Goodbye Mr. President and Welcome Madam President

By Vijay Kumar

The most popular President ever, APJ Abdul Kalam is leaving office today. He was actually a sarkari scientist with a weird hair style, but in the last five years, he became the most popular President India ever had reaching out to the maximum number of people whose first servant he was.

Dr Kalam is the first President to visit the LoC in Jammu and inspect the border fencing.

Seventy-four-year-old A.P.J. Abdul Kalam flew in a Sukhoi-30 fighter plane, becoming the first President to make a sortie in a combat aircraft.

A P J Abdul Kalam has several feats to his name, like being the first president to make a submarine sortie, but probably none as daring as a night-time flight from Aizawl airport that took off after the runway was illuminated with lanterns and torches!

This occurred one evening in 2005 when the President had completed all official engagements at Mizoram and was scheduled to leave the next morning. But a restless Kalam decided to take off for Delhi during the night.

The local IAF station's head informed there were no facilities for taking off from the airport at night. However, a dissatisfied Kalamretorted: "What if there is an emergency; Do you wait for morning?

The president's aides went to the IAF official and conveyed the message of Kalam, who is also the supreme commander of the armed forces.

Finally, Kalam had his way and IAF personnel lit up the runway with the help of lanterns, flaming torches and bonfires to facilitate the take-off.

The aides accompanying the President too were concerned about his decision to fly at night from an airport that had only basic equipment and privately asked IAF officials whether such a flight would be safe. The answer "you can take off but there may be some problems if you have to return".

A P J Abdul Kalam made a historic visit to the Siachen glacier, becoming the first President to visit the world's highest battle ground.

Employees of RashtrapatiBhavan have a special affection for President Abdul Kalam. He is the first president to be concerned with the rear portion of the RashtrapatiBhavan estate where the junior staff live rather than just concentrating on the grand ceremonial front entrance. Kalam has initiated tree planting, allotted land for children's parks, constructed new pavements and renovated or re-built flats for the lower division and upper division clerks.

President A P J Abdul Kalam, became the first President to address the Indian Science Congress in its 90-year existence.

I once took a young girl to one of his meetings. The girl asked me, "why did you take me to such a boring shallow speech?" The speech was indeed boring - a Vajpayee or an Advani would have certainly impressed more. But here was a humble man who had no stakes and who incidentally was holding the highest office in the country. Just look at the man in the picture, sitting on the floor with two journalists sitting on chairs. If our babus had a fraction of his humility, the governance would have been much better!