“Dream is not
that which you see while sleeping it is something that does not let you sleep”.
Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam was the most
discerning visionary India has ever seen. He rose from an insubstantial
household in Rameswaram to be the ineluctable element of space, defense,
legislature and education enterprise in India. One of the few scholars
hand-picked and mentored by the father of Indian space programs, Dr. Vikram
Sarabhai, he played the most crucial role in materializing Satellite Launching
Vehicle-III (SLV-III), Polar Satellite Launching Vehicle (PSLV), ballistic
missiles Agni and Prithvi, Pokhran-II nuclear tests raising India’s glory to
unfathomable scale. He adored his life with simplicity even when accolades
poured in from all over the world including thirty honorary doctorates and
Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of the Republic of India.
Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology
had the honor to interact with Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam twice. Back in 2002, when
the institution just flourished out from its incubator and started its
independent journey in the new campus at Jagathy (where the Campus I: RGCB
Discovery Research now exists), the then President of India, Dr. Kalam
dedicated the institution and its facilities to the nation. It was a moment of
great honor to the founders and scientists of RGCB. The visionary in him
emphasized the need for “fully exploiting the rich biodiversity that the
country was endowed with for the benefit of people.” He urged the scientists to
“explore the possibilities of utilizing the indigenous knowledge in Indian
traditional medicine” to produce more marketable drugs. Looking at the
scientific profile of the institution, he called for untiring perseverance from
biotechnology researchers to never stop their efforts at discovering and patenting
therapeutic molecules but carry it forward to convert these molecules into
drugs beneficial to mankind.
Taking his words in its true sense, it
was with immense pride that RGCB welcomed him again in December 2005 for inaugurating
the international symposium on “Translational Research: Apoptosis and Cancer”.
It was the day after the Principal Investigators confirmed the positive results
of a clinical trial to reduce radiation mucositis with a herbal mouthwash
developed by RGCB and the Regional Cancer Centre. Professor M Radhakrishna
Pillai, Director of RGCB reminisced the day when Dr. Kalam addressed the
gathering at MR Das Hall in RGCB, “He spoke to us not as the ace scientist, not
as the President of India but as a common man with fears and apprehensions about
the deadly disease of cancer, emphasizing the necessity for a wholesome
physiological and psychological approach to addressing this disease.” Calling
for an initiative to uplift translational research through a consortium of
research institution-industry- hospital, he put forth the dire need for
Biotechnology discipline in India to rise up and provide affordable and
accessible therapeutics to millions of Indians. “Ignoring the repeated cues
from his aide-de-camp about running late and his forthcoming engagements of the
day, he stayed back to directly interact with the more than three hundred
students and scientists who gathered excitedly to meet him and talked
vivaciously about his personal and professional lives and his visions and
aspirations about India”, Professor Pillai shared his excitement with RGCB blog. Humility is the hallmark of
greatness. “Professor Pillai, could you please grab me a chair as it is
difficult for me to sit on the floor with my bad backache?” he reluctantly
requested seeing the hundreds of students sitting on the floor of RGCB atrium
waiting to interact with him
.
Today, as the nation mourns the loss
of one of our greatest leaders, RGCB salutes Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the man who taught
India to dream high, to be courageous to think different, to be creative to
invent, to be righteous at heart to share knowledge, to be an ideal citizen, to
be an unrelenting seeker of cognizance.
