Visionary Kalam, inspiration to youth

Former President A P J Abdul Kalam, who passed away on Monday, represented the best of aspirational India in many ways. He rose from the humblest of backgrounds to the country’s top constitutional position, but always carried the high positions he held lightly on his shoulders. He was a visionary and at the same time a doer, who shaped India’s space and missile technology programmes and took them to world levels. He combined many roles in himself – scientist, technocrat, team leader, teacher and the President of the country, and always more than did justice to his calling. What he did in any one of these avocations would have been enough to secure him a place in history. He will be remembered as one of the builders of modern India and one who dreamed of taking it to greater heights. His Vision2020 is a document which laid a blueprint for a new India which cared for the poor, combined growth with development and valued science and technology, which he believed held key to the future.

Kalam took Presidency to the masses and was the most popular head of state the country has had. He never considered himself exceptional in spite of all his achievements and could talk to the king and the commoner, the scholar and the layman, and the young and old with the same and equal ease. He had a special place in his heart for children and the young, to whom he related with spontaneity and a childlike candour. It is this ability that perhaps kept his mind young and alert even in his advanced age. He considered himself and was always a simple person. This sense of simplicity and the elemental humaneness in him helped him rise above the political fray even in the discharge of his duties as the head of state. He was most acceptable to all political parties and social groups and that is an achievement in these cynical and divisive times. The wisdom of Thirukkural and the teachings of the Koran and the Gita combined in his mind to produce a view of the world which was at once rooted in the past and modern. He was intuitively and naturally a humanist, above the divisions of religion and politics.

The last moments came to him fittingly when he was doing what he loved doing most – talking to and engaging the youth to inspire and motivate them. His life will also remain a source of inspiration and motivation for the country in the coming years.