A Profile in Greatness

A Profile in Greatness

It was unusual for me on Monday, the July 27^th that I reached home late and the hour’s hand of the clock was touching 11 PM.  I sat down just to have supper while doing so put on the television to glance at the day’s news.  The CNN IBN was airing the program with school children sitting on the lawns of ‘Rastrapati Bhavan’ and they were in conversation with the former president of India Dr Kalam and he was jovial in the company of those school children.

Though it was bit surprising for me to see that program such late night on the former president, I just surmised that since the ‘Independence Day’ was nearing, the program must have been a precursor of a sort for the occasion. But after a while a message ran paying homage to Dr. Kalam, only then I realized the enormity of the situation and understood the context of the TV channel airing the program on Dr. Kalam.  I was perturbed for a while and memories of the great man came rushing.   

I have no qualification in whatsoever manner, either I have intellectual equipment or a moral compass to write on a person of  Dr Kalam's stature, but I can always take courage in the thought that as an ordinary citizen of India can express my feelings. I first heard the name of Dr. Kalam from one of my friends who was working with me at a cement company in one of the remote villages of  Andhra Pradesh. My friend had an internship at DRDO in Hyderbad, where his project director was Dr. Kalam.  Often In our conversation, my friend used to mention about his good fortune of working under such a great scientist.  As I was minimalist in terms of knowledge when it comes to science related topics, I used to be a passive listener to my friends oft repeated Kalam centric discussions.  

Yeas rolled on since then, my life took many twists and turns and at the beginning of the new millennium, while in Bengaluru, I started hearing Dr.Kalam’s name now and then in newspapers especially when he was the scientific advisor to the Prime Minister of India. I still remember, in one of the functions, addressing students of a prestigious institution, a retired bureaucrat forebode, saying, good days are coming for India, in saying so, he was referring to the president designate Dr.Kalam .

Soon after assuming the office of president of India, if my memory serves correct, Dr Kalam was invited to attend the centenary celebration of the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore.  The event was organized in a grand scale and to commemorate the occasion there was also an exhibition organized on Tata legacy and the whole contingent of Board of Directors of Tata Industries was descended on the lawns of the institute. The grandeur of the occasion only seen to believed, there was also assemblage of India’s best and brightest minds in the field of science and technology. The J N Tata Auditorium was filled to the brim and to accommodate the overflowing crowd, TV sets were installed in and around the auditorium area so that outside crowd can view the program, which was being held in the auditorium.  A scene still etched in my memory, that when Dr. Kalam entered the hall, and while stepping onto the podium, audience erupted with joy and gave standing ovation, claps echoed and reverberated the hall and Dr. Kalam simply humbled by the gesture shown by such intellectually sophisticated audience. It was simply stunning to see an occasion that a human being commanding such highest attention and respect of the august gathering.  Later he spoke about why IISc, being an elite institution in the science and technology, not able to produce a single Nobel laureate and he shared some of his thoughts and gave a road map to achieve the excellence and bid for the coveted Nobel Prize.

As a proof of Dr. Kalam’s simplicity and accessibility to common man, on one occasion, while on my train journey, I fortuitously ran into a man who was sitting next to my seat in the compartment, he was calm and was not that talkative initially, but our journey was long and to beat that arduousness, he had to take refuge in light banter with fellow passengers and in the process, I came to know about him and during the course of journey our association solidified in terms of knowing each other’s occupation, family and  native place etc and he told sometime in the early eighties he was chauffeur driving VIP’s of defense institutions in Bangalore and he chauffeur drove Dr. Kalam many months during his stay in the city, and Dr. Kalam was always courteous to him and the day came that he was going back to Delhi then he had asked one day of his chauffeur driver’s family and his well being and during which time he came to know about driver has had a son who is in search of employment, and without second thought he had asked the driver to provide his son’s details and helped his son securing an employment in one of the prestigious institutions in Bangalore. For many of you reading this article, it may sound that a kind of favoritism but he did not exercise his power for the benefit of his kith and kin but to the benefit of the common man of this country who was a contractual driver of his vehicle and made a lasting difference to the drivers family.  The driver while talking to me was at a loss of words to describe Dr.Kalam’s goodness as a man.  

  

Rrecently, I happened to read a tribute from an eminent journalist, who unveiled in his article many facets of former president’s personality and particularly he highlighted one incident to emphasize his concern for ordinary people of the country. Soon after the Independence Day celebration, it is customary for the president of India to extend invitations to dignitaries from different walks of life to be luncheon hosted at the famous lawns of mogul garden of Rastrapathi Bhavan. In that connection a secretary presented a list of members invited on the occasion to the president, while seeing the list Dr. Kalam expressed his surprise that common employee finding no place and suggested to the secretary to alter the list to add ‘Safai Karmacharis of the Indian Railways’ in the list of invites and these class four laborers had an occasion to rub shoulders with country’s eminent citizen during the luncheon program and also to see the presidential palace. The journalist wrote the trend of inviting common employee of the government of India to be part of the Independence Day luncheon continued while he is in office.

When the great man passed away, we heard cutting across party lines, all political leaders paying rich tributes and shedding crocodile tears and powers that be when they are in office had an opportunity continuing Dr.Kalam’s candidature for the second term but it did not happen so and it has been the bane of India from time immemorial and the country remained a poor one and ruled by rich political class and continued to be a developing country. On the other hand, in the year 2008 during American Presidential election, for the democratic presidential candidature Mr.Obama and Mrs.Hillary Clinton fought tooth and nail and Obama succeeded in winning the nomination and subsequently became the President of America and after assuming the office, the first thing he did, was an appointment of Mrs. Hillary Clinton as his foreign secretary and that showed the country’s interest is his priority even though an individual who contested against him.  

In my view, if Indian political leaders have the country’s best interest in their mind then their opposition should end at the end of electioneering and whichever party comes to the power cutting across the party lines best candidates to be chosen for the ministerial positions and whatever their decisions be should be based on the country first principle.  Would that happen in India? It’s only a fool’s dream.

Dr Kalam was no doubt a great scientist and his achievements in the field endorse on the same but he was a greater human.  He did not preach anything but just practiced whatever he believed in and was blessed with purity, simplicity and humility.  An adage partly goes like this, what is it to be a success: To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children and how true these words ring in the life of Dr. Kalam.  In his passing away, whole country felt a kinship with him and his loss a void in their family. To conclude, many people made comparison of Dr.Kalam's persona with revered Mahatma Gandhiji but I can say one what Einsten said of Gandhiji to quote an adage, “Generation to come scarce believe that such a man as this in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” is also true of Dr. Kalam.