It’s a personal loss for Akshita and Sudipti

KANPUR: For Akshita Pandey and Sudipti Yadav the demise of former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam is a personal loss. They fondly remember the evening of 2009, when they shared the dais with ‘Chacha Kalam’ during silver jubilee celebration of their Mercy Memorial School. The sequence of shaking hands with the Missile Man and receiving scholarship cheques are clearly etched in their mind as if it happened only yesterday.The photographs clicked on the occasion are their prized possession.
Akshita Pandey was in class III at that time but the event has left an indelible impression on her mind. “Its hard to believe that he is no more,” said Akshita, who is now in class X. “It is an irreparable loss. I am fortunate that I had a chance to meet and talk with a person like Kalam. He blessed me and inquired about my aim in life. The meeting is clearly etched in mind,” she said.
Sudipti, a class X student in 2009 is currently pursuing fourth year of MBBS from GSVM Medical College, has accepted the news of Kalam’s with a solemn promise of following the path of honesty and righteousness shown by him. “He was inspirational through out his life. Even his death is inspirational. He passed away delivering a lecture, a thing which was quite close to his heart. Even in death he has inspired us to remain committed to nation’s development.”
They said, “After the programme, he sat down with us all and asked about our dreams. He said that we are the future of the country and should work towards its development.” Both Akshita and Sudipti have safeguarded the photographs clicked on the occasion as a prized possession. “He was quite simple and easily accessible,” they said describing the persona of the former president.
For them, the meeting was “an opportunity of the life time.” Sudipti said, “I had topped in the class and he presented me with the scholarship on behalf of the school. He then discussed our future plans. He said youths are the future of the nation and asked us to live for the country. He asked us to ensure that country completed the journey from a developing to developed nation successfully.”
“A great visionary and a revolutionary who ensured a nuclear capable nation,” said Sudipti as a parting note.
Walking down the memory lane, Mercy Memorial School principal Jyo Mathew said, “Our silver jubilee celebrations began in 2008. We wanted to invite Dr Kalam as chief guest. After three failures, I got a chance to meet him in Delhi. After a mere five minute interaction, he agreed to grace the celebrations. The news made the students and teachers euphoric.”
Recalling the event, Mathews said, “The former president refused to start his address till students seated far off were made to come closer to the dais. He waited till the security staff gave in to his wish. He made students take an oath that they will act with righteousness, not take bribe, not indulge in corruption and make India a developed nation by 2020.”
Describing another incident, he said that the former president disregarded his security concerns and went into the crowd to meet class IV student Jasmine and her mother Meena. He blessed the girl and inquired about her well being. “This was his persona. He was so grounded. He was people’s president. He liked mingling with students and did the same in our school,” said the principal adding that the missile man later visited the entire campus and inquired about various facilities available.
Principal Joy Mathew said that the meeting of the school students with former President left them highly inspired. The students were on cloud nine. Even senior school teachers such as Sushma Saxena, Urmila Tomar who had completed 15 years of service were honoured by Dr Kalam himself during his over one hour long stay at the school campus, said the principal further.