It has been a long desire of the staff, students and other workers in Gandhiniketan Ashram and Schools to have Dr Kalam to our institution. An invitation was sent to him asking him to inaugurate some of the special programmes of Centenary Celebrations of our Founder Mr G Venkatachalapathy. He readily agreed to come. On 1st October at 10.30 Dr Abdul Kalam accompanied by Dr Namperumaulsamy, Chairman of the Arvind group arrived at the Ashram. He was received at our Gandhimandapam and taken around the Mandapam. He garlanded the statues of Mahatma Gandhi and our founder Mr G.Venkatachalapathy. He was told the significance of the statues erected there. Gandhiji’s statue was made by an Italian sculptor having Mahatma Gandhi to sit in front of her and Mahatama autographed on the statue in Gujarathi. The statue is erected on a pedestal which stands on the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi. These ashes were brought by late Dr Kumarappa, a renowned Gandhian economist who lived with Gandhiji. Dr Kalam was surprised to know these details. He enquired about the Founder and his contributions to the freedom struggle and his life’s mission.

He was shown the early photographs of the ashram where the first president of India Dr Rajendra Prasad garlanding the same statue in 50’s. Later he was taken to the new library building dedicated to the memory of the Founder G.Venkatachalapathy, he declared open the library and lit a lamp and unveiled the portrait of the Founder. He inspected the books that were kept there and he very happy to find the computers with internet connection and he could not resist from operating the computer and open the internet. He wished all success for this project and promised to give 100 books from his collections.

Later he was taken to the school auditorium where the main function was held. There was a large gathering consisting of the students, staff, other members of the ashram community invitees and a large number of people from surrounding villages. The meeting started with an inter religious prayer. Being the day of Ramzan, Quran was recited. following the prayer, Prof R Venkataswami, Chairman of the Gandhiniketan Ashram welcomed Dr Kalam, Dr Namperumaulsamy and Chairman of the Everonn group and all the invitees from the neighbouring villages. Dr Kalam addressed the students and it was received with rapt attention by one and all. Dr Kalam suggested to form a PURA between Arvind Eye hospitals and Gandhiniketan Ashram along with some engineering colleges in the region.

Later he declared open the project by Everonn solutions which essentially consist of teaching with interactive CDs pertaining to the subjects of science for 10th, 11th and 12th students. The Everonn group is going to launch this project in 1,000 schools across the country and as a preliminary they have chosen Gandhiniketan Ashram Schools as the second one. Dr Kalam was very happy to declare open this project and congratulated Mr Kannan, the Chairman of the Everonn group for coming forward to start this project in Gandhiniketan Ashram. Following this Mr Kannan, Chairman of the Everonn group explained the project and thanked Dr Kalam for declaring it to open. Dr V Ragupathy, Secretary of the Ashram proposed Vote of thanks and the meeting ended with National Anthem. The entire event was a memorable one in the history of our ashram.