Rameshwaram to Raisinai Hills...

I was deeply touched / emotional to hear (if not see the diplomatic guard of honour and farewell bestowed on Bharat Ratna Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam) who was introduced to me by Ram, in one of our discussions of Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles and the design and development of missiles and ammunitions (Agni/Prithvi/Akash/Trishul/Nag/MBT Arjun/Pinaki etc...). Till today, this amuses me that most of the defence related product development bears hindu mythology related names in sanskrit, i thank god, the so called secular forces never interferred with these as well.

Born in a lower middle class family, a man who proved to this generation that education can definitely take you to places and education coupled with humility would take you even greater heights. I have read his books (Wings of fire and Ignited Minds) which can be treated as text books (the reason why i said to make it as text books, as i wanted it to be made as a must read one, as i feel the Gen-Next lost the habit of buying books and reading them).

My previous lead Mr Pandey used to talk so high about Dr Kalaam as he had the privilege of working directly under Dr Kalam. According to him, Dr Kalam was not only an expert in field of rocket science and but also an highly capable and motivated manager. Dr Kalam and Ambani are two great people whom i admire a lot in the last 50 years who shared lot of commonality between them. Hailing from villages in India, Experts in their fields, "Dreamt big about India", had visions to build a bigger enterprise and the mother of all of them, they wanted to see a "sufficient and self-reliant India".

After completing his studies, he wanted to fly planes. So he was interviewed for an Indian Air Force job. But he stood ninth in a batch of twenty-five when there were only eight openings. He was shown doors and very disappointed. He went to Swami Sivananda ashram in Rishikesh and APJ was sad and asked for Shivananda's advice. Swami Sivananda said, "Accept your destiny and go ahead with your life. Forget this failure, as it was essential to lead you to your destined path. Search, instead, for the true purpose of your existence.". Little Dr Kalam would know that he had a destiny to design and manage a project called LCA (unmanned - light combat aircraft), which was launched in the 2000-01.

I take this as a lesson always,as i have observed in my life that nobody knows what's in store for them in future and what destiny has in store for us (like Dr Abdul Kalam, who failed to become a pilot, managed to develop a unmanned combat flight). I would be happy in my life to see an educated scientist as a president of India and super economist as a prime minister of India which would go as a rare occurence in the history of india. Dr Kalam is one of the few presidents who rarely visited other countries on the basis of bilateral visits and ensured he covered all the states within india and addressed children before his first vist to a foreign country.

Though it might be emotional farewell to Dr Kalam from all the children/youngsters, who had a great fan following from the next generation next to sachin and shahrukh. But in a way, i am happy that he would be enjoying playing his veena / reading Dr radhakrishnan's / books of shri aurobindo and work with the students rather than talking with constitutional experts to dismiss state governments.

Saluting him with pride,

Thanks Mr Kalam for your outstanding contribution,

Jai Hind.