what made Kalam to became the President of the country: part 2

If you go through the following it will not be surprising as to why Abdul Kalam was celebrated as the icon for the young and the old when he died with dignity and honour; Having seen the spontaneous outburst of love and affection shown by the ordinary people for the departed president,  many run –of- the- mill ordinary politicians  having all the vices and weaknesses to amass a huge fortune not  for his family, sorry for his generations to come will envy him and would have felt very small .

True, even our president himself would not have expected this kind of farewell so overwhelming and convincing, waiting in the wings to glorify his death and it should touch the conscience of the country.

 Going back to the theme Parameswaran Nair who worked for some  time as the Director of the Govt owned Anglo French Textiles mill  at Pondicherry  recollected  that he met Mr Abdul Kalam at Vikram sarabhai Space Research Institute  in Kerala in1951..At that time he was the chief in Administration and Kalam was  one among the chief scientists. Everyone would leave the office at 6 in the evening. But  Kalam Sir would stay back till  10’o clock and work and sometimes he would sleep in the office itself. He would wake up at 5 in the morning and start working the next day .He said that this kind of commitment to work , the tendency to dedicate and involve himself in work  had   elevated him to the status of the first citizen of the country later. In the next few years when he was transferred to the production unit  he got delinked from him and there was not much contact.

In 2002 when Kalam became the president of the country, he was told by his senior that Kalam Sir wanted to see  him. Can you guess what happened? Then only he learnt  that Kalam had made him as his personal secretary .Oh!  Those five years stay with him  were wonderful and  a  mesmerising period in his life,  he recalled in his write up on Kalam in that Tamil weekly  magazine.