The sudden death of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, 83, in Shillong on Monday evening where he had gone to deliver a lecture at IIM-Shillong has left Indians grieved. And as he was laid to rest in his hometown located 650 km south of Chennai today, a Delhi-based tailor shop owner Aman Jain is wondering what to do with Kalam’s stitched suits that the Missile Man had ordered a few days before Eid to be delivered at 10 Rajaji Marg on Friday.
“The ex-President had asked me to stitch two cream-coloured suits before Eid. The suits are ready and were to be delivered this Friday. Had he been alive, I would have been going to his place to deliver them,” 40-year-old Jain, the owner of Fair Deals shop at Arya Samaj road, told The Pioneer.
While Kalam’s style is well-known to all, Jain who has been stitching suits for Kalam for the past two decades still remembers the first time when he had walked into his shop.
“It was about 20 years ago when he had visited my shop. At that time he was working with the DRDO,” he said.
Being a man who defines simplicity at its best, Kalam mostly preferred suits with light to medium shades, said Jain, adding that he used to prefer wearing a metallic fancy button on his shirt, which was specially designed. “With a beige suit, he used to wear a shirt with a golden button and with grey suit, a silver button,” Jain recalls.
Particular about his style, Kalam used to get suits stitched twice every year. The price of his suits varied from `18,000 to `25,000. “He was very particular about what he wanted. Sometimes he used to get suits of light shades stitched four times, since they used to get worn out easily,” said Jain.
On how Kalam cut suit came into existence, Jain said, “He was supposed to don a bandhgala suit for his swearing-in ceremony as the President. During the trial, he was pretty uncomfortable with it. So, he said if a President’s neck is chocked how will he speak in front of the nationIJ How will he address the peopleIJ So we decided to do away with the first button giving it a cut, which became famous as Kalam cut.”
It is understood that it was during night that Kalam was comfortable discussing about his dresses. “I generally used to visit him in the night after shutting my shop. At times, he used to ask me to stay and dine with him. It is my good luck that I have had the opportunity to have dinner with him at 10 Rajaji Marg and even Rashtrapati Bhawan,” he said.