Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam better known as A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 to a Tamil Muslim family in the pilgrimage centre of Rameswaram on Pamban Island. He was the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007 and studied physics and aerospace engineering.
His father Jainulabdeen was a boat owner and imam of a local mosque and his mother Ashiamma was a housewife. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and was intimately involved in India's civilian space programme and military missile development efforts. He thus came to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology.
He also played a pivotal organisational, technical, and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974. Kalam served as the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister and Secretary of the Defence Research and Development Organisation from July 1992 to December 1999. Kalam was elected as the 11th President of India in 2002 with the support of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
He was a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. While delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Kalam collapsed and died from an apparent cardiac arrest on 27 July 2015, aged 83. Thousands including national-level dignitaries attended the funeral ceremony held in his hometown of Rameshwaram, where he was buried with full state honours.
While climbing a flight of stairs, he experienced some discomfort, but was able to enter the auditorium after a brief rest and in only five minutes into his lecture, he collapsed. He was rushed to the nearby Bethany Hospital in a critical condition; upon arrival, he lacked a pulse or any other signs of life.
Despite being placed in the intensive care unit, Kalam was confirmed dead of a sudden cardiac arrest. His last words, to his aide Srijan Pal Singh, were reportedly: "Funny guy! Are you doing well?"
