APJ Abdul Kalam: Unfolding Interesting Events Of His Life

The whole nation was in anguish, when the beloved former Indian President Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam collapsed to death while delivering lecture at Indian Institute of Management in Shillong. Kalam is widely acclaimed as “Missile Man of India” for his exceptional contributions towards Indian space and nuclear programs. He inspired millions of youth across the country as a defence scientist more so as a teacher. Kalam was also a sheer symbol of secularism since he put forth nation before any religion.

In account of paying tribute to his inspiring life, here goes the list of 7 things you didn’t know about Kalam:   

Kalam’s Humble Background

Kalam was brought up in an ordinary middle class family in Rameswaram, where his father Jainulabudeen was a boat owner and Imam, and mother was a house wife. As cited by himself, in his autobiography ‘Wings of Fire’, events from Ramayana and from the life of Prophet Mohamed were Kalam’s bedtime stories in his childhood, which were narrated by his mother and grandmother.

Childhood Friends

Ramanadha Sastry, Aravindan and Sivapraksan were childhood friends of Dr. Kalam, all three belong to traditional Hindu Brahmin families. Indeed Ramanandha Shastry was the son of Pakshi Lakshmana Sastry, the high priest of the Rameswaram temple.

Social Discrimination

When Dr. Kalam was in 5^th standard, he faced social discrimination and inequity from his new teacher Just because he was a Muslim, who asked him to sit in the last row of class., hence he heavy heartedly left his friend Ramanandha Shastry in the first row.

SLV-III

After he was transferred to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Dr.Kalam worked as the project director for SLV-III, India’s first indigenous satellite launch vehicle.

SLV-III

Dr. Kalam was the director of the India’s first indigenous satellite project SLV III, the prime objective of the project was to put India’s “Rohini” satellite into orbit before 1980. But the first attempt was a blooper, when satellite failed to reach the orbit and fell into the Bay of Bengal in 1979. But by then Chairman of Indian Space Research Organization Professor Satish Dhawan took all the responsibility while addressing the media. Subsequently in the next year the same team led by Dr. Kalam successfully launched the satellite into the orbit, but Prof. Dhawan let Dr. Kalam address the media bay saying  “you conduct the press conference today.”

Pokhran-II

Being the key person of Indian’s nuclear program in Pokhran, Dr. Kalam took the fictitious name ‘Prithviraj’ and similarly the project was named ‘Shakti’ to elude the human intelligence of CIA and ISI. Apparently In 1998, when project Pokhran IIwas successfully tested in the Pokhran nuclear test range of Indian Army, the whole world was left awe-struck.

A Generous Human Being

Dr. Kalam was not only the people’s President but also a generous human being. Knowing the fact that the Union Government takes care of the President of the nation, as well as all its Ex-Presidents, Dr. Kalam decided to give away all his wealth and life savings towards an institution that works towards providing urban amenities to rural population, during his tenure as President. Apparently, he called up Verghese Kurien the founder of Amul and reportedly said “Now that I have become the President of India, the government is going to look after me till I am living; so what can I do with my savings and salary.

source:siliconindia