Which interview did Kalam fail and how did he deal with it?
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Answer:
Dr Kalam once had said that becoming a fighter pilot was a "dearest dream". Dr Kalam had received two interview calls, one was from the Indian Air Force in Dehradun and the other from the Directorate of Technical Development and Production (DTDP) at the Ministry of Defense in Delhi. While the interview at DTDP was "easy" he recounted that for the Air Force Selection Board, he realized that along with qualifications and engineering knowledge, they were also looking for a certain kind of "smartness" in the candidate. Dr. Kalam bagged the ninth position out of 25 candidates and was not recruited as only eight slots were available. "I had failed to realize my dream of becoming an air force pilot,". Finally, he said what he had done to overcome his failure. He walked around for a while till I reached the edge of a cliff, before deciding to go to Rishikesh and seek a new way forward." "It is only when we are faced with failure do we realize that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives," said Dr Kalam who went on to put his "heart and soul" at his job as the senior scientific assistant at DTDP. He recounted "staring into the pit of despair" when he failed to make it as an IAF pilot and how he pulled himself up and rose to become the man who headed India's missile programme and occupy highest office in the country.