The last rites of APJ Abdul Kalam would be held on Thursday morning in Rameswaram, the hometown of the late President. K Nandhakumar, District Collector, Ramanathapuram, told reporters on Tuesday that the mortal remains of the late President would be brought home from New Delhi by Wednesday afternoon. The body would be taken to Kalam’s ancestral house where he was born and grew up.
After the close family members of Kalam pay their last respects, the body would be shifted to the city centre for the public to pay homage. Three sites have been shortlisted as the last resting place of the son of the soil. The family members of the late President, including his elder brother APJM Maraikar, will choose the place where the funeral would be held.
According to officials in special branch and State Intelligence, security in and around Rameswaram has been beefed up following reports that a galaxy of VVIPs, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, may make it to the town to bid adieu to Kalam.
In a touching move, hundreds of students from the Panchayat Union School at Mandapam, the alma mater of Kalam, took out a candlelight procession from the school to the House of Kalam and paid floral tributes to the late President. Eminent people of Ramanathapuram made a beeline for Kalam’ house, as a mark of respect to the “people’s President.”
Meanwhile, a pall of gloom descended over Tamil Nadu and all roads and thoroughfares in Chennai and other towns sported giant size pictures of Kalam. Though all shops and business establishments were open and functioning, the grief of the people was palpable.
The faculty and students of Anna University where Kalam was a professor paid glowing tributes to their mentor. The Madras Institute of Technology (since renamed Anna University of Technology) from where Kalam graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering, too offered floral tributes to him.
In an unprecedented show of solidarity, leaders of all political parties and cultural organisations expressed their sorrow and shock over the passing away of the former President. While Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who enjoyed a special rapport with Kalam described him as a "youth icon and a great nationalist", senior RSS leader Ml Raja called him a "great patriot whose appeal to the youth of the country for national reconstruction generated huge enthusiasm among them".