The Hindu : Kalam launches mid-day meal programme

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 08, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Kalam launches mid-day meal programme

By Our Staff Reporter

The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, sharing a meal with poor schoolchildren in Bangalore on Saturday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE June 7. Spiritualism, the presidency, and food merged in perfect harmony as the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, gave company to schoolchildren who had gathered for the launch of a midday meal programme at the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) Temple here on Saturday. Linking nutritious food to good health and education, Mr. Kalam inaugurated the kids-for-kids programme of the Akshaya Patra Foundation. The mission of the foundation is to serve free meals daily to one lakh poor schoolchildren in and around Bangalore by the end of this academic year.

Interacting with the children, egging them on to repeat his words of wisdom, Mr. Kalam was back to his informal self. Ceremonies took the backseat as he took the lead, urging the children to say: "Learning gives creativity; creativity leads to thinking; thinking provides knowledge; knowledge makes you great."

Impressed by the Akshaya Patra model, Mr. Kalam wanted the State governments to take it further. The Anna Akshaya Patra should transform to Vidya Akshaya Patra, he felt. In Tamil Nadu, during the 1950s, Mr. Kalam saw how the midday meal programmes introduced there gave a boost to spreading education. "Good education benefits society. This process should be speeded up."

Mr. Kalam was at his didactic best as he urged the children to dream, to work towards achieving it, and translate it into action. As a 13-year-old, he saw the dream of freedom take flight on the midnight of August 14, 1947. "I was the school leader. I gathered 780 students that night to hear Pandit Nehru deliver the freedom speech, and see the Tricolour replacing the Union Jack. I felt happy," he said.

What touched the President most was Mahatma Gandhi's conspicuous absence at the dawn of Independence. "He (Gandhi) was in Noahkhali trying to contain a communal riot. A leader discards fame when it comes to him," Mr. Kalam said. And he wanted the children to tell themselves aloud: "I will become a great noble leader to remove the pain and the suffering of people."

Having lunch with the children later, Mr. Kalam made himself accessible to the students from government, rural, and corporation schools. As he fed Jyothilakshmi, a student from the Mahalakshmipuram Government School, it was in tune with the image visualised by a student, Pranav, of the President: "foster father to all children in India."

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