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The mortal remains of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam were on Wednesday flown to his hometown Rameswaram from New Delhi in a special aircraft.

The special aircraft took off from the Palam airport at 08:15 a.m. after all three forces gave a sendoff to the former Head of the state. Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and senior BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain were present at the airport. Wrapped in the tri-colour, Kalam’s body was taken to the airport in a gun carriage from his 10 Rajaji Marg residence at 7 a.m., as officials and commoners bid farewell to the man, whose life inspired countless Indians.

Mr. Naidu and Mr. Parrikar are accompanying the mortal remains of Kalam to Rameswaram. Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan, who is from Tamil Nadu, will also join the two Union ministers.

Our correspondent Sundar Subbiah reports from Rameswaram:

Tri-services personnel are present at helipad in Mandapam, where the mortal remains of Kalam will be received. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will be receiving the body at the Mandapam Helipad.

Kalam’s body will be kept at an open ground near Rameswaram bus stand, for public viewing.

TN declares public holiday on Thursday

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday said she won’t attend the funeral of former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in Rameswaram on Thursday owing to “health condition”.

“I have great affection and respect for Abdul Kalam. I would like to attend his funeral and pay my respects to him. However, owing to my health condition I am not in a position to travel,” she said

As a mark of respect for Kalam, Thursday would be a public holiday in Tamil Nadu. State Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said following a request from Kalam’s family, government land had been allotted for burying the mortal remains of the former president.

Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam, Electricity Minister Natham R. Viswanathan, Housing Minister R. Vaithilingam and several other ministers will attend the funeral on behalf of the Tamil Nadu government.

The district administration of Rameswaram has selected three places for the funeral and would finalise a place after consulting A. P. J. M. Maraikayar, elder brother of Mr. Kalam and other family members, official sources said.

Three places – a government land at Meyyampuli, near Thangachimadam; a forest land at Natarajapuram near Danushkodi; and a private land of Abil Kabil Dargah have been shortlisted, the sources said.

Kalam’s Twitter account renamed ‘In memory of Dr Kalam’

Although former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is no more, his Twitter account will continue to be active in a new form.

A team of his close associates has decided to run his official Twitter account, which has now been renamed as ‘In memory of Dr Kalam’. Kalam’s close aide Srijan Pal Singh will act as the administrator of this Twitter account.

’He was always the same Kalam I knew from our college days’

T. Sampath Kumar, a room-mate of Kalam, when he was doing his undergraduation from St. Joseph’s College, Tiruchi, recalls he six-decade friendship with the former President. Read more

Kalam Bengaluru connection

School and college students paying homage to the former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at a condolence meet in Mangaluru on Tuesday. Photo: K.S. Manjunath.

With numerous research centres and educational institutes, Bengaluru was never far in the calendar of late A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

In an unassuming apartment complex for Central government employees besides the Airport Road in Yelahanka, the Bharat Ratna winner owned one of the 603 flats. His grandneice Roja lives there now. 

Sri Lanka shares a special relationship with Kalam

T. Ramakrishnan reports from Colombo

The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, shared a special relationship with Sri Lanka. It was not just about the overwhelming response he got from young students here.

Kalam visited Colombo exactly a month before his death. “Sri Lanka is not new to me,” he had told a large gathering of school students at the Bandaranaike Memorial Conference Hall. He recalled how, as a college student in the 1950s, he had visited Anuradhapura often as his maternal uncle lived there.

’He treated us like family’

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

Protocol and procedure are sacrosanct in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, but Dr. Kalam was the unassuming boss, who never made demands. Satish Kumar, who served as Kalam’s butler for five years in Rashtrapati Bhavan, share stories of his generosity and modesty.

Simplicity was his hallmark

S. Vijay Kumar

When Kalam was the President, only once did his family visit Delhi. They travelled in a sleeper class coach from Madurai and a government bus picked them up at the railway station. Senior scientist V. Ponraj remembers the humane face of Kalam that was never publicised.

Dr. Kalam College

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar declared that a new agriculture college in Kishanganj would be named after him.

The driving force behind stent and lightweight callipers

The light weight callipers and the Kalam-Raju stent, perhaps country’s first fully indigenised and affordable stent for heart patients, were the two innovations dear to Dr.Kalam. Dr. L. Narendranath on how Kalam made affordable lightweight callipers to the polio-stricken. 

Timeline

• » 1931: Born Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam on October 15, in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu.
• » 1954: Graduates in Physics from Saint Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappalli, in 1954.
• » 1960: Gains degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Madras Institute of Technology.
• » 1969: Transferred to ISRO from the DRDO.
• » 1980: India enters the space club by putting the Rohini satellite in the near earth orbit with the first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III), developed under the stewardship of Dr. Kalam.
• » 1980s-1990s: As the chief of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, he was responsible for the development and operationalisation of AGNI and PRITHVI Missiles.
• » 1992-1999: works as Chief Scientific Advisor to the PM and Secretary of the DRDO.
• » 1998: India conducts the Pokhran II nuclear tests in May with Dr. Kalam as the chief project coordinator.
• » 1999-2001: Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India.
• » 2002-2007: President of India