The Visionary ‘Missile Man’ Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam
A Teacher, Scientist, Visionary, Son, Father,……….. he was a selfless human being with fuel to fire the minds of the young. A man with a vision of Revolution 2020 in India. He believed in unleashing the power within India. He had faith in the ‘can do’ approach in whatever he did.
He was a dreamer of great dreams. He considered ‘poverty’ as the root cause of our problems and considered it to be the object of our fight, not our own.
He ignited the minds of every student. Like many others I too was motivated to get back on the winning track and unleash my true potential which until 2014 was just a mere dream. It was October 15, birthday of DR. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, celebrated as “Children’s Creativity and Innovation Day” every year by the National Innovation Foundation-India when I was declared winner of the IGNITE-14 Award for my invention – Manual Page Turning Machine. I received the Award on 19th November, 2014 at IIM-Ahmadabad. Reflecting back, I remember it was about 1 hour prior to his arrival when all the participants and organizers were excited and enthusiastically waiting for the arrival of Sir Abdul Kalam. The time seemed to pass very quickly. Finally he arrived, I saw the same SPIRIT within him, which I had it in my imagination. It was the moment, when he stood right in front of me looking all over my Invention. I prepared a long speech regarding my ideas but I was numb when he stood in such simplicity. With a gentle tone he spoke “Dear Swapnanil your Innovation is likely to be a boon for differently abed, I hope to see your devise commercialized. I pray for your success in life”. He spoke these few words and it was more than sufficient for a student like me to be motivated, blessed and more likely to be honored.
Then I had the opportunity to sit 5 feet away from the Dias, standing before the podium where he gave his speech. He started by saying“ Learning gives Creativity. Creativity leads to thinking. Thinking provides Knowledge. Knowledge makes you Great”.
His encouraging words truly mesmerized all the audience present.
For me it is not possible to convey the erudition of a man who covers India’s past, present and future in such simple, communicable terms. An immortal guiding force to many generations. Let us pledge to achieve his vision of “Revolution 2020”. May his soul rest in peace.
