It was on June 9, this year that the name of 71 year-old Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, country's renowned scientist, was first floated for the position of the foremost public servant of the land. In view of his pre-eminent position as a scientist and scholar, the support of most of the political parties came rather automatically and he won the Presidential election with a thumping majority. Dr Kalam is the first scientist to become the occupant of Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, born in 1931, represents some of the best aspects of Indian life. The son of a boat owner in Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu, he had an unparalleled career as a defence scientist culminating in the highest civilian award of India, the Bharat Ratna. As chief of the country’s defence research and development programme, Dr Abdul Kalam demonstrated a great potential for dynamism and innovation that
exists in our defence research establishments. He rose from obscurity through sheer dint of endeavour and became the architect of the Indian defence missile programme.

A graduate from St Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli, Dr Abdul Kalam studied aeronautical engineering at Madras Institute of Technology which was regarded as the crown jewel of technical education in Southern India in the fifties. Coming from a very humble beginning, he was the first graduate in his family. Three of his brothers did not finish even school. He pursued his studies diligently, developing his interest in aeronautical engineering while doing his graduation. After passing out as a graduate aeronautical engineer, Abdul Kalam joined the Directorate of Technical Development and Production of Ministry of Defence. He later joined the Indian Committee for Space Research as a Rocket Engineer. This committee, during the later half of 1962, had decided to set up the Equitorial Launching Station at Thumba. He became a member of the team, led by Prof Vikram Sarabhai, which aimed at organising an integrated national space programme with the equipment for the manufacture of rockets and launch facilities developed and produced indigenously.

Prof Kalam was chosen to lead the team for the launch of Satellite Launch Vehicle. The India’s first satellite launch vehicle, SLV III was successfully launched on July 18, 1980. Later, he was appointed Director of the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad. He was appointed Head of the DRDL in February 1982. As Director of DRDO, he developed the missile programme and the launch of Trishul was conducted on September 16, 1985. He was appointed the Scientific Adviser to the Department of Defence Minister and Secretary, Defence Research and Development. Later, he became Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India with the rank of a Cabinet Minister. But his crowning achievement was the series of nuclear tests in Pokhran on May 11 and 12, 1998. Dr Kalam believes defence technology can be used as a technological tool for national development.

Abdul Kalam was conferred the Padma Vibhushan on Republic Day in 1990. Dr Kalam has this to say about his life in Wings of Fire-an autobiography: "Each individual creature on this beautiful planet is created by God to fulfil a particular role. Whatever I have achieved in life is through His help, and an expression of His will. He showered His grace on me through some outstanding teachers and colleagues, and when I pay my tributes to these fine persons, I am merely praising His glory. All these rockets and missiles are His work through a small person called Kalam, in order to tell the several million mass of India to never feel small or helpless. We are all born with a divine fire in us. Our efforts should be to give wings to this fire and fill the world with the glow of its goodness."

Later, the nation decided to honour India's premier missile engineer with a Bharat Ratna. By this time Kalam was already an iconic personality whose inspirational statements and frugal life-style earned him a devoted following, especially among the role-model seeking youth in the country. What makes Kalam attractive to the people is his simplicity. What makes him adorable is that he exudes a saint-like personality. He is a bachelor who has for years lived in a single room wherever he stayed. He is equally comfortable reciting the verses from the Bhagwad Gita as the Holy Quran. Kalam’s personality and his Gandhian ‘simple living and high thinking’ has won him the hearts of many. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam is known to be a workaholic who works almost 20 hours a day. In fact, many of his colleagues were frustrated as he made them work 16 hours a day. Besides work, he spends time reading or listening to music.

Popular among students at Anna University, he is always ready to meet them. According to Mr T. Nagarajan, his private secretary at Anna University, the instructions are clear: "No student should be made to wait for me." His favourite lines are : "God helps only those who help themselves; search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened."

His co-workers opine that it is his philosophical bent of mind that has helped Dr Kalam master the art of building a consensus. He is adept at the art of sorting out matters on win-win basis. According to his former colleagues at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, Abdul Kalam is a silent simple, and hardworking man. Dr Kalam has always acknowledged the support his family extended to him. When he was awarded Bharat Ratna, Kalam’s elder brother who runs a newspaper distribution business near Chennai, wanted to perform Haj. Dr Kalam who was then heading the DRDO, took leave and supervised his brother's business for eight days.

Now that a scientist and philosopher Dr Kalam dons the mantle of President of India, everyone has reasons to be assured that India's interests are in safe hands. People of the country see him as one of their true representatives. Because of his wide association with national defence, Sainik Samachar would proudly like to view him as a "defence man".