PUPILS’ PRESIDENT

Imagine a kid who is from small village who belongs to a poor family, supports family by selling newspapers but has a strong desire to learn. Even though he had no money it did not stop him from dreaming big. All he did was dream big and worked hard to follow his dream. His dream was to become a fighter pilot. But he missed it. That did not stop him! He goes on to become a scientist and eventually President of country.  He makes billions of people realize power of “DREAM”. Inspires them to follow their dream, work hard and make their country proud.

Does this scenario remind you of someone? Does he inspire you to reach your goal? Does his story make you believe that dreams can come true?

Yes, it is the story of none other than Bharath Ratna Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam!

Avul Pakir Jainulabadeen Abdul Kalam was born on 15^th October 1931 in Rameshwaram. His father  was a boat owner and imam of local mosque and mother was a  housewife. Kalam was the youngest of four brothers and one sister in his family. He spent hours studying and worked especially hard on Mathematics. He had a vision to learn ; seek knowledge. He graduated in Physics in the year 1954 from St. Joseph’s College. Moved to Madras in 1955 to study Aerospace Engineering in Madras IIT. He was close enough to his dream of being fighter pilot but lost because he was qualified 9^th while there were only 8 posts available in IAF.

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Well known as “Missile Man” of India Dr. Kalam has contributed so much for India. He was well known for his passion and contribution to science, especially nuclear and space science. He was part of INCOSPAR committee where he worked under renowned space scientist Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. He was part of projects by ISRO like Rohini, PSLV, SLV-III. He also worked as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minster and Secretary of Defense Research and Development Organization. He worked as a part of nuclear test. He headed the IGMDP to develop five missiles – Prithvi, Agni, Trishul, Akash, Nag. Dr. Kalam envisioned the concept of joint partnership which led to the formation of  BrahMos AeroSpace between India and Russia.  Thus his contribution to the Science field was immense.

Dr. Kalam was not just a scientist but a president, leader, contributor, teacher, author, and humanitarian. He led a simple life compared to other political leaders. He was well known as “People’s President”. He spent most of time with children during his presidency and even after presidency. He wanted to be remembered as a teacher rather than President or scientist. 

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Dr. Kalam Sir is among people who inspire me. The reason being he was a great teacher. His autobiography “Wings of Fire” made me believe with perseverance and zeal towards dream one can succeed. During the years when Kalam Sir was president, it always made me happy seeing him on TV or reading about him in newspapers. Those days many people did not had access to Internet. Shimoga, where I lived, had an engineering college called JNNCE (I did not know I would be study engineering in same college there after school ) who organized a camp to invite children so as to make them learn how internet can help studies, how it works. I remember we were separated into groups and made to sit in front of computers in parallel. The first thing we were guided to do was to write a letter to Kalam Sir. It was supposed to be a template made ready by organizers. All we had to do was copy paste it and write our names at end and send it. I believe most of children including me were excited that their letter would reach the President of India.

After 2 to 3 years after the computer camp Dr. Kalam even visited Shimoga. But I couldn’t be a part of it. All I could do was watch the news channels say the same and read about Kalam Sir in newspaper.

I couldn’t believe it when I heard about demise of Kalam Sir. I was like how could a person who taught India to dream leave so soon? How could a person who set a vision of “INDIA 2020” could leave before it happened! I was shell shocked so was rest of India. I couldn’t hold my tears. India had lost a very precious gem that day.

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Some of quotes which I still love by Dr. Kalam are :

"Dream is not that which you see while sleeping it is something that does not let you sleep."

"Dream, Dream, Dream Drams transform into thoughts and thoughts result in action."

"If you want to shine like sun first burn like sun."

"If you fail, never give up because F.A.I.L. means "first Attempt In Learning" 

 End is not the end, if fact E.N.D. means "Effort Never Dies" 
 If you get No as an answer, remember N.O. means "Next Opportunity". 
So Let's be positive. "

   "All of us do not have equal talent. But, all of us have equal opportunity to develop our talents."

   "It Is Very Easy To Defeat Someone, But It Is Very Hard To Win Someone” 

         

Dr. Kalam did till very end what he always loved and best at , i.e. passing on knowledge to children as a teacher. He was lecturing students at Indian Institute of Management, Shillong. In an interview before so many years he said, “If the people remember me as a good teacher, that will be the biggest honor for me…,”

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Dr. Kalam Sir didn’t leave us in spirit, he lives in the heart of millions today. His quotes and his life still stands as an inspiration. If every Indian works towards the path he has set us, the dream of “India 2020” can be achieved.  So let’s work towards our dream, make Dr. Kalam vision true and make India Proud!

Keep Smiling J

Sachin Prabhu B

This blog post is written for a campaign by BEE books who recently released collection of memoirs on Abdul Kalam entitled “Pupils’ President” edited by Satyam Roychowdhury :

Flipkart link : http://bit.ly/1O61ZfJ