Coining Glory

-Soumitra Biswas

Over twenty-five years of my professional career brought me in close contact with quite a few thought leaders of our country. One such person, who deeply influenced me, has been none other than Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the 11^th. President of India. Here is an interesting anecdote of the caring and humane side of our former President.

While Dr. Kalam was the Principal Scientific Adviser to Govt. of India, he was also the head of TIFAC, a technology forecasting & development outfit, which I am involved with. After the devastating earthquake in Kutch in January 2001, our group was called upon to launch a major rehabilitation initiative by constructing temporary houses with novel materials. TIFAC rehab project comprised construction of 400 shelters & over 120 community toilets and distribution of composite artificial limbs after a customized fitment. In fact, our project was instrumental in shaping up a whole new township christened as TIFAC-Dindayal Nagar near Bhuj. From February to November 2001, Bhuj became my second home. I visited Bhuj 17 times during that time and went around the nooks & corners of Kutch for our project.

After the initial hitches of getting sufficient land for our housing project, we could start the construction in end February. We went about finalizing the design & space for an individual dwelling unit, layout of the houses & community toilets, procuring the structural, cladding & roofing materials etc. Dr. Kalam took great interest in our project and he was keeping a close watch on all our milestones. As we were nearing completion of the first two rows of 10 houses in early March, Dr. Kalam desired to visit our project site near Bhuj. We worked overnight to give the finishing touches to those houses. On 15th. March he came by the IAF helicopter and headed straight to our project site from Bhuj airport. He was visibly happy seeing the shelters constructed by us; he exchanged pleasantries with our team members and got himself photographed with the workforce. His sheer presence amongst us and his encouragement charged up the entire project team for a renewed commitment on the deliverables. He took me aside for a while and said, “Biswas, can you construct a school for the kids from your township? That would be a great service!” “I’ll surely try Sir”, I had replied.

We sat on the drawing board later and designed the classroom measuring about 500 sq. ft. We wanted to construct one such classroom out of our project funds. But thanks to the generous sponsorship by Rotary Club, Bangalore Orchards and Karnataka Hardware Merchants’ Association, we could construct two classrooms, which were adequate to start the local primary school. The school was recognized by Govt. of Gujarat and a teacher was also posted there. In end May, I called up Dr. Kalam and told him, “Sir, the school you wanted us to construct is ready in Bhuj”. He said, “Can I come and inaugurate the school?” I said, “Then you have to do that rather soon Sir as the school cannot remain idle for long”. Pat came the reply, “Can it be next Saturday?”

On 2^nd. June (Saturday), 2001 Dr. Kalam came once again to our project site at Bhuj. This time his entire itinerary was planned by me right from his arrival from Mumbai by Jet Airways in the morning and departure in the afternoon by Indian Airlines. For those four odd hours he would spend with us at Bhuj, a packed schedule was planned meticulously. As I received him at Bhuj airport in the morning and sat next to him in the car on our way to the project site, he threw in a seemingly innocent question, “Biswas, you look very happy. Are you happy?” I answered, “I am always happy Sir, I have no problems in life”.  Then came the nugget of wisdom, “You love your job buddy, that’s why you are so happy”, Dr. Kalam commented. That was a prophetic observation indeed and I have realized this quite often in my career.

A small felicitation for Dr. Kalam preceded the inauguration of local school. As I sat at the far end of the dais, I could see one of the local bigwigs presenting a gift to Dr. Kalam. That appeared to be something metallic in a small jewellery box. As we all got off the dais for lighting the ceremonial lamp, Dr. Kalam quietly passed on that small jewellery box to me muttering some praises for the good work done.

After the school inauguration, we rushed him to another venue to inaugurate the artificial limb fitting clinic at Bhuj and then on to inaugurate the temporary building of an institute working on desert ecology. After such a hectic schedule as we all settled down for a simple vegetarian lunch, I remembered about the small jewellery box in my pocket. After the lunch, I opened the box and found a silver coin of ‘panch kauri’ minted by the erstwhile state of Kutch. I was simply delighted!

On our way back to the airport in the car, I told Dr. Kalam, “Sir, do you know what you gave me in the morning?” He said, “Yeah, a silver coin, I suppose”. I said, “That’s something fantastic! I collect coins, I have coins from 67 countries in the world.” He said, “Oh! You have never told me this. OK, I’ll give you something as interesting.” We were in fact quite late to reach the airport, the plane was due to depart shortly. Dr. Kalam opened the small bag he was carrying with him and rummaged through all its contents. He fished out a set of coins mounted very neatly and handed over the set to me. He said he had received the set of coins as a gift from the Reserve Bank, Hyderabad where he had delivered a lecture to its officers on the previous day.

I discovered that it was a set of commemorative coins on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel minted in 1996 by Govt. of India. The set had one each of 100-rupee, 50-rupee, 10-rupee and 2-rupee coins along with a proof set. On my next opportunity of meeting him in New Delhi, I requested him to write something on the inner flap of the coin set. Dr. Kalam wrote,

“With best wishes for Sri S Biswas,

For his excellent work done in Bhuj” and signed at the end.

That was quite a reward for all my efforts in the rehab project!

(Published in the ‘Yearnings of Yore’, Vol. VII, 6th. Annual Alumni Meet, IIT Kharagpur, January 2009)