Skip to main content

A fitting Farewell

Dr. Kalam, the ever celebrate teacher of goodness passed away while doing what he does best. The best farewell that State governments across India came with was a holiday! Of course we do this to that man who reportedly said 'you have to work twice when I died'. Surprisingly the foreign-based organization that I work for stuck to Dr. Kalam's instruction, you  might think they are dedicate to money and this quote is just reason, don't boo yet; wait till this gets interesting.

 We had every little idea on what was planned for the day; I thought its going to be a regular day with bug fixes, extending functionalities and boring documentation. After mails and sync ups we got prepared for the regular work, then our business heads called for the conference that was intimated thru mail the previous day; I got excited as the conference was to be followed by free lunch, though I was partially dreadful as the lunch can every well come from Suprabha, specialist in making food poisoned dishes.

 The conference was about Dr. Kalam, on his values and ethos that we are inspired about. I was confused about how well this would work out. I was convinced that people would talk only about random whatsapp forwards and facebook post, it irritated me in a way. OMG I was called up to kick start the discussion, which is always going to be tough; I took a minute to reflect and my throat clogged as I started.
 Prototype: Nandi -the hovercraft.
Being so proud that I have observed him closely for a long time and that I wanted to make it clear that I don't want people to talk about whatsapp messages I stood up and started off by saying "I didn't knew him when he became president, I was eager and motivated that I read his autobiography which turned out to be his science journal." I highlighted his failure as a candidate for pilot and his first project "Nandi - the hovercraft" which was shelved after prototype and concluded that he accepted failure but it didn't deter him, he kept improving and delivering.

Not a theatrical start, still it managed to convince many to say "I didn't follow him but I now", instead of I read... followed by quote from whatsapp. Everyone was engaged though none were happy, here are some from the discussion:

 "Dr. Kalam never dodged even absurd questions - Once Arnab quizzed him with politicized questions Dr.Kalam kept calm and replied "There are good politicians, there are bad politicians; next questions"; after long trial and failure Arnab switched to questions related to science and students. Similarly when a reporter asked questions related to Kodankulam Dr. Kalam asked 'Sons had anything this morning', reported said 'yes, baked eggs and bread', Dr. Kalam continued 'Breakfast is important for the day, its good you didn't miss it' and moved on."

 "He is a great patriot, he refused multiple offers from international organizations which would have earned him huge monetary benefits otherwise."

 "He practices what he wants to preach, that's how Dr. Kalam is different from rest of Indian leaders"

 "Leader who was never involved in politics and stuff"

 "He is a visionary man and he strongly believed that educating children is utmost important"

 "He announced he'd want o meet more than 2 lakh students at the time of assuming 'Office of the President of India'  many politicized the announcement and now they are silenced some are even praising him for what he did"

 "More than anything he wanted to be know as 'Teacher' not engineer, scientist, missile man of India or any other title that was given to him"

 "He donates his pension to students education"

 "He declined to favor anyone, not even close relatives, a strong man determined to stop nepotism in India" ( I murmured practically started by indira gandhi')

 "He bared the flight charges for his family when they came to wish him good luck while assuming office as President of India"

 "As President of India, he came with couple suitcases with dresses and books and returned with just a suitcase of books while he stayed in Rashtrapathi bhavan. (I know this is insult to the wonderful man just to draw lines, Patil used  lorries to take all the gifts that was given to her during her time as President; official it was not given to her but the President of India thought she sack'em all)

 BTW do you know his twitter account was renamed as 'Teacher Forever' after his demises https://twitter.com/APJAbdulKalam , looks they have changed it again

 Even after the conference we grouped in 4 or 5 and kept discussing about his ideas and how much India is closer to his vision. It was also announced that the days profit will be donated towards education. Felt so content and happy that we all paid a worthy tribute to such a great man that India will be in debt forever.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular this month

Puththu kovilum Putho tilesum, as they are built

Its the grand Aadi season here in Tamil Nadu wherever you go you'd be followed by awful noise from no mercy speakers masqueraded as a devotional song. Yes, this is the first post dedicated to it. Hindu is not a religion but it's idealism, a way to unite people, that's perfectly constructed by assuming separate task to every God, no single God worship. Hindus moved from nature worship to idol worship, but that doesn't mean that we don't have nature worship we have created an idol for them and continued to worship them in a different form. Snake is a beautiful reptile, I have made friend with few too... Our ancestor found the natural law, 'every living creature on earth is important for the ecosystem to be balanced'. Maybe to make sure snakes are not killed fearing their venom they made them as God too! Not just idol snakes, they are worshipped as they are at their  conquered (from rats and termite)   nest or  puthu . Puthu as it used to be in open
Post a Comment
Expand post »

Up and Close with Sudalai Madan: The Encounter

Night of 13th April all the preparations for the rituals were done in the temple, Sudalaimadan swamy was decorated with flowers, fruits and coconuts; the dedications reached above his chest. My cousin Sudalai Muthu, senior priest of the shrine reached home by late-night got blessings of his father Late Shanmugam Sundaram also previous head priest and blessed the family members in room dedicated for God, then started towards the temple. People have already gathered in huge numbers and were waiting for the Sudalaimada Swamy's arrival at Temple. Different rituals were offered by people to the Lord in order to get the blessings. As it is believed Sudaimada Swamy, the son of Lord Siva used to consume meat in Kailash for this reason he is sent to earth, where he can satisfy his earthy hunger thereby not polluting Kailash. Sree Aaladi Padmanabha Sudalaimada Swamy Temple, Kumarapuram Offering meat to Sudalaimadan is the most important and watchful event of the festival. Many devotees off
Post a Comment
Expand post »

It doesn't have to be crazy at work

It doesn't have to be crazy at work, is the book with that title. The title is almost clickbait, but the gist is printed straight up on the cover of the book; they didn't even wait for the blurb. Jason Fried, the CEO and David Heinemeier Hansson, the CTO of 37Signals (formerly Basecamp) co-authored this book. This book was gifted to me by whom I'd consider to be a mentor because he caught me working "crazy at work", it is rare to see such people who are more inclined to see you as a person instead of a number, he seemed to have taken guidelines from this book to heart, and I'd say it is a good change in this cut-throat corporate. This is yet another book discussion, it is almost as if I am picking books to only learn and not review them; I'm not a reviewer, and I do not have any affiliate account setup that will earn me commission; I'm just going to discuss the ideas that I grasp from the books I read, on to the book The book is about how crazy the wor
Post a Comment
Expand post »

The Difficulty of Being Good

This is not a book review, rather a discussion or an elaboration of what I understood from this book. The author, Gurcharan Das starts by claiming that his path to this book was rather unintentional since he was only trying to settle into his " Vanaprastha " life. He discusses the  goals of life and how every stage of life connects with many goals at the same time. Head on from chapter 1, we dive into the core of the book, "Dharma" the main goal of a good life well-lived apart from 'Moksha'. The best thing about the book is that the chapters are arranged such that Mahabharata's chronological narration is undisturbed, chapters are character-centric and thus dharma is approached from various points of view and Mr. Das never stops throwing questions at us and subtly answering them.  This book could not have come to me at a better time, I considered it non-intrusive advice from an elderly vanaprastha. The sub-text gives away the plot, almost, "The subt
Post a Comment
Expand post »

Product of Govt. aided School, but does it matter?

I started my work life in an MNC, Tier 1 IT service provider. I worked with clients directly since I was able to understand and speak their 'accent'. My second employer is an Italian bank where both my Indian and Italian colleagues praised my spoken, never mind that I almost always fail to communicate. It is funny that I picked up the accent from American sitcoms and cartoons and didn't undergo any sort of training.  I can hear you say "stop this nonsense bragging blog", I will after I manage to sell you the idea 'schooling is important, but schools or education boards are not'.  But why now? why not 2011? when I got the job and the girl? Probably that is the highest point in my life why was not be boastful then! why now? - Again I'm not boasting I'm only trying to convince myself and you, of course. This idea had its inception long back, 2007 was my first year of college I was considered to have a fairly high standard of communication skill in c
Post a Comment
Expand post »