We entered his office before the crowd of visitors flooded the premise. There was tight security.

Dr.Abdul Kalam is a very fragile man of pleasant temperament. Deeply interested in Tamil development apart from his deep commitment to Indian security. In Singapore- Minister of Trade and Industry George Yeo while delivering his talk in the conference on 'Tamil in International Arena' said amidst cheers that the Indian bomb was in fact a Tamil bomb!!

Hailing from a government secondary school in Rameswaram island Dr.Abdul Kalam has raised himself to national/international level. Three among the four in the room (including myself) had similar background that in tamil medium we studied upto SSLC. Dr.Kalam showed keen interest in digitizing tamil manuscripts, an interest shared by all of us.

He congratulated our efforts at Tamil Heritage Foundation and offered his help to promote our effort.

We spent nearly 45 minutes with him. Dr.Kalam showed us a memento that he received where the following kuraL was inscribed:

வெள்ளத்தனைய மலர் நீட்டம் மாந்தர்க்கு
உள்ளத்தனைய துயர்வு.

Nobody other than him is a classical example of that kuraL. He wants to spread this message to a million students in the next 3 years. A huge task he has undertaken to inspire the young Indians for self pride and self development (=national development). He offers his entire monthly salary to help poor students to come up in life.

Dr.Abdul Kalam with his gentle nature and fragile body could do so much for the Indian nation because his spirit is high and strong.
........N.Kannan