oho ; 3 ea al 5 : A.P. J. ABDULIKALAM | Editedby Arpfa, Tiwari * Cenc in men oman cate PSS Sa Ne areas ee Yd iNotes tor A. P. J. ABDUL IKALAM Edited by ARUN TIWARIContents Foreword Introduction About the Editor aR 2 10, 11. 12, Coconut Grove Snakes and Ladders Audacity of Hope Meandering Across the Mundane From a Cocoon, the Butterfly Instrument of God Vision of a Developed India Ascend Renaissance Man This World is a Stage Philosopher of Caring ‘Transcendence Timeline Major Projects of Dr Kalam 14 26 36 50 56 4 70 6 78Coconut GROVE “Take care of every day—let the calendar take cate of the years.” ‘ur lives are organized around the calendar. We calculate time, to know how many days remain until a certain event takes place or how long it has been since something important has happened. ‘The earliest calendars seem to have been strongly influenced by the geographical location of the people who made them. In countries with colder climates, the concept of the year was determined by the seasons, particularly by the end of winter: In warmer countries, where the seasons are less pronounced, the moon often became the basic unit for measuring time. The Hijei calendar or Islamic calendar, originating neat the edge of the tropics in what is now Saudi Arabia, still marks time with the lunar eycles. 1 arrived in this world on the second day of the sixth month of the year 1350 of the Hijri ~ calendar, corresponding to Thursday, the fifteenth day of October, 1931. I was Jainulabdeen and his wife Aishamma’s third child and second son. My father was a pious man, and a passionate believer in the nation that would become India. He named me Abdul Kalam after the great Indian scholar and eminent political leader of the Indian Independence movement, Abul Kalam Avad. My parents felt that I was a lucky child, as my father became Imam of the local mosque soon after my birth, As was the usual practice of those times, I was born in my ancestral home. It was a modest traditional house in the holy town of Rameswaram, with a tiled verandah facing the street, just a short distance from the famous Ramanathaswamy Temple “My home town is located more or less at the centre of Pamban Island, a 30-kilometre-long land mass lying two kilometres from the mainland in the Palk Bay, between peninsular India and Sti Lanka, Pamban and Rameswaram are the island’s two main settlements, In a sense, they represent ‘two essential parts of life: work, and spiritual observance. Pamban is a fishing village and a harbour ‘on the western tip of the island. It is the main point of entry to Rameswaram, the larger of the two settlements, which overlooks Palk Bay on the island’s east. 1 Ea Wynn (1886-1966) was an American actor and comedian. Dr Kalam enjoyed his 1961 film The Absent Minded ProfessorPamban Island had another town, Dhanushkodi, when I was young, Dhanushkodi is near the southernmost tip of the island, where the land tapers to a point toward Sri Lanka. Though the town was left uninhabitable by the 1964 Rameswaram cyclone, the Kothandaramaswamy Temple of Lord Rama there remains. It was the only historic building in Dhanushkodi to survive the storm surge: the 7.6-metre waves that swamped the town on 23 December 1964. ‘Pamban Island is a significant place for Hindus. Rameswaram is the southernmost of the Char Dham or four abodes, which makes it a pilgrimage destination for thousands of Hindus every year. Rameswara means ‘Lord of Rama’ in Sanskrit, an epithet of Shiva, the presiding deity of the ‘Ramanathaswamy Temple. Rama, the seventh avatar of the god Vishnu, prayed to Shiva here to absolve any sins that he might have committed during his war against the demon-king Ravana in Sti Lanka, about fifty kilometres away: [As with the rest of India, Pamban Island has been remarkably open to new religious ideas. Islam arrived on the island with Malik Kafur, 2 eunuch slave who rose to become a general in the army of Alauddin Khilj, ruler of the Delhi Sultanate. Malik Kafur reached Rameswaram during one of his three military campaigns in southern India between 1294 and 1316, which set the stage for the short-lived Madurai Sultanate. The Sultanate fell little more than half a century after it was established; but Islam remained. In 1795, Rameswaram came under the direct control of the British East India Company and ‘was annexed to the Madras Presidency. By the time of British rule, Christianity had found a place on the island. Its devoted band of followers joined the equally devoted Muslims and Hindus on this small but sacred piece of land in Palk Bay. “Every child is born, with some inherited characteristics, into a specific socio-economic and emotional environment, and is trained in certain ways by figures of authority” Iwas fortunate to grow in an environment where three of the world’s great religions coexisted happily. My three close friends in Rameswaram—Ramanadha Sastry, Arvindan and Sivaprakash— were from orthodox Hindu Brahmin families, but would play with me as if we were children from one family. I would happily sit in the Ramanathaswamy Temple, admiring its glorious stonework and listening to the chanting of prayers. Sometimes, too, I would listen to the sermons at mass in the Catholic church nearby. Religious beliefs of each faith were respected by all at Rameswaram, and religious festivals of each community on the island were shared events. During the annual Sri Sita Rama Kalyanam ceremony, my father and my brother Maracayer, fourteen years my senior, would arrange boats with a special platform for carrying idols to the middle of the pond called Rama Tirtha. Here were my father and brother, Muslim men of the open sea, taking boats onto a small pond 2 APJ Abdul Kalam with Arun Tiwari, Wing of Fire, University Press, 1999, p. 8.3 to help their Hindu brothers pray. Jainulabdeen and Maracayer understood simple realities: The sea, rivers, ponds, lakes and streams have different names and shapes. But they all contain water, and our crafts float on their surfaces in just the same manner. Similarly, religions have various forms, but they each contain truths and sustain the spiritual lives of their people. Although it was a happy place with year-round warm weather and friendly people, Pamban Island wasn't perfect. Living in groups always poses challenges of one kind or another. The early years of my life, in pre-Independence India, were especially hard economically, as well. The Great Depression of the 1930s, heavy taxes of the colonial regime and the protectionist policies of the British government bore heavily on the Indian people. The people of Pamban Island faced these economic challenges along with the rest of the nation. But while the island’s people suffered a shortage of material goods, there was no lack of interfaith communication to help them deal with their everyday issues. > T witnessed interreligious dialogue from a very young age. Memories of a regular gathering in ‘my family home's courtyard are etched in my mind. The chief priest of Ramanathaswamy ‘Temple, Pakshi Lakshmana Shastrigal, Rev. Father Bodal, the leader of the Christian community and my father Jainulabdeen would meet in my home every few months to discuss the issues facing the island’s people. For some reason, I took particular note of these mectings, as if I knew their sitting together, sharing glasses of buttermilk or cups of tca and chatting amiably was somehow significant. However, for them getting together to solve our small society's problems was perfectly natural for them—it was just a routine happening, Those meetings held a lesson that stayed with me. Interfaith dialogue has never been more relevant than in the early years of the twenty-first century. Divides between religions have become rifts in some places, and differences within them often lead to violence. What is missing there is not toleranee—it is respect. Pakshi Lakshmana Shastrigal, Rev. Father Bodal and my father simply respected each others’ beliefs. If people respect others’ faith and beliefs and their tight to hold them, there is no need for tolerance. And with this respect, conflict can find no place. Faith sustained Pamban Island economically as much as spiritually. In most parts of India, agriculture is the primary source of people's income, This has never been the case at Pamban Island. The sandy soil of the island is unsuitable for cultivation, and very little can be harvested from the land there apart from coconuts and figs. The economy of the island depended on marine Products—fish and shells—and on providing basic services and provisions to pilgrims. “You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring atthe water.” Still, agriculture was some support for my family. My father owned a small coconut grove, 3 Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is regarded as the outstanding creative artist of the modern Indian subcontinent. He was the fist non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, Dr Kalam kept his poem ‘Where the Mind is without fear and head is held high’ on his presidental table.a six kilometres from our home, This was, for a time, the family’s main source of income. Later, my father would turn his hand to business. For most of my early years, though, scarcity was an everyday realty. And while my mother and father gave me a comfortable childhood, they toiled to make ends meet. Jainulabdeen and Aishamma seemed quite untroubled by the hard work that supporting their family demanded, however. I would get up early in the morning and watch them begin work immediately after their Fajr (daybreak) prayers. Even before the sun emerged from the sea, Jainulabdeen would head toward the coconut grove. I would mimic my father, stepping out of the house at dawn. I would play in the fresh morning air, listening to the chorus of the seabirds. My father used to tell me that true success in life is the freedom to do for a living that which brings you happiness, With time, Jainulabdeen found his calling, and with it, success. When I was about six years old, he embarked on the project of building a wooden sailboat to ferry pilgrims to and from Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi, He worked at building the boat on the seashore with a relative, Ahmed Jallaluddin, Ahmed would later marry my elder sister, Zohara. The two men built the boat using the traditional carvel planking method, where planks are affixed edge-to-edge onto a sturdy underlying framework. This method makes a hull which can bear heavy cargo. I sat and watched intently as my father and Ahmed seasoned the bulkheads with heat from wood fires, and formed the frame on the beach. It looked like a boat's skeleton to my young eyes. ‘Then, as wooden planks were fitted, ic quickly became a boat, ready to venture out to sea. I saw that with knowledge and concentrated effort, common materials can be used to make something very useful. The transformation from pieces of wood into a boat was truly amazing, I also learned that a boat builder needs to be aware of the properties of the materials. My father explained that the abrasion resistance of wood varies according to its hardness and density. Also, the wood may deteriorate if fresh water or marine organisms are allowed to penetrate it. ‘The boat business was a great success, There were days when I joined my father on the boat to collect fares in coins from the pilgrims, as a conductor would do on a bus, I heard during these trips the story of how Sri Rama built the bridge from here to Sri Lanka with the help of his army of monkeys; how Sri Rama brought back Sri Sita and stopped at Rameswaram again and performed penance for having killed Ravana; how Sri Hanumana was sent north to bring a large Shiva Lingam but when it took longer than expected, Sri Sita made a lingam with her own hands so as not to delay the worship. ‘These stories and many others floated around me in different tongues and forms, as people from all over India converged at the boat service. Very early in life I understood that my country is indeed vast. [also noticed that although Indian people from one region may look quite dissimilar from those from another and speak very different language, there is some essential quality that binds them all. Ir may be hard to define, but I clearly felt there was a distinct Indian character which5 all the peoples of our land possess. Indians, too, I could see, have a particularly deep connection to their rich cultural heritage, which gives them a sense of place and purpose. Traditions, thousands of years old, have been kept alive in India. A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. “The teacher awakes joy in creative expression and knowledge in children.” ‘When I was studying in the fifth grade, a lesson from my teacher Siva Subramania Iyer made a lasting impression on me. Our teacher took us to the beach to demonstrate how birds fly. It may just be that observing seagulls that day, with their aerial acrobatics over the waves, inspired me to take up a career in aeronautics, yer drew a diagram of a bird on the blackboard, showing the wings, tail, body and head, to teach about birds’ flight. He explained at length how birds create a lifting force by agitating the air with their wings. He also described to the class how they change direction while flying by tiling their wings to different angles. ‘When he asked the class whether we had understood how birds fly, I stood up and confessed frankly that I did not, My classmates said they did not understand, either. Our teacher wasnt upset. He just took the class to the seashore to show birds in flight. That day, I realized that a bird is Powered by its own life force and the motivation to fly—its will. Siva Subramania Iyer’ lesson did ‘not merely impart an understanding of how a bird flies. I now had some sense of the very being of the bird reaching into the sky. I was captivated and from those moments, I developed a fascination ‘for flying. B In October 1942, a powerful cyclone formed over the Bay of Bengal. It unleashed torrential ‘ain and winds gusting at more than 160 kilometres per hour onto Pamban Island. The trees of my father’s coconut grove were uprooted, and his boat was wrecked. We all cried, but my father kept his poise. He merely said ‘Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raj’u (We are from God and to God we shall return). When I asked him the meaning of this phrase he replied, ‘Teofien happens in this world that man loses something, of suffers some calamity: On such an occasion, we must willingly resign ourselves to our misfortune, taking this to be God's deerée. God has made this world for the purpose of putting mankind to the Test. Here, receiving and losing are both designed as trials for man, ‘Therefore, when man receives something, he should prove himself to be a thankful servant of God. And when he loses something he should adopt the attitude of patience. Only one who can do s0 will pass God's Test Undeterred by the loss, my father.bought teak logs to rebuild his boat. I learned, as I watched hhim at work, that the main reason for teak wood's durability is that itis not eaten away by white 4 Albert Finstcn (1879-1955) vasa German-born theoretical physicist best known for his mase-enegy equivalence formula E = me2. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. Dr Kalam visited his former home on 28 May 2005 daring his state visit to Switzerland,6 ants. Wood normally serves as food for white ants and once they have made inroads into the wood, it quickly degenerates, But the bitter taste of teak is not to the liking of the white ant. To preserve teak, nature simply endowed the teak tree with such a property as would keep its insect attackers at bay. Taking a leaf out of nature's book, I decided that I would strive to develop qualities that would keep my enemies away from me. Inspired by my father’s hard work in rebuilding his boat, I ventured into my first line of work: selling tamarind seeds, The pressures of World War II on the textile, paper and jute industries created a sudden demand in the market of tamarind seeds. A paste made of the seeds was used as ‘a chemical for processing raw materials. I started going door to door, collecting seeds and selling them to the trading shop. A day’s work would fetch me the princely sum of one anna, which was ‘enough for a hearty meal at the time. I would proudly take the coin to my mother and give it to her for safekeeping, My father was pleased with my small enterprise. I overheard him praising me to my mother, He said that hard work, saving money and self-control are not important because they create wealth, but because they create character. “The characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.” My next ine of work was newspaper delivery; a common first job for youngsters throughout the world, India was forced to join the Allied Forces and troops were deployed in the Pamban area to counter any Japanese invasion by sea. The train halt at Rameswaram Railway Station was suspended and the train would now pass by it on the way to the Dhanushkodi terminus. My cousin Samsuddin entrusted me with the duties of collecting bundles of newspapers thrown by the guard from the moving train, and delivering the papers at people's doorsteps. ‘As I went about my deliveries, I noticed pictures of several national leaders printed on the pages of the papers. I was enthralled. The idea of an independent Indian nation was fast turning into a reality. At the end of World War IJ, it was clear that India would soon be free from British rule. Gandhiji declared, ‘Indians will build their own India.’ An unprecedented sense of hope filled the air, and my family were keen to participate in the making of the new nation. When the first panchayat board elections took place at Rameswaram, my father was voted president of the Panchayat Board. An incident that taught me much came from my father. One afternoon I was reading my lessons loudly in my home when a visitor came and asked for my father. I told him that my father had gone for Namaz. The man said, ‘I have brought something for him, can I keep it here?” I called out to my mother for her consent, but she was also praying and did not respond. I asked the man to leave the bundle of clothes on the cot, and I continued my study. 5 Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) was an American pastor regarded by Martin Luther King Jr. as ‘the greatest preacher of this century’. Dr Kalam would recite these lines from Fosdick’s hymn ‘God of Grace and God of Glory’ Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, est we miss your kingdom's goal?”‘When my father returned and saw the bundle, he asked me, ‘What is this? Who has left this here? I told him, ‘Somebody came and left this for you’ He became angry, and he reprimanded ‘me severely. I was frightened and started crying, My mother embraced and consoled me. When my father's anger subsided, he touched my shoulder lovingly and advised me never to receive any ‘untoward gift from anyone—ever. He told me that such a gift is always accompanied with hidden motives and so is dangerous. It is, he said, like being handed a snake, which will only poison you ‘with its bite. India gained independence on 15 August 1947. True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what is tight. A strange inner voice told me that it was time to leave the comfort of my small, idyllic town and move on. If you carry your childhood with you, you can never reach your potential. I took permission from my father to study in the high school at the district headquarters, Ramnad. My mother was hesitant, but she finally consented. She was like an immense tree for ‘me, whose shade had protected me from all my problems. My mother brought all the coins I had earned selling tamarind seeds and distributing newspapers, and said these would help pay for my school fees, When I resisted, she said, ‘Mothers only give. left my mother and father at our home in Rameswaram, and travelled with my elder cousin Samsuddin and brother-in-law Ahmed Jallaluddin to Schwartz High School at Ramnad. I was ‘enrolled in my new school as A.PJ, Abdul Kalam. The letters A, P and J indicated my lineage—my ‘great grandfather Avul, grandfather Pakir and father Jainulabdeen.(2) SNAaKEs AND Lappers ee ee ‘The roots of education are biter, but the Fi is sweet. A first found nothing much interesting in the Schwartz Higher Secondary School, The large living undet vows of poverty, chastity and Obedience in service to society rather than through isolated austerity and devotion, Lutherans did not take the Pope as their leader as Catholics did, They followed the doctrine of justification by grace alone, which means that simply by one's faith in Him, one removes the guilt of one’ sine 1 missed the simplicity of Father Bodal’s mass in the sermons here, for which attendance wae Sompulsory, and yearned to visit Rameswaram asInstead of visiting Rameswaram, I now spent my free time exploring the Ramnad town. One day, I went to see the Sethupathi Raja Palace. I learned from my new friends in the school that the Raja of Sivagangai and the Sethupathi of Ramanathapuram were great kings who were defeated by the Nawab of Arcot in the eighteenth century. The throne of Arcot had two rivals: Chanda Sahib and Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah. The British supported Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah, while the French supported Chanda Sahib. This paved the way for a series of military conflicts amongst ‘numerous nominally independent rulers and their vassals. These were struggles for succession and territory, fuelled by the struggle between the French East India Company and the British East India Company. ‘As a result of these military contests, the British East India Company established its dominance among the European trading companies within India, The French company was swept aside and largely confined to the enclaves of Pondicherry. In 1910, the British carved out a new district, ‘Ramnad, from portions of Madurai and Tirunelveli, in an effort to govern this area more tightly. I learned quite carly in life that “divide and rule’ is the politician's cry, just as ‘unite’ and ‘lead? are the watchwords of the wise. It was not our differences which divided us, It was our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences that allowed our great nation to be dominated by a much smaller, less prosperous one. Divisions kept us aground in the backwaters in the last centuries, missing any chance to set sail on the coming tides of fortune. ‘Annation is great, not because a few people are great, but because everyone in the nation is great” In my second year in Ramnad, I became acquainted-with STR. Manickam, a revolutionary nationalist who housed a large library of books. Manickam would encourage people to read his books for free. The first time I went to the library, it was out of curiosity. When I asked Manickam Sir to suggest a good book for me to read, he said, ‘Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.” 1 found great solace in the company of books in Manickam Sir’ library, and I became a regular visitor there. After about a year, by which time I had finished reading about ten books, Manickam_ Sir told me, ‘Keep reading books, but remember that a book is only a book, and you should learn to think for yourself? Manickam Sir had become one of my early mentors, and he instilled a love of books in me that would last a lifetime. Iyadurai Solomon, my teacher at Schwartz, was first to notice that the spark in my young mind had been kindled by the books from Manickam Sir’s library. I also felt a strong rapport with him. Tyadurai Solomon made me feel comfortable in class, with his warm and open-minded attitude. He would encourage me by saying that a good student could learn more from an ordinary teacher than, a poor student could even from the greatest teacher. 7. APJ Abdul Kalam, Arun Tiwasi, You are Bor fo Blosom, Ocean Books, 2008. p33.10 ‘My high-school years coincided with perhaps the most tumultuous period of our nation’s history. On 14 August 1947 Pakistan was declared a separate nation, and just after midnight, on 15 August 1947, India attained nationhood as well. Violent clashes between Hindus, Sikhs and ‘Muslims followed. Some fourteen million people were displaced during Partition, the largest mass migration in human history. Immediately after independence, armed tribal gangs from Pakistan invaded Kashmir. When India went to the United Nations complaining about this blatant act of aggression on its territory which had become part of India through an act of accession, the Western nations turned the whole issue on its head and declared Kashmir as a disputed territory. The upheaval after independence raged into the following year. At 5.17pm. on 30 January 1948, Mahatma Gandhi fell to an assassin's bullets at Birla House in New Delhi. He was about to attend a prayer meeting, I felt deeply saddened at the death of the father of our nation; shocked that anyone could kill him. I took some time away from school, and stayed at Rameswaram with my parents. There, I would hardly speak with anyone, and I often went to the mosque and sat there for hours, alone in contemplation, ‘One day my father sat by iny side and asked the reason for my sorrow: I said, ‘Father, our world is marred by injustice and dishonesty. There are all kinds of atrocities at both the individual and communal level. Why do people feel free to do as they please, without any moral consideration?” My father said, ‘God has not created people to be crazy. He has not created them to amuse himself, He hhas not created them just to eat, drink, sleep and have sexual relations. The freedom ‘which people abuse is not a gift, but an obligation, Our world is a testing place, and on the Day of Judgement all without exception will be called to account for how they have used this freedom. If they have ignored and denied the truth in this world, they shall be obliged to accept it, anyway. Their options will run out; trickery and pleas for mercy will be of no use. Finally, it will be too late either to beg for forgiveness or to attempt to ‘make amends? ‘My father then told me gently, ‘Son, do not ever wait to be forced to be good. Be good of your free will—here and now. And do not worry beyond a point about what is not in your control. Man is constantly under trial in this world. To pass all tests, you must learn your limitations along with your intellectual immeasurabilty. By doing so, you will be saving yourself from all ‘misapprehensions, and exercising your free will to the pleasure of God. Your heart has to take one step toward God, and His love will tke several steps toward you. “There is no knowledge without a teacher".n After my talk with my father, I felt comforted, and ready to return to school. Back at Schwartz, 1 felt quite at ease now, too. Its fusty buildings from a bygone era had become familiar, and though it lacked the warmth of my home town, I had found my place in learning, I had also forged lasting bonds with my teachers. I became especially close to my mathematics teacher, Ramakrishna Iyer. Ramamkrishna Sit had a special fondness for me, and inspired my love for mathematics. The power of mathematics, Ramakrishna Sir taught, is that it may change one thing into another—it can transform geometry into language. So it is with education: It transforms our animal instincts into rationality. Ramakrishna Iyer held a spiritual view of education. He believed that true education is not a process of pouring information into a student, but of calling forth what is already within. He saw it not as a process of memorization, but of nurturing, of allowing, of evoking: Education is, he told me, a process of bringing forth the person one is meant to be. For Ramakrishna Iyer, education ‘was, above all, in manifesting the inner divine potential of man. He once told me, “Book-based education cannot make a true man. Physical health, mental purity, intellectual acuteness, moral power and a spiritual outlook of life—with the correct effort supporting all of these—must combine for perfection to be achieved. Students should be thoroughgoing Brahmachasi (observing chastity), adherents to satya (cruth) and dharma (tighteousness), to fulfil their potential” Ramana Maharshi, the ancient sage of the modern era, died on 14 April 1950. There was a condolence meeting for him in the school. Students were told that Ramana Maharishi was noted for his belief in the power of silence and his relatively sparse use of speech. He also showed a complete lack of concern, it was said, for fame or criticism, and had an unusual love of creatures and plants. Ramakrishna Iyer told me that evening, ‘Sat-chit-ananda (existence, consciousness and bliss) is a description of the subjective experience of God. This sublimely blissful experience of the boundless, pure consciousness is a glimpse of ultimate reality.” Not understanding much of this, I at least gathered that if your inner world is peaceful and without conflict, your outer world will also be so. It was a valuable lesson to complete my high school education with ‘After high school, I decided to pursue a career in science, and I secured admission at St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli. Until then, I had never travelled beyond Ramnad; this would be my first exposure to a large town. At the geographical centre of Tamil Nadu, Tiruchirappalii was the capital of the early Cholas in the third century BCE. With the passage of time, power changed hands 8 Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) Dr Kalam declared on 1 October 2004 it Swamiis ancestral house in central Kola that these words of Swami Vivekananda had been his guide: Teach yourself teach everyone his real nature. Call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes, Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity ‘wil come, and everything that is excellent will come, when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity”2 between the Pallavas, medieval Cholas, Pandyas, Delhi Sultanate, Madurai Nayaks and finally rested with Chanda Sahib, Nawab of the Carnatic, before British rule, As with most of our glorious land, Tiruchirappalli’s rich heritage may still be seen in the monuments our forefathers have left for us. The Nayaks made Tiruchirapalli their capital in the seventeenth century and added to the existing Rock Fort Temple. The temple remains at the centre of the town, perched 83 metres high on a massive outctop, surveying the landscape with majesty. The buildings of the college were, I felt, just as magnificent. They had beautiful cloisters and spites like those of a centuries-old European institution. St. Joseph's College was established in 1844 by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits)—a male order of the Catholic Church—and had been affiliated to Madras University since 1869. I was lodged in a three-storey hostel building on campus, sharing a room with two other lads: an orthodox Iyengar Brahmin from Srirangam and a Syrian Christian from Kerala, For the first time, I was living with people whose upbringing was completely different from mine. I learned from this experience that harmony with others around you has little to do with their sharing a background or a faith. It is much more a matter of the harmony within yourself, It helped, too, that we maintained house rules and our hygiene, which are indispensible when you live in close quarters with others. ‘My roommates became close friends of mine, and we were a regular trio in and out of college. ‘The three of us would walk through the town together in our free time. Together, we once even climbed the 400-odd steps to the top of the Rock Fort Temple, without stopping Twas not a bright student at college in terms of examination grades, but I was studying hard and developing my mind. I knew by now that to succeed, I needed to develop a close and nurturing relationship with at least one teacher within the school. Our hostel warden and English lecturer Rex, Fr. Sequeira was one such teacher. He saw each student as an individual with hopes, dreams, strengths and vulnerabilities. Rev. Fr. Sequeia worked to create a classroom atmosphere in which every student could see every other student in this light; an atmosphere in which every student felt safe enough to share his thoughts and feelings. ‘Life is a moving, breathing thing, We have to be willing to constantly evolve. Perfection is constant transformation,’ he would say. I was fortunate to have other, equally enlightened lecturers. They motivated me to pursue higher education as much as they urged me to develop myself as a person, My mathematics tutor, Professor Thothathri Iyengar was particularly inspiring He and my other lecturers during these years helped me reach a higher state of being, of understanding, I would later come to know that no life can be purposeful without such a transformation. Itis subtle, because itis in the inner world; but its effects on the totality of one’s life are profound, As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us. The revolution that will save the world is ultimately a personal one. ‘One of my lecturers was particularly generous with his wisdom. In my third year at St. Joseph's,3 Iwas appointed secretary of the vegetarian mess. One Sunday, we invited the rector, Rev. Father Kalathil to lunch, He told me, ‘Kalam, don't waste your heart on this world, when God has already finished allotting you your shares init, and has decreed their appointed times, known only to Him. Every day, He supplies you once again with fresh sustenance, whether you are looking for it or not.” This marked the beginning of my year-long spiritual fellowship with a great Jesuit teacher. Rev. Father Kalathil wondered how ignorant are those who forget the power and the plan of the Originator and entangle themselves in the dynamics of secondary causes, Clinging to the latter and abandoning the former, people forget the everlasting and indulge in that which must pass. ‘Thanks to my teachers, I knew well as a youth that knowledge and devotion are the ladders to perfection. Conversely, the snakes of ignorance and hedonism will trap you in the lower levels of life's game, Or worse, they will consume you.[3] AUDACITY OF Hope ‘Nature is never in a hurry. It operates in terms of millions of years. A human life spanaiing 80 or 100 years is nothing but tiny fraction of nature's work. A human lifetime is just wasted if ici spent in an unawakened state or slumber” .en I was in my fourth and final year at St. Joseph's, I went one Thursday evening to the dargah of Natbar Vali, a Sufi saint who arrived in Tiruchirappall in the eleventh century. \Nathar Vali was among the first Sufis to bring Islam to South India and Sri Lanka. I sat for some hours at the dargah, quietly reflecting, After some time, a fakir appeared, as if from nowhere and sat down by my side. A “What are you seeking, young man?" he asked. is ‘Lam trying to see my real self I said. ‘So what is the problem? the Fakir asked. ‘Lam unable to sec it’, I said. ‘Scrub the naf?, said the fakir. ‘What is that?” I asked. ‘Nafé is a term for the baser, lower, egotistical and passionate facets of human nature which comprises the vegetative and animal aspects of human life that shroud one’s real self. The central aim of a good human life is get rid of the nafi to achieve a state of purity and submission to the will of God, said the fakir. ‘What are these various psycho-spiritual stages? Please explain, I am really ignorant, I said. “There are psycho-spiritual phenomena that go through a human life through the situations and circumstances God creates with a great purpose. There is galh It stands for the heart which is the cradle of thoughts and emotions. It is indeed the battleground of two warring armies: those of nafs ot passion, and rub or spirit. Cleaning of the galb is a necessary element in spiritual discipline for travellers on the right path. Then there is sirr, our egos. By emptying the sirr, we mean diverting one's attention from the mundane aspects of said life and fixing it on the spiritual realm? 9 APJ Abdul Kalam, Arun Tiwasi, Guiding Sons, Ocean Books, 2005. p. 37.15 “You have used two different verbs—cleansing of galb, and emptying of sirr. Why?” I inquired. “The cleaning involves removal of the bias of what one likes and dislikes so that what is good is taken and what is bad is rejected. The emptying signifies negation and obliteration of ego-centred human tendencies. It is indeed hard work. Constant prayer and vigil are needed to achieve the illumination of the spirit. This is the essential spiritual journey, said the fakir with a tone of finality, and he rose to leave. ‘Itis not in the stars to hold your destiny but in you."" Peace entered my heart. I did not get up to see the fakir off. I stayed sitting for another hour or so, That night, I enjoyed a sound and restful sleep and when I awoke the next morning, I immediately decided to cease my study of physics. I would pursue engineering instead. I knew I must do this to realize my dream of flying, Flying had captivated me from the moments when I saw scagulls aloft on the skies over Rameswaram’s waters, when Siva Subramania Iyer was teaching ‘our class how birds fly. I could easily have made a choice to study engineering two years earlier but fortunately, even now there was a suitable course at the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), I promptly applied for the three-year postgraduate diploma there in aeronautical engineering, My application was successful. Admission to this prestigious institution was costly, however. My sister Zohara came to my aid, awning her gold bangles and chain to provide for my admission fees. I was hesitant about taking +her help, but I had no other option. Zohara indeed taught me all about real sacrifice. That it should ‘be done from love. That it should be done from necessity, not without exhausting all other options. “That it should be done for people who need your strength because they don't have enough of their ‘own. I tried to emulate my sister’s generosity throughout my life by sharing what I had and giving freely to worthwhile charities. I quickly found my place at MIT. I was at ease with the study of engineering subjects, and I discovered my natural talent for technical drawing, I could easily look at things on different planes and from different perspectives; the plans, elevations and sections came to me with little struggle. “The course was fascinating, too. I studied aviation and control techniqués and defence systems that are used in airplanes and spacecraft. I felt a sense of purpose and satisfaction in acquiring skills to design, construct, develop, test and maintain any type of aircraft. I knew I had found my vocation. ‘The department's learning atmosphere was intense, and the faculty comprised highly regarded international experts. Ours was a small class of about eight or nine students, which allowed me to interact closely with my lecturers, along with my classmates. 1 felt a special affinity with Prof. Sponder, my teacher for technical aerodynamics. He was an. ‘Austrian scientist who had been captured by the Nazis during World War II and imprisoned in 10 William Shakespeare. Dt Kalam did not read Shakespeare extensively but used this quote from Shakespeare's play Jus Cantar whenever he found anyone cribbing about destiny.16 concentration camp. Incidentally Prof, Walter Repenthin, a German, headed the aeronautical engineering department. We had another German lecturer, the legendary Prof. Kurt Tank. Prof, ‘Tank had designed the Fockle-Wilf FW 190 single-seat fighter plane, an outstanding combat aircraft of World War I. The tension between the German professors and Prof. Sponder was clearly apparent. “When the student is ready the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready .. The teacher will disappear.” 1 admired Prof. Sponder’s individuality and high professional standards. He was always calm, ‘energetic and in total control of himself. Prof. Sponder kept abreast of latest technologics and expected his students to do likewise. I would spend much time talking with him, and we took regular late evening strolls through the sprawling MIT campus. Prof, Sponder told me that he indeed envied the great Indian civilization and the enduring identity of the Indian people. He explained that Austria has faced numerous problems throughout its history. Within Austria there are large regional variations, and parts of Austria have at various times wished to become part of adjacent countries. Prof. Sponder said that while Indians didn’t invade other countries, their great civilization has ‘digested’ the religions and customs of its invaders. ‘Most invaders would never return to their lands; they would become over time, Indian themselves. Another lecturer who made a strong impression on me was Prof, K.V.A. Pandalai, who taught me aero-structure design and analysis. Prof. Pandalai was a cheerful, friendly and enthusiastic teacher who would bring a fresh approach to the course every year. I gained a greater understanding of intellectual integrity from Prof, Pandalai. I had learned early in my life the need to be true to one’s own thinking, This was simple enough, Prof. Pandalai taught me a higher principle: To hold myself to the same rigorous standards of evidence and proof to which I held others. From that time, I adopted this principle, and it kept me firmly grounded throughout my career. Intellectual integrity is related to intellectual humility, which Prof. Pandalai also stressed. Prof. Pandalai taught me how to be conscious of the boundaries of my knowledge and that I should never suecumb to bias, prejudice and limitations of my viewpoint. This is not just a moral issue: staying conscious of the limits of your knowledge permits you to learn new things—and keeps you from making unnecessary mistakes. Iwas truly fortunate. My lecturers were enlightened people, and they taught much beyond the curriculum, Prof, Narasingha Rao, a mathematician, not only taught me theoretical aerodynamics but also helped me appreciate more abstract thinking, I learned from him that no matter what your field of study, you can learn more from studying God's contribution to that field than the contributions of all the world’s experts. 11 Lao Tau, ancient Chinese philosopher, Dr Kalam considered this quote as the truest interpretation of a teacher~ student relationship. 'Each one of us is here to learn from others and teach others around us’ he would say7 Prof, Rao would say that God is infinite, because God has no beginning or end. He has always existed and always will. On the other hand, we humans are ‘semi-infinite’ because we have beginnings in our births, but our souls will exist forever. Knowing this, I came to the conclusion that from an ‘eternal perspective, the length of time between birth and bodily death is not very important. cis in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped." Although this length of time may not be so important, my experience was showing me that what you do with it is crucial. In my final year, I was assigned a project to design a low-level attack aircraft with four other colleagues. I assumed the responsibility of overall design and preparing the drawings. My teammates distributed amongst themselves the tasks of designing the propulsion, structure, control and instrumentation of the aircraft. We worked at our assignment for some time. When Prof. K. Srinivasan, the guide and the Director of MIT reviewed our work, he bluntly expressed his disappointment, saying our progress was dismal. I asked for another month’s time to complete our assignment, but Prof, Srinivasan was not at all sympathetic. He told me, ‘Look, young man, today is Friday afternoon. I will give you three days’ time. By Monday morning, if I don’t get the configuration design, your scholarship will be stopped? I was deeply shocked by Prof. Srinivasan’s ultimatum, as the scholarship was my lifeline. If it were to be stopped, I would not be able to continue with my studies. There was no option but to finish the task within the three days our director had set, which seemed impossible. I spoke with my team members. We quickly agreed we had to work together around the clock, and none of us slept that night. The professor's deadline demanded this, Each of us worked at the drawing board and skipped dinner. Ont Saturday, I took only one hour's break. On Sunday morning, Iwas close to completing my designs when I felt someone's presence in the laboratory. It was Prof. Srinivasan, checking on our work. After looking at my drawings, he patted me and hugged me affectionately. ‘I knew I was putting you under stress and asking you to meet a difficult deadline. No stress, no progress!” learned an inescapable truth from this experience. I realized that we are all playing the ultimate game of life, regardless of whether we want to or not. Those who play the game well win in life while those who play it poorly suffer. And those who do not know they are playing the game are subject to the cruellest of fates. Our destiny is to win at the ultimate game of life, for our destination is to sit with God. The fates of life only step in when we play the game poorly or refuse to play it ata. 12 Dr Kalam liked Tony Robbins's books Unlimited Paver, Unleash the Poner Within and Amin the Giant Within and watched a few of Robbins’ lectures on YouTube.18 “There sa divine purpose behind everything, a divine presence in everything” When I graduated from MIT, I was twenty-six years old and ready to play the game of life. I was selected as a graduate trainee at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bangalore. My first placement was in the engine division at HAL, which dealt with the overhauling of both piston and turbine aircraft engines. Exactitude in this work is crucial; the result of tardiness can be catastrophic. This was surely good training for my later career in rocketry After some time, two other employment opportunitics presented themselves. The Indian Air Force offered positions through short service commission, and the Directorate of Technical Development and Production (DTD&P) (Ait), under the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, advertised positions for engineers. I applied for both and was called for interviews in January 1958 by the Indian Air Force at Dehradun and DTD&P (Ait) at New Delhi. I had until this time never travelled beyond the southern regions of the subcontinent. Now, I would have to venture into the vast expanses of my country. I boarded the Grand Trunk (GT) Express at Madras Central Station and managed to secure a window seat. The journey of two nights and a day changed my view of our land and its history. I could understand why the rich and fertile plains of the Ganga River and its numerous tributaries invited invasion from the people of hostile desert and mountainous lands. I saw, too, how the part of India south of the Tropic of Cancer remained largely untouched and safe behind the shield of the Vindhya and the Satpura mountain ranges. The Narmada, Tapti, Mahanadi, Godavari and Krishna Rivers had also woven a net of protection for the tapering Indian peninsula. Only the most determined of invaders could reach the far south of India. ‘After appearing for the interview at DTD&P (Ait), I took a train to reach Dehradun. It passed. through the historic city of Meerut, where India’s First War of Independence began on 10 May 1857. I stopped at Roorkee and visited the dargah Pitan Kaliyar, which had been sanctified by the thirteenth-century Sufi saint of the Chishti Order, Alauddin Ali Ahmed Sabir Kalyari. I felt calm; infused with spiritual energy by the time I reported at the Air Force Selection Board (1AFSB) located in Clement Town at Dehradun. 1 easily cleared the Stage-I tests, which consisted of an intelligence test (IQ Test) and several other examinations conducted on the first day. Twenty-five candidates were sclected for the Stage- IK testing, which consisted of a psychological test and group tests spread over five days. I passed all of them, Finally, I was interviewed on the last day, along with my fellow hopefuls. I finished ninth in the batch of twenty-five examined through Stage-II, to select eight officers. I was deeply disappointed; shocked, even. It took me some time to comprehend that the opportunity to join the Air Force had just slipped away from me. 13 Neale Donald Walsch (b. 1943) is an American author ofthe nine-book series Conercations with God. Dr Kalam read ‘the entire series and discussed with me at length his 2014 book Gad Message tothe World: You'e Gat Me All Wrong,19 Feeling despondent and lost for purpose, I decided to spend some time in Rishikesh before I travelled to Delhi. I bathed in the Ganga and walked into the Sivananda Ashram situated a litle way up the hill. There I met Swami Sivananda. My Muslim name aroused no teaction in Swamiji, ‘who inquired about the source of my sorrow, even before I uttered a word. I narrated to him my unsuccessful attempt to join the Indian Air Force and my long-cherished desire to fly. My dreams, Ttold Swami, had just been shattered. ‘Swamiji told me to take life in his stride as it unfolds: ‘Accept your destiny and go ahead with your life. You are not destined to become an ait force pilot. What you are destined to become is not clear to you now but it will be at the sight time. Forget this failure for it has its own purpose to lead you to your destined path. ‘Become one with yourself tha is all you have to do, the rest is done to you. Have faith in God and live your life without fear and with hope in God's good will, A {aithfal person constantly devotes the greater part of his days and nights in the hope of a better future for everyone around him. He goes beyond the ordinary customs of people, so the customary order of things will be certainly rearranged for his benefit. You ‘ill receive provision from sources you could never imagine, which you will be offered and ordered to accept? Swamiji’s words stayed with me after [eft the ashram, as if they had been recorded in my mind. was ready to leave the foothills of the Himalayas, the holy country of rishis and sages, and make my way back to a more mundane world. On the train making its way back to Delhi, I felt ready, too, to walk my destined path—even if this was not the way Thad planned.[4] MEANDERING AcCROss THE Mu: “There is always a danger thata person with my kind of background—rural or small town, ‘middle-class, whose parents had limited education —will retreat into a corner and remain there struggling for bare existence, unless some great turn of circumstances propels him into a more favourable environment. I knew I had to ereate my own opportunities.” returned to Delhi and joined the Directorate of Technical Development and Production (Ait) as part of the Technical Centre (Civil Aviation). This organization carried out field inspections of military aircraft, airborne systems and other aeronautical equipment. As a Senior Scientific Assistant (6SA), T would inspect and certify aircraft for airworthiness, for which I would earn a basic salary of Rs. 250 per month. Airworthiness is the measure of an aircraft's suitability for safe flight. For a young man with a dream of becoming a pilot, it was a huge disappointment. I decided, however, that I would not dwell too much on my setback at Dehradun. If Iwas not flying aeroplanes, at least I would be helping to keep them fit to fly. After some time, I treated my failure to join the Air Force as a looking glass. It was time for ‘me, I felt, to recognize what I actually amounted to and be modest about myself. Do we humans not begin as a nasty-looking liquid and end up as a corpse to be burned or buried? Sobered and grounded in my reality, I attended to my work with the discipline of a soldier and the equanimity of a saint. Nevertheless, I would at times feel pangs of creative energy, and wonder if this was the correct line of work for me. I was kept busy enough not to have too much time to think, though. After a few months, I was sent to the Aircraft and Armament Testing Unit (A&ATU) at Kanpur. There, I was to participate in the tropical evaluation of the British Folland Gnat. This was a single-scat lightweight ground-attack and interceptor fighter aircraft which was to be inducted into the Indian Air Force. Even in those days, Kanpur was a crowded, bustling city, and far from comfortable. My stay there too brought my first experience of a north Indian winter. For a young man accustomed to the year-round warmth of the deep tropics, its chill was a rude shock. Used to eating rice as I was, then, I was also particularly troubled by seeing potato dishes on the table at every meal. 14 APJ Abdul Kalam, Arun Tiwari, Wings of Fir, University Press, 1999, p. 28,a T felt drawn into the mood of loneliness that hung over Kanpur, despite the presence of so ‘many people there. It is a mood which one can often feel in big cities. The people on the streets hhad all come from their villages in search of jobs in Kanpur’s factories. They had left behind the scent of their soil and the protection of their families—everything that grounded them and gave them purpose. How could these people—harassed, living on pittances and meandering across the mundane—be the creatures of a magnificent and caring God? I wondered. D> With few people to talk to in Kanpur, I developed the habit of reading newspapers, particularly the editorial pages. I became aware of the simmering trouble between India and China. Persecuted by the Chinese military, the Dalai Lama, ruler of Tibet, reached the Indian border on 30 March. 1959, Indian guards escorted him to the town of Bomdila in present day Arunachal Pradesh. The Indian government had already agreed to provide asylum to the Dalai Lama and his followers in India, Soon, the Tibetan Government in Exile was established at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh. ‘The Dalai Lama’s troubles led me to reflect on the state of the world. Why must people of peace and worship suffer brute military force? Had evolution made humans naturally peaceful, or was mankind more naturally prone to violence? “You must not lose faith in humanity: Hurnanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." Mankind, I saw, was not only committing acts of aggression against its own kind, it was also ruining the planet's ecology. On 13 February 1960, France conducted its first nuclear test, code- named Gerboise Bleue (Blue Desert Rat) in the Sahara Desert of Algeria. With an explosive yield of 70 kilotons, it was around four times as powerful as the ‘Little Boy’ nuclear bomb the US dropped ‘on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Nuclear testing in Algeria resulted in massive environmental degradation, such as the movement of sand dunes in areas already affected by wind erosion. Radiation from the blast led to a decline in livestock and biodiversity, including the disappearance of a number of migratory and endemic reptiles and birds. How could man wreak such havoc on his own species and his own planet? I spent many lonely nights pondering such matters. Iwas not grown enough to know the answers, but questions still nagged at my mind. I could see that violence, reconciliation, and cooperation are all part of human nature. I understood too, that evolution didn’t just shape man to be violent or peaceful: it shaped man to respond flexibly to different circumstances—and to risk violence only when it made adaptive sense to do so. I was saddened that instead of competing for food, which had become relatively easy to obtain in most parts of the world, mankind was now competing for ‘material resources like oil and minerals. My stay in Kanpur had broadened my horizons, but work would take me back to the familiar world of the south before long, A large number of aeronautical projects were undertaken in the 15 Mahatma Gandhi2 1950s and 1960s at HAL. The Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) was created in 1959 in Bangalore to provide research and development support to HAL. Acronautical engineers working in various organizations supporting military aviation were pooled to form the core team of the new organization, and I was among them. We were tasked with sourcing equipment for the Indian Air Force. As Iwas entering the ADE, Air India International was entering the jet age. On 21 February 1960, Air India International acquired a Boeing 707-420 aircraft, becoming the first Asian airline to induct a jet aircraftin its fleet. Jet services to New York International Airport, Anderson Field (later JK. International Airport) via London were inaugurated that same year, on 14 May. On 8 June 1962, the airline's name was officially shortened to Air India. On 11 June 1962, Air India became the world’s first alljet airline. India was also beginning to find its fect as a scientific nation in the eatly 1960s. The five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were in place by this time, in Kharagpur (established in the year 1950), Bombay (in 1958), Madras and Kanpur (in 1959) and Delhi (in 1961). In order to make these institutes truly world class, the academic bureaucracy sought help from abroad. Soviet Russia assisted in setting up the IIT in Mumbai. The US helped setting up IIT, Kanpur. Germany had amassed trade surpluses, and the German government was persuaded to support an IIT in the south. The German government had initially proposed Bangalore as the location for the institute. C. Subramaniam, the education minister lured the German government representatives to Madras though, handing over the governor's estate for the new campus. The government of the United Kingdom and the Federation of British Industries assisted in setting up IT, Delhi. found Bangalore, the ‘Garden City of India’, great place to live. Itwasa contrast to the crowded and polluted Kanpur, and highborn, arrogant Delhi. I had, by now, internalized the pluralism in the great Indian society. India had an uncanny way of bringing out extremes in her people. It was, T guessed, because Indians had both suffered and benefitted from centuries of migration. As a survival strategy, the Indian people had developed an extraordinary ability to be compassionate and cruel, sensitive and callous, deep and fickle—all at the same time. Caste-mindedness and loyalty to different rulers, too, had weakened the will of Indian people for a single alliance. The making of a modern, unified nation still remained a work in progress. And it was painfully slow. Our divisions had left us weak— this, the nation would soon see. “Peace is not absence of contlic; i isthe ability to handle contlict by peaceful means.”* On 21 September 1962, a border dispute between China and India erupted into full-scale war. It started with a major Chinese offensive in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line. The McMahon Line was a line on the map that had been agreed by the British and ‘Tibetan governments in 1914 as the territorial border. With the annexation of Tibet by China, the McMahon Line was the effective 16 Ronald Reagan, the 4th President of the United States, wasn office from 1981 t0 1989. Dr Kalam’ determination for India wo possess nuclear weapons was so nuclear weapons would never be used against Indi.2 border between India and China. The Sino-Indian War was a national humiliation for India, with China quickly advancing from the McMahon Line into Indian territory. The Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain pledged military aid to India. China then withdrew its forces, and the war ended on 19 November 1962, "The war was a textbook case of the prepared overwhelming the unprepared. India’s defeat was less due to its troops, who were outnumbered by the Chinese force pethaps eight to one, than divisions between its argumentative politicians and bickering generals, The Chinese leadership, in contrast, was organized and decisive. ‘The Sino-Indian War made a strong impression on me, not the least for how India must be prepared to defend its territory. The nation’s land borders extend 15,107 kilometres and are shared with seven countries, some of which have competing interests—and may at times even harbour terrorists. This demands armed forces which are properly equipped and ready for combat. Diplomacy and moral conduct are essential, for without these, a nation suffers just as a person does in their absence. But we must never forget, too, a fundamental law of nature: Strength respects strength. “There is no substitute for patience and acceptance.’” Against a backdrop of widespread concern for our nation’s safety, I began my reach for the heavens. A new organization, the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) ‘was set up in 1962 under the Department of Atomic Energy. Dr Vikram Sarabhai, director of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad, was at its helm. The organization was given the task of formulating the Indian Space Programme. Dr Sarabhai played several roles in his efforts to nurture the fledgling space programme. He ‘was a roving diplomat, teacher, strategist, friend, counsellor, leader and system builder. Within Inia, the unusual combination of his scientific reputation, aristocratic background and disarming simplicity created a loyalty—often amounting to devotion—among those who knew him. INCOSPAR commenced its work as part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, led by Prof. M.G.K. Menon. Its first task was to attract good people and groom them with necessary skills and competencies. It was this that brought Prof. Menon to ADE, Bangalore, where he spoke with me and asked me to join the organization. INCOSPAR’ first objective was quite straightforward: To establish a modest sounding rocket" launching installation at Thumba in Kerala, From there, it would provide facilities to the international scientific community to gather data. Although there was initially no mention of 47 Cesar Chaver (1927-1993) was an American labour leader and civil rights activist. Dr Kalam took his slogan ‘I ean do it from his Spanish ‘Si, se puede’, which means "Yes, one can’ or “Yes, it ean be done’. 18 Sounding rockets are launched with scientific instruments to probe the upper atmosphere and space.a developing satellites and satellite launch vehicles”, Dr Sarabhai must have had it in mind. Among the locations closest to the equator in India, and situated on the coast, Thumba was ideally situated for launching geostationary satellites”. “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. ... Every step forward requires sacrifice, the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” ‘Thumba was a small village known only for its fishing, A site extending a distance of about two. and a half kilometres and covering about 250 hectares was identified by the INCOSPAR team. Within this area stood an ancient church of St. Mary Magdalene at Pallithura and the bishop’s residence. Prof. Vikram Sarabhai met several politicians and bureaucrats for help in obtaining the land, but his efforts were wasted. Determined to succeed and convinced of the purity of his mission, Prof. Sarabhai decided to mect the bishop and plead his case personally. At that time, Rev: Father Peter Bernard Pereira was the bishop. Prof. Sarabhai met him on a Saturday. The bishop heard him patiently and asked him to come to the Sunday morning mass, where he would present the matter before the community. Acthe mass the following morning, the Bishop said, “My children, I have a famous scientist with me who wants our church and the place live for the work of space science research. Its true that science enriches human life. What he is doing and what Iam doing are the same. Within six months, our abode and church will be newly built and given to us, Children, can we give them God’s abode, my abode ‘and your abode for a scientific mission?” ‘There was a pin-drop silence for a few moments, then a loud ‘Amen’ from the congregation filled the church. ‘The bishop and his congregation’s warm gesture for the greater good would pay dividends for the nation over the following decades. Our team quickly set to work on the site, making use of whatever we could there for our purposes. TERLS (Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station) was soon up and running. Our pioneering space programme was not the least bit fancy, though. The church building served as the main office for the scientists. The bishop's house was converted into a workshop. Even a cattle shed became a makeshift laboratory for the sounding rockets. Our work of establishing TERLS was an enormous task. Facilities needed to be built, and we 19 A satellite launch vehicle is a rocket used to carry a satellite from the Earth's surface into outer space. 20 A geostationary satllte is 2 satelite placed in 2 geostationary orbit. This is a circular orbit 35,786 kilometres (22,236 mi) above the Earth's equator. It follows the dection of the Earth's rotation, such thatthe satellite appears ‘motionless, staying in a fixed position in the sky to ground observers. 21 Martin Luther King Jt. (1929 ~1968) was leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Dr Kalam saw King as his alter ego and was deeply pained he was assassinated on 4 April 1968. Decades later, Dr Kalam based his ‘Dream, dream, dream ..” slogan on the famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech of Martin Luther King Jt25 hhad to bring ourselves up to speed on unfamiliar technology. While it was a classic bootstrapping effort, our passion for the work fuelled our efforts. There were no strict working hours, and it was common practice for scientists at Thumba to work as much in a day as they could, only stopping in time to catch the last bus of the evening, Before long, the management arranged for a Jeep to take the scientists home after late-night shifts. While the facility was being bul, it was decided to send seven rocket engineers for training with ‘NASA in the United States. I was among the seven chosen.[5] FRoM A COCOON, THE BUTTERFLY ‘America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. group of four of us, all engineers, travelled to the Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, Virginia, in March 1963. The centre conducted basic research in a variety of fields for aeronautical and space flight. It also had management responsibility for the Lunar Orbiter and Viking projects and the Scout launch vehicles. We lived in the hostel attached to the centre and ‘would eat at the self-service cafeteria, trying to pick vegetarian fare from among the many meat dishes. Mashed potatoes, boiled beans or peas, bread and lots of milk soon became my staple diet. After completing our training at LaRC, we went to Goddard Space Flight Centre (GSFC) at Greenbelt, Maryland. GSFC was named after Dr Robert H. Goddard, a rocket theorist and practical inventor who first launched a liquid-propellant rocket in March 1926. Goddard Space Flight Centre was responsible for unmanned spacecraft and sounding rocket experiments. It also operated the worldwide Space Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STADAN), which later became Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (STDN); and it managed the development and launch of the Thor-Delta launch vehicle. In the third and final phase of our training we were posted at the Wallops Flight Centre (WFC) at Wallops Island in Virginia. WEC was the only rocket flight-test range owned and operated by NASA, Wallops launched Scout boosters and sounding rocket experiments, with instrumentation developed by scientists and engineers throughout the United States and the world. Our visit to America was not all work. On weekends we would go to Washington D.C. on an old Dakota plane, which NASA used to fly free of charge for its employees. Hotels at Washington offered discounted room charges for NASA personnel then, but it was still about $6 per night, and too costly for us. We would save what money we had and stay awake overnight, roaming all over the US capital before catching the early-morning shuttle flight back to Wallops. 22 Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States (1945-1953). He made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Dr Kalam always referred to Truman as ‘the bomb fellow’‘God has no intention of setting a limit to the efforts of man to conquer space!” Immediately upon my return to Thumba, the Nike Apache rocket was successfully launched with the Vapour Cloud payload, on 21 November 1963. This marked the beginning of the Indian space programme. It was followed by launches of Russian M-100 and French Centaure sounding, rockets. While the M-100 could carry a payload of 70 kilograms to an altitude of 85 kilometres, the Centaure was capable of reaching 150 kilometres with a payload of approximately 30 kilograms. Facilities were still very basic at the Thumba site. The launch pads were still being built; and since the only vehicle there was always busy, we had to either walk ot use a bicycle to move within the range. Not being a cyclist, I would often hitch a ride on the back of a bicycle with a colleague. ‘We would even tie rocket parts and payloads to the bicycle frame to take them from place to place in the complex. ‘Once we had become used to launching foreign-made rockets, our task was to build the first modern Indian-designed rocket. In a sense, there was a historical symmetry to this. Rockets had first made their impression on the world in south India, under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan late in the eighteenth century. These Mysorean rulers had successfully deployed thousands of Mysorean rockets against British East India Company forces, who had been awed by their glare and terrifying, destruction. “The rocket we planned to build, of course, would have quite a different purpose. Its payload was to be research instruments, which it would carry into the sub-orbital region in the upper atmosphere to collect scientific data, Our first sounding rocket was named RH-75: ‘RH’ was for ‘Rohini’, the name of the rocket series, and ‘75° was its diameter of 75 millimetres. It was a 1.5 metre-long rocket, so small and thin it looked like a pencil from a distance. The RH-75 made its, maiden flight on 20 November 1967. This was the fifty-second launch of a sounding rocket from, TTERLS. It was flown twice again in 1967 and another twelve times in 1968, making a total of fifteen RH-75 fights. Our groundbreaking indigenous rocket was a success. ‘There were other exciting challenges before us. NASA was planning a series of Applications ‘Technology Satellite (ATS) launches. The Applications Technology Satellites were to be placed into a geostationary orbit, where they would perform functions in communication, meteorology and navigation. NASA made mention of its need to field-test an ATS project, which involved direct television broadcast for receivers, from a satellite. The three countries that were large enough and close enough to the equator for testing a direct-broadcast geostationary satellite at that time were Brazil, China, and India. 23. De Kalam regularly quoted Pope Pius XII (1939-1958), who headed the Roman Catholic Church atthe dawn of the space age, during his numerous speeches to medical professionals and researchers. Dr Kalam emphasized the rights ‘and dignity of patients and medical responsibilities. He also underlined the moral implications of psychological illnesses and the uses of psychopharmaceuticals—and the rights of family members to make decisions against ‘expert medical advice28 Brazil proved uninterested; its population was mostly concentrated in a few cities, and _ conventional television broadcast technology was clearly a better solution. The People’s Republic of China was out of the picture for political reasons. India was therefore the only feasible option for an ATS field test. It was densely populated, yet only Delhi had a television transmitter—a small ‘one, left behind by a Dutch electronics company after a trade show. ‘Come, my friends, tis not too late to seek a newer world ... Dr Sarabhai cleverly seized this opportunity. He requested NASA to provide INCOSPAR an ATS satellite for a year to conduct a satellite instructional television experiment in India’s villages. He saw a great opportunity to convince India of the need to invest heavily in space technology. It was a unique chance, he well knew, for INCOSPAR to learn the ground segment of a satellite system from the Americans. It was a priceless opportunity too for a whole generation of Indian scientists and engincers to be initiated in this technology. The organization would also receive a systems management lesson for later building our own satellite. (On the strength of Dr Sarabhai’s persuasion, the Indian Department of Atomic Energy and NASA signed an agreement for the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) in 1966, With these developments, the Indian government soon recognized the role of space communications in nation building, An Experimental Satellite Communication Earth Station (ESCES) was established in 1967 at Ahmedabad. On 15 August 1969, INCOSPAR, under the Department of Atomic Energy, was made independent as the Indian Space Research Organization, and the Department of Space was created by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. ‘Understanding paradoxes is essential. Most of the time, you are not able to live by the golden mean, but you must live without rest in tension between mutually exclusive demands.” Freedom comes from strength and self-determination. These were goals of decades and generations when the nation was starting its space programme from scratch. Dr Vikram Sarabhai could see that for India to become a spacefaring nation, it would have to forge a series of partnerships with nations at the forefront in space technology. India, in turn, would have to offer its cooperation to these nations. Coupled with hard work, this could allow, over time, the country to build a thriving technological sector. It is impossible to get something for nothing Vikram Sarabhai’ practical approach to developing indigenous technology was inspiring for me. In one sense, it seemed the very opposite of the swadeshi philosophy: It was likely, though, the most effective and sensible means of achieving swadeshi aims in those times. Some would have 24 Alfred Lord Tennyson in ‘Ulysses’. Dr Kalam would quote Tennyson's famous line from his poem ‘Sir Galahad’ “My strength is as the strength of ten; Because my heart is pute?” 25 APJ Abdul Kalam, Arun Tiwari, Guiding Souls, Ocean Books, 2005, p. 108,29 hhad us shut our doors to the world to become more self sufficient in those years. Dr Sarabhai demonstrated that by opening doors and inviting discussion and cooperation from abroad, far more can be accomplished, His approach was as much about cooperation within the nation’s technology community as it was about international associations. In January 1968, Dr Sarabhai called me to Delhi, and showed me a Russian rocket-assisted take-off (RATO) system at Tipat range. He entrusted me: and an Air Force Group Caprain, Narayanan, with the duty of making the rocket in India. The RATO system would be used for helping military aircraft into the air on short Himalayan runways. The development work was to be carried out at the Space Science and Technology Centre where I was working with the Defence Research and Development Organization (ORDO), HAL, DTD&P (Ait) and Air Headquarters. Here I was, an Indian rocket engineer and Air Force Group Captain, liaising with numerous bodies within our nation’s defence establishment. Our task was to build a rocket of a design that had been given freely by the Russian government. It was truly a case of myriad partnerships; collaboration across international borders and between Indian institutions. 1 always believed in the value of institutions. India’s ancient civilization has survived because of its institutions—and I mean this in the broader sense of the word. Our nation and culture have survived successive invasions over thousands of years, and more recently colonial rule and other setbacks. This is because our people have lived as members of institutions —of families and ‘communities—tather than as individuals. ‘The strength of our institutions is just as relevant for the individual as it is for the nation. Indian people always found meaning in their lives not by their individual strength, but from living in harmonious social relationships. And to be successful, you most surely need to find a place for yourself in your family, schools, colleges and the many worldly institutions that you encounter in your professional life. It is your duty to yourself as much as to those around you. Group Captain Narayanan and I, two very different men but both products of intensive training in institutions, had quite a challenge ahead of us. The Russian RATO Dr Sarabhai had shown us ‘was impressive. This 220 kilogram unit was capable of generating a 3000 kgf thrust with a total impulse of 24,500 kilogram seconds. Our duty was to fit an Indian version of the rocket on the HF-24 Marut jet fighter bomber, an aircraft designed by my former professor at MIT, Kurt Tank, Narayanan and I seemed an odd pair to head this project. He was a perfectly groomed, forceful military officer; organized and impatient. I was a scientist and engineer, comparatively casual in manner and dress, With a select team, we had to achieve our goal within only eighteen months. By this time, I knew that technology is only useful if itis relevant to people; it must be meaningful for them, and they must see thatitis for their benefit. I understood too that any promising carly-stage technologies developed in laboratories required ‘maturation’. This means additional development, testing, prototyping; and only then are the technologies ready for use in their intended application.30 ‘This project was to requite all these steps. With the RATO, I had opted for a composite structure for the motor, using filament fibreglass and epoxy: I also used composite propellant with event- based ignition and a real-time jettisoning system. These were fairly new technologies, and needed much development. The first static test of the RATO motor was conducted in February 1969. Another sixty-four tests followed in the next four months. All this was accomplished with only owenty engineers working on the project. The RATO project was a success; and it was achieved by partnerships between defence institutions and with the help of private organizations. earned the secret of managing technology intensive projects through the RATO project. The proper combination of technology and human skills is full of promise but hard to realize. Failure here most often lies in the mishandling of the technology: Lack of knowledge and inadequate skills lead to this mishandling. Knowledge and skills must be properly developed for success— knowledge comes from learning; skills come by doing. And there ate no shortcuts here. It is much the same for every field or profession. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” Another factor which allowed Group Captain Narayanan and me to successfully oversee the RATO project was Dr Sarabhai’s approach. He supported our project wholeheartedly. But more than that, he placed trust in us, and allowed us the freedom to work efficiently whenever we requested it. He agreed to my request for us to use air freight and travel by air rather than train to save time, which was most unusual in those days. He also granted his permission for private companies to assist us where we felt it was necessary. Trust, I would come to understand, is the basis of all productive business. I would draw other conclusions from the RATO project. We often hear of ‘born leaders’, which tends to discourage the less forceful among us from taking on leadership roles. Leadership, I now knew, was something that could be learned and developed over time. Leadership comprises specific ‘mental and interpersonal skills that are accessible to everyone, not only a select few: In order to master these skills individuals must view them as behaviours that require careful reflection, evaluation and practice. The learning of leadership is as much an inner process 2s itis in learning to deal with others. It is useless to develop externally oriented abilities without working on internally oriented ones. The internal work includes gaining self-awareness, asking powerful questions, communicating with a purpose and developing an entrepreneurial mindset. 26 John Quiney Adams was the 6th president of the United States (1825-1829), Dr Kalam would tlk of the fundamentals of American foreign policy laid down by Adams—self- determination, independence, non- colonization, non-intervention, non-entanglement in European politics, freedom of the seas and freedom of commerce—and how the US under later presidents abandoned all of these31 Dr Sarabhai, a brilliant leader himself, understood that becoming a leader was also about taking the best advantage of the circumstances around you. ‘How else would you climb the ladder of success; he would ask us, ‘without stepping on the rungs of opportunity?” ‘A new leadership challenge awaited me after the RATO project’s completion. Dr Sarabhai released a ten-year plan for space research in the country. This document made it clear that the long-term goal of thé ISRO would be for national development. The ISRO, it said, must help the nation by focusing on tclecommunication, remote sensing for resource surveys and meteorology. For this, we needed to design, fabricate and launch Indian satelite, including geosynchronous”” ones, with Indian launch vehicles. I was handpicked by Dr Sarabhai as the project director for building the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLY). The SLV was to be a four-stage” rocket with all solid-propellant motors. This would be the first indigenous rocket to put a satellite in a low-earth orbit, which means at an altitude of between 160 kilometres (c. 100 miles) and 2,000 kilometres (c. 1,200 miles). There, the satellite would have an orbital period of between approximately 88 and 127 minutes. Objects below 160 kilometres of altitude would experience very rapid orbital decay and altitude loss under the gravitational pull of the earth, Our target was to put a 40 kilogram satellite load into a 400 kilometre orbit. ‘The active international cooperation which nursed the ISRO in its eatly years was now to give ‘way to self-reliance and the development of indigenous technology. The organization was to work ‘on spacecraft subsystems like apogee and booster motors, momentum wheels and solar panel deployment mechanisms. The plan promised technological spin-offs like gyroscopes, transducers, telemetry, special materials, adhesives and polymers. These could be developed by the ISRO and later used for general industrial applications to boost the nation’s manufacturing sector. We would still ake note of existing, successful technology from overseas. Our starting point for the SLV would be the Scout (an acronym for Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test system). ‘The Scout was designed in 1957 at the US Langley Research Center, where I had trained with my colleagues. It was the first, and for a long time, the only orbital launch vehicle with a four-stage, all- solid propulsion design, The standard Scout launch vehicle was approximately 23 metres (75 feet) in length with a launch weight of 21,500 kilograms (47,398 pounds). It was a long way from the tiny RH-75 with which we had begun our indigenous space programme. By 1971, the design phase of the launcher was complete, and of the six designs the team had produced, Dr Sarabhai chose the third. The project was thus named SLV-3. Not long after the SLV-3 project began, the Indian scientific community was deeply saddened by Dr Vikram Sarabhais passing away, on 30 December 1971. He was only fifty-two years old. 27 A geosynchronous satelite has an orbit around the Earth with an orbital period intentionally matching the Farth’s sideteal rotation period (the rotational period with respect to the stars). A satelite in a geosynchronous orbit i at an altitude of approximately 35,786 kilometres 22,236 miles) above mean sea level. 28 A stage in rocketry refers to an engine with its own propellant32 I was shocked by the sucldenness of his death, and felt his loss keenly. Just hours before he died ‘of a cardiac arrest, I had spoken with Dr Sarabhai on the telephone from the Delhi airport before boarded a flight to Trivandrum. He had asked me to meet with him at the airport when I landed, Instead of mecting him when I arrived at the airport, I was met with the news of his death. For a time, | felt lost. My guru and mentor was no more. In the coming years, I would face the deaths of my mother and father, too. These experiences, and several national tragedies where people died needlessly, led me to contemplate the matter of death deeply: It seemed to me that though death is a universal life event, almost no one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. Yet death is the destination ve all share. Nobody has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very ikely the single best invention of life. Itis life’ change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. > In any case, Dr Vikram Sarabhai’s brainchild, the SLV-3 project, would be guided by others after his passing, Dr Satish Dhawan eventually took over as the permanent head of the ISRO, while Dr Brahm Prakash was to be my director. TERLS was renamed Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Dr Sarabhai’s honour. Dr Vikram Sarabhai did not live to see his dream of a spacefaring India come to pass; but we faithfully followed his vision. ‘The SLV-3 was a quantum leap from our eatlier efforts. Building the Rohini sounding rockets themselves was no small matter, especially with our limited resources. Even with a sizeable budget and the input of many scientists, designing and building a functional satellite and a launch vehicle ‘was a titanic undertaking, Nonetheless, I was very comfortable working on the SLV-3 project. I would never tire of meeting people: discussing, arguing, explaining and understanding issues. It was my passion. I had no time for idle gossip and small talk. When at leisure, I preferred reading a good book of listening to Carnatic music to socializing, I was convinced that living according to reason and virtue is to be in harmony with the universe’s divine order. I was gradually realizing the importance, too, of living a purposeful life. I felt free from the prison of sensory pleasures and miseries hidden behind merry-making, Now in my forties, I was well settled in a bachelor’s lifestyle, which was perhaps not ‘much different from that of a monk or a sadhu’s. I would need the patience which comes with middle age and a settled mind. The project contrasted with the RATO endeavour, whose development only involved a few aspects and progressed with a sense of urgency. The SLV-3 was plodding along many developmental paths, one of which could best be described as a blind alley. We entered into a partnership with the French space programme, where SLV-3 and the French launch vehicle Diamant BC would share a fourth ‘stage, Our team spent ‘two years redesigning the SLV-3 fourth stage to suit the Diamant, only to have France abandon its national launcher programme in favour of the European Ariane launcher in 1975, Iwas most upset, to say the least. My director Dr Brahm Prakash helped me gain a different understanding of what I saw as a wasted two years. He told me that in international space33 collaborations, there is give and take in so many forms, that itis spread over long periods of time, sometimes across generations of people. International technology exchange is like Indraiaah it is a mysterious web of technical know-how intricately woven across institutions. No good work done ever goes to waste; it gets reflected and utilized somewhere else. In these years, Dr Brahm Prakash and became especially close. We would take evening strolls, after work at times, and though he was a heavy smoker, he never lit a cigarette as we chatted and walked. He reminded me of my father, especially in how he expressed his wisdom. He once told me, ‘Humility is not the act or posture of lowering oneself in relation to others. Humility is about having a clear perspective and respect for one’s place in context.” : Dr Brahm Prakash’s harmonious leadership and intelligence kept the challenges of the SLV-3 project in perspective. Perhaps this helped us deal with the disappointment of India launching its first satellite with a Russian rocket rather than the SLV-3. On 19 April 1975, India launched the satellite Aryabhata from Kapustin Yar, Astrakhan Oblast, in Russia. Aryabhata was named after the famed Indian astronomer and mathematician of the fifth century. Ie was an impressive satellite, constructed as a twenty-six-sided polyhedron with a diameter of 1.4 metres. All of its faces, except the top and bottom, were covered with solar cells. A Kosmos-3M launch vehicle was used to put the Aryabhata into a near-circular orbit of 600 kilometres altitude. ‘The launch of Aryabhata was a success. A combination of government support and international collaboration had brought India into the space age. The ISRO owes much for this to the work of Dr Vikram Sarabhai: aman who was a visionary and a patriot. His brilliance in his field was combined with a revolutionary desire to use technology to benefit his country, and equally, its people. Dr Sarabhai was a natural diplomat, too, with a gift for reaching out and inspiring international cooperation. Vikram Sarabhai managed to secure the American space organization NASA's cooperation, while laying the groundwork for Aryabhata’s launch from a Russian cosmodrome. ‘This was at atime when the US and Russia were still facing off in the Cold Wat. It may very well be that space programmes played some part in maintaining peace between the world powers. ‘Success is the result of perfection, hard work, and learning from failure.” The Aryabhata was followed by Bhaskara-I, named for the great Indian mathematician of the seventh century. Bhaskara-I was launched on 7 June 1979, again from Kapustin Yar. The 444-kilogram satellite built by the ISRO was fitted with two television cameras, one of which was infra-red. The satellite collected data related to hydrology, forestry and geology. For the Satellite Telecommunication Experiments Project (STEP) to establish satellite-based post and telegraph services during 1977-79, the ISRO used the Franco-German Symphonie satellite. 29 Colin Powell was the 65th United States secretary of State under President George Bush (2001-2008). 1 watched his 2008 speech to the United Nations on television with Dr Kalam, in which Colin Powell gave a detailed description Of Iraqi weapons programmes, Dr Kalam asked, Why is he lying?” The weapons, as it turned out, did not exist, and ‘that speech became a blot on Powell’ otherwise ilustrious record,4 ‘A little more than two months after Bhaskara-I’s successful launch in Russia, on 10 August 1979, we held the first experimental flight trial of SLV-3. The primary goals of the mission were to conduct a live test of the satellite launch vehicle to evaluate on-board systems like stage motors, ‘guidance and control systems and electronic subsystems. With the test, we could also evaluate ground systems, like checkout, tracking, telemetry and real-time” data facilities in launch operations built at Sriharikota High Altitude Range (SHAR) in southern Andhra Pradesh. ‘The rocket took off at 0758 hours. Stage I performed perfectly, but the second stage went out of control. The flight was terminated after 317 seconds, and the rocket’s shattered wreck splashed into the sea, 540 kilometres off the coast of Andhra Pradesh. A fuel leak had caused the failure; but I was not to know that until lates. “To say that this incident caused me profound disappointment would be an understatement. It ‘was among the most traumatic experiences of my life. As the project director, I was responsible for the success or failure of the test. Immediately after the flight’s termination, someone asked me, ‘What do you suppose could have gone wrong?” I walked away without answering, I had had a night-long countdown and little sleep throughout the week. My legs were stiff with tension. I was too tired to think, I just went to my room, collapsed on the bed and slept. When I awoke a few hours later, I found Dr Brahm Prakash waiting outside my room. He took me for a late lunch at the canteen and we spoke. Not a word was said about the test disaster. He took me to a press conference in the evening, It was attended by a large contingent of Indian and international press; and of course, the entire ISRO top brass. I felt that I would be destroyed by the media, Prof, Satish Dhawan took charge of the situation. First, he surprised everybody with his opening statement, congratulating the SLV-3 team for achieving a flawless launch and their successful development of the first-stage booster motor. He mentioned me by name, saying that I had shown exemplary leadership. He said that I had put in a mammoth effort involving thousands of people cover seven years—and had never allowed personal likes and dislikes to come in the way of my duties. I was stunned, ‘When one correspondent questioned him, saying, “Twenty crores of taxpayers’ money has been drowned in the Bay of Bengal Prof. Dhawan kept his cool and answered, ‘What is being attempted in the space programme in India has far reaching consequences. You ‘will not be able to count the amount of money that would go out of the country in the furure if India’does not have its own communication and remote-sensing satellites. Please understand the billions of dollars’ worth of work done by low paid and frugally living employees of our government organizations.” 30) Real time is time ealeulated backwards, with the rocket fring at 0 second. Is independent of clock time. 31 Arun Tiwasi, Indian Aboey All—A.P. Abdi Kalam: A Lif, HarperCollins, 2015, p95.35 ‘There was silence. Prof. Satish Dhawan then added that he was confident that in exactly a year's time, SLV-3 would successfully place a satellite in orbit. Later, I offered to resign, but Prof, Dhawan would not hear of it. He told me, ‘Kalam, your ‘work has far reaching consequences. This is your destiny. Don’t run away from it’ SLY-3 was successfully launched on 18 July 1980. It placed the Rohini satellite RS-1 in orbit, thereby making India the sixth member of an exclusive club of spacefaring nations. The success of the SLV-3 project showed the way to advanced launch vehicle projects such as the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV), Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). On 26 January 1981, the Republic Day of India, I was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour of the country. Anna University, Madras, conferred upon me the honorary degtee of Doctor of Science. I had emerged from my cocoon.