At the  age of five, Kalam started selling newspapers to help his father support the family. He did this job in the evenings after school. He used to collect newspapers thrown out of the Dhanush Kodi Mail train and become the first one to distribute them to the town of Rameswaram.

When Dr Kalam was working at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), he rejected a proposal to place broken glass pieces on the walls of the institution to prevent break-ins. Kalam feared broken glass might hurt birds that perched on the walls.

For former President APJ Abdul Kalam, becoming a fighter pilot was a “dearest dream” — one that he failed to realise by a whisker. Kalam bagged the ninth position among 25 candidates and was not recruited, since only eight slots were available.  After being elected as the President of India, Dr Kalam was invited to an event at Kerala’s Raj Bhavan. He was given an opportunity to invite any two people as his special guests to the event.  He invited a cobbler, who sew people’s shoes on the pavement, and a hotel owner, who ran a small hotel in Kerala. They were both close to him during the time he spent in Thiruvananthapuram.