On Last day of 2011, I met Dr A P J Abdul Kalam

2011 is coming to an end and 2012 is about to start. Like all new years I was thinking what special thing can I do – usually it means going to “cool” parties & hanging out with my friends. But this year, I didn’t have anything planned as I didn’t want to do anything. As nothing ever goes according to plans; so my “plan” of “no plan” flopped. Instead, on last day 2011 - 31 December, I met A. P. J. Abdul Kalam who was 11th president of india.

Long story short, he came to our college and addressed us, so I saw & hear him speak right in front of me. first thing I noticed he just another human being like us who gets annoyed when his hair get messed & starts combing them right on stage in front of everyone! :P

But there is few things I noticed though observing his actions,body language & works, I want to share

• Dreamer: He likes to dream BIG & says “Dream BIG, Aim High. Aiming small is a crime.”.His final dream is to see India as a Developed Nation. Hence the reason that even after writing multiple books about India’s development, he still is coming out with a new Book – Target 3 Billion. I don’t know if India will become a developed country but I suspect Kalam will keep coming out with more such books. I guess he enjoys writing

• On a Mission: While addressing the crowd, he told that last week he was in a village near Cochin, Kerala. before that he was in Delhi & looking at this last year’s schedule. It seems he travels a lot. keep in mind that these are voluntary as his current job is of a professor/dean. the question is – a) Does he travel this much because he likes to meet people? or b) He is on a self initiated mission & that mission requires him to travel so much & meet all kinds of people? Don’t know what case it is but seems there is a bigger motive.

• Frank: He was the president of our country, one might expect him to be bit reserved & not speak freely but he is frank & to the point. Kalam says whatever he has in mind. for example, when a question when stretched too long – he simply said “woman, you are giving a lecture!” which shows that he is frank even with people that he hasn’t met before; seedhi baat no bakwas!

• Less Religion & More Spirituality: During the interaction session, a question was asked related to shia vs sunni sects(not sure exactly what it was, as the ascent of the girl asking the difficult to gasp). Anyways, the muslim girl belonging to the some gulf country who asked the question did mention in her question that kalam is a muslin. Unlike other questions where he took keen interest & in this case his facial expression were that of a “disinterested” person & stated that his name is arabic. And while he always interested in talking about spirituality in his books, talk etc. It seems that he is not interested in the whole Caste System or religion thing which is a good thing if you ask me! btw, do remember I said he looked disinterested. But any of his actions it didn’t seem that he hated any religion or loved another. I got an impression that he was more interested in other topics.

• More abstractions, less practicability: Dr Kalam talks meta - instead of giving straightforward answers, he likes to go deep. For example, when a boy asks him a simple questions – How to be confident? instead of providing him a straight answer, he recites him some poem. And during our interaction, he talked so deep that many of my friends were bored to death which is something he should consider improving on. However, I being a deep thinker myself like going deep - so I enjoyed his talk & was able to understand gist of what he said.

• Likes Poetry: Kalam likes Poetry so much that he even made us recite few lines along with him. It was bit silly but was fun :D

• Political system is broken: Like everyone, he too knows that indian politicians are all corrupt, care about their personnel wealth than nations progress. Basically,the whole system is broken. That’s why he even encouraged all the students to join politics. But Mr Kalam, Thanks but no thanks :)

Further, I will share 4 thing that he said are needed if someone wants to achieve success:

1. Aim High

2. Do Hard work

3. Continuously gaining knowledge throughout your life by books or teachers.

4. Perseverance: Steady persistence in a course of action, apurpose, a state

lastly, I am not too sure about accuracy & there may be errors in my observations, mostly because I little distracted & did lot of bird-watching…lol! But In all seriousness, I do appreciate the work kalam has done & is still doing for the country. He seemed quite patriotic. It was a nice experience to the 11th president of India on last day of 2011!

Hopefully, people will draw inspiration from him/his work & embark on struggle to make India a developed country!

Wish you Happy New Year 2012!

[Update] Corrected 4 mantras for success, Thanks Preeti