REFLECTIONS ON LIFE AND LEGACY OF A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM - A PEOPLE'S PRESIDENT

As a visitor to the Rashtrapati Bhavan one day, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam happened to glance through the window while chatting with his host.

- RASHEED KIDWAI

He was spellbound.

There before his eyes was a panoramic view of the Mughal Gardens.

"I wish I could walk on a full moon night in the Mughal Gardens," he mumbled.

Kalam's host, then President K.R. Narayanan, was somewhat taken aback.

"You are most welcome to come here on a full moon night," Narayanan had said after a pause.

Kalam did come back months later. And he stayed for five years, an unconventional and independentminded President who had moments of uneasiness with both the NDA and the UPA regimes during his tenure from 2002 to 2007.

The former President, whose popularity outlived his stay at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, died on July 27, 2015, doing what he loved best: igniting young minds.

He was 83. He was born on October 15, 1931.

Kalam collapsed while delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Shillong on "Liveable Planet Earth" where his targeted audience was made up of 130 second-year students.

Kalam was considered the "People's President" as he did not come from a political background. In 2002, the political equations were such that neither the ruling BJP-NDA nor the Congressled opposition had enough votes to get a nominee elected. It was said that Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav toyed with the idea of Kalam as a "consensus" man for Rashtrapati Bhavan. Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, keen to strengthen his liberal image following the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat earlier that year, seized the opportunity.

The rocket scientist, credited with India's nuclear bomb and missile programme, has shared his dreams in his book, India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium.