1. Kalam was popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology.
2. His father, a humble boat owner, Jainulabdeen, was a devout Muslim and a close friend of the Rameswaran temple priest.
3. Kalam was brought up in a multi-religious, tolerant society; one with a progressive outlook.
4. Kalam used to get up at 4 am, bathe, and then go for his mathematics class, which was taught by a teacher who took only five students in the whole session; and bathing before class was a condition he had laid to all his students.
5. Although Kalam has led several projects in his professional life, he's treated each like his last.
