For the Grace of the Almighty only , My Mother . Your strong piety is your children ’ s strength , You always shared your best with whoever needed the most , You always gave , and gave with faith in Him . I still remember the day when I was ten , Sleeping on your lap to the envy of my elder brothers and sisters It was full moon night , my world only you knew Mother ! My Mother ! When at midnight I woke with tears falling on my knee You knew the pain of your child , My Mother . Your caring hands , tenderly removing the pain Your love , your care , your faith gave me strength To face the world without fear and with His strength . We will meet again on the great Judgement Day , My Mother ! APJ Abdul Kalam Contents
Preface Acknowledgements Introduction ORIENTATION CREATION PROPITIATION CONTEMPLATION Epilogue Preface
I have worked under Dr APJ Abdul Kalam for over a decade . This might seem to disqualify me as his biographer , and I certainly had no notion of being one . One day , while speaking to him , I asked him if he had a message for young Indians . His message fascinated me . Later , I mustered the courage to ask him about his recollections so that I could pen them down before they were buried irretrievably under the sands of time .
We had a long series of sittings late into the night and early under the fading stars of dawn — all somehow stolen from his very busy schedule of eighteen hours a day . The profundity and range of his ideas mesmerized me . He had tremendous vitality and obviously received immense pleasure from the world of ideas . His conversation was not always easy to follow , but was always fresh and stimulating . There were complexities , subtleties , and intriguing metaphors and subplots in his narrative , but gradually the unfolding of his brilliant mind took the form of a continuous discourse .
When I sat down to write this book , I felt that it required greater skills than I possessed . But realising the importance of this task and regarding it an honour to have been permitted to attempt it , I prayed earnestly for the courage and calibre to complete it .
This book is written for the ordinary people of India for whom Dr Kalam has an immense affection , and of whom Dr Kalam is certainly one . He has an intuitive rapport with the humblest and simplest people , an indication of his own simplicity and innate spirituality .
For myself , writing this book has been like a pilgrimage . Through Dr Kalam , I was blessed with the revelation that the real joy of living can be found in only one way — in one ’ s communion with an eternal source of hidden knowledge within oneself — which each individual is bidden to seek and find for himself or herself . Many of you may never meet Dr Kalam in person , but I hope you will enjoy his company through this book , and that he will become your spiritual friend .
I could include in this book only a few incidents among the many narrated to me by Dr Kalam . In fact , this book