Bengaluru: The former president APJ F Abdul Kalam during his interaction with the students of United International School, Hennur on Monday revealed why he has been anointed the ‘people’s president’.
“My young friends, each one of us should be unique, and the way to be unique is by adopting four qualities i.e.having a great aim in life, continuously acquiring knowledge, tremendous hard work and perseverance,” Kalam said.
Excitement and nervousness among the students, which had preceded chief guest Kalam’s arrival at the school, melted into pin-drop silence as the former president gave the student the talisman to succeed in life.
“Having small aims is a crime; and be away from people who say the word ‘impossible’. Nothing is impossible.Friends never lose hope and always have confidence, then you will fly,” Kalam told the students. He also encouraged the children to start home libraries, starting with 10 books.
Taking a cue from Kalam’s exhortations of aiming big, a girl of standard 7th of the school asked him to help her make a scale that could measure atoms. The former president offered all possible help to the budding scientist. Encouraging her he said, “A lot of attempts have been made till today. Do an in depth study on the atoms, electrons, neutrons and pro tons.”
Kalam kept a channel of communication open with the students and promised them that any emails addressed to him by them would be replied within 24 hours.
Earlier, Former President of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam inaugurated the Parikrma Festival of Science at the University of Agricultural Sciences (GKVK) – which will be held for five-days until Friday at the Indian Institute of Sciences.
Over 200 children from across 20 schools are participating in the five-day event. The festival aims to foster collaborative rather than competitive discovery among school children and help them explore the role of science in everyday life in a fun way. With the hope of creating a platform for larger discussions on science and society, the management wishes to make this an annual festival that reaches out to schools across the city.
The theme of this year’s festival is water, and the programme will have participants engaging with BWSSB authorities as well as experts and scientists like Anjum Parwez, Rajendra Singh, Ravi Narayanan among others. Other activities include a field trip to Jakkur Lake and the study of water conservation, a water audit, water quality testing, a visit to Sewage Treatment Plants and understanding waste water generation, rainwater harvesting, government laws and more.
