Kalam's new book shows his spiritual side

Scientist-President A P J Abdul Kalam, the missile man of India, also has a spiritual side to him, which has been revealed in his new book "Guiding Souls - Dialogues on the Purpose of Life" that hit the stands on Wednesday.

The book, co-authored by Arun K Tiwari who also assisted him in his best seller "Wings of Fire", has been structured as dialogues between him and the President and outlines a spiritual approach to life.

"The book talks about all those people who have been the guiding force for the humanity. It covers a wide spectrum of history and human activity and evokes the presence of great human beings who walked on this planet," Tiwari told reporters New Delhi on Wednesday.

The book - encompassing the ideals of Ashoka, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln - is simultaneously being published in Hindi. It will later be published in 13 other languages. Tiwari, who is a biomedical engineer by profession, said he never imagined that what had initially started, as an "interaction between a teacher and a pupil" would result in a book. "We would sit in a hut under the banyan tree in the garden of Rashtrapati Bhawan and discuss things.

I would ask the President many questions on a range of issues like the meaning of life, his ideals and his guiding force. It was just one year ago when we realised that some of the points that resulted from our discussion were concrete enough to be compiled in a book," he said. "The unique selling point of the book is that it is a very honest book," he avered.