This was an unexpected question Bharat Ratna Abdul Kalam had to face from a young student during one of his interactions with students at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan International School in Singapore in February, 2006. The then President was speechless for while with this sudden and pleasantly embarrassing query from the student.
Quickly gaining his composure, Kalam jokingly said that he wishes that all the students present there would get the right partners in their lives. All the students and the faculty broke into a loud laughter with Kalam’s reply. Kalam then said that he would not have achieved even half of what he had achieved if he married.
Born in a modest fishing village in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam went on to play a crucial role in India’s tryst with space exploration. The ‘Missile Man of India’ then turned President in 2002 and is fondly called ‘People’s President’. The legend breathed his last following a cardiac arrest during an interaction with the students at IIM Shillong, yesterday evening.