Jainulabdeen and Ashiamma didn’t know that one day their son Kalam would grow up to be the first citizen of India. An Indian scientist and administrator, scientist turned reluctant politician Dr. Kalam served as the 11th President of India from 2002 until 2007. One amongst the most respected people of the country who came to be known as ‘People’s President’, Dr. Kalam contributed his four decades immensely both as a scientist and as a president. His contribution at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) was immense. He was responsible for numerous projects such as Project Devil and Project Valiant and launch of the Rohini-1, besides developing missiles under the missions Agni and Prithvi. He was popularly tagged as the “Missile Man of India” for his work on development of ballistic missile and space rocket technology. Dr. Kalam was honored with great laurels and awards for his work by both the Government of India and other countries. He has received honorary doctorates from as many as forty Universities including AMU. Aligarh Muslim University awarded Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) to him in 2008. Dr. Kalam remained unmarried throughout his life and he was vegetarian till his last breath. He was professor at Anna University. He narrowly missed achieving his dream of becoming a fighter pilot, as he was placed ninth in qualifiers, and only eight positions were available in the IAF but as the President he become the supreme commander of Armed Forces. After completing his term as President, Kalam served as a visiting professor in various esteemed Institutes and Universities of India.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was born to Jainulabdeen and Ashiamma on October 15, 1931. He came from a family whose financial conditions weren’t sound enough. As a means to support his family’s meager income, Kalam distributed newspapers in his childhood but never gave up on his education. Kalam’s father was a devout Muslim, who owned boats which he rented out to local fishermen and was a good friend of Hindu religious leaders and the school teachers at Rameshwaram. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam mentions in his biography that to support his studies, he started his career as a newspaper vendor. This was also told in the book, A Boy and His Dream: Three Stories from the Childhood of Abdul Kalam by Vinita Krishna. The house Kalam was born in can still be found on the Mosque street in Rameshwaram, and his brother’s curio shop abuts it. This has become a point-of-call for tourists who seek out the place. Kalam grew up in an intimate relationship with nature, and he says in Wings of Fire that he never could imagine that water could be so powerful destroying force which he witnessed when he was 33. That was in 1964 when a cyclonic storm swept away the Pamban Bridge and a trainload of passengers with it and also Kalam’s native village, Dhanushkodi.

He graduated from Saint Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappalli in 1954 but not satisfied with his degree, he left for Madras later next year to study aerospace engineering. He enrolled at the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT). After graduating from MIT, Kalam took up the position of chief scientist at the Aeronautical Development Establishment of Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). However, the profile didn’t appeal Kalam much who shifted to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) where he was the project director of India’s first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle. His years at the ISRO were the most crucial ones, as they left a lasting impact on him. While Kalam was working on a senior class project, the Dean was dissatisfied with his lack of progress and threatened to revoke his scholarship unless the project was finished within the next three days. Kalam met the deadline, impressing the Dean, who later said to him, “I was putting you under stress and asking you to meet a difficult deadline”.

Dr. Kalam led many projects and turned out to be successful each time. In the 1970s, Dr. Kalam directed two projects, namely, Project Devil and Project Valiant, which sought to develop ballistic missiles from the technology of the successful SLV programme. A milestone was achieved when locally built Rohini-1 was launched into space, using the SLV rocket. Upon watching the raving success of Dr. Kalam, the government agreed for initiation of an advanced missile program under his directorship. He played a pivotal role in developing missiles under the missions Agni and Prithvi. Dr. Kalam was the Chief Executive of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP) which researched in simultaneous development of a quiver of missiles instead of taking planned missiles one by one. From 1992 until 1999, Dr. Kalam was appointed as the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of Defence Research and Development Organisation. It was during this time that Dr. Kalam served as the Chief Project Coordinator for Pokhran II nuclear tests, after which he was fondly called the “Missile Man of India”.

(This is a first part of the article and the remaining part will continue tomorrow)

Naiyar Imam