A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen "A. P. J." Abdul Kalam

 (15 October 1931 – 27 July 2015) was the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. A career scientist turned reluctant politician, Kalam was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied physics and aerospace engineering. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) and was intimately involved in India's civilian space program and military missile development efforts. He thus came to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology. He also played a pivotal organizational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-IInuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.

Kalam was elected President of India in 2002 with the support of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Indian National Congress. After serving a term of five years, he returned to his civilian life of education, writing and public service. He was a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour

Education

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 to a Tamil Muslim family in Rameswaram in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. His father's name was Jainulabudeen, a boat owner, and his mother Ashiamma, a housewife.His father owned a ferry that took Hindu pilgrims back and forth between Rameswaramand the now-extinct Dhanushkodi. He came from a poor background and started working at an early age to supplement his family's income. After completing school, Kalam distributed newspapers to contribute to his father's income.In his school years he had average grades but was described as a bright and hardworking student who had a strong desire to learn and spend hours on his studies, especially mathematics. After completing his education at the Ramanathapuram Schwartz Matriculation School, Kalam went on to attend Saint Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli, then affiliated with the University of Madras, from where he graduated inphysics in 1954. Towards the end of the course, he was not enthusiastic about the subject and would later regret the four years he studied it. He moved to Madras in 1955 to study aerospace engineering in Madras Institute of Technology. While Kalam was working on a senior class project, the Dean was dissatisfied with his lack of progress and threatened to revoke his scholarship unless the project was finished within the next three days. Kalam met the deadline, impressing the Dean, who later said to him, "I was putting you under stress and asking you to meet a difficult deadline". He narrowly missed achieving his dream of becoming a fighter pilot, as he placed ninth in qualifiers, and only eight positions were available in the IAF.

^Death

On the evening of 27 July 2015, Kalam collapsed at around 6:30 p.m. while delivering a lecture on "The Livable Planet Earth" at the Indian Institute of Management Shillong. He was rushed to Bethania Hospital in a critical condition and was placed in the intensive care unit, but was confirmed dead of a massive cardiac arrest more than two hours later. Kalam would have turned 84 in October 2015.

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