All I know about Dr. Kalam

This may be a long post. It may not be even coherent and lucid, yet I am gonna pour in all that comes to my mind about Dr.Kalam. To install a method to the madness, I am gonna spilt my narrative into 3 parts

happening in three separate time periods, and by chance approximately equally spaced (1st around 2000-2001, 2nd around 2008 and 3rd 2015)

This was way back in 2000. The world trade center stood tall (hell, I didn’t know what it was then). I was in my class 7. Unusually, I became a good student that year. The primary reason for which was I had a male class teacher who took individual care of my studies. I used to visited the school library perched in a corner on the first floor of my school every evening. I was able to do so because I used commute back home through the town bus, the earlier ones are usually crowded , so I used to stay for an hour or so in the library every evening. The library usually will be frequented by a handful of people. There used to be a teacher. She used to teach history. She never taught me formally in all of my school life. She usually skims through the daily newspapers every evening. My favorites books are usually the glossy ones with lot of pictures and visual descriptions or sometimes the one with mathematical puzzles, where you can pick up a trick to two quite easily to show off with your friends. She, the teacher, for someday days observed me. One day she came to me enquired my name and asked me if I like reading. I said not much, I am just starting. She asked me do you know who Abdul Kalam is? I kinda vaguely knew about him from Pokhran-2 nuclear tests. She then introduced me to two of his books “Wings of fire” and “India 2020”. The wings of fire used to have a enigmatic face of Dr.Kalam as the cover. Tamil version (அக்னிச்சிற‌குகள்) used to be more in number than the english version in the library. I used to read what ever version available everyday. I remember most of the pages I covered are with a tamil version of the book. More than the wings of fire I was more interested in reading “India 2020”. The title inspired hope that India will be a super power by 2020. By this time I was quite familiar with the term super power and its tamil equivalent (வல்லரசு - in some ways thanks to Vijayakanth movie of the same name). I vaguely remember some of the content now but one of the chapters used to talk about infrastructure and energy-independence and one about what other countries in the same league as India stand in comparison in various parameters and what they intend to do. Of course, given my capability at that time I could not completely grasp the book’s content but it introduced me to various economic parameters, tables and statistical comparisons. Most of my friends started reading these books and our lunch conversions are usually about the world, superpowers, economy, wars etc., in a very amateurish sense. This was how Dr. Kalam’s impact was among school children at that time, the bringing about of the discussion about world and superpowers among young children. The fact that Kargil war happened just a year before and there was a renewed sense of nationalism, at that time, added to this thinking. The impact reached enormous proportions when Dr.Kalam became president in 2002.

This was sometime in 2008, Dr.Kalam gave a talk a year ago in Erode book fair, I couldn’t attend that in person unfortunately. But this time there was buzz around the PSG tech campus that Dr.Kalam is about to pay a visit and give a talk. This time I made sure that I am not giving this one a miss. I wanted to catch a glimpse of him to brag about at least. This time he has finished his term as president and it was expected to be a easy affair with less security. I can remember that his car was preceded by only one security convoy and there were only a handful of security personnel deployed in his protection. The organizers presented him with a hand-drawn portrait of him and he proceeded with his talk. The talk was mainly about PURA(Providing Urban Amenities In Rural Areas), one of his favorite idea and initiative. To give a glimpse of my mind at that time, I was nearing my twenties and I was very skeptical about the vision 2020. My thinking was more on the pragmatic lines. It was no longer the inspired vision I used to see when I was a school kid. The political climate is not the same as the early 2000’s. The nationalistic fervor was not as high as the earlier years of the decade. Yet there a huge enthusiasm among the students. He made the students recite his lines of promise to work for the nation in making it a better place. He even expressed his willingness to teach a short summer course as a part of humanities department. The friend beside me asked me will you take the course ? I replied why not. The reply would be same among all of the students that day. The event was the last item on that week’s schedule. I took a bust from Coimbatore to Erode after the event. One of the co-passengers asked me whether I attended the meeting. I said yes. The meeting meeting was good. I didn’t tell anything more about the meeting, The co-passenger quipped that you students are lucky to see him and hear from him. I gently smiled at him.

July 27, 2015. Dr. Kalam has just passed away. The feeling hasn’t sunk in yet. The social-media and mobile started buzzing with the unfortunate news and people started paying tributes to the great man. I realized that this not just any other mourning. I am from an era where political leaders are looked upon as a part of the problem rather than the solution. The fact that Dr.Kalam adorned the chair of president made him a political person, which is good because you get to see very few political persons who are selfless and inspirational, although I believe that president of India is a glorified governor with not much political powers. There are a lot of qualities that make him a great man and I will mention the following few ones as his legacy,

1) A leader to look up to
Every nation needs leaders who are selfless, inspirational, whom its younger lot can look up to as a role-model. India was in a stage where the political leadership cutting across all parties are not completely selfless. There were a lot of leaders who are selfless in pre-independent and during initial decades of independence. Suddenly as the democracy evolved, the political leadership lost the way it meant to be, in return for survival. Dr. Kalam comes into the scene here. The young lot of India were getting increasingly frustrated with how the country and its politics is run. They needed someone contemporary to show them that you can be selfless and still in public office. Dr.Kamal cutting across state boundaries fits here.

2) Hope is the start of any cure
I, for one, still believes that his vision is more on the dramatic lines. I may be little skeptical yet I do hope that there is a cure. Hope sometimes can be dramatic that it appears. Dr.Kalam’s legacy has been instilling this hope among the younger lot. Hope that you can do something for your country, no matter what.

3) The way forward
Any progress is a continuous process. Societies progress by taking its values, legacy and achievements from its predecessors. The current Indian society should carry on his values and legacy. That will be a more fitting tribute to Dr.Kalam.

Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.

Rest in peace sir. You had a great life.