A tribute to Abdul Kalam

Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen (APJ) Abdul Kalam, the 'missile man' and India's 11th president who became popular as 'People's President' took his last breath at 83 on July 27 evening after he suffered a massive cardiac arrest and collapsed during a lecture at the IIM in Shillong. He last tweeted 'Going to Shillong to take course on livable planet at IIM'.
A Bharat Ratna, APJ Abdul Kalam rose from humble origins to become the President in the most unexpected manner during the NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The president from 2002 until 2007, he was a scientist and science administrator for four decades before that, mainly at the state-run Defense Research and Development Organization and the Indian Space Research Organization. He played a key organizational and technical role in India's nuclear program.
Dr Kalam was born at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu in a poor Muslim family in 1931 and studied aeronautics engineering from Madras Institute of Technology-Madras. Kalam had a humble beginning who sold newspapers during his boyhood to help his family make ends meet. His father owned boats which he rented out to local fishermen. Kalam used to describe himself as "Made in India," as he never trained abroad. And he did so not through the conventional route of a political career but through the dint of hard work as a scientist in government service.
Needless to say, he was extraordinary for other reasons too. As a Muslim steeped in Hindu culture, he was to many an oddity - a scientist who could recite classical Tamil poetry, who played the rudra-veena, a traditional South Indian instrument, and listened to Carnatic devotional music every day, but performed his namaz with no sense of incongruity.
Furthermore, in melding Islam into which he was born with a strong sense of the traditions in which his civilization was anchored, Abdul Kalam was a complete Indian, an embodiment of the eclecticism of India's heritage of diversity. A bachelor, this former president was vegetarian all his life.
India's "missile man", as he was dubbed in the popular press, Abdul Kalam was a rocket scientist who rose to prominence as head of the country's successful civilian space and missile defence programmes. An unlikely compromise candidate for president, he soon became the most popular occupant of that exalted post, disregarding its customary ceremonial role to reach out to ordinary people, particularly the young.
On the other hand, Kalam was considered the brain of missile programme in India and as Chief Scientific Adviser to Vajpayee he was also instrumental in the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998. He had the distinction of becoming the first president to fly a Sukhoi fighter jet, go in a submarine and visit high-altitude Siachen besides LoC. He was also the first president to address the Indian Science Congress in 90 years.
With his long silver hair unfashionably combed back and his thick Tamilian accent, he was an unlikely pop culture idol, but that was what he became. His popularity was undimmed by his relinquishment of office. In retirement he set himself a demanding schedule of speeches, notably to educational institutions, and had an uncanny ability to connect with a variety of audiences.
Moreover, Abdul Kalam was also, unusually for an Indian who occupied the high positions he did, a man of great simplicity. During his 25 years as a scientist based in Thiruvananthapuram, he endeared himself to ordinary people everywhere. In this simplicity lay the secret of his ability to connect with people, across the boundaries of age, class, religion and region. That is to say, after Swami Vivekananda only Dr APJ Abdul Kalam has inspired the youth with great impact.
He authored several books, notably 'Wings of Fire', 'India 2020' and 'Ignite'. As a visionary of life, Kalam utilised any opportunity that came to him to address students, especially school children, to dream big so that they became achievers in life. Thus he once said, "Dream is something that does not let you sleep."
Active till the end, he left the world in mid-speech, as if to remind people that he still had something more to say.

The writer is a graduate in English Literature from Dhaka College, Dhaka. E-mail: [email protected]