How the People's President taught the common man to dream

Things like this will never again happen in a country like ours - to have a president who would respond to an email from a urban school kid with as much earnestness as he would respond to a post card from a remote village. In the death of Dr Kalam, a dream has come to an end and India has to wake up to the harsh realities of indifferent leaders.

Dr Kalam always sought to interact with ordinary people. It was in their ordinariness that he found his best moments. Wherever he went, Dr Kalam met them with unmitigated passion of a curious child. I have met him innumerable times when he was visiting Chennai or Coimbatore. Over 50 per cent of his visitors during those occasions were unknown people from modest backgrounds. They would have dropped him an email - he would be an auto driver, a teacher from a little-known school, or simply a daily-wage labourer. With everyone of them, Dr Kalam would spend quality time. By doing so he was offering them a slice of his life. He would think about them and keep talking about them. For the most part of his entire life Dr Kalam thought about ordinary people, about whether he could bring change in their lives through what he believed in.

He was truly a people’s president.

I consider myself immensely lucky to have travelled with him. And I know he had been in constant touch with every ordinary person like me who he interacted with. Into each one of our lives, he brought light. It will continue to shine through his path.

 (As told to Kavitha Muralidharan)