Today is my Dream Hero Kalam's Birthday

Kalam, originally uploaded by Jeevan_.

I drew did Drawing of kalam.

Today is Dream Hero’s 74th Birthday.

There’s certain energy around Kalam, be it the speed of his thoughts, his scientific charisma or his convincing powers. Every morning, as one of India’s humblest, most intelligent and learned men walks in his garden, he dreams. He dreams of everyday things. He dreams of an incredible India. He knows the power of dreams.

I admire the President of India, Mr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam. President Kalam was born in a middle-class family in Rameswarm, India on October 15, 1931. During his childhood, he always wanted to study but there was no public library in his town. So he went to his brother’s friend’s house to borrow books from his library.
He inherited honesty and self-discipline from his father and faith in goodness and kindness from his mother. One day in his elementary school, a new teacher saw Kalam, a Muslim and his friend, a Hindu sitting together in the class. She asked Kalam to sit on the backbench because she didn’t want a Hindu boy sitting next to a Muslim boy. Later that day, the two boys told their parents what happened at school. The next day Kalam’s friend’s father asked the teacher not to judge students by their religion. The teacher apologized. That event taught Kalam that people from all religions should be treated fairly.

Even as a child, Kalam worked very hard. He worked with his cousin to bundle up the newspapers and then deliver those to people. After elementary school, he went to Schwartz High School in Ramanathapuram and St. Josephs College, Trichirappali. Then he joined Madras Institute of Technology to study aeronautical engineering. After completing his studies, he wanted to fly planes. So he interviewed for an Indian Air Force job. But he stood ninth in a batch of twenty-five when there were only eight openings. He was very disappointed. He went to Swami Sivananda and asked for his advice. Swami Sivananda said, accept your destiny and go ahead with your life. Forget this failure, as it was essential to lead you to your destined path. Search, instead, for the true purpose of your existence.

Immediately after that he got a job with Directorate of Technical Development and Production (DTD&P). Kalam thought about what Swamiji had advised. He really wanted to fly planes but instead settled to make planes at DTD&P. Later on Kalam went to America for higher studies. There he learned that Americans don’t waste time and instead solve their problems immediately. When he came back to India, he wanted Indians to solve their problems as well and not just bear them. He later on helped make the first Indian satellite - the Rohini. During the 80s’, Kalam helped make the first five missiles in India. These were named as Nag, Prithvi, Akash, Trishul and Agni. For all his hard work in science, he was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1981 and Bharat Ratna in 1997. President Kalam believes in dreaming, thinking and then acting to achieve his dreams. His advice to the youngsters is to “dream, convert dreams into thoughts and later into actions.” He now focuses on the children of India to awaken love for science in their minds.

I admire President Kalam for all the great things he has done and is still doing for my India. I dream of following his footsteps.