It was very sad the former President of India Dr Abdul Kalam died suddenly at the age of 83 at Shillong and his death was totally ignored by Sonia Gandhi and the Congress party. Sonia Gandhi did not like him because he took independent decisions when he was the President of India.
Dr. Kalam was born in Rameshwaram in Tamilnadu in a poor Muslim family. Even though he was a Muslim he was fascinated by Hindu religion and Hindu scripts. He was more of a Hindu than a Muslim. He was a pure vegetarian and liked only South Indian food. He did not smoke or drink. He used go to temple close to his residence regularly in the evening to discuss about Hindu philosophy with temple priests. He also learnt veena and played rudra veena, a special type of veena. He had been to Swami Narayan temple in Britain to give lectures. He had a Nataraja statue at his front room.
Since he was more secular and his way of life tended to be towards South Indian Hindu , he was not respected in the North. It is sad no proper coverage was given to his funeral in Indian T.V channels . He was more popular than Mother Teressa. There are several institutions are named after Rajiv Gandhi but not even one is named after Dr. Kalam. He did not get proper recognition Probably because he came from the South and did not identify himself with the congress party or with fundamental Muslims. His loss was very much felt only in the South and not in Delhi.
Arun Vaidyanathan
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