MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD SUMMARY

1. The writer describes that her first day in the land of apples was extremely
cold. The ground was fully covered with snow whereas the trees were not
covered with snow. A bell rang indicating breakfast time. It was a loud
sounds that breakthrough the part of bell tower and reached into their
sensitive ears. The disturbing sound of the tip-toe of the shoes was
making the writer restless. There was a continuous noise everywhere as
if the sounds were clashing with each other. There were people who were
talking in an unknown language. She got so disturbed that she felt as if
her freedom was lost.
2. A woman with yellow face and white hair went up to see the girls.
Zitkala was placed in the line of the girls who were heading towards the
dining hall. She describes that they were the Indian girls who were
wearing hard shoes and tight dresses. The small girls were wearing
sleeved aprons and their hairs were cut short. Zitkala was walking
without making any noise of her shoes. She felt so ashamed when her
blanket (scarf, shawl) was removed from her shoulders. All the other
Indian girls seemed to be very indecent to her as all of them were
wearing tight clothes which were not a good thing as per the writer. As
they were going to the dining room, the boys came from the opposite
door. The writer notices the three boys who according to her were brave;
she says so because they were also the new entrants into the school and
were not wearing the dress like others. She looked at them while they
were standing behind her. They were also not comfortable like her. A
small bell rang and all the students dragged their chairs. The writer also
pulled her chair and she at once gets seated. But she found herself being
noticed by all others as none of them had seated. The next bell ranged
and all the others seated themselves. The writer also did it once again
just to mend her mistake. Suddenly she heard a manly voice from one
corner of the room. She tries to see the man but found everyone looking
down towards their plates. While she was looking at them she saw that
the yellow faced woman was constantly looking at her. She dropped her
eyes but was feeling uncomfortable about being watched like this. The
man stopped speaking and with the ringing of the bell for the third time
all of them picked up their forks and knives. The writer got so afraid by
the time that she started crying as she didn’t want to get into such risky
task anymore.
 MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD SUMMARY
3. The writer says that the way of eating was not the only thing which she
thought to be the hardest one. But there was one more terrible thing
that her friend Judewin told her. As she could understand a few words of
English so she had heard the pale faced woman saying that their hair
should be cut down. The writer didn’t want to do it because she had
heard her mother saying that only untrained warriors that are arrested
by the enemy cut their hair. In their community only those who either
were at funeral or were cowards cut short their hair. As Zitkala was
neither a weakling nor a mourner so she didn’t want to cut her hair.
4. Both Judewin and Zitkala discussed about their destiny as they knew that
their hair will be cut short. Judewin was of a view that they should agree
to what the authorities wanted to as they were strong then these two
girls but the author was not ready for it and so she decided to go against
the school authorities.
She went up stairs very quietly without being noticed in order to
safeguard her hair. She was trying to walk very quietly because her
moccasins were changed with shoes that make sound while walking. She
crossed the hall and went into a room without knowing where she was
going. She entered into a room which had three beds and green curtains
making it a bit dark. She then crawled under a bed and hides herself from
those who want to cut her hair.
5. The writer shivered with the voice of footsteps whenever she tried to
look out of her hiding place. She could hear many voices calling out for
her name including her friend Judewin. She didn’t reply to them. Soon she
heard the sound of steps and voices growing stronger and stronger.
Women and girls entered into the room where she was hiding. They were
searching for her everywhere; even the curtains were also removed. Soon
she was found under the bed and was pulled out of it. She tried hard to
safeguard herself, even scraped the other person but she was taken away
and tied up to a chair.
6. The author cried a lot as she doesn’t want anyone to cut her hair. Suddenly she felt a
pair of scissors behind her neck and soon her hair was cut down. She lost all her
confidence and felt that she had always been humiliated since she was taken away from
her mother. She recalled all her bad moments that embarrassed her as people had
gazed on her, she was thrown into the air like a puppet. But this time her hair was cut
down and she felt like a coward. She was crying. She wailed for her mother as she used
to console her in her sad moments but today no one came to console her. No one tried to
know her point of view. She felt like an animal that is part of a herd and is being herded
by someone. This means now she was being controlled by someone.
PART 2:
 MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD SUMMARY
1. The writer says that when she was a student in the third class she had
never heard anyone speaking openly about untouchability. But she by
then had already seen and felt it. For her it was very embarrassing to
experience the concept of untouchability.
2. The writer says that one day she was coming back home from her
school. She was carrying an old bag with her. The distance between
her school and home was only ten minutes. But she would take thirty
minutes to reach her home. It was so because she used to waste her
time in the street watching all the fun and games happening there.
She used to see new or sometimes strange things happening there,
and then there were the shops and the bazaar that she loved to see.
3. The writer describes of those things she watched in the street or the
bazaar. There was a performing monkey, a snake charmer who could
make snakes move by playing music. He would kept the snake in a box
and display it from time to time. There was a cyclist also who had
been riding his bike from past three days. He pedaled hard to continue
his riding as he was into some kind of contest. Somebody had pinned
the rupee notes on his shirt so as to encourage him and keep him
going on his cycle. Then there was spinning wheel and the
Maariyaata temple, there was a huge bell hanging inside the temple.
The pongal offering that is a particular dish cooked during pongal was
cooked outside this temple. There were dried fish also that were sold
by the statue of Gandhi. Next she describes that there were stalls of
sweet and fried snacks and other shops next to each other. There
were street lights that turn violet from blue and then the
narikkuravan, a tribe in south India. He had a lemur an animal that
looks like a monkey in a cage. He was a seller of needles, clay beads
and some instrument used for cleaning ear. These sights of various
things were so entertaining for her that it prevents her from going
further.
4. : The writer says that sometimes, the people from various political
parties would come in their street and put up a stage to deliver
lectures for all of us. Sometimes street plays, puppet show and no
magic no wonder acts were also staged in the street. So basically
there was a regular display of such entertaining acts in the street.
5. She further says that even if no such act was staged in the street then
also there were the coffee clubs in the bazaar. She liked the way
 MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD SUMMARY
waiters cooled the coffee by pouring it from one jug to another. There
were some other people who used to sit in front of their shops and
chop onions. They always turned their eyes on the other side so as to
save them from getting teary. Other interesting thing for the writer
was an almond tree that was still growing and whose fruit was blown
away by the wind. All these sights were so very interesting for the
writer that she couldn’t help her from stopping there and watching
them. She feels like her legs been tied up so that she could not reach
her home.
6. There were sellers of various things in the bazaar. They used to sell
items as per the season so there were mango, cucumber, sugarcane,
sweet potato, palm-shoots, gram, palm- syrup, guavas and jack-fruit
for sale. Even the writer saw many other sellers selling sweet and
spicy snacks, payasam, halva, boiled tamarind seeds and iced lollies.
So the writer was quite a good observer and she used to notice every
bit of thing happening in the market street.
7. The writer says that looking at all those skits and beautiful things all
day she then entered her own street. On the opposite side of the
street there was a newly made threshing floor, a flattened outdoor
surface made to separate grain from straw. The landlord was sitting
on a stone shelf and was watching people work in his field. She then
describes the laborers who are working in the field. They belonged to
the writer’s community. She says that they are very hardworking and
they were driving the cattle in pairs in the field. They were doing so to
separate the grain from the straw. Further, she says that the mouth of
the animals was covered so as to stop them from eating grains. All
this was such a fun to watch for her.
8. Then she saw an elder person, who was her neighbor coming from
bazaar. He was carrying a packet of some snack with him. The manner
in which the old man was walking made her burst in laugh. He was
handling it at some distance from his body. She says that she came to
know that the packet contained vadai or green banana bhaji. She
guessed it because of the oily spots on the packet. The man was
carrying it by the threads. This made the writer think that this way of
handling a packet could lead to fall of its contents.
9. The old man went up to the landlord. He bends down to show respect
to the landlord and holding his hand out he offered the carry bag to
 MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD SUMMARY
the landlord. The landlord took the parcel and started eating vadais
out of it.
10. After watching all this she went back to her home. She narrated the
whole incident of the old man to her elder brother. She was laughing
out by recalling the way that big man was handling the packet. But
her brother Annan didn’t found it funny. He told her that the man
wasn’t being funny, He did it because we belong to a lower caste.
People from upper caste do not touch us as this would make them
impure. Even the food should be handled by the strings if it is for the
upper caste, that is why the old man was carrying it like this
11. When she heard all this from her brother, the writer became very sad.
She wanted to know how the people of upper caste could have such a
belief about their community. She knew that vadais are first packed in
banana leaves and then in a parcel so how could they get polluted
with their touch. She felt so angry at this that she decided to go and
touch those vadais herself. She then questioned herself again as to
why we have to go and bring things for these upper caste people. She
also felt bad for that elder person who was one of the important
people of her tribe. She said he even had to go to bring things for
them. He had to hand all that with great respect to such a person who
just sits there and pops the things into his mouth. This very thought
filled her with anger.
12.The poet says that what if the upper caste people have some money
with them. Does that mean that they will not treat others nicely? She
says that we are also human beings and should be treated like a
human. She also thinks that people from her community should not
do such small tasks of bringing food for them. We should work in their
fields, take our wages and then leave out. We should never do any
extra work for them.
13.: Writer’s elder brother had come home for the holidays. He was a
student in a University. He was on the way to his home from a
neighboring village, where he had gone to borrow books from the
library. He was walking along an irrigation pond when he was
stopped by one of the men of the landlord. He was asked his name.
Annan told his name. He then queried about his street so that he
could know his caste.
14.Annan told the whole incident to the writer. He also told her that as
they were born into a low caste they will never get any respect from
 MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD SUMMARY
the upper caste. They are deprived of all this. But if they study hard
and make progress in their life they can throw away this disrespect.
He suggested his sister to study hard and stay ahead over others as
this would earn her respect and company from others. The words of
the elder brother touched her so deeply that she started working hard
almost like a mad person. As Annan had asked she stood first in her
class and because of this she made so many friends.