"If youth have to sing the song of India, India should become a developed country which is free from poverty, illiteracy and un-employment and is buoyant with economic prosperity, national security and internal harmony. To create this transformation we all have to resolve ourselves to work and sweat for the national development."
He was merely putting forth the vision and resolve he has shown over the years to help India become a strong and secure country, slowly but surely.

Born on 15 October 1931 at Dhanushkodi in the Rameswaram district of Tamil Nadu, Dr Kalam’s father had to rent boats out to fishermen to pay this genius’ school fees. He received secondary education at the Schwartz School, a missionary institute in Ramanathapuram, and later joined the St. Joseph’s College at Tiruchirapalli, where he graduated with a Bachelor in Science. He went on to study Aeronautical engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology.

Even though a devout Muslim, his favourite pastimes include reading Hindu scriptures like the Bhagvad Gita, plucking the veena and writing poetry in Tamil, his first language. Unlike other great Indian Scientists, he was neither educated abroad, nor was his family financially very strong to support his academic pursuits.

Branded as '200 percent Indian' by his colleagues and acquaintances, ‘India’s Missile Man’, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam has done the country proud on many fronts.

"Do things yourself. Do not indulge in short-cuts by importing equipment", he thundered after the famed Pokhran-2 nuclear blasts in 1998. A strong advocate of this philosophy, he distributed newspapers at a young age to help with household expenses.

Thoroughly Indian, the only brief exposure that he got abroad was in 1963-64 when he was invited by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to spend four months in the United States at the Wallops Island Rocketry Centre and the Langley Research Centre.
Dr Kalam joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in 1958 and in his forty-year career as a scientist, achieved many milestones. He later joined the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) where he succeeded in putting the 35-kg Rohini-I satellite on a low-earth orbit with help of the SLV-III (Satellite Launch Vehicle). After spending 19 fruitful years in ISRO, he returned to DRDO to head the country’s integrated Missile Development Programme, which culminated in the successful launch of the Agni and Prithvi missiles.
A great humanitarian, he extended his knowledge of space technology and mechanisms to help disabled children, replacing their 3-kg metal supporters with very light braces made of carbon, which weigh just 300 grams.

A vegetarian and a teetotaller, Dr Kalam recites the Quran and the Bhagvad Gita with equal ease. A confirmed bachelor, his modesty is evident from the fact that he gives all the credit to his colleagues.

Totally dedicated to the development of the nation, he has been felicitated with many national awards. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1981, the Padma Vibhushan in 1990 and the HK Firodia Award for excellence in science and technology in 1996. More recently, he was honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 1997, the highest civilian award in India. He is also the recipient of the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration in the same year.

Dr Kalam dreams of a strong India. "We must think and act like a nation of a billion people." He is on a mission to ignite the young minds of India and regularly meets students of all ages and backgrounds all over the country, urging them to pursue their dreams and make the nation proud.