Missile man Abdul Kalam no more

A quintessential Gandhi in a scientist's robe, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, who died at the age of 84 on Monday, was perhaps the first Aam Aadmi, who occupied the sprawling Rashtrapati Bhavan as India's 11th president – between 2002 and 2007.

While Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was a philosopher-president, Kalam was a scientist, who reached out to young minds. His aides say, as President, he used to sign hundreds of 'greetings' and 'thank you' cards himself, sitting in his office past midnight. When a student, Naman Narain, drew a sketch of Dr Kalam and sent it to the President, to his surprise, the President sent him a thank you card, with a short handwritten message, personalised with his signature.

At an India-EU science conference in 2006 attended by a battery of Nobel laureates at Vigyan Bhavan, he surprised everybody by deviating from his prepared text, and, like a professor in a classroom, opened his computer with a presentation he had worked on all night. The presentation was about the works of Nobel laureates in the audience. His act floored everybody.

A western scientists was heard murmuring: "Simply an amazing President." A year later, he stumped a Pakistani delegation led by its then prime minister Showkat Aziz. He made Aziz and his delegation to sit and watch his pet power-point presentation -- on providing urban amenities in rural areas (PURA). He told the Pakistani premier that since their problems were almost similar to that of India, they can emulate and implement PURA.

The then NDA-government led by A B Vajpayee had considered the names of a host of people – from P C Alexander to Dr Farooq Abdullah – to be the president, till major alliance partner Telugu Desam Party's chief Chandrababu Naidu suggested the name of the scientist, who had not only endowed the country with missiles, but was also a key man behind the 1998 nuclear tests.

Many believed, he deserved a second term. Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party recollects that his party had batted for his second term, and, later in 2008, they rescued Dr. Manmohan Singh's nuke deal with the US on his advice.

The BJP and Mamata Banerjee were also in favour of granting him a second term. But Dr Kalam made it clear that he will agree on a second term only if there is a consensus among parties. "He didn't want to contest elections," said Yadav.

At an IIT-Varanasi convocation, after demitting office, Dr. Kalam refused to sit in the chair as he noticed it was bigger than the other four chairs on the stage, designated for top university officials. He asked the Vice Chancellor to sit in the big chair.

During his first visit to Kerala as President, he was entitled to invite anyone as "Presidential Guests" to the Raj Bhavan. He invited a road-side cobbler, who was quite close to Dr. Kalam during his time in Kerala, and the owner of a small hotel where he often used to have his meals.

During his tenure as President, he decided to give away all his wealth and life savings towards a fund for PURA. Apparently, Dr. Kalam called up Dr. Verghese Kurien, the founder of Amul, and asked: "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?"

Kalam was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, and studied physics and aerospace engineering. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Organisation and Indian Space Research Organisation and was intimately involved in India's civilian space programme and military missile development efforts.

He also played a pivotal organisational, technical and political role in Pokhran-II in 1998. After completing school, Kalam distributed newspapers to supplement his father's income. Kalam was criticised for inaction as President in deciding the fate of 20 out of the 21 mercy petitions. He acted on only one mercy plea in his 5-year tenure as President, rejecting the plea of rapist Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was hanged thereafter.

The last lecture in Shillong

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam passed away on Monday evening after he suffered a massive cardiac arrest and collapsed during a lecture at the IIM, Shillong. Kalam, who would have turned 84 in October, was confirmed dead more than two hours after he was wheeled into the ICU of Bethany hospital in a critical condition around 6: 30 pm. Arriving at the IIM around 5.40 PM, he took rest for sometime and started the lecture on 'Livable Planet' at 6.35 pm. He collapsed five minutes later . Kalam last tweeted: "Going to Shillong to take course on livable planet at IIM." He was admitted to the Bethany hospital at 7 PM, a km away from the institute. De said the hospital authority told him that Kalam died due to cardiac arrest.