Ravi Rohmetra
Bharat Ratna Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam usually to referred as Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam is an Indian Scientist and Administrator who served as 11th President of India from 2002-2007 was born on 15th October,1931 in a Tamil Muslim family to Jainulabdeen, a boat owner and Ashiamma a housewife at Rameshwaram, located in Indian state of Tamil Naidu.He came from poor background and started working at an early age to supplement his family’s income. After completing school, Kalam distributed newspapers in order to financially contribute to his father’s income. In his school years, he had average grades, but was described as a bright and hardworking student who had a strong desire to learn and spend hours on his studies, especially mathematics. After completing his school education at the Rameshwarm elementary school, Kalam went on to attend Saint Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappali, then affiliated with the University of Madras from where he graduated in Physics in 1954.Towards the end of the course, he was not enthusiastic about the subject and would later regret the four years he studied it. He then moved to Madras in 1955 to study aerospace Engineering while Kalam was working on senior class project, the Dean was dissatisfied with the lack of progress and threatened revoking his scholarship unless the project was finished within the next three days. He worked tirelessly on his project and met the deadline , impressing the Dean who later said, “I (Dean) was putting you (Kalam) under stress and asking you to meet at difficult deadline”.For him becoming a fighter Pilot was a “dearest dream” but he failed to realize it as he bagged the ninth position when only eight slots were available in the IAF.
Career as Scientist:- After Graduating from Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) Chennai in 1960,Kalam joined Aerorecutinal started his career by designing a small helicopter for Indian Army,but remained unconvinced with the choice of his job at DRDO KAlam was also part of the INCOSPAR Committee working under Vikram Sarabhai the renowned Space Scientist. In 1969 Kalam was transferred to the Indian Space research orgainisation (ISRO) where he was the project Director of India’s First indigenous Satellite launch vehicle (SLV-III) which successfully deployed the Rohini Satellite in near earth orbit in july 1980,joining ISRO was one of Kalam’s biggest achievements in life and he is said to have found himself when he started to work on SLV project Kalam first started work on an expandable rocket project independently at DRDO in 1965,in 1969 kalam received the Government’s approval and expanded the programe to include more Engineers.In 1963-64 he visited NASA’s Langley Research Centre in Hampton Virginia, Goddard Space Flight centre in Greenbelt, Maryland and Wallops Flight facility situated at Easteem Shore of Virginia. During the period between the 1970’s & 1990’s Kalam made an effort to develop the Polar SLV and SLV-III projects both of which proved to be success. Kalam was invited by Raja Ramanna to witness the country’s first nuclear test smiling Buddha as representative of TBRL,in 1970’s a landmark was achieved by ISRO when the locally built Rohini-1 was launched into Space, using the SLV rocket. In the 1970’s Kalam also directed two projects namely, Project Devil and Project Valiant ,which sought to develop ballistic missiles from the technology of the successful SLV programme, despite the disapproval of Union Cabinet, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi allotted secret funds for these acrospace projects through her discretionary powers under Kalam’s Directorship. Kalam played an integral role convincing the Union Cabinet to conceal the true nature of these classified aerospace projects. His research and educational leadership brought him great Laurels and prestige in 1980’s which prompted the Government to initiate an advanced missile programme under his Directorship. He was the Chief Scientific Advisor to Prime Minister and Secretary of Defence Research and Development organization from July 1992 to December 1999.The Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted during this period where he played an intensive political and technological role Kalam served as the Chief Project Co-ordinator along with R Chidambram during the testing phase photos and snapshots of him taken by the media elevated Kalam as the Country’s top Nuclear Scientist.
Presidency:- Kalam served as the 11th President of India on 10th of June 2002,the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which was in power at the time, expressed to the leader of opposition, Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi that they would propose Kalam for the Post of President, the Samajwadi Party and Nationalist Congress Party backed his candidacy on 18th june Kalam filed his nomination papers in Parliament of India, accompanied by Vajpayee and his Senior Cabinet Colleagues. The polling for Presidential election began on 15th july 2002 in Parliament and state Assemblies with media claiming that the election was one-sided affair Kalam’s victory was a foregone conclusion. The counting was held on 18th July Kalam won the Presidential election in a highly one-sided contest. He became the 11th President of the Republic of India. He moved into Rashtrapati Bhawan after he was sworn in on 25th July. Kalam was the third President of India to have been hounred with a Bharat Ratna , India’s highest civilian honour, before becoming the President Dr. Sarvapali Radha Krishnan (1954) and Dr. Zakir Hussain (1963) were the earlier recipients of Bharat ratna who later became the President of India.He was the First Scientist and his terms as President he was affectionately known as the people’s President.
Future India 2020:- In his book India 2020,Kalam Strongly advocates an action plan to develop India in to a knowledge superpower and developed Nation by the year 2020,Kalam set a target of interacting with 100,000 students during the two years after his resignation from the post of Scientific Advisor in 1999.In his own words ” I fell comfortable in the company of young people, particularly high school students. Henceforth ,I intend to share with them experiences, helping them to ignite their imagination and preparing them to work for a developed India for which the road map is already available. He continued to interact with students during his term as President and also during his post-Presidency period as a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management Indore and Ahmadabad He was nominated for the MTV youth Icon of the year award in 2003 and in 2006
Awards and honours: Kalam’s 79th birthday was recognized as world student’s day by united Nation’s . He has also received honorary doctorates from 40 universities . the Government of India has honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1981 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1990 for his work with ISRO and DRDO and his role as a scientific advisor to the Government in 1977 Kalam received India’s highest civilian honour the Bharat Ratna for his immense and valuable contribution to the scientific research and modernization of defence technology in India.
APJ Abdul Kalam, The “MISSILE MAN” who came to be known as “People’s President died on 27th July 2015 after he collapsed duing a Lecture at the IIM Shillong. Kalam who would have turned 84 in October.
(The writer is Social worker and writer)
