President A P J Abdul Kalam received the 200,000th copy of his book 'Wings of Fire -- An Autobiography' from the publisher at a function at the Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad today.
Kalam also released a Braille version of his autobiography, presenting copies to three institutions -- the Thakur Hari Prasad Institute for Research and Rehabilitation of the Mentally Handicapped, the Devnar School for the Blind, and the National Institute for Mental Health.
He also gifted Braille copies of 'Wings of Fire' to two visually impaired children, Govind Reddy and Swathi.
The special Braille edition has been brought out in four volumes (512 pages) by a Bhopal-based non-governmental organisation, Arushi.
Madhu Reddy, director, Universities Press (India) Pvt Ltd, presented the 200,000th
'Wings of Fire', which is about the fascinating life, trials and tribulations of India's Missile Man, was first published in 1999 and subsequently translated into 13 languages. It has sold more than 400,000 copies in all languages put together. The book is also available in an e-version.
Special editions of the book in Urdu and Korean and an audio book in English are also on the anvil.
Co-authored by Arun Tiwari, who worked under Kalam for more than a decade at the Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Hyderabad, the book follows the President's journey from his humble beginnings in the temple town of Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu to head of India's indigenous missile development programme.