Remembering Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on World Students Day

“Dream, dream, dream. Dreams transform into thoughts, and thoughts result in action.”

Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam was born in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. During the early years of his life, he studied Physics. In his lifetime, Dr. Kalam had donned on many hats-an aerospace scientist, an author, an educationist, an eloquent speaker, he was a man of multiple talents. In 2002, this scientist became the 11th President of India. He had served as president till 2007, and after that, he had dedicated his life to teaching. Dr. Kalam became a visiting Professor in IIM Shillong, IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM Indore. He was a visionary who was known to always fill the students with buckets of positivity.

Not only this, Dr. kalam had occupied many distinguished offices in his lifetime- an administrator with the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).Apart from his, he had played important organisational, technical, and political role in India’s Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998. As if this is not enough, the man had been honoured with multiple awards like Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Bharat Ratna, Veer Savarkar Award, and Ramanujan Award.

Of all the roles Dr. Kalam had performed in his life, he loved the role of a teacher the most. The celebration of his legacy is incomplete without stating the fact that, above all, he identified himself as a teacher and had dedicated his life as an educationist. The UN, in 2010, had declared 15th October as ‘WORLD STUDENTS DAY’ in order to celebrate his birthday. The day aims to acknowledge his contributions towards education and students.

Teaching was Dr. Kalam’s love and he always desired to be remembered as a teacher first, and then anything else. He had breathed his last in Shillong doing what he loved the most- teaching in IIM Shillong.

--- Jayati Roychoudhury