Memories of Childhood — Class 12 MCQs with Answers

Key concepts: Memories of Childhood (Class 12 English)

Two autobiographical episodes from women of marginalised communities. Zitkala-Sa, a Native American, describes the day her long hair was cut at a white boarding school; Bama, a Tamil Dalit, describes the day she learnt what the comic sight of an elder carrying a packet by its string really meant.

The two writers

Zitkala-Sa was the pen name of Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, born 1876, who from 1900 published articles criticising the Carlisle Indian school. Bama is the pen-name of a Tamil Dalit woman from a Roman Catholic family.

Karukku

The excerpt is from Bama's 1992 autobiography. 'Karukku' means Palmyra leaves, whose serrated edges are like double-edged swords; containing 'karu' (embryo or seed), it also means freshness and newness.

The land of apples

Zitkala-Sa's first day is 'bitter-cold', with snow on the ground and the trees bare — the sensory opening of an episode about being stripped of everything familiar.

Eating by formula

Three bells govern the meal. She sits at the first, when everyone else only draws out a chair; at the third, when all begin eating, 'I began crying instead, for by this time I was afraid to venture anything more.'

Judewin's warning

Judewin, who knows a few words of English, has overheard the plan to cut their long hair. 'Among our people, short hair was worn by mourners, and shingled hair by cowards!'

Submit or struggle

Judewin: 'We have to submit, because they are strong.' Zitkala-Sa: 'No, I will not submit! I will struggle first!'

The resistance

She hides under a bed in a dim room, is dragged out 'kicking and scratching wildly', carried downstairs and tied fast in a chair.

Losing her spirit

'I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit.' She moans for her mother; no one comes. 'Now I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder.'

Bama's walk home

A ten-minute walk takes her thirty minutes to an hour, delayed by a performing monkey, a snake charmer, a cyclist who has not got off his bike for three days, the Maariyaata temple, the dried fish stall by the statue of Gandhi, and the narikkuravan selling needles and clay beads.

The packet by its string

An elder carries a small oil-stained packet 'by its string, without touching it', bows low to the landlord and hands it over cupping his own hand. To the child it is absurdly funny.

Annan's explanation

The upper castes 'must not touch us. If they did, they would be polluted.' Bama's laughter turns to sadness and then anger: 'we too are human beings'. She wants to touch the vadais herself.

The question about the street

A landlord's man asks Annan his name, then which street he lives on — because 'if he knew on which street we lived, he would know our caste too'. Annan's advice is to study: 'If you are always ahead in your lessons, people will come to you of their own accord.' Bama stood first in her class.