A day after the mortal remains of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam were laid to rest, people and students continued to throng the burial site at Pei Karumbu, near here on Friday to pay their homage.
Those who could not attend the funeral ceremony on Wednesday and Thursday, reached the island on Friday and made a beeline to the site right from the morning. Police erected barricades around the site to regulate the crowd.
The time allotted for public homage on Wednesday was extended by more than two hours, but still many could not pay tributes.
Five-year-old Nishwant Krishna, a UKG student from Sri Vijay Vidyashram in Dharmapuri was one of the early visitors at the site on Friday. After watching the funeral ceremony on television on Thursday, he virtually fought with his parents for not taken him to the island.
V Anandhi (30), a teacher at the Government High School at Sillar Alli and her teacher-husband Venkatachalam tried to convince him but the little boy insisted that he should visit the site, where Kalam was laid to rest.
“We had no option but to leave last night after applying leave for a day,” Anandhi told The Hindu .
They reached the island around 6 a.m. and straightaway headed to the site. The late leader had been a great inspiration for them and the teacher-couple wanted their son to become a scientist like Kalam.
