How does the author describe his mother?
From the text, we came to know that Kalam’s mother’s name was Ashiamma. She belonged to a distinguished family-one of her forebears had been bestowed with the title of ‘Bahadur’ by the British Government. She was a generous, hardworking woman and an ideal helpmate of her husband. Kalam recalled that she was broad-minded enough to feed far more outsiders every day than all the members of Kalam’s own family put together. Kalam also reminisced his mother as the one with whom he normally ate, sitting on the floor of the kitchen. She would first place a banana leaf before Kalam that served as a plate on which then she served a very simple meal consisting of rice, aromatic sambar, a variety of sharp home-made pickle and a dollop of fresh coconut chutney. Thus the overall picture of Kalam’s mother is that of a patient, caring, content and ideal mother.
“We lived in our ancestral house,”- Who is the speaker? When was the house built? What kind of house was it? How did the inmates of the house lead their lives in the house?
In the introductory section of ‘Strong Roots’, an extracted piece from Kalam’s autobiography, ‘Wings of Fire’, Dr Kalam talks about his childhood.
The house was built in the 19th century.
The house was a fairly large pucca one, made of limestone and brick, on the Mosque Street in Rameswaram. The house was about a ten-minute walk from the famous Shiva temple.
Kalam was born in a middle-class Tamil family in Rameswaram and lived in their ancestral house with his parents and siblings. Kalam remembered that his mother Ashiamma used to feed many outsiders daily, along with the family members.
The inmates of the house led a simple and peaceful life. They avoided all unnecessary comforts and luxuries. However, the parents never deprived Kalam and the other children of any basic needs (food, medicine, clothing). The love, care and proper guidance of his worthy parents made Kalam’s childhood, an emotionally and materially secured one.