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. He has an intuitive rapport with the humblest and simplest people, an indication of his own simplicity and innate spirituality.įor myself, writing this book has been like a pilgrimage. 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. 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. When I sat down to write this book, I felt that it required greater skills than I possessed. 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. His conversation was not always easy to follow, but was always fresh and stimulating. He had tremendous vitality and obviously received immense pleasure from the world of ideas. The profundity and range of his ideas mesmerized me. 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. 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. One day, while speaking to him, I asked him if he had a message for young Indians. This might seem to disqualify me as his biographer, and I certainly had no notion of being one.

I have worked under Dr APJ Abdul Kalam for over a decade.

Apj abdul kalam book wings of fire