Dr. Kalam

Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.

-John Stenback,[ Nobel Laureate (1902-1968)]

It was 27^th of July 2015. Just another day in office and like many others, I was glued to my chair, stressing over numbers which appeared on screen and against that screen was my boss’s desk which was empty today. My Boss’s daughter was about to turn one year old and to celebrate the moment he had went to Kolkata, at his family. Before leaving he allotted me some work. Some, since as compared to my earlier work profile, this was my breakfast. Nonetheless I preferred to be glued to my chair and double-check everything meticulously since I was new in the organization.

I wanted my papers to be fine as a polished gem.  And that is not because I am naive over here. Though the reason to do so definitely includes some percentage of making a good impression. But my need to be good with paper is not just restricted to making sense out of data, comparing the numbers and arriving at cost and benefit analysis. Hell no!

What I have learned is, may it be the Dark ages or The Renaissance or may it be the age of enlightenment, it’s ultimately the paper which speaks for you. Otherwise, perhaps we might have not even heard of the very existence of those times and people. Myth would have become synonym for history. And even though on a broader level we tend to ignore the lesson s from history, but the absence of it on paper with thoughts written all over, would have definitely kept us unaware of our own experiences, moralities and knowledge.

This fragile thing with its capillaries when soaks ink; it makes the minds immortal and alive in the shelves.

And as I tried to make a good impression, believing in my own theory, I formatted the report well and did a final review holding my little figures just above the print command. And as I was about to punch the key combination, my phone started vibrating heavily. That usually happens when your friends floods messages in your watsapp group. By my one hand I lifted my phone. Not for reading the messages but to delete the conversation and turn off the notifications.

As I swiped to unlock the screen, instead of deleting the conversation, I was both surprised and repelled by the news that they were posting in group.

It was about death of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

 Few minutes back there was another notification from a news application that he was rushed to the hospital and I was hoping that he will come out fine but God had a different plan.

When I looked up, around me, everybody’s head was bowed down towards their phone reading the news and one was able to feel the tremendous echo of silence in the room.

Now the damage was irretrievably done. It can neither be rectified nor can be compensated for. But I really want him to remain as an immortal mind. But how?

By making monuments? Songs? News stories? What can we really do to honor a man, pay tribute to him, who asked us to work a day more instead of taking holiday on his death? What treatment will justify his nonparallel sacrifice, immense intellect, tremendous hard work and inspiring patriotism?

A man who truly made us Indians learn about secularism.

I really want to know how can we keep the bricks of the foundations, that he had gifted us, strong enough to stand against the mighty winds of time and upon which, create a humongous structure of knowledge and justice?

Honestly I don’t know. I find myself to be too naïve to comprehend such reflections by the people throughout history. That is to say, we have corrupted the most divine of us human beings, obviously not on an instant basis but gradually. As I said, the mighty wind of time brings changes and those changes never restrict themselves to the tangibles but exceeds to the extent of altering the intangibles too. Bending them. Molding them differently by unimaginable interpretations and pouring nothing out of the hollow vase of ignorance and notions.

But, even though how inexperienced and hesitant I may be, at least I can ask readers to give ‘wings of fire’ a try. And don’t just read it and end the cycle there. On the other hand what we can do is also ask the younger kids to give it a read as well. Let’s try to make it the one book every Indian should read.

I feel, in that way, by reading what Mr. Kalam really had to say and what vision he was carrying, it will definitely struck a chord in every reader’s inner psyche. And I never undermine the power of paper and ink. In this way we can keep the promise alive in everyone’s heart. By recalling the words he spoke. That is what we do while following our individual religions. 
'Reading the words of God and of messengers, over and over'. 
That is how we remind ourselves of the great promises.

However, there is one very important thing. My friends usually say they don’t have time to even eat properly and here I am asking people to read a complete book. Well, in order to help such fellows, I am putting some of my favorite sentences from ‘wings of fire’. And don’t worry about the report that I had to prepare, told you it’s like breakfast for me!

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In this period of confusion and uncertainty,

memories from my childhood came back to me and I

discovered new meanings in them.

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As the Bible says, “Ask and you shall

receive.”

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….reminded myself that the best way to win was to not

need to win. The best performances are accomplished

when you are relaxed and free of doubt. I decided to take

things as they came

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There was

none of the arrogance or the patronising attitudes which

interviewers usually display when talking to a young and

vulnerable candidate

(When Mr. Kalam was interviewed, he wrote down how nicely it was taken and what impact it created on him)

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One of the important functions of prayer, I believe, is to

act as a stimulus to creative ideas. Within the mind are all

the resources required for successful living. Ideas are

present in the consciousness, which when released and

given scope to grow and take shape, can lead to

successful events. God, our Creator, has stored within our

minds and personalities, great potential strength and

ability. Prayer helps us to tap and develop these powers.

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My impression of the American people can be

summarized by a quotation from Benjamin Franklin, “Those

things that hurt instruct!” I realised that people in this part of

the world meet their problems head on. They attempt to get

out of them rather than suffer them.

My mother had once narrated an incident from the Holy

Book— after God created man, he asked the angels to

prostrate themselves before Adam. Everybody prostrated

themselves except Iblis, or Satan, who refused. “Why did

you not prostrate yourself?” Allah asked. “You created me

of fire and him of clay. Does not that make me nobler than

Adam?” Satan contended. God said, “Be gone from

paradise! This is no place for your contemptuous pride.”

Satan obeyed, but not before cursing Adam with the same

fate. Soon Adam followed suit by becoming a transgressor

after eating the forbidden fruit. Allah said, “Go hence and

may your descendants live a life of doubt and mistrust.”

What makes life in Indian organizations difficult is the

widespread prevalence of this very contemptuous pride. It

stops us from listening to our juniors, subordinates and

people down the line. You cannot expect a person to deliver

results if you humiliate him, nor can you expect him to be

creative if you abuse him or despise him. The line between

firmness and harshness, between strong leadership and

bullying, between discipline and vindictiveness is very fine,

but it has to be drawn. Unfortunately, the only line

prominently drawn in our country today is between the

‘heroes’ and the ‘zeros’. On one side are a few hundred

‘heroes’ keeping nine hundred and fifty million people down

on the other side. This situation has to be changed.

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The development of Indian rockets in the twentieth

century can be seen as a revival of the eighteenth century

dream of Tipu Sultan. When Tipu Sultan was killed, the

British captured more than 700 rockets and subsystems of

900 rockets in the battle of Turukhanahally in 1799. His

army had 27 brigades, called Kushoons, and each brigade

had a company of rocket men, called Jourks. These

rockets had been taken to England by William Congreve

and were subjected by the British to what we call ‘reverse

engineering’ today. There were, of course, no GATT, IPR

Act, or patent regime. With the death of Tipu, Indian

rocketry also met its demise—at least for 150 years.

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I often read Khalil Gibran, and always find his words full

of wisdom. “Bread baked without love is a bitter bread that

feeds but half a man’s hunger,”—those who cannot work

with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success

that breeds bitterness all around. If you are a writer who

would secretly prefer to be a lawyer or a doctor, your written

words will feed but half the hunger of your readers; if you

are a teacher who would rather be a businessman, your

instructions will meet but half the need for knowledge of

your students; if you are a scientist who hates science, your

performance will satisfy but half the needs of your mission.

The personal unhappiness and failure to achieve results

that comes from being a round peg in a square hole is not,

by any means, new. But there are exceptions to this like

Prof. Oda and Sudhakar, who bring to their work a personal

touch of magic based upon their individual character,

personality, inner motives, and perhaps the dreams

crystallized within their hearts. They become so emotionally

involved with their work that any dilution of the success of

their effort fills them with grief.

Sudhakar was my colleague in the Payload Preparation

Laboratory. As part of the pre-launch schedule, we were

filling and remotely pressing the hazardous sodium and

thermite mix. As usual, it was a hot and humid day at

Thumba. After the sixth such operation, Sudhakar and I

went into the payload room to confirm the proper filling of

the mix. Suddenly, a drop of sweat from his forehead fell

onto the sodium, and before we knew what was happening,

there was a violent explosion which shook the room. For a

few paralysed seconds, I did not know what to do. The fire

was spreading, and water would not extinguish the sodium

fire. Trapped in this inferno, Sudhakar, however, did not

lose his presence of mind. He broke the glass window with

his bare hands and literally threw me out to safety before

jumping out himself. I touched Sudhakar’s bleeding hands

in gratitude, he was smiling through his pain. Sudhakar

spent many weeks in the hospital recuperating from the

severe burns he had received.

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I looked around the elegant lounge. Somebody had left

a book on a nearby sofa. As if to fill the small hours of that

cold night with some warm thoughts, I picked up the book

and started browsing. I must have turned only a few pages

of the book, about which I do not remember a thing today.

It was some popular book related to business

management. I was not really reading it, only skimming over

paragraphs and turning pages. Suddenly, my eyes fell on a

passage in the book, it was a quotation from George

Bernard Shaw. The gist of the quote was that all

reasonable men adapt themselves to the world. Only a few

unreasonable ones persist in trying to adapt the world to

themselves. All progress in the world depends on these

unreasonable men and their innovative and often

nonconformist actions.

I started reading the book from the Bernard Shaw

passage onwards. The author was describing certain

myths woven around the concept and the process of

innovation in industry and business. I read about the myth of

strategic planning. It is generally believed that substantial

strategic and technological planning greatly increases the

odds of a ‘no surprises’ outcome. The author was of the

opinion that it is essential for a project manager to learn to

live with uncertainty and ambiguity. He felt that it was a myth

to hold that the key to economic success is computability. A

quotation from General George Patton was given as a

counterpoint to this myth—that a good plan violently

executed right now is far better than a perfect plan

executed next week. It is a myth that to win big one must

strive to optimize, the author felt. Optimization wins only on

paper, but would invariably lose later in the real world, the

book said.

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One day, while working late in the office, which was

quite routine after I took up the RATO projects, I saw a

young colleague, Jaya Chandra Babu going home. Babu

had joined us a few months ago and the only thing I knew

about him was that he had a very positive attitude and was

articulate. I called him into my office and did a bit of loud

thinking. “Do you have any suggestions?” I then asked him.

Babu remained silent for a while, and then asked for time

until the next evening to do some homework before

answering my question.

The next evening, Babu came to me before the

appointed time. His face was beaming with promise. “We

can do it, sir! The RATO system can be made without

imports. The only hurdle is the inherent inelasticity in the

approach of the organization towards procurement and

subcontracting, which would be the two major thrust areas

to avoid imports.” He gave me seven points, or, rather,

asked for seven liberties—financial approval by a single

person instead of an entire hierarchy, air travel for all

people on work irrespective of their entitlement,

accountability to only one person, lifting of goods by aircargo,

sub-contracting to the private sector, placement of

orders on the basis of technical competence, and

expeditious accounting procedures

These demands were unheard of in government

establishments, which tend to be conservative, yet I could

see the soundness of his proposition. The RATO project

was a new game and there was nothing wrong if it was to

be played with a new set of rules. I weighed all the pros and

cons of Babu’s suggestions for a whole night and finally

decided to present them to Prof. Sarabhai. Hearing my

plea for administrative liberalization and seeing the merits

behind it, Prof. Sarabhai approved the proposals without a

second thought.

Through his suggestions, Babu had highlighted the

importance of business acumen in developmental work

with high stakes. To make things move faster within

existing work parameters, you have to pump in more

people, more material and more money. If you can’t do that,

change your parameters! Instinctive businessman that he

was, Babu did not remain long with us and left ISRO for

greener pastures in Nigeria. I could never forget Babu’s

common sense in financial matters.

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The pursuit of science is a combination of great elation

and great despair. I went over many such episodes in my

mind. Johannes Kepler, whose three orbital laws form the

basis of space research, took nearly 17 years after

formulating the two laws about planetary motion around the

sun, to enunciate his third law which gives the relation

between the size of the elliptical orbit and the length of time

it takes for the planet to go around the sun. How many

failures and frustrations must he have gone through? The

idea that man could land on the moon, developed by the

Russian mathematician Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, was

realised after nearly four decades—and by the United

States, at that. Prof. Chandrasekhar had to wait nearly 50

years before receiving the Nobel Prize for his discovery of

the ‘Chandrasekhar Limit’, a discovery made while he was

a graduate student at Cambridge in the 1930s. If his work

had been recognized then, it could have led to the

discovery of the Black Hole decades earlier. How many

failures must von Braun have gone through before his

Saturn launch vehicle put man on the moon? These

thoughts helped to give me the ability to withstand

apparently irreversible setbacks.

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To live only for some unknown future is superficial. It is

like climbing a mountain to reach the peak without

experiencing its sides. The sides of the mountain sustain

life, not the peak. This is where things grow, experience is

gained, and technologies are mastered. The importance of

the peak lies only in the fact that it defines the sides. So I

went on towards the top, but always experiencing the sides.

I had a long way to go but I was in no hurry. I went in little

steps—just one step after another—but each step towards

the top.

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I experienced mixed feelings. I was happy to achieve

the success which had been evading me for the past two

decades, but I was sad because the people who had

inspired me were no longer there to share my joy—my

father, my brother-in-law Jallaluddin, and Prof. Sarabhai.

We had a late dinner that evening. Gradually, the din

and clatter of the celebrations calmed down. I retired to my

bed with almost no energy left. Through the open window, I

could see the moon among the clouds. The sea breeze

seemed to reflect the buoyancy of the mood on Sriharikota

island that day.

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Republic Day, 1981 brought with it a pleasant surprise.

On the evening of 25 January, Mahadevan, Secretary to

Prof. UR Rao, rang up from Delhi to inform me about the

Home Ministry announcement about the conferment of the

Padma Bhushan award on me. The next important call was

from Prof. Dhawan to congrat-ulate me. I felt blissfully

elated as it was from my guru. I rejoiced with Prof. Dhawan

at his receiving the Padma Vibhushan and I congratulated

him wholeheartedly. I then rang up Dr Brahm Prakash and

thanked him. Dr Brahm Prakash chided me for the formality

and said, “I feel as if my son has got the award.” I was so

deeply touched by Dr Brahm Prakash’s affection that I

could no longer keep my emotions in check.

I filled my room with the music of Bismillah Khan’s

shehnai. The music took me to another time, another place.

I visited Rameswaram and hugged my mother. My father

ran his caring fingers through my hair. My mentor,

Jallaluddin, announced the news to the crowd gathered on

Mosque Street. My sister, Zohara, prepared special sweets

for me. Pakshi Lakshmana Sastry put a tilak on my

forehead. Fr. Solomon blessed me holding the holy cross. I

saw Prof. Sarabhai smiling with a sense of achievement—

the sapling which he had planted twenty years ago had

finally grown into a tree whose fruits were being

appreciated by the people of India.

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Happiness,

satisfaction, and success in life depend on making the right

choices, the winning choices. There are forces in life

working for you and against you. One must distinguish the

beneficial forces from the malevolent ones and choose

correctly between them.

(When he suffered hatred and jealousy from his collegues after getting the esteemed bharat ratna he wrote this to describe how he looked at it) 

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Many of my senior colleagues—naming them would be

unfair, because it could be only my imagination—tried to

befriend me during this period. I respected their concern for

a lonely man, but avoided any close contacts. Through

loyalty to a friend one can be easily led into doing

something that is not in the best interests of the

organization.

Perhaps the main motive behind my isolation was my

desire to escape from the demands of relationships, which

I consider very difficult in comparison to making rockets. All

I desired was to be true to my way of life, to uphold the

science of rocketry in my country and to retire with a clean

conscience. I took quite some time and did a lot of hard

thinking to decide who should lead the five projects. I

examined the working styles of many scientists before

making my decision. I think some of my observations may

interest you.

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A basic aspect of a person’s working style is how he

plans and organizes tasks. At one extreme is the cautious

planner, who carefully spells out each step before making

any move. With a sharp eye for what can possibly go

wrong, he tries to cover all contingencies. At the other end

is the fast mover, who weaves and dodges without a plan.

Inspired by an idea, the fast mover is always ready for

action.

Another aspect of a person’s working style is control—

the energy and attention devoted to ensuring that things

happen in a certain way. At one extreme is the tight

controller, a strict administrator with frequent checkpoints.

Rules and policies are to be followed with religious fervour.

At the opposite end are those who move with freedom and

flexibility. They have little patience for bureaucracy. They

delegate easily and give their subordinates wide latitude

for movement. I wanted leaders who tread the middle path,

those who could control without stifling dissent or being

rigid

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What makes a productive leader? In my opinion, a

productive leader must be very competent in staffing. He

should continually introduce new blood into the

organization. He must be adept at dealing with problems

and new concepts.

The leader must be capable of instilling

enthusiasm in his team. He should give appropriate credit

where it is due; praise publicly, but criticize privately

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The biggest problem Indian youth faced, I felt, was a

lack of clarity of vision, a lack of direction. It was then that I

decided to write about the circumstances and people who

made me what I am today; the idea was not merely to pay

tribute to some individuals or highlight certain aspects of

my life. What I wanted to say was that no one, however

poor, underprivileged or small, need feel disheartened

about life. Problems are a part of life. Suffering is the

essence of success. As someone said:

God has not promised

Skies always blue,

Flower-strewn pathways

All our life through;

God has not promised

Sun without rain,

Joy without sorrow,

Peace without pain.

I will not be presumptuous enough to say that my life can

be a role model for anybody; but some poor child living in

an obscure place, in an underprivileged social setting may

find a little solace in the way my destiny has been shaped. It

could perhaps help such children liberate themselves from

the bondage of their illusory backwardness and

hopelessness. Irrespective of where they are right now, they

should be aware that God is with them and when He is with

them, who can be against them?

But God has promised

Strength for the day,

Rest for the labour

Light for the way.

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It has been my observation that most Indians suffer

unnecessary misery all their lives because they do not know

how to manage their emotions. They are paralysed by

some sort of a psychological inertia. Phrases like ‘the next

best alternative’, ‘the only feasible option or solution’, and

‘till things take a turn for the better’ are commonplace in our

business conversations. Why not write about the deep rooted

character traits which manifest themselves in such

widespread, self defeatist thought patterns and negative

behavior? I have worked with many people and

organizations and have had to deal with people who were

so full of their own limitations that they had no other way to

prove their self-worth than by intimidating me. Why not write

about the victimization which is a hallmark of the tragedy of

Indian science and technology? And about the pathways to

organizational success? Let the latent fire in the heart of

every Indian acquire wings, and the glory of this great

country light up the sky.

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