Madurai
The village Peikarumbu sported a festive look in view of the arrival of union ministers with flex boards and banners on both the sides of the road. School and college students and people from all walks of life thronged the burial ground in large numbers to pay their respects to the people’s president. After unveiling the seven feet-tall bronze statue, Venkaiah Naidu and Manohar Parikkar also released the 3D image of the upcoming National Memorial of Kalam there.
“The DRDO is building the world-class Memorial, based on three broad themes namely — Journey through the life of Dr Kalam, his Contributions to Science and in motivating the youth. The memorial will have audio-visuals in Tamil, Hindi and English languages,” Parikkar said. Venkaiah Naidu said that Kalam was a visionary and continued to live through his ideas, dedicated work, his projects and services rendered to the community. “He was not an ordinary scientist. He had a vision and he attained it. Though he remained a bachelor in his life he was married to the development of the country,” he said.
Union Ministers Pon Radhakrishnan, Subhash Ramrao Bhamre and state Ministers Nilofer Kafeel, Manikandan, Ramanathapuram MP Anwhar Raajhaa, BJP state president Tamilisai Soundararajan were among the other important political leaders present at the function. An exhibition showcasing Kalam’s photos, slides detailing his achievements, videos of him interacting with school students was also inaugurated at the function.
Guest house for tourists A modern guest house for tourists coming to Rameswaram will be built at a cost of Rs 23 crore, said Venkaiah Naidu. The guest house will have 53 rooms and be named as APJ Abdul Kalam Holiday Home. He also claimed that Rameswaram was included in the Atal Mission For Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme only because of its Kalam connection, said Venkaiah Naidu.
Artistes’ record tribute to the ‘Missile Man’
Several artists from across country had assembled atPeikarumbu on Wednesday to pay tribute their favourite president by creatingrecords with their art works.
Artists from Puducherry in particular surprised the visitorswith their dexterity. Gubendran from the union territory had already created100 different faces of Kalam showing his myriad expressions in 46 hours and 13minutes at the memorial site. On Wednesday, another artist from PuducherrySuresh created a miniature art of Kalam in the lead of a pencil. He carved thestructure of Kalam in 15 minutes, which is a record. Artist Ilanchezhian fromGudaloor in Theni district created 100 faces of Kalam in pumpkins. He took 24hours to complete the task. Another artist Shankar from Salem painted the faceof Kalam on a half rice grain, breaking the earlier record of painting on afull grain. Two siblings from Udupi in Karnataka created records in their ownfashion. Pratvesh did a speed painting by drawing the face of Kalam in theinverse direction in nine minutes and 42 seconds. He used multiple colours tocreate the wonder, while his brother Pradesh assembled the face of Abdul Kalamwith the help of cuboids in six minutes and 32 seconds.
