The memorial day of Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam is a sacred day in India. The day is marked with a good deal of noble activities through the length and breadth of the country. Coimbatore, the ecological capital of Tamilnadu was close to the former President and some years ago he chose to celebrate his 80th birthday near the foot hills of the western ghats in the company of the volunteers behind Siruthuli. Today, the people of Peelamedu celebrated the memorial day of Kalam by adding to the existing trees at the Peelamedu railway station. Octogenarian Swaminathan and his friends have been planting and nurturing over 300 trees in the railway station premises with the help of the authorities. Today, they have added some more trees in order to celebrate the memorial day of Kalam.
The tree park at the Peelamedu railway station is a fitting tribute to the great son of India. Swaminathan, Palaniswamy, Vijayan, Tamilarasan, Ramachandran, Gopal and their friends got together and have planted the trees in a simple ceremony this morning. A couple of doves were released on the occasion. Dr.Narayanaswamy, Dr.Rajagopal and a number of senior citizens planted the trees and watered them. The group of volunteers have fixed a nice board at the Kalam tree park and the senior artist K.Mylswamy has drawn it with love. The people of Peelamedu are a democratic lot for they have chosen the picture of Dr.Kalam based on majority opinion. Swaminathan the captain shared the details of the process, "We had a booklet of Dinamani Kadir with over 50 pictures of Kalam and it was decided to circulate the booklet in order to get the people's choice for the picture, after all he was the peoples' President, was he not?, then we engaged the Peelamedu based artist K.Mylswamy who has over 50 years of experience in the field to execute the work. We decided that we will not use a flex board as it was not eco friendly".
The ceremony began with tree planting and the board was unveiled by the members from the group. The volunteers paid their respect by offering their prayers and flowers as tribute to Dr.Kalam. It was nice to see the volunteers indulging in the activity. They have successfully raised 300 trees and are now going to raise many more from today. It was a ceremony were everyone was treated equal and the participants were served with some hot tea, biscuits and tasty triangle samosas. The entire area is being looked after by the volunteers, thanks to the support of the authorities under the Station Master V.Senthilvel and the railway staff who are ever ready to lend a helping hand at all times. The simple but lovely tree planting ceremony by the good people of Peelamedu is a fitting tribute to Bharat Ratna Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam on his memorial day. The tree lovers of Peelamedu will hopefully celebrate more such memorial days of Dr.Kalam during the times to come.
