Many ‘deaths’ for Missile Man, before he stopped orbiting the Sun!

Kochi, July 28: India's inspiring machine Dr A P J Abdul Kalam has stopped ‘orbiting around the Sun' on Monday 27 July 2015.

On his birthday (October 15), he would often tell his well-wishers and close aides that he has begun to orbit the Sun for yet another round.

However, in the last couple of years he has been ‘laid to rest' a number of times by the rumour-mongers, forcing his office to issue clarifications.

"Former President is hale and hearty. He is absolutely fine. He is at work. Don't believe in rumours," were some of the standard responses one would get from his office.

During last Diwali, his office had approached OneIndia to put out a detailed report shooting down another set of rumours on his health. [I am absolutely fine; don't believe rumours. Happy Diwali: Dr Abdul Kalam]

One of his tweets last October read: "Some messages are being circulated that I'm unwell and hospitalised. This is totally false. I have several commitments to attend to. Please pay no heed two such rumors."

His aides had told OneIndia that they wrote to the Home Ministry a number of times, but little action was taken to trace the source. Many suspected that some of the rumours were being spread by some mobile phone companies to increase the messaging traffic at one go.

However, none of these believes could be authenticated.

Interestingly, Dr Kalam seems to have given little importance to all these rumours that virtually ‘killed' him from time and again.

Speaking to OneIndia from Mysuru, K Jayaprakash Rao, a long-time aide of Dr Kalam, said that he was often taken aback by such rumours.

"Definitely it was all in a bad taste. Never such rumours should have been associated with a legend. While as a nation, we might have moved ahead in many fields, I am concerned the way we treat our elders. Thankfully, Dr Kalam never took these issues seriously. He was too much hooked on to his missions," said Rao, who translated Dr Kalam's Wing of Fire into Kannada. [Jharkhand education minister Neera Yadav, who paid tribute to 'alive' Dr Kalam in 'shock']