf survived the storm and it was
clinging to the creeper. It survived another storm in the evening too.This incident opened
Johnsy’s eyes. She apologized to her friend for being so irresponsive and depressed. She
realized that it was a sin to think of death. Then, she combed, had soup, and a desire to live.
The doctor arrived. He told about the improvement in her health. He added that she would
recover soon as her desire to live was back.

Sue went to see Behrman. He was only two days ill. However, he dies of pneumonia
contracted while being out in the wet and cold. Sue tells this news to Johnsy. She tells her to
look at the last leaf clinging to the creeper. She reveals the truth that it was the masterpiece
of the old artist, Behrman.

He always wanted to produce a masterpiece painting but had never succeeded in his attempt
to produce the same. However, to help her recover from her depression, he spent
considerable time painting with great realism a leaf on the wall. Thus, he himself dies of
pneumonia contracted while being out in the wet and cold.

In the Kingdom of Fools Summary

‘In the kingdom of fools’ is an interesting story of a kingdom run by a foolish king. One day, a
saint and his disciple reached the kingdom. The saint was astonished to see that the people
were sleeping during the day and worked during the night. He was disturbed to see that all
the food items in the kingdom coste the same- one duddu. He analysed that it was a
kingdom of fools and ordered his disciple to leave the place. The disciple did not leave with
his guru as he was lured by the abundance of cheap food.

One day, a man approached the king for justice. He claimed that his brother was committing
his ancient trade of theft and during that, the wall of a man’s house fell on him and he died.
He asked the king to get him compensated. As the king was foolish, he did not analyse that
the dead man was a criminal. On the contrary, he tried all the people who were involved in
the death of the thief- the rich merchant who was the owner of the house whose wall had
broken, the man who had built the wall, the dancing girl due to whom the builder had built a
weak wall and the Goldsmith because of whom the dancing girl had to move around in the
street that day.
Finally, the king decided that the merchant’s father was the real culprit. As he was dead and
his son had inherited all his property, so, he would also get punished in place of his father.
Another turn of events takes place when the minister feels that the merchant is too thin to be
killed by the stake. The king orders his men to find a fat person who could be punished in
place of the merchant. As the disciple had become very fat, the men took him to the king.
The innocent man prayed to his guru for help . The guru visualizes that his disciple is in
trouble and reaches to save him. He uses his Intelligence and wisdom to trap the foolish king.
Finally, the king and his minister get themselves killed by the stake in place of the Guru and
his disciple. The people of the kingdom beg the guru and his disciple to become their new
king and minister. The guru agreed on a condition that the kingdom would function normally
like all other kingdoms did.
Reach for the Top Part 1: Santosh Yadav Summary
Part 1 of Reach for the Top starts with Santosh Yadav, the first woman on Earth who has
scaled the mighty Mount Everest twice. The story is a biographical piece about a woman who
was born in a patriarchal society that does not offer a warm welcome to a daughter, like a
son. She was born in the small village of Joniyawas, located in the Rewari District of Haryana.
She was the sixth child of her family, with five elder brothers. Although her parents were
wealthy landowners, they were not so inclined to provide quality education to their children
from good schools. They rather chose the local village school for their children’s education.
Despite growing up in a controlled environment, Santosh chose to defy societal norms and
carved a niche for herself.

From a young age, she was discriminated against on the basis of gender and decided to fight
the system in her own way. When Santosh was sixteen years old, her parents pressurised her
to tie the knot, like other girls in her village. She, however, chose not to give in to their
pressure tactics. She told her parents firmly that she wanted to study further and wished to
carve a place for herself in society. Besides, she told them that if they objected, she would
fund her own education by working part-time jobs. Finally, they agreed to fund her
education. Soon after that, she secured admission to a school in Delhi and passed the high
school examinations. Then she joined the Maharani College in Jaipur.

Since then, her life had taken a new turn. She enrolled in a course at Uttarkashi’s Nehru
Institute of Mountaineering and participated in an expedition. Thereafter, every year she
continued participating in an expedition to pursue her new dream of mountaineering. Her
hard work finally paid off in 1992, when she climbed the mighty Mount Everest. She was
barely twenty years old then. She became the youngest woman to achieve such a feat; she
also saved a fellow mountaineer. She secured a unique place for India and herself by creating
history in mountaineering and scaling it twice in her lifetime. Santosh was awarded one of
the highest civilian honours, the Padma Shri, by the Indian government for achieving this
marvellous feat.
Reach for the Top Part 2: Maria Sharapova Summary
In Part 2 of Reach for the Top chapter, we learn about the renowned Russian tennis player
Maria Sharapova. This story illustrates her journey of becoming the world champion in
women’s tennis. She achieved the number one position through hard labour, extensive and
rigorous training and several sacrifices on the personal front. In this biography, Maria tells us
how she started her tennis training at an early age to reach the summit of women’s tennis
when she was barely eighteen years old.

Maria was born in Siberia in Russia and left her home town at the tender age of nine to
pursue her dream of becoming a tennis star. She had to stay separate from her mother and
moved to Florida along with her father to proceed with her training. Her father worked
laboriously to fund her tennis training. Although she suffered bullying on account of being a
foreigner, she never lost hope or gave in to petty remarks. Her will and determination led her
to achieve success and reap satisfying results from her practice sessions. Apart from
practising tennis, her hobbies are fashion, singing and dancing. Although she mentions that
money is a motivating factor for playing tennis, her sole aim remains to become and continue
being number one in the world of tennis.