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 caliber to complete
it.
This book is written for the ordinary people of India
for who Dr Kalam has an immense affection, and of who 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 provides only a
thumbnail sketch of Dr Kalam's life. It is quite possible that certain
important incidents have been inadvertently dropped and that the
contribution of some individuals to the projects co-ordinated by Dr
Kalam has gone unrecorded. Since a quarter-century of professional
life separates me from Dr Kalam, some important issues might also have
remained unrecorded or have been distorted. I am solely responsible for
such shortcomings, which are, of course, completely unintentional.
Arun Tiwari
Contents
Preface (ix)
Acknowledgements (xi)
Introduction (xiii)
ORIENTATION (1)
CREATION (35)
PROPITIATION (107)
CONTEMPLATION (157)
Epilogue (179)
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