Meetin
g A P J was a memorable experience. I had never met him personally, though he was the chief guest at our convocation at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences convocation ceremony in 2013. We were awded our degrees by the then Health minister Mrs Sushma Swaraj. A P J was the President of India and was by defacto the President of the Institute. He was a extremely popular person then as he is now. He delivered his address, the most strking of what I thought was his simplicity. At the same time his zeal, enthusiasm and imagination was very inspiring.

Incidentally he was visiting to our Housing colony to meet his old friend and colleague Shri Vasant Govarikar( Ex Chief of ISRO and Scientific advisor to PM). As expected a large crowd had gathered to greet APJ. My son Ved was 11 years and was very eager to see him. We could only briefly see him and that did not satisfy my son. He qwas very much not happy that he could not talk to him. Any amount of consolation would not satisfy hi. That is when I suggested that we send A P J an email and seek an appointment to meet him.

His  secretary gave a prompt reply and then we forgot about it. A few months down the line, I got a surprise call from A P J’s office in New Delhi. I was invited to see him during this visit to Pune the same day with my family.

We got to see him for a short while though. I found him remarkably fit for his age and his hectic schedule. The moment we entered his room, he got up to greet us, again a mark of a very great human being. My son even asked him for a message and he very readily gave him in his very teacherly manner asking Ved to repeat..

Knowledge Makes you Great.