Inspiring moments with missile man.

On this 4th death anniversary of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam sir, I wish to share my experience of project presentation in front of him.

I had developed a project OSLE ( Optimum Speed Locking Equipment) when I was studying in +2 class and it won A grade in the state science fair.

After joining B Tech, I pitched the same idea in various competitions but it got rejected.

At that time my parents noticed a write-up in the newspaper about Innovation Scholar for In-Residence Programme at Rashtrapati Bhavan which is a scholarship that allows innovation scholars to stay in Rashtrapathi Bhavan for a week and I applied for it.

After some days I got a call from Rashtrapathi Bhavan saying that my project got shortlisted.

I got super excited as I least expected it. I started dreaming about the event and prepared well.

We reached Ahmedabad one day before the event and explored various places like Sabarmati Ashram.

Our project presentation was on January 18th.

When we skimmed through the event schedule, we got excited.

Kalam sir is visiting our projects on January 21st…!

On 21st January, when we reached IIM Ahmedabad in the morning we didn’t see any preparations for welcoming Kalam sir expect a small banner.

Suddenly a bus full of commandos arrived at our venue with the bomb squad like in a movie. They inspected the whole projects using dogs and scanners. The whole campus was under their surroundings. Suddenly a commando came near us and explained the procedures that should be followed.

He told that Kalam sir will reach the venue by 1 pm for which we should be ready by 11 am and Kalam sir will only spend about 1 minute near each project so we should quickly explain it. He also said so many other things such as there should be only one person while explaining the project etc….

Hearing those regulations I completely lost my confidence and I requested my brother to accompany me.

We were all set and waited about 3 hours for his visit. Whenever I looked around, I saw commandos with guns surrounding the venue which scared me.

At last, we heard the siren of a car.

It was him, the missile man…!

By hearing that I felt like I would faint in front of him. He started visiting our projects. There were 20 shortlisted projects.

As he came towards us, my heart beats increased but my brother gave me confidence.

At last, I presented my project in front of him. He eagerly heard my project presentation.

After my project presentation, he only said one word. “Good”

But it still remains as an inspiration to move forward with my project stories.

Even though I didn’t get the selection to the next level, those moments with him fueled my dreams.