The Newspaper Boy from Rameswaram

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 in Rameswaram, a small temple town on an island off the coast of Tamil Nadu, in southern India.

His family was not rich. His father, Jainulabdeen, owned boats and was a deeply religious man, respected in the town for his wisdom. His mother, Ashiamma, fed many people at her table besides her own family. Their house was in a lane near the great Ramanathaswamy Temple, and young Kalam grew up among Hindu and Muslim neighbours who were close friends.

The newspaper boy

When the Second World War began, times became harder. Kalam, still a boy, helped his family by working with his cousin, who distributed newspapers. Each morning, when the bundles of papers arrived by train, Kalam collected them and delivered them around the town.

He later wrote that he felt proud, for the first time, of earning money to help his family.

He was a hard-working student, though not a star. A teacher at his school, Sivasubramania Iyer, made a lasting impression on him by explaining how birds fly, taking his class to the seashore to watch them. Kalam later said that this was the moment he decided he wanted to study flight.

The dream of flying

After school, Kalam studied physics at St Joseph's College in Tiruchirappalli. Then he studied aeronautical engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology. His sister pawned her gold jewellery to help pay his fees.

His great dream was to become a fighter pilot. He went to Dehradun for the Indian Air Force selection. Eight places were available. He came ninth.

He was heartbroken. In his autobiography, he describes travelling to nearby Rishikesh afterwards, where a meeting with the spiritual teacher Swami Sivananda helped him accept the disappointment and look for a different path.

Rockets

Kalam joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation as a scientist, and in 1969 he moved to the Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO. There, he was made project director of India's first Satellite Launch Vehicle, the SLV-3.

In August 1979, the first SLV-3 rocket launch failed. The rocket crashed into the Bay of Bengal a few minutes after lift-off.

Kalam later told a story that became famous. After the failure, the head of ISRO, Professor Satish Dhawan, went to the press conference himself and took responsibility for what had gone wrong. A year later, in July 1980, the SLV-3 successfully put the Rohini satellite into orbit, making India one of a small group of nations able to launch its own satellites. This time, Professor Dhawan sent Kalam to face the press and take the credit.

Kalam said it was the most important lesson in leadership he ever learned.

The Missile Man

In the 1980s, Kalam returned to defence research and led India's programme to develop its own guided missiles, including Agni and Prithvi. He became known across the country as the "Missile Man of India". He also played a central role in India's nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1998.

He never married. He lived simply, wrote poetry, played the veena, a stringed instrument, and was famous for his love of children and students.

In 1997 he received the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.

The People's President

In 2002, Dr Kalam was elected the eleventh President of India. He served until 2007.

He opened the doors of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace, to visitors, especially children. He answered thousands of letters and emails from young people. He travelled across the country speaking at schools and colleges, asking students to dream big and work hard. People called him "the People's President".

After his term ended, he returned to teaching, lecturing at universities across India and abroad.

The last lecture

On 27 July 2015, Dr Kalam was giving a lecture to students at the Indian Institute of Management in Shillong, in north-east India. Minutes into his talk, he collapsed. He died shortly afterwards, aged eighty-three.

He died doing what he loved most: teaching young people.

His birthday, 15 October, is celebrated in his home state of Tamil Nadu as Youth Renaissance Day, and his books, especially Wings of Fire, have been read by millions of young Indians.

Want to read more?

Wings of Fire, written with Arun Tiwari, tells Dr Kalam's life story up to 1992 in his own warm, simple words. My Journey is a shorter collection of memories from his childhood and career, written especially for young readers.