Remembering Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was an Indian aerospace scientist and politician who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied physics and aerospace engineering. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and was intimately involved in India's civilian space programme and military missile development efforts. He thus came to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology. He also played a pivotal organisational, technical, and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.

Kalam was elected as the 11th President of India in 2002 with the support of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the then-opposition Indian National Congress. Widely referred to as the "People's President", he returned to his civilian life of education, writing and public service after a single term. He was a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.

While delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Kalam collapsed and died from an apparent cardiac arrest on 27 July 2015, aged 83. Thousands, including national-level dignitaries, attended the funeral ceremony held in his hometown of Rameswaram, where he was buried with full state honours.

Living on the island of Rameshwaram, APJ Abdul Kalam was born to a poor fishermen family where the elders struggled hard to make the two ends meet. But the humble man he is, he did not term them as "struggles"; rather "experience. Poverty never stopped him from reaching heights he wanted to reach. With his zeal he turned the darkness of his house with no electricity into an even dazzling light. Studying under the dim street light, he never let anything from stopping him to gather knowledge. In his autobiography he told the story of his childhood tuition teacher who had only one condition-that little Kalam must there before dawn ater having a bath. And Kalam was never late.

Kalam earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology and in 1958 joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). He soon moved to the Indian Space Research Organisation, where he was project director of the SLV-III, India’s first indigenously designed and produced satellite launch vehicle. Rejoining DRDO in 1982, Kalam planned the program that produced a number of successful missiles, which helped earned him the nickname “Missile Man.”

From 1992 to 1997 Kalam was scientific adviser to the defense minister, and he later served as principal scientific adviser (1999–2001) to the government with the rank of cabinet minister. His prominent role in the country’s 1998 nuclear weapons tests established Kalam as a national hero, although the tests caused great concern in the international community. In 1998 Kalam put forward a countrywide plan called Technology Vision 2020, which he described as a road map for transforming India from a less-developed to a developed society in 20 years. The plan called for, among other measures, increasing agricultural productivity, emphasizing technology as a vehicle for economic growth, and widening access to health care and education.

His first ever invention, gor his college project, he made a double engine powered hovercraft named “Nandhi”. It was completed after a lot of struggle and it managed to fly above 1 foot from ground with two persons in it.Pokhran-2 consisted of five detonations, the first was a fusion bomb and the remaining four were fission bombs. These nuclear tests resulted in a variety of sanctions against India by a number of major countries, including Japan and the United States. Pokhran 1 was tested on 1974. The interesting fact about Pokhran 2 testing was, it maintained high secrecy so that no one detects the testing and they succeeded in it by avoiding the spy satellites and CIA satellites by calculating the blind spot and time. India’s first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle At the time, India had not even dreamt about Satellite Launch Vehicle, but Dr. Kalam’s, who worked hard for over a decade, made it possible for us to develop our first indigenous SLV. SLV III injected Rohini satellite in the near-earth orbit in July 1980 making India an exclusive Space Club member.

Dr.Kalam has recieved 7 honorary doctorates from 40 universities. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1981 and the Padhma Vibhushan in 1990 for his work with ISRO and DRDO and his role as his contribution to the scientific advisor to the Government. In1997, Kalam recieved India's highest civilian honour ,the Bharat Ratna, for his contributionto the scientific research and modernisation of defence technology in India.In 2013 he was the recipient of the Von Braun Award from the National Space Society "to recognize excellence in the management and the leadership of a space-related project.

APJ Abdul Kalam is my role model. He is my role model not because he has achieved great things in life and become the president of India. He is my role model because he dedicated his entire life to the country and its people especially school children.He inspired me in a lot of ways but one thing which inspired me most was his reaction and adaptation to Failure. He never stopped working and dreaming just because of failure instead he worked harder.

Here are some quotes of APJ Abdul Kalam which I admire the most-