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President APJ Abdul Kalam’s five years in Rashtrapati Bhavan will be more than a mere photograph on the wall in the gallery of former Presidents.

He has left his footprints everywhere in the sprawling multi-acre estate on Delhi’s Raisina Hill. Three of his pet projects to bring a whiff of the 21st century to this colonial legacy were completed in the nick of time and he inaugurated them just five days before he demits office.

One is a state-of-the-art 300-seater auditorium for conferences, lectures and cultural programmes. Another is a telemedicine facility at the CGHS clinic in the President’s Estate.

Through this, doctors who treat Rashtrapati Bhavan’s large staff can hook up for consultations with specialists at All India Institute of Medical Sciences and other top-notch hospitals in the country. The third is a new housing complex for Class III and Class IV employees.

These are part of a long list of renovations and additions Kalam has made. Over the past five years, the scientist in him put in place a multi-media studio for video-conferencing while the historian-cum-curator in him prodded him to open an art gallery and a kitchen museum where paintings, crockery and cutlery from Rashtrapati Bhavan’s vast treasure trove are on display. Kalam has left his mark, literally.

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Perhaps it was his slightly eccentric scientific nature that made Kalam so different from his intellectual predecessors like S Radhkrishnan and Zakir Hussain or scheming politicos like Zail Singh.

Several visiting heads of state were taken aback by his insistence on subjecting them to a Powerpoint presentation when they called on him.

US President George Bush, for instance, got a half hour lecture on India’s energy security requirements. His security went into a tizzy when they saw the laptop and video screen that had been hooked up for the official call.

But Kalam refused to budge. The intellectual exercise must have exhausted Bush because he commented rather wryly that he should have been a scientist to make better sense of the presentation!

Kalam’s Powerpoint presentation was also part of the agenda during official talks with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, South African President Tabo Mbeke and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

Inscrutable as always, the Chinese said nothing, but Musharraf handed out a loaded compliment. He said he wished Pakistan had a scientist president.

Was that a hint to folks back home? Kalam was like a breath of fresh air in the stuffy portals of Rashtrapati Bhavan. His critics saw him as too unconventional and apolitical for a constitutional post.

His supporters admired him precisely because he was so different. Now we wait to see what Pratibha Patil brings to the table after two pro-active Presidents, Kalam and before him, KR Narayanan.

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TAIL PIECE

Journos on the Bhairon Singh Shekhawat beat are heaving a sigh of relief that the presidential polls are over. They won’t have to battle with the monkey menace at George Fernandes’s residence, the venue of daily NDA briefings.

Krishna Menon Marg, on which the bungalow is located, is infested with monkeys and at least two journos have paid a heavy price for their diligence.

The monkeys attacked and damaged their cars. One had his wipers stolen and his bumper broken. The other suffered a similar fate, not once, but twice. Obviously, the monkeys are not deterred by the heavy security presence on this VIP road.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net