The assignment which Kalam wanted to give to IIM students

"One is blessed if one can die working, standing tall without any long drawn ailing. Goodbyes should be short, really short," he got the death he wanted. He wanted to leave this world in the role he liked the best, as a teacher. His last moments were spent between the students at the dais of the Indian Institute of Management, Shillong while he was delivering lecture.

For his interaction with students at IIM, Dr Kalam had planned a surprise assignment for the students on finding innovative ways to end disruption in Parliament. Kalam's close associate Srijan Pal Singh, who was with him on his last day, said that during their journey to Shillong, Kalam wanted to ask students how to curb disruptions in Parliament.

"Our second discussion was more national. For the past two days, Dr Kalam was worried that time and again Parliament, the supreme institution of democracy, was dysfunctional. He said, 'I have seen two different governments in my tenure. I have seen more after that. This disruption just keeps happening. It is not right. I really need to find out a way to ensure that Parliament works on developmental politics', " he recalls.

"He then asked me to prepare a surprise assignment question for the students at IIM Shillong, which he would give them only at the end of the lecture. He wanted to them to suggest three innovative ways to make the Parliament more productive and vibrant. Then, after a while he returned on it. 'But how can ask them to give solutions if I don’t have any myself'. For the next one hour, we thwarted options after options, who come up with his recommendation over the issue. We wanted to include this discussion in our upcoming book, 'Advantage India'," he said while adding 'I'll do that now before the book comes into the market.

When asked about Kalam's last wish, he said Kalam always wanted a billion smiles on a billion faces in the country.

"He wanted rural India to develop and also he kept on talking about youth empowerment. Now his ideas are more alive as the man who was leading it from the front is no more," he said.