A 74-year-old youth icon!

By Murli

Whoever you are, wherever you come from, and whatever your age, it must have happened to you, sometime or the other. You must have felt that it's all over. You are ruined. Everything is lost. The environment is arraigned against you. The system is hopeless, formless and faceless. Reality is too dark, cruel, and too stark. Where are the real life heroes who have prevailed - successfully - at this universal, omniscient, all-powerful force?

That, in a nutshell, is Sri Abdul Kalam. It's rather crude to describe him as the country's Hero No. One. But that's precisely what he has been throughout his extraordinary life. Quite simply, No. 1 - as student, teacher, scientist, President, and as a supreme inspirational figure to the people of this country.

From the moment he stepped on the hallowed precincts of Rashtrapati Bhawan, Dr Kalam's life history has come under the world's biggest scanner. Every single event of his life - significant and otherwise - is now in the public domain, and so it is repeating the familiar to speak of his remarkable journey as a newspaper vendor to Delhi as the country's First Citizen.

All great men are unique, but why does Dr Kalam stand out even among such rarified giants? Because, he showed, not through mouthing platitudes, philosophy or punditry, but through his life, that you don't have to be born with a silver spoon to dream big, that you don't have to be supremely gifted to achieve the impossible, and that even a newspaper vendor can go on to become President.

Sri Kalam is many things to many people, and has essayed many a role to perfection. Indeed, his life is more than the sum of its parts.

As a young man, he dreamed of flying fighter aircraft. As educator, he has influenced millions of students. As missile scientist, he sent satellites into space, and designed India's nuclear bomb. As connoisseur of music, he can play the veena and is an accomplished composer of Carnatic music. As President, he has won encomiums from all quarters and has been hailed as a People's President.