Living on the island of Rameswaram, APJ Abdul Kalam was born to a poor fishermen family where the elders struggled hard to make both ends meet. But the humble man he is, he did not term them as “struggles”; rather “experience”. Poverty never stopped him from reaching heights he wanted to reach. With his zeal he turned the darkness of his house with no electricity into an ever dazzling light. Studying under the dim street lights, he never let anything from stopping him to gather knowledge. In his autobiography he told the story of his childhood tuition teacher who had only one condition- that little Kalam must reach there before dawn after having a bath. And Kalam was never late, even for once.
“Among my siblings and cousins, I had shown an early aptitude for mathematics. My father had arranged for me to take tuitions from our mathematics teacher. However, my teacher had a condition that I, along with the four other students whom he had accepted, needed to reach his home at dawn after having taken a bath. So for a year, which was the duration of the tuition, I started my day while it was still dark outside, with my mother shaking me awake. She herself would have risen before me and got my bath ready. She would then help me bathe and send me on my way to my teacher’s home. There I would study for an hour and return by 5 am. By then my father would be ready to take me to the Arabic School nearby, where I learnt the Quran Sharif.”
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At the age of eight-years-old, Kalam was intrigued by his friend and inspiration, Samsuddin, the newspaper delivery boy. More than Samsuddin’s earnest dedication to his work, what fascinated him about this whole newspaper delivery business was that this little dotted paper saved his village from being ignorant about the world. This coupled with the food grains on his family’s plates reducing day by day encouraged him to take up the job at the tender age of eight. He ran onto the running train every day, risky business it was, to collect the bundle of newspapers, sort it out according to neighbourhoods. Deliver each one of them on time and rush to school. After school he again made rounds to each one of his customers to collect the dues.
“Homework, tuition, prayers, all carried on, but the Madras-Dhanushkodi Mail would not wait for me—I had to be present at the station at the correct time and at the correct point to catch the bundles as they came flying in. It was my first brush with taking up a responsibility and seeing to it that I kept my word to my cousin Samsuddin, no matter what. It was also a most enjoyable time and I loved every moment of it, notwithstanding the intense tiredness every night. My mother often fretted at my taking up this additional work and the toll it was taking on me, but I shook my head and smiled at her. Knowing that my earnings were somehow helping us all, and that she was secretly proud of me for having taken on the role of a working man at the age of eight kept me going with a smile on my face.”
We at Business Insider have created this unique platform for anyone who wants to pay homage to this the beloved Former President, APJ Abdul Kalam- the great leader, teacher, scientist and amongst many other things a visionary par excellence, even as he embarks upon his last journey. Just click on the link to pay your respects:
http://www.businessinsider.in/Pay-your-last-respects-to-former-President-APJ-Abdul-Kalam/social/48249034.cms
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He was studying aeronautical science in Madras Institute of Technology working on a project when he realised his limits, that there is none. He with his team was building a low-level attack aircraft. He was in charge of coming up with the aerodynamical design. After a few days, his professor,Srinivasan, who was also the head of the institute, asked for the design.
“I still remember the way his eyebrows crinkled as he looked at the paper spread out in front of him. Then he straightened up and his next words stunned me. “This is just not good enough, Kalam,” he said. He turned stern eyes on me and continued, “I expected much better from you. This is dismal work and I am disappointed that someone with your talent has come up with work like this.” I stared at the professor, dumbfounded. I had always been the star pupil in any class and had never ever been pulled up by a teacher for anything. This feeling of embarrassment and shame was a new experience for me, and I did not like it one bit. The professor shook his head some more and told me that I had to redo the entire design, starting from scratch and rethinking all my assumptions. I agreed shamefacedly. Then he broke the next bad news. Not only was I supposed to do the work again, I had to finish it in three days! “Today is Friday afternoon, young man. I want to see a flawless configuration drawing by Monday evening. If you are unable to do so, your scholarship will be stopped.””
But he did not stop at that. Instead he put in all his time and energy into it. Skipping dinners and sleep, he finally came out with a brilliant design which pleasantly surprised his professor too. Such was his deliberateness.
We at Business Insider have created this unique platform for anyone who wants to pay homage to this the beloved Former President, APJ Abdul Kalam- the great leader, teacher, scientist and amongst many other things a visionary par excellence, even as he embarks upon his last journey. Just click on the link to pay your respects:
http://www.businessinsider.in/Pay-your-last-respects-to-former-President-APJ-Abdul-Kalam/social/48249034.cms
(Image credits: colorlibrary)
Kalam always wanted to be a pilot. But all dreams are not meant to succeed. Sometimes you are destined to do something else for only you can do it better. He wrote about how he gave immense efforts to succeed in his pilot test. There were eight slots and he came ninth. His sorrows knew no bounds. He was devastated, he accepted.
“I still remember the ache in my heart as I attempted to make sense of what had happened. When a dearly held desire begins to break up, one can feel nothing but despair and emptiness as one tries to come to terms with the end of a dream.”
But he was one of the very few who overcame it to find a noble solution that made him India’s ‘Missile Man’, literally.
“If I can’t fly aircrafts, I can
at least make them.” And so his journey began.
We at Business Insider have created this unique platform for anyone who wants to pay homage to this the beloved Former President, APJ Abdul Kalam- the great leader, teacher, scientist and amongst many other things a visionary par excellence, even as he embarks upon his last journey. Just click on the link to pay your respects:
http://www.businessinsider.in/Pay-your-last-respects-to-former-President-APJ-Abdul-Kalam/social/48249034.cms
(Image credits: colorlibrary)
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