Class 12 English Unit 5: Education Critical Thinking Language Development Section

 Critical Thinking

a.      APJ Abdul Kalam became a renowned aerospace scientist in his later life. Do you find any association between his childhood days shaping his career? Explain with specific instances from the text.

APJ (Avul Pakir Jainulabdeeni) Abdul Kalam is a well-known aerospace scientist in India. He became a famous aerospace scientist because he was inspired and motivated by the explanation of the flight dynamics of birds practically given by his teacher Sivasubramania Lyer in his school. There are great associations of his childhood days in shaping his career. He was a keen student of mathematics and always scored full marks in it. He also scored full marks in Science during his study time. Besides this, he would take extra classes in mathematics at his teacher’s home. He kept himself always busy solving complex number problems. The most impressing thing to him was the practical lecture of his teacher Sivasubramania Lyer. He, along with his friends, was taken to the seashore of Rameswaram to have a practical demonstration of the flight dynamics of the birds. The real teaching of his teacher had left him with influential remarks. He learned how birds could fly using their wings and tails in a proper balance. When he learned flight systems of birds he was determined to study flight dynamics and follow every step suggested by his teacher, and hence he became an aerospace scientist.

b.     Kalam mentions an instance of discrimination against him in his school life. What picture of society does he want to depict by mentioning the incident? Discuss.

In his memoir, he mentions a sad event of religious discrimination in his school. His new teacher showed his discriminating behavior when he saw a Muslim boy (Abdul) and a Hindu boy (Rameswaram) sitting together on the same bench in the classroom. Rameswaram Sastry was an intimate friend of his belonging to the Hindu community. Abdul was ignorant of the religious discrimination between Hindus and Muslims. During the time, there was extreme religious discrimination between Hindus and Muslims. The behavior of the new teacher was a true picture of the then society. He could not digest the friendship between a Hindu boy and a Muslim boy, so he forbade Abdul to sit close to his Brahmin friend. Abdul was totally upset by this behavior. Through this incident, Abdul wants to show the picture of the society that was parted between two sects – Hindu and Muslim. Few people denied such divisions, but most of the people, including educated people believed in the partition.

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