A. P. J. Abdul Kalam: from Rameswaram to rockets and Rashtrapati Bhavan

A humble beginning in Rameswaram

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 in Rameswaram, then part of the Madras Presidency. The Government of India's own profile of him, published when he became President, describes his start in life as a humble one.

He graduated in science from St. Joseph's College in Tiruchirappalli in 1954. He then went to the Madras Institute of Technology to study aeronautical engineering, finishing in 1957. The government profile calls that institute the crown jewel of technical education in southern India in the fifties.

After passing out as an aeronautical engineer, he joined the Directorate of Technical Development and Production of the Ministry of Defence. Soon after, he moved to the Indian Committee for Space Research as a rocket engineer, in the team led by Vikram Sarabhai that set up the rocket launching station at Thumba in Kerala.

India's first launch vehicle

Kalam was chosen to lead the team that designed and built SLV-3, India's first satellite launch vehicle. On 18 July 1980 it was launched successfully and placed the Rohini satellite in low earth orbit. For the first time, an Indian rocket had put an Indian satellite in space.

He later became director of launch vehicles and systems at ISRO, and the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser credits him with shaping the configuration of the PSLV, the rocket that carries many of India's satellites today.

The Missile Man

In 1982 Kalam was appointed director of the Defence Research and Development Laboratory in Hyderabad. There he led the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, which produced the Prithvi and Agni missiles. A defence journalist who covered him for the Observer Research Foundation recalled that he worked out of a room in the laboratory and had a reputation for working around the clock.

In 1992 he became scientific adviser to the Defence Minister and head of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, a post he held until 1999. He received the Padma Bhushan in 1981, the Padma Vibhushan in 1990 and the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, in 1997.

From November 1999 to November 2001 he was the first Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, in the rank of a cabinet minister. In December 2001 he left to teach at Anna University as a professor of technology and societal transformation.

The People's President

On 25 July 2002 Kalam took office as the 11th President of India and served a five-year term. He used the office to connect with ordinary people, and especially with children and students, in a way few leaders had. Many came to call him the People's President.

He wrote poetry in Tamil, played the veena and loved Carnatic music. His books, including Wings of Fire, India 2020 and Ignited Minds, were read by millions of young Indians. By the time of his presidency, twenty-eight universities had given him honorary doctorates; the count later rose to forty-eight.

On 27 July 2015 he collapsed while giving a lecture to students at IIM Shillong and died of a cardiac arrest, aged 83. A defence writer who had known him for decades called him an inspirational figure for an entire generation of Indian youth.

The skills and habits that made the difference

Everything Kalam built rested on physics and mathematics. A rocket is Newton's laws, thermodynamics and chemistry turned into metal, and he learned those subjects first as a science graduate and then as an engineer.

He also knew how to lead a team over long years. SLV-3 took most of the 1970s to build before its 1980 success, and the missile programme he ran from 1982 produced Prithvi and Agni only after years of work. His habit, remembered by those who covered him, was to stay at the laboratory and keep the team moving.

Finally, he never stopped teaching. Whether as a professor at Anna University, as President or on the day he died, he was in front of students, explaining science and asking them to dream big for the country.