The Turning Point’, is an edited extract from ‘My Teachers’ by DR A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM. The turning point means- An important change in the life of a person. This is the true story of Abdul Kalam that made a turning point in his life. When he was in class V, one day his teacher Shri Siva Subramania Iyer taught him about a bird’s flight in the class. When the teacher explained in the class about a bird’s flight most of the students including Kalam had not understood the lesson. So the teacher took them all to the seashore of Rameswaram (birthplace of Kalam) to teach them practically. The teacher showed there how a bird flies. He asked the students to look at the tail and the combination of flapping wings and twisting tail. The teacher explained how the birds changed direction, and position could fly in the direction they wanted to. After that all the students understood the lesson of a bird’s flight. For Kalam the lesson was not merely an understanding of how a bird flies. He decided that he wanted to study all he could about the concept of flight. So he took his teacher’s advice about the further study of Science. He became a rocket engineer, an aerospace engineer and a technologist. But the memory of his teacher encouraging him to become a successful person was up to the end of Kalam’s life.
