What were you doing on 2nd April 2011? Does anyone remember that day? Cricket lovers will never forget this festival. Number 2011 will definitely trigger every Indian's memory of the World Cup. But that number reminds me of entirely a different story. An undreamt dream happened in my life. Where should I start with?? Hmm... Let me begin at the start of the day.
Dad woke me up as usual at around 6:30 am and I freshened up myself and took books to read after breakfast. Starting from the 9 am with a subject - king of confusion - Mathematics. Suddenly my dad reminded me, "Today we have to go to IIT Hyderabad. There will be a speech and we must attend. So finish your works before noon." Agreeing to his words, I nodded my head and continued to finish my works. Those days I was very fond of cricket so I felt that, "Why would one go to such boring speeches, and sleep there. Rather I would watch cricket staying back at home." But I can't say those words out, because dad was there.
At noon around 1pm, I had my lunch and took a small nap of 15min and then got dressed up to go to IIT Hyderabad. Sorry that I forgot to mention that in the initial days of IIT Hyderabad it was established in our estate and it was beside our school premises. So it is not too far to go there. And finally, I reached IITH at 1:40pm along with my sister. And when I reached there to my surprise I was shocked by seeing the big welcoming banners. If the welcome board had some unknown photos then I would not have dropped my lower jaw in awe, but there was a well-known photo - the Missile man of India.
So now my excitement started to see him live. So I quickly ran inside to grab the seats in initial rows, but almost many were filled, and I was forced to take middle seats along with my sister. And after a few minutes, my whole family joined us. And slowly chaos started at the entrance gate. I thought our chief guest is going to arrive. And as expected he arrived at the venue with a calm and smiling face as he always does. After few professors of IITH had completed their addressing, Kalam sir came to the podium and adjusted his mike and started with, "I know that this is very odd timing after lunch to start but bear with me this time." Not exactly the same words, but I carried almost the same humor that Kalam sir created at that point in time.
He mentioned, "Many of your minds would go around the score of the rivalry match going on. But still, I have no other option of postponing this." And slowly he started his speech and started telling the audience about some technical stuff which was too heavy for my ears to hear those terms. Slowly I lost interest in listening to his words because it was highly technical for a 7th class kid. I was drifting into sleep suddenly Kalam sir said, "Those who are sleeping just wake up, Sri Lanka won the toss and choose to bat first." And almost many were shocked hearing those words, and within no time I lost my sleep too. But it was crazy that someone who is great and too elder than us, understood our brains perfectly.
Not once, but this happened many times in between his speech. He was like, "Oh... Sachin got out.", "Score is 130 for 2 wickets" (not exactly but I mentioned some random numbers). Those notifications were like to wake up alarms while I was drifting into my sleep. And finally, he ended his speech around 5pm. And almost the event was at the climax. So I woke up with wide eyes open to see which gate is sending-off him. And within no time I tried to push all the elders who were in my way to reach Kalam sir. As I was a kid, I somehow quickly managed to get near him but it was a bit difficult to cross his bodyguards.
That was an unforgettable memory. I felt like I was in a running race and I almost reached the deadline but there were my enemies who were obstructing me to reach the finishing line. I know it was a bit filmy but I was too young at that time, so I thought I'm a hero and I want to touch that finishing line at any cost. And the funny part was, bodyguards tried to stop me putting their hands below my head but I tried to jump over their hands and I was almost in the air flying like a superman and yes I traveled in the air for some time and pulled Kalam sir's little finger before colliding the earth.
And quickly Kalam sir turned back and lifted me up. While his guards were dragging me behind he stopped them and gave me a shaking hand with a smile. And that one moment was enough and that one smile was enough to forget my pain which caused when I hit the ground. And then he turned back and left me. I was in shock. I thought that it was a dream but no it was real. I was standing there for 2 more minutes in shock just seeing his smiling face till he got into his car.
And when I came back to my dad I didn't express this scene with excitement, in fact, I never shared this moment excitedly with anyone. But whenever I hear the name of IIT Hyderabad or 2011, they both remind me of this incident. If I hear the name of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, I don't remember his achievements, I don't remember his motivational quotes or whatever it is. I just remember this one incident in my life.
Sometimes learning things may be late but implementing them immediately will bring good results. One thing I realized lately:
"Our professional achievements will be remembered by the people who are related to our profession. But our kind actions will make us remembered by everyone."
So just keep smiling with positive energy and spread love.
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