If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun, these were few remarkable lines quoted by my inspiration. Many people come and many go but a person like him are always kept in everybody’s memo. Our life is ephemeral but because of great persons like him, it becomes incredible. Though he is no more between us today but his values and teachings will continue to guide us everyday.
Hardworking, honest, patriotic, intellectual and intelligent, all these are the words which perfectly fits to describe the personality of our missile man; Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam or fondly known as Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam who was an Indian Scientist and politician, born in Rameswaram of Madras Presidency, on 15th October 1931 to a humble couple Jainulabiddin Marakayar and Ashiamma Jainulabiddin. Kalam’s father was a boat owner and his childhood days were poverty stricken and even Kalam used to sell newspaper and tamarind seeds in his early childhood to earn daily’s meal. Coming from a very small village with almost no opportunities, Dr. Kalam made wonders in the field of defense technology and space research for the country which teaches us that no matter how hard the situations are, only by sheer determination, will power and hardwork we can achieve any milestone in our life so, instead of blaming our circumstances we should be determined about making our lives much better by working hard and then nothing remains impossible. Kalam’s father was a very idealistic man, he had never received any formal education but he was a man with great values and spirit, he always avoided all the unnecessary luxuries but at the same time never ignored the basic necessities like food and medicines, from him Kalam inherited honesty and self-discipline, though he was a typical muslim man still he took Kalam to the nearby temple every evening and take rounds around the temple like a holy pilgrimage. Even events from Ramayana were used to be the bedtime stories of Kalam quoted by their mother and grandmother. Kalam’s mother was a lady with true values of kindness. Despite of not being sound financially all the time she used to feed a lot of outsiders with her family everyday which teaches us that for helping others always money is not the only means but just we need a heart with a spirit of generosity. From her Kalam inherited kindness, empathy for everyone and generosity.
Kalam had 3 close friends in his childhood days, they were Ramanadha Sastry, Aravindan and Sivaprakasan and they all three belongs to orthodox hindu Brahmin families and even Ramanadha Sastry was the son of the high priest of Rameswaram temple but never they were differentiated by their mate’s parents during their childhood because of these differences in religion and they never differentiate among themselves for not being from same community such was their upbringing. This shows that children have a pure heart, they never see anyone’s race before calling them their friends. They never differentiate in anything on the basis of race and discrimination is not inbuilt in them but this poison of social inequality and communal intolerance is put into their mind through their upbringing and later these pure hearts are turned in this society to persons who hates other religion and regularly cause riots and if everyone is educated properly and told about equality of humans like Kalam’s and his friend’s parents had given them then all these riots happening in our society can be further brought to cease from a root level. Once even when a new teacher came to his school in his 5th standard he saw that Kalam used to wear a cap which marked him as a muslim and his other friends used to wear sacred thread. The teacher couldn’t resist a Muslim boy sitting with hindu students in front row so he asked Kalam to go back and obeying his teacher Kalam went back without uttering a single word of protest and then after reaching home they all told their parents about the incidents that took place in the school and just after that Ramanadha’s father Lakshmana Sastry summoned the teacher that not to give these students these teachings of communalism and discrimination and asked the teacher either to apologize or to quit the school and the island forever. This shows us how good were their parents with their upbringing that they don’t even tolerate anybody teaching discrimination to their children. Even the society in which Kalam grew up was so nice that being a Muslim family still Kalam’s family was invited to participate in all hindu festivals and events and they actively used to participate in them too. During the annual Shri Sita Rama Kalyanam ceremony, Kalam’s family only used to arrange boats with a special platform for carrying the statue of the idols of the lord from the temple to the marriage site which was situated in the middle of the pond called Rama Tirtha which was near to Kalam’s house. All these socio-economic background under which Kalam grew up influenced Kalam’s way of thinking about the society which poetry him as an open-minded man with high thinking.
After second world war was over and India was about to attain its freedom Kalam left for the district headquarters in Ramanathapuram for his higher studies. Kalam was not a very bright student since his childhood but was quite hardworking and determined and had a lots of interest in the field of mathematics, science and technology, he always even meet the narrow deadline for submitting any difficult task which impresses all his school and college teachers. He was later graduated in physics from the University of Madras. He was very fond of airplanes so he wished to be a fighter pilot so he did Aeronautical engineering from Madras Institute of technology also but he missed his opportunity of becoming a fight pilot in Indian Air force after being placed at 9th position in the qualifier round in which only 8 seats were available still Kalam didn’t stop and joined Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and later emerged as the secretary of DRDO under him many unbelievable projects which were ever thought to be impossible were accomplished this teaches us that life gives us many opportunities at every stage just we need to stay calm and wait for the right time rather than quitting after getting failures.
Dr. Kalam made huge contributions in development of the Indian ballistic missiles Agni and Prithvi which keeps India always one step above when it comes to defense. Even Kalam contributed a lot in India’s space research programs, from establishing ISRO and launching the first indigenous satellite by carrying its parts on cycle and assembling them in farm to becoming the project director of ISRO and leading the development of SLV III and launching the Rohini satellite in 1980 all these says about the achievements possible because of Kalam’s hardwork. Dr Kalam even advocated and supported the development of PSLV and GSLV which are till date used as satellite carriers for many space missions of India.
Dr. Kalam was the president of India from 2002 to 2007 and earlier he was even the scientific adviser to Defense minister and chief scientific adviser to Prime minister of India. He was even awarded with Bharat Ratna.
Sadly, in 2015, while delivering a lecture to students at IIM Shillong, Kalam collapsed on the stage due to a cardiac arrest and passed away at the age of 83. India lost one of his most valuable gem on this day and a man like him are produced after ages and perhaps there will be nobody who can replace him in future. Till his last breath he was inspiring the youth and teaching them the high values of society. Though even he is not present among us today his notable works and the books written by him like “the wings of fire” will continue to inspire us and guide us for many decades. He is surely an inspiration for many.
By: Sarthak Patra
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