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

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...
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 »

RJ Balaji in as Vadacurry

Vadacurry is a perfect entertainment package – comedy, a romantic song, an item number, punch, villian, hero, noble cause – as we know, it is a masala movie. Movie revolves around lead male played by Jai and his immediate needs – getting Smart phone, the way he chooses to fullfill his need brings the neccesarily components to push the movie into vibration mode Director Saravana Rajan’s made the movie lighter enough to remove any sort of thrill from the movie, a team which has wide range of experience in providing laughter made this comedy-thriller into comdey-drama. The movie starts with RJ Balaji saying “my name is vadacurry, but I don’t have much to do here (ref. movie is titled as Vadacurry)”. Director gives Jai enough importance that almost any other character in the movie has little role to play, but when you leave the theater you know why its Vadacurry, without RJ Balaji movie might be rusty. Not a star cast unless you are going to consider Jei and Swathi as stars, whom I...
Post a Comment
Expand post »

Up and Close with Sudalai Madan: Warm up

Hollywood is just a movie industry for most people, but for some like me, it is the inspiration and life guide. I have watched many movies from all genres - action, thriller, comedy, drama, romance, but what I loved is a controversial subjects.  Mikael Håfström's 1408 was in my mind, when I travelled down south to my native for the holy annual festival, 'Sudalaimada Swamy Kodai'. I always keep track of what I do at what time when I'm away from home in my diary. I caught this habit after maintaining the track diary when we make the pilgrimage to Sabarimala every year. Back view of our Sudalaimada Swamy temple I travelled with Athai and Chitapa to Thirunelveli by train; festival takes place at summer, to keep his elder sister comfortable my uncle booked an AC room near Nellai railway junction we stopped by dropped luggage and refreshed. I was happy he was there, someone who can guess what will be running in my mind. We reached Kumarapuram after going to Udhayathur so...
Post a Comment
Expand post »

Old is Gold: Vaitheeswaran Koil

My parent’s Shastiapthapoorthi just happened on 8th Oct at Thirukadaiyur, Amritaghateswarar – Abirami Temple , we were so glad that all poojai took place on Nandhi mandapam. My scheduled next stop was my uncle home for virunthu . But after getting boosted with abundant spiritual aura can’t stop myself from stopping for Vaitheeswaran koil on the way, that evening along with my wife experienced the glory of good old times.   Though Vaithyanatha swamy(Lord Shiva as Lingam) is the prime deity, Muthukumaraswamy stole the day, the panchaloga figurine of Lord Murugan in the shrine. Its Urchavar as its referred here since the figure is movable and comes out of the mandapam on special occasions. We went inside temple purified ourselves with holy water in temple pond, worshiped goddess Thaiyal Nayagi then stood in front of Lord Shiva for a very long time, but no poojari-iyer dropped by I’m not sure what special occasion it is on 08-Oct-13, as we saw many move towards closed doors of parti...
Post a Comment
Expand post »