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It was a cold winter night in 2003 when the convoy of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was entering Rashtrapati Bhavan. The President suddenly stepped out of his car creating some tense moments for his security personnel.

Mr. Kalam met guards of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police at the gate and wondered why they had to brave the biting cold. He ordered heaters for the security cabins and adequate warm clothes for the guards. This was just one of the many instances that reflected the humane face of Mr. Kalam but never publicised, says his close aide and senior scientist V. Ponraj.

In 2006, when Mr. Kalam addressed students of St. Xavier’s College in Palayamkottai and visited the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant and met people at the Circuit House in Madurai, there were some incidents amounting to breach of the President’s security. This led to the suspension of a few policemen. On returning to Delhi, Mr. Kalam directed the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu to drop action and revoke the suspensions.

“Simplicity was an inborn quality which he practised till the last. When he was President, the palatial Rashtrapati Bhavan would have hardly two or three rooms lit after dusk. One would be his bedroom. After a long day Mr. Kalam used to spend time listening to his favourite music on an outdated two-in-one tape-recorder,” he says.

Sometime in 2007, Mr. Ponraj recalls, a cassette got entangled in the tape recorder and the President insisted that it be repaired. “Even as we explained that it was obsolete and that he could use the latest iPod or MP3 players, he refused to budge. We found a tiny shop in Karol Bagh to repair the recorder.”

His family never was part of his privileges. 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. The family left after the three-day trip. The President’s secretariat was struck by the fact that Mr. Kalam asked the Chief Accounts Officer to prepare the bill for his family’s visit to Rashtrapati Bhavan and paid it.

“The President is entitled to many privileges. But he hardly enjoyed any ... when the presidential days came to an end, Mr. Kalam walked out with his two suitcases. His assets are the goodwill of the people and some books, nothing else,” Mr. Ponraj adds.