1. Once, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam rejected the suggestion to put broken glass on the wall of a building that needed protection. Why? Because broken glass would be harmful for birds!
2. When youngsters & teenagers requested a meeting with President Kalam, the President not only obliged and gave the kids his precious time, but he also listened carefully to the ideas the kids had!
3. Soon after it was declared that Dr. Kalam would be the next President, he visited a modest school to deliver a speech. His security detail was minimal, and he didn’t mind taking control of the situation when the power went off.
4. President Kalam has given up all his life savings and salaries to a trust he founded named PURA (Providing Urban Amenities to Rural Areas).
5. President Kalam is known to write his own thank you cards.
6. Supposed to attend a college event as the Chief Guest, APJ once surprised the students of the event’s organising committee by visiting them late in the night.
7. Dr. Kalam is so humble he wouldn’t mind going to an event a little late for the sake of letting his fans take pictures with him!
8. Once during an event, Dr. Kalam refused to sit on a chair that was designated for him – because the chair was larger in size than the other chairs!
9. When a subordinate of President Kalam at DRDO couldn’t take his children to an exhibition due to work pressure, Kalam surprised his subordinate and took the children in stead!
10. When he was President, Dr. Kalam took to “Yahoo! Answers” and posted a question: “What should we do to free our planet from terrorism?”
11. Who did President Kalam invite as the “Presidential Guests” to Kerela’s Raj Bhavan during his first visit to Kerela after becoming the President?
12. And the most important story – of his contribution to India’s space and defence programs:
Dr. Kalam was one of the few scientists who started working with ISRO during the agency’s early years. A Church became the place of work for the handful of India’s rocket scientists – including Dr. Kalam; and a nearby beach became the place where the rocket launchpad was set up.
Cycles and bullock-carts were used back in the 1970s & 1980s to transport rocket parts and entire satellites, and Dr. Kalam was one of the rare few scientists who made significant contributions to India’s early space program. In fact, Dr. Kalam was the Director of the project that indigenously developed the SLV-III (Space Launch Vehicle) and also the PSLV – which is operational even today and was used in the Moon and the Mars missions. In 1980, SLV-III successfully injected the Rohini satellite into a near-Earth orbit and made India an exclusive member of the Space Club.
After working with ISRO, Dr. Kalam took up responsibilities for developing Indigenous Guided Missiles at the DRDO which led to the development of AGNI and PRITHVI missiles. He also led the Pokhran-II nuclear tests that made India a nuclear weapon state.
It is said that during Indira Gandhi’s regime, Dr. Kalam was the man who convinced the Prime Minister for an advanced missile program for the country – and despite the disapproval of the Union Cabinet, PM Gandhi had secretly funded Kalam’s aerospace and defence projects. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Rocket parts being carried on a cycle during the early days of India’s space program.
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