A few stories of Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam that will make your day!

We still miss The Legend Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam who was also called the Missile Man of India. He was one of the brilliant scientists in the world and yet he was very humble, pure and simple man who inspired the people of India through his work and life. His name will be remembered forever in the history. There are many stories/legends about this man but a very few are mentioned below.

• The story when he confirmed that Indian Scientists got VIP treatment at the Paris Airport.

When ISRO scientists were returning from Kourou, French Guiana, after overseeing the testing of INSAT-4B communications satellite, they did not anticipated what was to follow at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. After checking their passports, the airport officers continued to escort them. Confused, the scientists asked if there was any problem when the officer said they had orders to do so.  

Source : gronow.files.wordpress.com

A senior officer then asked them to access the VIP Lounge of the Airline as their flight was scheduled after three hours. When the scientists told them that they had economy tickets, the officer informed that president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was boarding a flight from the same terminal a few hours back, and had informed them that scientists from ISRO would be using their services as there is a satellite launch. He also requested them to take care of them.

Amused, the scientists stayed in the lounge for those 3 hours and later left in their flight. In spite of his busy schedule, Dr Kalam remembered that there was a launch scheduled and that many scientists would be traveling to and from India to ensure a successful mission. 

 - Abhilash Manjunath 

• When his team worker could not take his kids to an exhibition because of hectic work, he did! 

During a hectic project, one of the 70 scientists working on it asked Dr Kalam if he could leave at 5.30 pm that evening as he had promised to take his kids to an exhibition. Dr. Kalam gave him permission. However, the scientist got busy with work only to realise that it was 8.30 pm. When he looked for his boss, he wasn't there. Guilty for having disappointed his kids, he went back home only to find that his kids weren't there. When he asked his wife where they were, she replied, "You don't know? Your manager came here at 5.15 pm and took the children to the exhibition."

When Dr. Kalam noticed him working hard at 5pm, he thought to himself that this person would not leave work, but if he had promised his children, they should definitely enjoy the exhibition. So he, the boss, took the lead and took them there! 

 -Unknown

• When he asked an Indian student to have dinner from his plate.

When some Indian students met him during the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) at San Diego, California, in 2013, they went up to his dining table to say hello. The President, who was eating dinner, asked a student to eat from his plate. Highly surprised, he took a leaf of spinach from his salad when he insisted. "Till this day I take it to be a leaf of inspiration from him and the best dinner I could ever imagine," he shared.

 - Kshitij Mall

Source : mastegg.com

• When he did not want broken glass on the walls because it could harm the birds!

While he was working on a construction project with DRDO, he asked the team what would they do to ensure security around a certain building. The team lead suggested: "Broken glass on the walls."

The former President was quick to turn down the suggestion. He said, "The birds cannot perch on the wall. Think of something else." A politician who thought about birds as much as he did about people! 

- Shreya Samesh

•  When an excited kid drew a sketch of him and he sent a thank you letter!

A Class 6 student made Kalam's sketch after reading his book, 'Wings Of Fire.' When he showed it around in the family, his family got super excited and asked him to mail it to the President. A little hesitant at first, he still did so. But little was he expecting what happened next. A couple of days later, he got a letter from the President himself! 

"I opened the prized-envelope with utmost care and took out a small note. It said 'Dear Naman Narain, Thank you for your nice drawing. With best wishes from, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam'."

Till this date I keep the card safe with me. 

 - Naman Narain

• When he gave a back bencher an internship with the Rasthrapati Bhawan. 

A batch of IIM, Indore, students were to give a presentation to Mr. Kalam in groups. Since this was a big chance to impress the President, everyone was trying hard, except this one group of so-called casual students, the back benchers. They started working 2 days before the D day. One of the students took the responsibility to format the presentation. While the content took half a day, he took 1.5 days with no sleep to add colour, formatting and animation to the slides.

Source: Cracked Apk Ipa

When the group presented the presentation, Dr. Kalam asked who did the formatting. He gave that guy a golden visiting card saying "ex-President India" printed on it and asked him to call at the office after two days. When the guy made the call, he was told that he had been chosen for an internship at his office and will be working on various presentations that he needs for the UNO.

• When he invited a cobbler as a Presidential guest.

Right after Dr. Abdul Kalam was elected as the President, he attended an event at Kerala Raj Bhavan in Trivandrum. With the power vested in him, he could have invited any two people as the Presidential guests. Guess who he called? A road side cobbler and the owner of a very small hotel. 

Source : ggbuzz.com

Dr. Kalam had spent a significant time as a scientist in Trivandrum. He invited the cobbler and the hotel owner, both of whom he was close to during his time in Kerala. 

No other politician can do this, can they?

• When he refused to sit on a chair reserved for him because it was bigger than the other chairs!

Dr. Kalam was invited as the chief guest at the convocation ceremony at IIT, Varanasi. Five chairs were put on the stage, the middle one being for Kalam and the others for the university officials. When Dr. Kalam noticed that his chair was bigger in size than the others, he refused to sit on it and politely asked the vice-chancellor to sit instead. When the chancellor did not, another chair of the same size was made available for Dr. Kalam! 

Source: Sundar Gallery

• When he asked people on Yahoo how we could free our planet from terrorism. 

Now which other politician would do that? The best part is that the who's who of the nation replied to Dr. Kalam, including Leander Paes, Kiran Bedi and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. You can see the post here. 

• When he was about to deliver a lecture to 400 students and the power went off, he took the matter in to his own hands. 

When Dr. Kalam was about to deliver a lecture at a small school, the electricity went off. Instead of panicking or waiting for it to come back, he walked right in to the middle of the crowd pointing towards the students to surround him. He went on to deliver another inspiring lecture with his bare, powerful voice! 

Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam will be remembered in the hearts of the Indian Citizens for the years to come.

Random

A video that puts all medias to shame because they think 'only Violence sells'.

Who says only violence sells? This videos defy the norm because it was shared thousands of times and shows kindness. I think this videos shows that simple act of kindness is enough to make the world a beautiful and peaceful place.

There is a Simplistic Beauty in Kindness please enjoy getting and showing kindness. Being Kind is kind of being human.

videos

What is the dark side of the Moon?

To tell the truth there is no dark side of the moon. Even though we always see the same side of the moon it doesn't mean that the other side always stays in the dark. People say to mystify the moon that 'It has the dark side which we will never see.'

'We will never see' part is true from the perspective of a person who is on earths surface but the 'Dark side' part is a pure myth. Moons other side does not always stays dark. But why we can see only one side of the moon from earth? It's because the speed at which moon rotates has led to this particular phenomenon. Millions of years ago moons rotational speed was much faster but the gravitational influence of the earth slowed it down much like moons gravity effects the tides in the ocean.

This influence led to slowed rotation period of of the moon to match that of its orbit which is 27.3 days. Lets say if the moon didn't spin at all then it would have eventually shown its other side to the earth while moving around earth in orbit. But since moons rotational period is exactly the same as the orbital period, the same portion of the moons sphere is always visible to earthlings.

The other side of the moon is referred to as the dark side because many people mistakenly thinks that the other side never receives light from the sun. And the fact is that the moon is rotating on its own axis and there is no area on our moon which is permanently dark.

nowiknow

Super Samurai of Japan!

When we think about super heroes the first thing that comes into our mind is super human abilities. There are very few persons in the world who has the gift of super human abilities. One of them is Isao Machii.

Isao Machii is a Japanese citizen and an Laido Master. Lives in Kawanishi, Hyogo, Japan. He holds many Records is Guinness World Records. Dr. Ramani Durvasula saw him cut a pellet from a BB gun in half and said these words.

"This is about processing it at an entirely different sensory level because he is not visually processing it. This is a different level of anticipatory processing. Something so procedural, something so fluid for him."

This indicates and extraordinary level of perception and reaction expected from a human. The size of pellet is less than 4.5 mm. If you want to cut this pellet on a chopping board without holding it, is a big challenge yet alone when fired from a BB gun.

Is this Genetic or honed skill, I believe he is just as human as we are but with much more determination in whatever he does. it's a honed skill through years of practice and persistence. I have to say his powers are not gift but it is an earned ability.

nowiknow

Few Amazing Architects of Nature.

Nature is filled with amazing architects with hard-wired abilities. Even if we call ourselves more advanced but the truth is we still cannot build the things which are built by these below shown animals animals. They are Amazing Architects in nature adapted themselves to nature in there unique way. Lets take a Look.

Weaver birds Nests.

They their name because of their elaborately woven nests. Many species of weavers are highly gregarious. The nesting colonies of the Weaver are among the largest bird-created structures. These colonies may contain up to 300 chambers (one per pair) and span upto 25 feet width and 5 feet height.

Termite mound in Australia. 

They were the first things that came to mind when asked this question. They grow as much as 9 meters high, and some (like this one) bear a spooky resemblance to cathedrals or Disney-fied medieval castles. Different species build distinctly different mounds.

They are elaborate nests. They often begin as tree stumps. They provide a safe shelter for the termites, and may also assist in conserving water and keeping the insects cool.

Caddisfly Larvae

Caddisfly larvae create armor to protect themselves by grabbing what ever is near by and binding around themselves using self produced silk to bind the materials together.  Some artists have taken advantage of the unique way that the larvae put together their armor and the fact that they will use anything that is around them to make it.  The artists will leave gold flakes,  turquoise, rubies, and other gems for the larvea to use and the will create what is now known as Caddisfly jewelry.

The cocooned trees in Pakistan After the floods

These Spider Webs are really fascinating. An unexpected side-effect of the flooding in the Sindh province of Pakistan has been that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape from the rising waters. Because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water has taken so long to recede, many trees have become cocooned in spiders webs.

Ant colonies

It is one of the most amazing thing created by very small creatures.

Ant colony is an underground lair of chambers connected to each other and the surface by tunnels. Worker ants build and maintain these colonies.

These colonies can span to many kilometers. In 2000, an enormous supercolony of Argentine ants was found in Southern Europe (report published in 2002). Of 33 ant populations nested along the 6,004-kilometre (3,731 mi) stretch along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts in Southern Europe, 30 belonged to one supercolony with estimated millions of nests and billions of workers, interspersed with three populations of another supercolony[Ant colony]. 

Ant Nest : 

Puffer Fish Circles

Created by 5 inch long pufferfish, this 7 foot diameter formation is designed to attract a mate and have her lay eggs in the center.

Random

When your kitchen loses its virginity...

There is nothing sexual here, I am talking about the first time when a kitchen that is being used to cook the same old kinds of food for years suddenly get to make a different type of continental delicacy even though there is an absence of proper tools and utensils for it.  You are left with confusing decisions because of it and mostly end up in a frustrating failure. Some can be downright dangerous and may cause an explosion and/or severe burns. Cooking is technically a chemical process. You are undertaking a chemical reaction. You may not get the desired results even after spending a great deal of time standing near the fire. Without proper tools and utensils, the right temperature, and pressure will not happen and the chemical reaction will not be properly initiated/maintained.

The prime example in most Indian kitchens is baking a cake. You see, traditional Indian cuisine don't require an oven, even a tandoor is seldom used. Fire top cooking is the norm. So in the absence of an oven and in constant pursuit of trying out something new, some brilliant Indian discovered a method called "cooker cakes". You pour the cake batter in the tin, place a trivet inside a cooker, place the tin above it and then proceed to how you cook rice in them, sans water. 

The process actually work pretty neat with a nicely spongy and crusty top cake. But the waterless cooking destroys the cooker on the long run. Its not designed for dry heat. It looses its shape and pressure sealing ability and may explode in the future.

A few years back, when OTGs became cheap and more energy efficient, my parents bought a smart Morphy Richards one that was pretty easy to operate and does it's job pretty well. This was followed by a few months spend on purchasing baking vessels and other equipment. I found a new interest in baking. 

In my blog language, I would say this as an upgrade rather than a rape. My kitchen lost its virginity more than a decade back when we tried making jellies from gelatin.

Religlious reasons aside, my household was a strict no no on pork and alcohol and any "exotic meats" for that matter. I realised it was all sort of a huge drama when I was 11. OK, I won't go details regarding that here.

The OTG purchase opened a whole new world of great continental cooking, most of the things I tried came out pretty well.

Then, having read everything good about Bacon, I baked some in the oven. It was the first time anything pork was being prepared in my house's 33 years of history. It was like a second rape. The house was filled with rather amazing aroma of baking pork. I had it alot, my dad ate a little but he liked it and mom didn't take even a single bite. 

I felt this event was even more serious, I felt everything in the house making a melancholic look for me breaking a tradition, since the aroma was spreading everywhere in the house. I felt the house had lost a second virginity this time.

But what the heck? Its your house and you are paying the gas and electricity bill! Let the flavors and aromas dance in the kitchen floor! Alas, all the world cuisine we know originated from someone's kitchen breaking a tradition!

Random

How to make glowsticks!!!

As most of know, glow sticks are pieces of plastic tubes that, when activated, produces light that lasts for hours. It has several applications including signalling, recreation and lighting for campers, military and police. They create negligible heat and are non-flammable and hence safe to use in virtually all types of conditions.

So geeks like us, unsatisfied by the single-usability of them, may wonder what if we could make one on our own!

The property of producing light through a chemical reaction is known as Chemiluminescence. These reactions chiefly constitute a a few chemicals and a chemiluminescent dye. The chemicals react with each other and provide energy to the dye, this in turn activates it to a quantum high energy state. Since the dye cannot remain in that state they immediately returns to its former low energy state and a photon is released in the process. This free photons is what makes the glow appearance.

Commercial glow sticks usually has a chemical called TCPO as the starter and a mix of stabilizers and bases. There are a multitude of dyes that decide what colour to be produced for the use. Finally Hydrogen peroxide initiates the reaction and immediately light is produced. Glow sticks come premixed with these chemicals inserted with a glass tube filled with hydrogen peroxide. You have to manually bend the tube to break the glass tube inside releasing hydrogen peroxide in the process and activating the reaction. That's the cracking sound you hear. Hydrogen peroxide and the rest of the chemicals have different densities so you have to break the glass tube entirely and mix the solution vigorously to produce the maximum and a uniform output. 

So can we make these glow "solutions" ourselves? The answer is: YES!!!

NurdRage has come up with a tutorial video to make these chemical solutions yourselves including the quantity of chemicals you need to purchase. Check it out:

 He has also made another video to make TCPO on your own if its unavailable in your area. 

Let me tell you that all of these are not regular household chemicals. Its practically a waste of money to buy these reagents in bulk. Hey! At least you can impress your friends in a party or something yes??? Play it safe.

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