Characteristic heroic deed full of achievements

It is said that even if ash is kept preserved properly, it may become a source of obtaining a material which is known as lac. And then utility of a material which is beneficial in many ways and may be utilized in making useful instruments despite being a waste material, if noticed and found useful by scientists, may become all the more fruitful.
Not only in our country, but in other countries also in this world, children, very unfortunately, fall prey to a disease, which is known as polio, and become handicapped. They pass the rest of their lives in sheer distress.
Though the Government of India is trying its level best to eradicate this problem through Health Departments of State and Central Governments and arranges to administer polio drops to each and every child of this country, unfortunately it has not been able to register complete success in this field. In fact this kind of physical handicap is a curse for anyone. Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches. Those who suffer understand best the plight of this kind of suffering.
The callipers used by the polio-affected children, due to being made mainly of steel and wood, used to be considerably heavy and expensive.
Dr. Kalam is a sensitive person and a scientist in true sense, and he believes in exploring the field of science and making inventions. He is a scientist and that, too, of international fame. He made this great country self-reliant in the field of space research technology and now India stands on a par with five most powerful countries in the world. Having done this and having made missiles like Prithvi, Trishul, Nag and Akash for the Indian army, he has created history in space technology. His achievements are rare and unprecedented.
It is a matter of coincidence that Dr. Abdul Kalam, while making missiles and other scientific devices for the Ministry of Defence and due to being Director of DRDL, was posted at Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh). There, in the Nizam Medical Sciences Institute, ‘Polio Callipers’ were being made of steel and wood for patients suffering from polio. It used to be heavy and buying it used to be an expensive deal for an ordinary person. Apart from being expensive it also used to weigh 4 kg. which caused a lot of problems to a person suffering from polio.
When Dr. Kalam noticed the problems being sufferd by polio patients and also its unbearable cost, a new kind of concept took birth in his mind.

Dr. Kalam in jovial mood

There is no doubt that Dr. Kalam is an extremely simple and sensitive person. He began thinking as to what could be the best possible way to help lessen the sufferings of the polio-sufferers. Ultimately a brilliant idea flashed across his mind. His attention was drawn towards the material used in the domal portion of a missile radar, which is propylene (a flammable gaseous hydrocarbon C3 H6 obtained by cracking petrolium hydrocarbons and used chiefly in organic synthesis) from carbon fibre containing thermoplastic, which remains unutilized and which could prove to be very useful in making polio callipers. He thought on all aspects of the expensive and heavy polio callipers made of wood and steel and worked out a project under the supervision of the doctors of the institute to make much cheaper and lighter polio callipers. And it was a pleasant surprise to learn that the new polio callipers were fifteen times cheaper than the earlier ones. Now the polio-sufferers can move and walk comfortably with its support. By now about 500 such polio callipers are in use.
Each of these polio callipers weighs between 300 and 400 grams, whereas the earlier ones used to weigh 4 kg. each. Dr. L. Narendra Nath, an orthopaedic surgeon in the Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, and some other doctors, are of the view that if this project is worked upon at a larger scale and the polio callipers, which provide support to legs upto the level of knees only, are extended upto thigh level, may prove to be extremely helpful to polio-sufferers.
This will need technical assistance of CPDC. Though the laboratories, making devices which concern the defence of our country, are concentrating mainly on the projects which produce such devices, but as these laboratories rendered help at the initial level in making polio callipers, it will be of great help to polio-sufferers if they pay a little more attention to it. This is what the doctors of the institute feel at present. And now since the progenitor of the idea of new kind of polio callipers, which are much cheaper and much lighter than the earlier ones, is the President of India, it becomes more necessary to pay a greater attention to it.
Based on report published in the Sunday ‘Times of India’ newspaper of 11.08.2002)
Self-confidence as against faith in God
Everyone knows that there are various kinds of religions prevalent all over the world. And at the same time, depending on different geographical circumstances and also depending on situations of different places, there exist disputes and beliefs with regard to various religions. These religions have their own histories, too. Though different religions prescribe different ways which lead to God, one thing remains undisputed, and that is the unflinching faith of people in God. Everyone tries to reach God in his own way.
The greatest scholar and philosopher, Sri Aurobindo, speaks in ‘The Ideal of Human Unity’ (p. 122) on the love of God, religion and reason—
“The love of God is an infinite and absolute feeling which does not admit of any rational limitations and does not use a language of rational worship and adoration; the delight in God is that peace and bliss which passes all understanding. The surrender to God is the surrender of the whole being to a suprarational light, will, power and love and his service takes no account of the compromises with life which the practical reason of man uses as the best part of its method in the ordinary conduct of mundane existence. Wherever religion really finds itself, wherever it opens itself to its own spirit,—there is plenty of that sort of religious practice which is halting, imperfect, half-sincere, only half-sure of itself and in which reason can get in a word,—its way is absolute and its fruits are ineffable.”
The purpose behind mentioning the above passage is that when we read the autobiography of the great scientist and ‘missile-man’, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in the light of such invaluable philosophy, we find that as soon as he got the orders to go to America for a six-month training programme at NASA, he took some time off before going abroad and went to Rameswaram—his parental house. His father was only too happy to learn about the great opportunity coming his son’s way. He took him to the mosque and organized a special Namaz in thanksgiving. Dr. Kalam could clearly feel the flow of energy from God in him through his father and returning to God—thus forming a cycle of flow of energy. Being able to reach God, too, is an example of Purushartha (the object of a man’s creation and existence).
What greater proof of devotion to God can there be than that of Dr. Kalam who realizes that a true prayer fills the heart of a person with sacred feelings. God is that great Creator who has filled the human beings with infinite energy and capabilities.

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