All the Indians considers Dr Kalam as their ideal. What inspired you the most about him?

His simplicity and honesty. He was a straightforwards person. There was no aspect of him that you could not understand. He was a very simple, humble and transparent person. His honesty was reflected in everything he did -  work, routine, or making big decisions. He was a very active President.

His being active meant that he did not unnecessarily create any problems for the government. But when it came to taking his decisions as President always used to test it on the basis of the Constitution. He did not come under the influence of the government. He was President in both the governments of the NDA (2002 to 2004) and the UPA. He had worked with Prime Ministers Vajpayee Ji and Manmohan Singh ji. But he took independent decisions during the tenure of both governments.

We have read that when Kalam came to Rashtrapati Bhavan, he had come with only two suitcases.

Exactly. When Kalam became the President, he was Professor Emeritus at Anna University, Chennai. When his term as Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee ended, his rank was equivalent to that of a cabinet minister. When his term ended, he went to Anna University, where a special post of Professor Emeritus was created for him.

When all the political parties had decided to make him the President and the call from PMO were made to him, he was taking the class. The PMO contacted the Vice-Chancellor of Anna University. Dr Kalam sent a message that he will call back after his class was over.

He stayed in the guest house of Anna University. In Delhi too he lived in the guest house of DRDO in Asiad Village.

He would say that all his life he did not live in a house, nor did he buy one. When he was in ISRO, he lived in ISRO's guest house in Thiruvananthapuram; when he went to Missile Development Lab in Hyderabad, he started living in DRDO's guest house there. Since he had no family he did not have any belongings. I have never seen a person who does not have any belongings or material possessions. He didn't have a house, shop, plot, or a TV fridge.

He had some clothes in the name of the stuff. He possessed very few clothes till he became the President. Thereafter, he had to get many suits tailored. His only possession was his books.

When he became the President the Military office in Rashtrapati Bhavan approached him to make a choice of trucks that would carry his luggage from the DRDO guest house to his official residence. He told them he owns two suitcases and that can go with him in his car. He told them to pack his book and carry them with care.

S M Khan

Before relinquishing his office he told the audience at a function at the India Islamic Cultural Center that he had come to Rashtrapati Bhavan with two suitcases and he will leave with the same.

He told that his books have definitely increased in five years, and I will take those books with me if allowed.

 In his career, Kalam sahib took only two holidays. What holiday was that?

Once it was the wedding of his niece; he had promised his sister that he would come for it. In those days he was very busy in the missile development program.

Those days R. Venkataraman was the defence minister and Kalam was scheduled to meet him for discussing the fund shortage for the missile development program. The meeting was scheduled around the wedding. Since the meeting was very important for Kalam and he had decided to give the wedding a miss. Venkataraman sahib came to know about Kalam sahib's leave application for going to Rameswaram and here he was coming to meet him on the same day. So he made arrangements to send Kalam sahib in an aircraft in which the officers were going to Madurai for some work.

So those holidays became very famous for him.

As a President, one gets many gifts. What did Kalam do with them?

Of course, the President gets a lot of gifts. There are many of them that people give personally to the President. Some gifts are like official mementoes. I remember that after becoming the President, his first visit was to Gujarat on 12th August when Narendra Modi was the chief minister. The state had been through unfortunate riots and also a terrible earthquake in the month of January.

Because of these factors, Kalam Saheb said that his first visit outside will be to Gujarat so that he will see the restoration of normalcy in both cases. So Kalam sahib reached Gujarat.

In such a grim situation there was no issue of giving gifts etc. His second visit was to Bhopal (Sept 5) where he had gone to meet the people affected by the Union Carbide gas leak in 1984.

It was Teacher's Day and the Madhya Pradesh government had made arrangements to give some gifts to him. He persuaded the Chief Minister not to give him any personal gift. However, President has to accept the gifts during his visits to other countries. So he got a circular issued that during his tours, neither the President nor his team should be given any gifts.

So whatever gift he got for government purposes, he used to deposit it in Rashtrapati Bhavan and did not keep any.

When Pervez Musharraf came in 2005, everyone told Kalam sahib that he would talk on Kashmir but Kalam sahib gave a 30-minute lecture to Musharraf. What happened that?

I was also present there. I have also described this incident in my book The People's President: APJ Abdul Kalam. It was expected that meeting that Musharraf would raise the issue of Kashmir. So Kalam sahib said in the very beginning, Musharraf sahib, we will not talk about Kashmir or any such issue. Because the issue of Kashmir will not be resolved in half an hour.

I am interested in removing the poverty of India and Pakistan. Both countries have the same problem, poverty. I have prepared a PowerPoint presentation on how together we can fight poverty.

So for the next half an hour, Kalam sahib showed him slides on how poverty can be removed. Musharraf then said that it is a good idea to have a scientific president. While going Musharraf took the copy of that PPT.

There is an incident that when Kalam went to Kerala his guests were a cobbler and a Dhaba owner. Is it true?

His whole life has been spent in the guest house. So those days when he was posted in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. In fact, he has lived in Kerala for a long time and he used to say that Kerala is his second home. Initially, he was staying there in the hotel. More than a year had passed. His office was in Thumba. So he used to go from Thiruvananthapuram to Thumba. A cobbler used to sit close to his hotel and Kalam sahib often spoke to him. As Kalam sahib wore leather sandals those days it would get torn often. So he used to go to that cobbler to get it fixed. So when Kalam Saheb reached Trivandrum Raj Bhavan, he called the cobbler, who was now very old and did not work. Kalam sahib was also called the owner of the Dhaba where he used to go to eat food. Actually, Kalam sahib was very fond of South Indian food. Idli Dosa, Sambar Vada, Curd Rice. So Kalam sahib used to go to the Dhaba to eat this. So he was invited too. They were very happy to meet Kalam sahib.

Is it true that Kalam sahib had also refused to install pieces of glass on the walls of DRDO?

He had said that a person can get injured by this contraption. Therefore, a security arrangement should be made in a manner that no one is harmed knowingly or unintentionally. In the security installations, measures have been taken to run an electric current through pieces of glass or wire on the walls. He had refused all these things.

Loved birds a lot…

He also wrote the book Birds in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Rashtrapati Bhavan has a lot of birds because there is a large forest area in it and also the Mughal Garden. He himself used to hang out with the photographer to take pictures of birds. He probably also called an ornithologist from Mumbai to identify the birds in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Those bird experts were accommodated in the Rashtrapati Bhavan as a guest. He used to accompany them.

We have heard that he was very fond of music; used to play the veena..

He used to say that whenever he gets time, he played the veena. He had brought Rudra Veena along with him and also took it with him. He was very attached to Carnatic music and used to listen to it, especially MS Subbulakshmi in his spare time. And when Subbulakshmi died during his tenure, he specially went to Chennai to pay tribute to her. He liked music.

 Another interesting incident..

We can talk about Kalam sahib for hours. His connection with the students was amazing. I don't think any world leader would have had such a relationship with the students. He was 75 years old; he spoke in a  friendly and witty manner. Once a student in Sriharikota asked him that if the population of the country has increased sp much, then will we deal with it. He said, “Look I have not added to this problem. And now I will answer you on its merit and demerit.” Similarly, there was a program in Pataudi, Haryana, where a child asked that it is a very strange coincidence that both the President and the Prime Minister (Vajpayee) of the country are bachelors. So he replied in English, I am a brahmachari (celibate) too.

So in this way also sometimes he used to answer in a humorous way and kept people comfortable.

We know Kalam sahib in many roles, but which role did he like to play?

He himself answered it once: to teach. Even after retiring as the President, he continued to teach; he was associated with at least 20 universities. He passed away teaching. His death happened at IIM Shillong on July 27, 2015. I met him on July 24. We had a conversation and then he left for his evening walk. He used to follow a different time for walking on different days. That day he reached Gauhati and went on a three-hour mountainous journey.