Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam - Biography
Avul Pakir Janulabdeen Abdul Kalam better known as A.P.J Abdul Kalam, he was born in a middle class Muslim family. He was born on 15 October 1931 in a small village and name“Dhanushkodi” in Rameswaram.
Abdul Kalam's father's name was "Jainulabdeen Markair". Who was a sailor.He was firm in his rules and generous in nature. His day used to start with offering prayers at 4am in the morning. Then he used to break coconut after which he used to take the passengers from Rameswaram to Dhanushkodi through his boat and bring them back.It was Dr Kalam's father who taught him honesty and discipline. The whole family believed in the vision of the Sun God. The father died in 1976.
Abdul Kalam's mother's name was "Ashiamma". She taught Abdul Kalam the lesson of faith in goodness. At the age of 93.
Abdul Kalam was a promising child of ordinary parents. His height was 5 feet 4 inches. Eye color art and hair white and black were mixed. He used to eat food sometimes on a banana leaf and sometimes in a glass plate.
Abdul Kalam had a total of 5 siblings. Kalam was the youngest among them. Qasim Muhammad, Mustafa Kamal, Muhammad Muthu Meera Lebbai Maraiyar, these three brother and the eldest sister name Asim Zohra. Sister was married to Ahmed Jalaluddin. He was 15 years older than Kalam and he used to call him by the name Azad. As a child, Abdul Kalam's brother-in-law used to teach him English.
Abdul Kalam did the work of distributing newspapers to continue his early education.
Ramanand Shastri, Aravindan and Shivprakash were close childhood friends. As a child, he loved to play badminton.
Kalam studied till the second standard in the alma mater Mandayam Panchayat Union Middle School. After this Kalam went to Ramanathapuram for his high school studies, where he passed his matric at Schwartz Higher Secondary School.
Then Kalam enrolled in BSc at St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli, for his intermediate studies. After this Kalam studied aeronautical engineering at MIT (Madras Institute of Technology).
After completing his graduation he joined the Scientific Development Establishment of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) as a scientist where he worked with Dr. Sarabhai, a renowned scientist known as the National Committee of India.
During that time Dr Kalam started his career by designing a small hovercraft in DRDO. He designed a small helicopter for the Indian Army. In 1965 at DRDO, he started working independently on an expandable rocket project.
In 1969, while joining the Indian Space Research Center (ISRO) as the project director, launched the first indigenous satellite SLV-3 and designed the indigenous guided missile, from which missiles like 'Agni' and 'Prithvi' were made from Indian technology. This was a great success of emerging India in the world.
In the 1970s he made an effort to develop the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) so that India could launch its Indian Remote Sensing satellite into Sun-Synchronous orbit. The PSLV project was successful and was launched for the first time on 20 September 1993.
Dr. Abdul Kalam's efforts in the development of projects of SLV-3 and Polar SLV from 1970 to 1990 proved to be quite successful.
He was named "Missile Man" to make India self-reliant in ballistic missile and launching technology. Abdul Kalam made India a nuclear power by successful use of nuclear power in Pokhran in 1998.
He received so many awards and achievements
Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 1981.Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 1990. Bharat Ratna by Government of India in 1997. Veer Savarkar Award by Government of India in 1998. Awarded the King Charles II Medal by the UK Royal Society in 2007. Doctor of Engineering degree from Nanyang Technical University, Singapore in 2008.Awarded the Hoover Medal by the America ASME Foundation in 2009.Doctor of Engineering from the University of Waterloo,Canada in 2010. Received the Von Braun Award in 2013. Doctor of Science degree by Edinburgh University UK in 2014. Honorary Professor Awarded by Beijing University China, 2014. In 2015 the United Nations recognized Dr. Abdul Kalam's birthday as "World Students' Day".
Not only this, after the death of Dr. Kalam, the Tamil Nadu government had announced to celebrate his birthday i.e. October 15 as "Youth Renaissance Day" across the state.
At the same time, the state government had instituted the “Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Award” in his name.People who work in promoting scientific development, humanities and welfare of students are conferred with this award.
On October 15, 2015, on the 84th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Kalam, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi also released a postage stamp in memory of Dr. Kalam at DRDO Bhawan in New Delhi.
The electoral college elects the President of India. The election was held and he defeated his rival Lakshmi Sehgal for the presidency by a huge margin of votes. He was administered the oath of office on 25 July 2002. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam became the 11th President of India. Abdul Kalam served as the President from 25 July 2002 to 25 July 2007.
On 27th July 2015, when Dr Kalam was giving a speech at IIM in Shillong, he suffered a heart attack. He was immediately taken to the hospital but doctors could not save him. A great scientist, serious thinker and wonderful man had said goodbye to the world.
