He was a president of India. He was a missile man of India. He was Bharat Ratna. And most of the people still don’t know his full name. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on 15th October 1931 in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. He was almost 16 when we got independence. He studied physics and aerospace engineering. Before being a scientist, he wanted to become a fighter pilot but destiny had some other plans for him. There were eight places for that position and he came ninth. Then Kalam joined DRDO (Defense Research and Development Organisation) in 1960. He designed a small hovercraft there. Then in 1969, Kalam was transferred to ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation).
He worked on lot of projects at ISRO. He was director of India’s first Satellite Vehicle Launch (SLV-III). Under this project, in 1980, a satellite called Rohini was successfully deployed in near earth orbit. Apart from that, he worked on several projects which developed missiles. Projects like Project Devil, Project Valiant, Agni and Prithvi made him missile man of India. Under these projects, India developed range ballistic missile and surface to surface missile. He was involved in nuclear projects as well. He mentored various nuclear tests. Kalam also served as chief scientific adviser to Prime Minister on the basis of his achievements in the field of science.
His incredible achievements in the field of science pushed Indian government to declare him as a ‘Bharat Ratna’. Then he became eleventh president of India. As a president, he took formidable decisions including signing of office of profit bill. Despite those decisions, he was known as people’s president. After his presidential term, he started giving lectures in IITs and IIMs around the country. He died while delivering a lecture in IIM Shillong. Work was only mantra of his life. After certain stage, a huge part of his income went to charity as he was not married. He was the perfect example of how to lead a simple life with all those achievements.
If you want to shine like a sun then first, you have to burn like a sun.
He is an inspiration to the 90s generation. Being a 90s kid, I get inspired by his work ethics, morals, achievements, patriotism and simplicity. Kalam taught lot of 90s kids in IITs and IIMs. As a president of India, he spent lot of time with children and believed in nurturing them with good habits in their learning age. Lot of 90s kids don’t want to get married to enjoy life in foreign countries. Every 90s kid (planning not to marry) should go on the path of Kalam rather than the path of any pop star or movie star. We should love our country as much as he loved. He took India to new heights and showed the way. We (as 90s kids) should take that baton and should walk on that way to make our country best in the world.
I have never been a keen observer of politics or even politicians. But, Mr. Kalam had some charm, those vibrant and captivating vibes, even when you just read about him. I was in his awe after coming across one of his quotes which got the most likes on my company’s fb page. I really wish if he could have been there for some more time with our country. 🙂
He was one of the most honest politicians who wanted to see our country at top. So, everyone would have loved if would have been around.