Salam Kalam

The most popular President across all sections of India Sri .A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is no more. Every one who paid tribute to this great soul opined he was a genuine 'Bharat Ratna'. Yes he was a true and ideal icon of the country. From the island village Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu he, rose to occupy the highest position in the Rashtrapathi Bhavan, as the first citizen of the country. He was an affable, simple and unassuming President and became the darling of the student community and the youth of the country. He used to say every child is a scientist. To honour him UN declared his birthday as the 'Students day'.

Teaching was his passionate profession. He used to say he is always a teacher. When his candidature for Presidency was announced he was delivering a lecture for students in a school. Ironically during his last moments also he was addressing students at IIM Shillong .He was a visionary. He did not stop with sharing his vision; his mission was always to make his vision come true by exhorting and motivating the student community. 

He was passionately called as India's 'Missile man'. But those who know him personally used to say his smile was more deadly than his missiles. He conquered everyone with his smile .Kalam was a Veena playing missile man. His interests were varied. He had written many poems in Tamil and an anthology of his poems were translated to English and was published as "My Journey"

Given below is Kalam's poem The vision

The Vision

I climbed and climbed

Where is the peak, my Lord?

I ploughed and ploughed,

Where is the knowledge treasure, my Lord?

I sailed and sailed,

Where is the island of peace, my Lord?

Almighty, bless my nation

With vision and sweat resulting into happiness

His poems summed  up his thoughts

Where are we?

Where are we now, dear friends,

In the Maha Sabha that shapes as history,

The call of heart beats of Indian people,

People ask us, people ask us;

“Oh! Parliamentarians, the sculptors of Mother India,

Lead us unto light, enrich our lives.

Your righteous toil, is our guiding light,

If you work hard, we all can prosper.”

Like King, so the people,

Nurture great thoughts, rise up in actions,

May righteous methods be your guide;

May you all prosper ever with Almighty’s grace.

I consider the following as his most famous quote

"If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher."

In his own words - "literature also influenced my life" . He said 3 books influenced him greatly .They were Tamil classic Tirukural by Tiruvalluvar-an universal moral code  ,giving words of profound wisdom, noble thoughts and great moral lessons, the second book that influenced Kalam was "Light from Many Lamps": A Treasury of Inspiration by Lillian Eichler Watson.and the third book was "Empires of the Mind": Lessons to Lead and Succeed in a Knowledge-Based World by Denis Waitley .He had said these 3 books made his life.

He was a multifaceted person with all-round compassion. Once, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam reportedly rejected the suggestion to put broken glass on the wall of a building that needed protection, because broken glass would be harmful for birds. During his meeting with kids in the Rashtripathi Bhavan he would patiently listen to their ideas and give them feedback. He would also follow up with the kids to know about the status of the ideas they discussed.He was instrumental in designing artificial limbs with the light weight material used for rockets .Earlier prosthetic limbs weighed 4 kgs .but by using light weight materials for artificial limbs the weight was reduced to just 400 grams and made physically challenged kids to move around with ease .Dr Kalam and Dr Soma Raju developed a low-cost coronary stent called ‘Kalam-Raju’ stent. They also designed a rugged tablet computer for healthcare in rural areas, which was named as ‘Kalam-Raju tablet’.

He started a campaign by students to plant 1 lakh trees and succeeded. He was an impeccable person with integrity. Whenever his relatives visited him in the presidential palace, Kalam always paid for the food and any expresses incurred by their visit. Though a Muslim he remained a vegetarian throughout his life. He was a bachelor and he was rated among the top 10 bachelors of the world. The other bachelors in this list were Eastman, Beethoven, Voltaire, and James Buchnan, Al Pacino, Edward Heath, Issac Newton, Pascal and Leona Davinci.

The person who ignited many minds has gone to eternal sleep .But his soul would continue to inspire and ignite many minds forever.