MEMORIEDS OF CHILDHOOD

by Bhavye and Keshav 

 CERTIFICATE

• This is to certify that Bhavye and Keshav

student of class 12 c has successfully
completed has successfully completed her
english project “Memories of Childhood”
under the guidance of Mrs. Priya Singh
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude

to my English teacher Mrs. Priya Singh for their able
guidance and support in completing my project.

Bhavye and Keshav

Class 12th A
 INTRODUCTION
• Memories of childhood’s leaves an indelible
imprint on ones’s mind and can shape the
entire course of his/her life. the memories
of childhood includes two episode of girls
who share their experiences from their
childhood .These episodes shows how these
two girls reacted strongly against the
discrimination amd indignities meted out to
them
• Episode 1
• This episode is about a native American woman called
Zitkala-Sa a celebrated writer from condemned dogma who
was higly critical of evils of oppression throughout her
creative work . Zitkala-Sa in this episode challenges the
prejudiced attitude towards native American culture.

• Episode 2
• This episode is about a woman from lower class called
Bama who is also a celebrated writer and was highly
critical of the evils of oppression throughout her creative
work. Bama debunks the entire caste system and
untouchability in this episode.
 EPISODE 1:
THE CUTTING OF MY LONG HAIR
BY ZITKALA-SA

• The cutting of my long hair is written by Zitkala-Sa who is a

native American. She recalls the time she spent at Carlisle
Indian school which was administered by colonial powers .The
indigenous students in this school were subjected to cultural
violations .

• The writer here talks about her first day at this school when she
was mostly crippled by fear and found the ambience there was
as cold and harsh as the weather outside . She felt lost
amongst an alien culture and a language she did not
understand . She was terrified and felt as if her spirit wanted to
tear itself on struggling but she also knew that it was of no use.
• She then describes the horror she experienced when the paleface
woman perhaps their teacher took all the girls to the dining room.
where she saw that all these girls were made to wear stiff shoes and
clingy clothes which was the complete opposite of the clothing of her
native cultural. The young girls wore sleeved aprons and shingled hair.
She felt ashamed as the blanket was stripped but noticed that the
other girls were not bothered about their immodest clothing.

• In the dinning room she saw three boys entering at the opposite door.
just then a bell rang every took out their chairs , Zitkala-Sa took this as
a signal for sitting down so she pulled out her chair and sat down but
then noticed that no one was sitting but another bell rang at which
everyone sat then a male voice was heard but she couldn’t understand
since it was in other language when she looked around to see who
was speaking she noticed that she was being observed by the white
woman embarrassed she looked down. At the third bell everyone
started eating but zitkala sa started crying with fear.
• The dining room incident was just the beginning of a hard
day . Later that day her friend judewin told he that she
overheard the paleface women talk about cutting the long
hair of these native girls. The news was disastrous for
Zitkala-Sa because her mother told her that only unskilled
and captured warriors or mourning women short hair .The
two friend discussed their fate for sometime and when her
friend told her to not fight it and just submit to their
oppression Zitkala-Sa refused and when no one noticed her,
she crept up the stairs and slipped under the bed in one of
the darker rooms along the hall but was caught. she was
dragged out out while she kicked and screamed. All her
efforts went in vain and her thick braids were gnawed off.
She felt miserable and moaned for her mother in whose
absence she had to suffer extreme indignities. She painfully
lamented being treated like an animal in a herd.
 ZITKALA-SA

• Zitkála-Šá (Lakota for Red Bird;[ February 22, 1876 – January

26, 1938), also known by her missionary and married
names Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a Yankton Dakota
writer, editor, translator, musician, educator, and
political activist. She wrote several works chronicling her
struggles with cultural identity, and the pull between the
majority culture in which she was educated, and the Dakota
culture into which she was born and raised. Her later books
were among the first works to bring traditional Native
American stories to a widespread white English-speaking
readership. Zitkála-Šá has been noted as one of the most
influential Native American activists of the 20th century.
ZITKALA-SA
 EPISODE 2:
WE TOO ARE HUMAN BEINGS
BY BAMA

• The second episode we too are human beings is an exert from the dalit
writer Bama’s book “karuku”. Bama recalls the time when she was a
student of class three . she had not heard people talk about
untouchability but had began to experience and observe the humiliation
meted out to untouchables

• She discusses at length her tendency to observe things minutely and

shares with the reader the details of the market area she had to cross on
her way back from school. like all children her age Bama was a curious
child and would get lost in market looking at ordinary things like shops,
restaurants, jugglers, street plays, puppet shows, pongal festivities etc
and would take double of the usual time coming back.
• On one such day , Bama saw an elderly man from her
community holding the packet filled with vadais in a
strange manner. He was holding the packet by its strings
without touching it . She thought and by holding the vadais
this way it would fall. Bama on reaching home shared this
episode with her older brother Annan who studied at the
university and told him that she found it funny . But then
her older brother explained that was because of the
customs practiced in the name of caste system, if the elderly
man would have touched the vadais then it would have
been unfit for his upper caste master . Bama was very angry
and questioned the system that denied the low caste even
basic right to be treated as human
• Annan also told Bama his own experience where
one of the landlord’s men wanted him to tell the
name of his street as that would have disclosed his
caste . However as an older brother he passed on
his sage advise to his sister. He told her to work hard
and progress if she and wanted to be treated as an
equal. she must study well and be ahead in all her
lessons. Then the people of the upper caste would
come to her of their own accord and attach
themselves to her Bama followed the advice of her
brother and finally stood first in her class.
 BAMA
• Bama (born 1958), also known as Bama Faustina
Soosairaj, is a Tamil Dalit feminist, teacher and novelist.
She rose to fame with her autobiographical novel
Karukku (1992), which chronicles the joys and sorrows
experienced by Dalit Christian women in Tamil Nadu.[1]
She subsequently wrote two more novels, Sangati (1994)
and Vanmam (2002) along with three collections of short
stories: Kusumbukkaran (1996) and Oru Tattvum
Erumaiyum (2003), 'Kandattam'(2009).[2] In addition to
this, she has written twenty short stories.
• Bama was born in 1958 as Faustina Mary Fatima Rani in a
Roman Catholic family belonging to the Paraiyar community
from Puthupatti in the then Madras State.[1] Later she accepted
'Bama' as her pen name. Her father, Susairaj was employed in
the Indian Army[3] and her mother was named Sebasthiamma.
She is the sister of famous Dalit writer Raj Gauthaman. Bama's
grandfather had converted from Hinduism to Christianity.[1]
Bama's ancestors were from the Dalit community and worked
as agricultural labourers. Bama had her early education in her
village. Her early literary influences include Tamil writers like
Jayakantan, Akhilan, Mani, and Parthasarthy. In college, she
read and enjoyed Kahlil Gibran and Rabindranath Tagore. On
graduation, she became a schoolteacher for very poor girls,
following which she served as a nun for seven years.[3] She
chose to take the holy orders to escape caste-based
discrimination, and also to further her mission of helping in the
advancement of poor Dalit girls
BAMA
•THANK
YOU