President Kalam's aide recalls his last moments

Srijan Pal Singh was onstage with Kalam in Shillong when he collapsed and was taken to hospital

The missile man of India and former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who became popular as 'People's President', died on Monday evening after he suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed while delivering a lecture at IIM-Shillong. 
 

Indian Parliament hailed Bharat Ratna awardee Kalam as the ‘real gem’ of the country, saying his death has taken away its ‘true son’ who became the driving force behind the country's space and missile programme.
 

Social media has been bombarded with millions of final goodbye messages and condolences. But this Facebook post by Srijan Pal Singh, an adviser to Kalam who was with him on the Shillong trip, encapsulates the final moments of the great man before he left the entire country in shock.
 

Singh was onstage with Kalam in Shillong when he collapsed and was taken to hospital.  This is what he had to say about Kalam and his last day on this earth. 
 

Kalam was worried about Gurdaspur and Parliament

Singh writes Kalam was very worried about the loss of life in the terror strike in Gurdaspur on Monday. The topic of lecture at IIM Shillong was ‘Creating a Livable Planet Earth’. And in typical Kalam style, the former President linked the terror attack to the topic, saying “It seems the man-made forces are as big a threat to the livability of earth as pollution.”

Both Kalam and Singh discussed how, if this trend of violence, pollution and reckless human action continued, humans would be forced to leave earth. “Thirty years, at this rate, maybe”, he said. “You guys must do something about it… it is going to be your future world,” Kalam told his young aide.
 

Kalam was also worried about the continuing disruptions in Parliament. “I have seen two different governments in my tenure,” he recalled. “I have seen more after that. This disruption just keeps happening. It is not right. I really need to find out a way to ensure that the parliament works on developmental politics.” 
 

He then asked Singh to prepare a surprise assignment question for the students at IIM-Shillong, which he would give them only at the end of the lecture. He wanted to them to suggest three innovative ways to make Parliament more productive and vibrant. 
 

After a while, he returned to the topic, saying “… how can ask them to give solutions if I don’t have any myself?” 

“For the next hour, we thwarted options after options, who come up with his recommendation over the issue. We wanted to include this discussion in our upcoming book ‘Advantage India’,” Singh writes.

Humility beyond imagination 
 

The man famous for his simplicity and humility proved once again during his Shillong visit why he was so loved. Singh writes that they were in a convoy of 6-7 cars. “Dr. Kalam and I were in the second car. Ahead (of) us was an open Gypsy with three soldiers in it. Two of them were sitting on either side and one lean guy was standing atop, holding his gun. One hour into the road journey, Dr. Kalam said, “Why is he standing? He will get tired. This is like punishment. Can you ask a wireless message to given that he may sit?” I had to convince him, he has been probably instructed to keep standing for better security. He did not relent. We tried radio messaging, (but) that did not work.

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam meeting the jawan who stood in the gypsy

For the next 1.5 hours of the journey, he reminded me thrice to see if I can hand signal him to sit down. Finally, realizing there is little we can do – he told me, “I want to meet him and thank him”. Later, when we landed in IIM Shillong, I went inquiring through security people and got hold of the standing guy. I took him inside and Dr. Kalam greeted him. He shook his hand, said thank you buddy. “Are you tired? Would you like something to eat? I am sorry you had to stand so long because of me”. The young lean guard, draped in black cloth, was surprised at the treatment. He lost words, just said, “Sir, aapke liye to 6 ghante bhi khade rahenge (Sir, for you I am happy to stand for even 6 hours)”. 
 

And then came the sad moment
 

Kalam did not want to be late for the lecture, either, and joked with Singh who had finished fixing the microphone on the former President. “…two minutes into the speech, sitting behind him, I heard a long pause after completing one sentence. I looked at him, he fell down,” Singh writes.
 

“We picked him up. As the doctor rushed, we tried whatever we could. I will never forget the look in his three-quarter closed eyes and I held his head with one hand and tried reviving with whatever I could. His hands clenched, curled onto my finger. There was stillness on his face and those wise eyes were motionlessly radiating wisdom. He never said a word. He did not show pain, only purpose was visible. 
 

In five minutes we were in the nearest hospital. In another few minutes the they indicated the missile man had flown away, forever. I touched his feet, one last time.”

More memories from the great man
 

Singh writes that often Kalam would ask him, “You are young, decide what will like to be remembered for?” I kept thinking of new impressive answers, till one day I gave up and resorted to tit-for-tat. I asked him back, “First you tell me, what will you like to be remembered for? President, Scientist, Writer, Missile man, India 2020, Target 3 billion…. What?” I thought I had made the question easier by giving options, but he sprang on me a surprise. “Teacher”, he said. 

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam with Srijan Pal Singh

 

“Children need to take care of their parents. It is sad that sometimes this is not happening,” he said. Then he added: “Two things. Elders must also do. Never leave wealth at your deathbed – that leaves a fighting family. Second, one is blessed is one can die working, standing tall without any long drawn ailing. Goodbyes should be short, really short.”