A P J Abdul Kalam, A True INDIAN

"We will be remembered only if we give to our younger generation a prosperous and safe

India, resulting out of economic prosperity coupled with civilisational heritage."

The People’s President Known for his all time Youth Attitude, Sir Kalam served immensely as a

Scientist, First Citizen of India (President) and Teacher. Born in a financially below average family

being the youngest of four brothers and one sister, Sir Kalam never sacrificed his desire to learn even

by doing odd jobs in early child hood to support his family’s meagre income.

In school life Sir Kalam was considered as an average student, but the one with high desire to learn.

Graduated in Physics Sir Kalam moved to Madras Institute of Technology in 1955 to study Aerospace

Engineering. An incident showing his dedication portrayed as under: - While Kalam was working on a

senior class project, the Dean was dissatisfied with his lack of progress and threatened to revoke his

scholarship unless the project was finished within the next three days. SIR KALAM met the deadline,

impressing the Dean, who later said to him, "I was putting you under stress and asking you to meet a

difficult deadline". SIR KALAM narrowly missed achieving his dream of becoming a fighter pilot, as

he placed ninth in qualifiers, and only eight positions were available in the IAF.

Small Steps to great achievements, SIR KALAM joined as Chief Scientist in DRDO (Defence Research

and Development Organisation), in small time shifted to ISRO (Indian Space Research Orgnisation)

working as Project Director of India’s First Indigenous Satellite Vehicle. His project at ISRO were

successful all the time.

In the 1970s, Kalam directed two projects, namely, Project Devil and Project Valiant, which sought

to develop ballistic missiles from the technology of the successful SLV programme.

A milestone was achieved when locally built Rohini-1 was launched into space, using the SLV rocket.

Upon watching the raving success of Kalam, the government agreed for initiation of an advanced

missile program under his directorship. He played a pivotal role in developing missiles under the

missions Agni and Prithvi.

Kalam was the Chief Executive of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (I.G.M.D.P)

which researched in simultaneous development of a quiver of missiles instead of taking planned

missiles one by one.

The Tag Missile Man of India.

From 1992 until 1999, Kalam was appointed as the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister and

the Secretary of Defence Research and Development Organisation. It was during this time that

Kalam served as the Chief Project Coordinator for Pokhran II nuclear tests, after which he was fondly

called the “Missile Man of India”.

Then was the Peoples President serving as the First Citizen of India.

A man, who strictly practised Islam, learnt Sanskrit, read Bhagwad Geeta, and was strict

vegetarian. He was the one who believed in syncretism.

As Sir Kalam recalled: "Every evening, my father A.P. Jainulabdeen, an imam, Pakshi Lakshmana

Sastry, the head priest of the Ramanathaswamy Hindu temple, and a church priest used to sit with

hot tea and discuss the issues concerning the island."

Such early exposure convinced Kalam that the answers to India's multitudinous issues lay in

"dialogue and cooperation" among the country's religious, social, and political leaders.

I am still fond of Sirs saying "For great men, religion is a way of making friends; small people make

religion a fighting tool."

I will never forget you sir, and as you said will never have a rest day on your birthday instead will

work an hour extra in your honour.