IN PHOTOS: A trip to Dr Kalam's museum

Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar takes us through former President Dr Kalam's museum, situated in his hometown Rameswaram, and brings forth some never-seen-before facets of the life and times of one of India's greatest contemporary visionaries.

Born on October 15, 1931, at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, former President Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam specialised in aeronautical engineering from Madras Institute of Technology.

He was responsible for the evolution of Indian Space Research Organisation's launch vehicle programme, particularly the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle configuration.

After working for two decades in ISRO and mastering launch vehicle technologies, Dr Kalam took up the responsibility of developing Indigenous Guided Missiles at Defence Research and Development Organisation as the chief executive of Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.

He was responsible for the development and operationalisation of Agni and Prithvi missiles.

He led to the weaponisation of strategic missile systems and the Pokhran-II nuclear tests in collaboration with Department of Atomic Energy, which made India a nuclear weapon state.

Dr Kalam took up academic pursuit as professor, technology and societal transformation, at Anna University in Chennai from November 2001 and was involved in teaching and research tasks.

Above all he took up a mission to ignite the young minds for national development by meeting high school students across the country.

Dr Kalam has been awarded the coveted civilian awards -- Padma Bhushan (1981) and Padma Vibhushan (1990) and the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (1997).

Dr Kalam became the 11th President of India on July 25, 2002. His focus was on transforming India into a developed nation by 2020.

He is 80-years-old now and yet maintains a vigorous routine traveling around the world meeting students, world leaders and always visualising and speaking on how to make India a better place for our future generation.

His museum exhibiting certain rare images and memorabilia at his home place in Rameswaram is both informative and inspiring.

images of Dr Kalam's museum in Rameswaram...

Images of the locality in Rameswaram where Dr Kalam spent his early years, and his ancestral home, at the museum.

The Indian Air Force uniform that Dr Kalam wore while he was onboard a Sukhoi 30 MKI state-of-the-art fighter jet in 2006, exhibited in the museum.

Dr Kalam became the first President of the country to undertake a sortie in the all-weather, air-dominance supersonic fighter aircraft.

Replicas of various missiles on which Dr Kalam worked during his stint at the DRDO exhibited at the museum in Rameswaram.

The various rockets which Dr Kalam helped design during his stint at the ISRO are exhibited in this collage of images at the museum.

As President, Dr Kalam helped boost India's global impact during his visits to the United Nations. A collage of images of Dr Kalam at various UN summits are exhibited at the museum.