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Whenever the Shri Seetha Rama Kalyanam ceremony used to take place, APJ’s family also took
part in it. They used to arrange the boats for it. They used to make a special platform on the
boats on which the statue of Ram and Seetha were placed and transported from the temple to
the marriage site which was in the middle of a pond named Rama Tirtha. This pond was near
APJ’s house. When he was growing up, he never thought that there was any difference between
Hindus and Muslims as they participated in the Hindu festivals wholeheartedly.

Events from the Ramayana and from the life of the Prophet were the bedtime stories my
mother and grandmother would tell the children in our family.

APJ says that they listened to stories from the Ramayana and the life of the Prophet from their
mother and grandmother as bedtime stories. So, they listened to stories of both Hindu Gods and
Muslim Gods. There was no differentiation on grounds of religion.

One day when I was in the fifth standard at the Rameswaram Elementary School, a new teacher
came to our class. I used to wear a cap which marked me as a Muslim, and I always sat in the
front row next to RamanadhaSastry, who wore the sacred thread.

As APJ Abdul Kalam belonged to a Muslim family, he used to wear a cap on his head, which
identified him as a Muslim. His friend RamanadhaSastry who was the son of the priest of the
Rameswaram temple belonged to a Hindu Brahmin family and used to wear the sacred thread