Dreams come true
Our President APJ Abdul Kalam really proved a President with the difference. His multifaceted personality is Maverick in real terms. Coming from the small village of Rameshwaram, he made it to the highest chair of the country. Among all his messages I liked his saying for “dreams”. I recall by childhood days when my father used to say “ If you ask for the moon than only you will get stars.” Having big dreams in mind and making efforts for achieving them became the part of my personality. The failures came quite often but I learnt how to make failures as strength. I saw repeated failures in career starting from not being able to become a doctor or Civil Servant. Suffered with pain seeing big dreams getting shattered coming from sky to earth.
President Kalam’s message of seeing dreams makes me go down the memory lane when I realized that there was a dream to become a writer.
Having walked on this earth for half of my life I started writing to see that old dream may come true. It works. Sincere efforts never go a waste. Failures can motivate you. When the books came with my name establishing me as a writer though not by profession but by virtue of hobby. Suddenly a dream came and haunted for long. It was a dream to have my book released by President Abdul Kalam. Now, a big task, what to do for crystallizing this dream into reality. My son came for my rescue because by that time I was not knowing ABC of internet. He mailed on the site of President of India. I was asked to send my profile and the things continued in the form of telecom and letters between me and Secretary to President of India.
The dream came true I got the confirmation that President has agreed to release my book on his next visit to Kolkata since at that time I was posted at Kolkata Airport. Unfortunately, the visit of the President for the scheduled date was postponed and I was transferred to Delhi. My publishers became impatient and were not having time to wait for release of the book anymore. The dream remained unfulfilled because my book “Living a Stressful Life with Joy” had to be released with full fanfare by my friend Shabana Azmi. As a matter of fact she obliged me from the embarrassment. Her image, Parliamentarian Status and personality made value edition to the book.
Let me tell you how the dream came true. I attended one marriage party with my family in Delhi in Army club.
All of a sudden while having dinner the entire crowd got surprised by the presence of President Abdul Kalam. He was talking to the people as if a normal person is talking to his colleagues. We came to know that the bride is daughter of a DRDO Scientist who happened to be the old associate of President.
I could not control myself and shook hand with the President introducing myself as an author of the above book and reminded the President that my book was to be released by him at Kolkata Airport. It was almost a year ago. The President surprised me by replying “But I understand you got transferred”. I had my day. My dream got fulfilled. I cannot believe that among millions of people a man of such high esteem can remember such a small incident which may not be significant at his level. I know that the book release item remained in the agenda of the President’s visit to Kolkata because after my coming to Delhi I got a call from District Magistrate Office that my book is to be released by the President since his visit was rescheduled. I had to say sorry with the information that I have come to Delhi on transfer.
Can we have a President like APJ Abdul Kalam whose heart beats even for a normal citizen of the country, in fact it is rare to have such a memory for a human being.
when Bharakha Dutt in Hindustan Times wrote about second term for this maverick President I had no words except to say why second term ? It should be for hat trick in times to come. He is the President with extraordinary qualities. I cannot forget this incident of seeing the dream come true. Today my book is having the second edition and is available in different countries of the world. I got name and fame but somewhere I feel that this is all because of the inspiration and the motivation I got from my President APJ Abdul Kalam from his message to see dreams, big dreams. His remembrance of releasing my book is more than the real releasing. Is it not so ?
Author: Prof. Dewakar Goel, A poet, writer, singer, professor and bureaucrat
Note: This article had been published first when APJ Abdul Kalam was the president of India.
Tags: APJ Abdul Kalam, Dream comes true, dream of dewakar, prof dewakar goel
Filed under: Common
I dont know why, but you come across as a very conceited person!! I began the article with interest.. by the time I reached the end of it, all I felt like saying was “PAH!”