Recently, my school received the opportunity of meeting the ex-President of India, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam. A lot of people have told me how it was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and envied me. But, I simply don't understand what the hype is all about.

As opposed to an actual meeting, this was more of an event where he was also present. So, none of the students actually got to meet him, per se. We were merely present when he delivered a speech. The speech was really inspiring and motivational, no doubt. But, the same points were also discussed in school, when we were told about this event. We weren't told anything we didn't already know, about him, or his work.

After the speech, I was looking forward to the Q&A session, as we would be able to talk one-on-one with the man and ask him questions. But again, we found out that the questions that were to be asked had been pre-discussed and the ones who were going to ask them were already picked. Moreover, he also mentioned that he would only answer 3 questions, which meant that there was no chance of any of the other 2000 students present there of asking a question of their choice.

So, we travelled for around 1 hour, waited for his arrival for 45 minutes, had a short welcoming ceremony and other event formalities in the next 30 minutes, listened to a 15 minute long speech (which we had already heard) and then had a fruitful 10 minutes of Q&A where pre-discussed questions were asked by pre-picked children.

What was supposed to be an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of meeting the "Missile Man" of India had just been a show, planned by the teachers. It had no more than 20 actors and actresses, while the other 2000 guests wasted more than 150 minutes of their life for the 10 minute Q&A session at the end.

Worth the effort?

PS: I would have posted a photo of the ex-President but, of course, cameras were not allowed.