In memory of Bharat Ratna Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam on his first death anniversary, our school started assembly with 2 minutes silence to pay our respect to our Hero.Then the life history of him is read and followed by a poem about kalam in Tamil.
Here we share the contents published in The times of India about Our Kalam from the site
On this day, last year, APJ Abdul Kalam was delivering a lecture at the IIM-Shillong when he collapsed and died in a hospital shortly afterwards. On this day, we remember the People's President and his exemplary life. Here are a few lesser known facts about him:
1.
Muslim by religion, he was a secularist at heart. Kalam used to read both Quran and Bhagvad Gita.
2.
He never owned a television. His personal possessions included his books, a veena, some articles of clothing, a CD player and a laptop.
3.
Wheeler Island, a national missile test site in the state of Odisha, was renamed Abdul Kalam Island in September 2015.
4.
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, also known as the People's President and our Missile Man, won Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and the highest civilian award — Bharat Ratna. Recipient of honorary doctorates from 40 universities worldwide, Kalam has also authored around 15 books.
5.
After graduating from Madras Institute of Technology in aeronautical engineering, he started working with DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organization). He designed helicopters for the Indian Army.
6.
He worked under country's most renowned space scientist Vikram Sarabhai. Kalam also visited NASA in the year 1963 after which he went on to develop Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and SLV-III projects, both of which proved to be successful.
7.
He played an instrumental role in the Pokhran-II nuclear tests and emerged as the leading nuclear scientist of the nation
8.
He was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister from 1992-1999. The Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted during this period in which he played an intensive political and technological role.
9.
Kalam acted on only one mercy plea in his five-year tenure as president.
10.
One of India's best known scientists, Kalam was full of ideas on how to solve India's problems such as bridging the rural-urban divide through his pet concept of PURA (Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas) — for empowering villages — and also to use solar power in a big way to tide over India's energy needs.
11.
Kalam had drawn up an elaborate plan to power Rashtrapati Bhavan with solar power, but his term ended before he could implement it. He believed that besides solar, India should also go in for nuclear energy and also biofuels from jatropha plant and algae.
12.
He was the man behind the operationalization of AGNI and PRITHVI missiles
13.
He was the first vegetarian bachelor to occupy the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
14.
In the end, Kalam would be remembered as a commoner who demystified the rarefied ramparts of Rashtrapati Bhavan. A man whose love of children, his close interactions with them at functions, and his exertions that they take up science research, contrasted starkly with the 'ceremonial', 'uptight' souls who came before him.
