When Kalam left crucial trash in a Haryana village

Shaista Fatima/Delhi

As India enters into a digital world with much more awareness about the present scenario, the vision and mission of Dr.A P J Abdul Kalam whose birthday falls on October 15, becomes more and more relevant.

Steve Jobs often said “dots always connect in the back” which aptly applied to the journalists Neeraj Pandey and Malick Asghar Hashmi’s first hand reports of an incident dated a few years back when apparently both were posted in Haryana.

In the middle of the night some panicked villagers ushered in their office with some bizarre information.

“They told us that a huge pile of aluminum foil was found at Tilpat Range that otherwise was a barricaded area..”, Hashmi said.

Little did Hashmi know that while reading Wings of Fire, autobiography of Dr.Kalam, an incident narrating the same story would make him realise that those foils were coverings of the components of a major technology project -Rocket Assisted Take-off Systems (RATO) that made India a missle power in the world in due course.

 

APJ Abdul Kalam shared camaraderie with his seniors as well as his juniors.

In the above incident he describes his equation with Vikram Sarabhai and how his guidance moulded him.

Dr.Kalam was waiting since 1am for a meeting scheduled at 3:30am and later on headed the operation of assembling RATO for India.

Dr.Kalam further expresses his gratitude with the lines “for all your days prepare, and meet them ever alike, for when you are the anvil bear, and when you are the hammer strike..”

Kalam took Prof.Sarabhai as his mentor and in one such incident as mentioned in the book where questions were raised upon what portion of work Dr.Kalam had rendered, Sarabhai defended his protege by saying, "Kalam like me is a project leader and an integrator of people..”

In his closing remarks Dr.Kalam remembers Republic Day of the year 1990 and his Padam Vibhushan bestowed upon him and other scientists on successful launch of missiles Prithvi, Agni.

Dr.Kalam called himself a man of science who spent all his years learning rocketry. He served as the President of India from 2002-2007.

A simple man with humble background, he believed in putting one’s heart into their work as according to him, “a bread baked without love satiated hunger partially..”.

He died while delivering a lecture at IIM Shillong on 27th July, 2015 thus prophesying his own words, “I wish to live for my work and die while doing what I love.”