Chennai: President A P J Abdul Kalam on June 19 said birds, flying high in the sky, inspired him to take up aeronautical science and become a scientist.

Kalam, who was interacting with the inmates of the Ramakrishna Mission Students Home in Chennai, said this when a student asked him what inspired him to become a scientist.

"When my science teacher in Class V, Sivasubramania Iyer, taught us about the birds flying in the sky, I told him that I could not understand it all. He took me to the beach at Rameswaram Island. I saw for myself the birds flying in the sky. I was 10 years old then and I determined to become a aeronautical scientist then itself," Kalam said.

When a student asked him who was dear to him – "mata, pita or guru", he said, "Guru – Sivasubramania Iyer – because he was instrumental to my present status. I had good parents, but because of my Guru I am now what I am," he said.

He said the students should have ambition to achieve in their life and work hard to achieve. "Do not get upset over defeats and hurdles. Work hard," he advised the students.

"Give sorrow the sorrow," he said and asked the students not to feel sorrow over any thing.

"Impart literacy to at least two illiterates, plant two saplings each and concentrate on studies" was his reply, when a student asked him about his message to the student community.

PTI