11 years ago i am sure today, on July 27, 2015,APJ Abdul Kalam death anniversary India lost one of its most beloved public figures in a way that somehow felt fitting for the man himself. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the country’s 11th president, collapsed and died while doing exactly what he loved most, delivering a lecture to students, at the Indian Institute of Management in Shillong. He was 83.

Kalam’s own story reads almost like something out of fiction. He was born in October 1931 in the small pilgrimage town of Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, to a family with modest means. His father owned a few fishing boats that he rented out to local fishermen, and young Kalam himself worked as a newspaper vendor to help support the household. None of that early hardship stopped him from pursuing an education, and he eventually earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology. keep reading this

That engineering background led him into a career most people would not associate with a future president. Dr. Kalam joined the Defense Research and Development Organization and later the Indian Space Research Organization, where he became one of the earliest engineers behind India’s satellite launch vehicle program. Over the following decades, he became the driving force behind India’s missile development efforts and played a central role in the country’s 1998 nuclear weapons tests. That work earned him the nickname that stuck with him for the rest of his life, the Missile Man of India.

I am sure in 2002, Kalam moved from the science lab to the presidency, elected as India’s 11th head of state with support from across the political spectrum, an unusual feat in itself. What made his presidency stand out wasn’t policy so much as personality. He kept up his habit of engaging directly with students throughout his five years in office, famously saying he wanted to be remembered simply as a teacher. That reputation earned him a nickname that arguably meant more to him than “Missile Man” ever did: the People’s President.

He did not slow down after leaving office in 2007. Dr kalam went right back to teaching and writing, and he was still doing exactly that on the day he died, mid lecture, discussing ways to build a livable planet with a room full of engineering students. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called his death a great loss to the scientific community, saying Kalam had shown the country the way forward. The government declared seven days of national mourning, and tributes poured in from across Indian society, including from cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar.

Kalam received some of India’s highest civilian honors during his lifetime, including the Bharat Ratna in 1997, the country’s top award. But it’s his words, more than his medals, that continue to circulate widely even now. One line in particular still gets quoted constantly: his description of a dream as something that doesn’t let you sleep, rather than something you simply see while sleeping.

Eleven years after his death, Kalam’s legacy sits in an unusual space for a former head of state, remembered less for any single policy achievement and more as a symbol of what education, curiosity, and humility can add up to over one lifetime. For a man who spent his final moments doing the thing he loved most, that legacy feels like exactly what he would have wanted.

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