Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam: Igniting Minds always

“Dreams are not ones you get while you sleep; they are the ones which do not let you sleep at night.”

CS Subramaniam Iyer was a primary school teacher in the small South Indian town of Rameshwaram. One day he took his fifth standard class to the beach to show his students how birds fly. Little did he know that this excursion on flight would capture the imagination of one young student and make him so passionate about flight that he would study physics, aeronautical engineering, missile and rocket technology and play a pioneering role in the development of Indian satellite launch vehicles and grow up to be known as the ‘Missile Man’ of India.

Starting from very humble beginnings, where his father was a boat owner in Rameshwaram, young Kalam started by selling newspapers in Rameshwaram to support his parents. Kalam was bright in studies since school and when he got into Madras Institute of Technology for his higher studies, his parents could not afford the fees of thousand rupees! But he gained scholarship and hence pursued his post-graduation in aeronautical engineering.

Dr. Kalam tried to pursue his dream of flying after his studies by applying for Indian Air Force to become a fighter pilot. He just missed out on his passion by being in the 9^th position when there were only 8 positions in the Indian Air Force at that time. But Dr. Kalam was not a man to be stunted by a failure. He joined DRDO as a scientist working with Indian army on tanks just after this. But after working in DRDO for a few years, Dr. Kalam felt that this was not the full usage of his potential and it was around this time that he was among the choice few who were handpicked by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, the father of Indian Space program, to set-up a rocket launch center in a remote place near Thiruvananthapuram, named Thumba. Dr. Kalam played a pivotal role in shaping the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center and the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Centre to what it is today.

After a few years, he joined ISRO when Dr. Satish Dhawan was the director, whom he considered to be his mentor. It is here that Dr. Kalam started working on the most important work of his scientific career: The Satellite Launch Vehicle – III (SLV-3). Heading this project to success, Dr. Kalam took India into a modern area of satellite communication as the other rockets made by ISRO like the Geosynchronous SLV (GSLV) and the recent Polar SLV (PSLV) are all based on SLV-3.

In 2002, Dr. Kalam became the 11^th President of our nation who was awarded the Bharat Ratna before his presidency, by defeating freedom fighter Captain Lakshmi Sehgal of the Indian National Army by a huge margin in the presidential elections. In the office, Dr. Kalam was a humble man but not one who could be pushed around. He sent the Office of Profit Bill back to the Parliament for reconsideration which was fuelled by the eligibility of Sonia Gandhi to contest from Rae Barreily. Dr. Kalam was affably known as the ‘People’s President’, since he was easily reachable to anyone through the internet and tried to reach to the masses through various talks and lectures on his vision for the nation, which he used to call as Vision 2020 which envisioned India as a superpower by 2020. Dr. Kalam believed strongly in the power of youth, which is why he believed in motivating and inspiring the youth for fuelling the Vision 2020. In his own words, the youth can be inspired more to uphold the pride of the nation because they have lesser bias towards the society. Even during the last moments of his worldly life, he was giving a talk to the bright young minds of IIM Shillong two days back. His autobiography is called ‘Wings of Fire’.

Dr. Kalam was a true visionary and a citizen who worked for the nation and its betterment. Even through his death, he has united our nation which is divided by caste, religion, politics, and class and so on. As youth, when we work towards the development of our motherland, we are keeping this legend alive in our hearts by living his dream of India 2020.

The youth of India says goodbye to Kalam Chacha with teary eyes. May your soul Rest in Peace.

About the Author : Albin Jose did his schooling from Noida and completed his B.Tech from IIT Madras and currently working with an education based-firm in Mumbai. In free time, he like to read and go on treks in and around Mumbai. Through his articles he want to spread awareness among the aspirants.