Meeting Kalam was luckiest day of my life: RSC director VS Ramachandran

Kozhikode: “I was my way to Mumbai from Kozhikode on Jet Airways. Before I boarded the flight, I got a message from my friend in the airways saying my seat was upgraded and I was going to fly sitting next to Dr A.P.J Abdul Kalam. I think that was the luckiest day of my life,” recollected Regional Science Centre and Planetarium Director V.S Ramachandran on the trip he had with Dr Kalam in 2009.

“For almost one and half hours we were sitting together on the flight and he was talking about space science, ISRO and his experiences whereas I was just a mere listener of the great man, who adorned the post of President of the Republic,” he added.

Ramachandran remembered that Dr Kalam was equally witty in his conversation. “He joked saying that he had worked as a newspaper boy and tried different angles to put newspapers and that probably was the basis of his title ‘Missile Man’,” he says.

“Again in 2012, I got the opportunity to listen to him during the inauguration of the Planetarium at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. However, we missed a chance because we were not able to invite him to the RSC Kozhikode,” he added. The RSC is planning to organise a commemoration programme in the coming days.