Every recurrent anguish, longing, and desire finds its own special helper. For the people who come to me in distress, I am but a go-between in their effort to propitiate demonic forces with prayers and offerings.

This is not a correct approach at all and should never be followed. One must understand the difference between a fear-ridden vision of destiny and the vision that enables us to seek the enemy of fulfilment within ourselves.

I remember my father starting his day at 4 a. After the namaz, he used to walk down to a small coconut grove we owned, about 4 miles from our home.

He would return, with about a dozen coconuts tied together thrown over his shoulder, and only then would he have his breakfast. This remained his routine even when he was in his late sixties.

I have throughout my life tried to emulate my father in my own world of science and technology. I have endeavoured to understand the fundamental truths revealed to me by my father, and feel convinced that there exists a divine power that can lift one up from confusion, misery, melancholy and failure, and guide one to ones true place.

And once an individual severs his emotional and physical bondage, he is on the road to freedom, happiness and peace of mind. I was about six years old when my father embarked on the project of building a wooden sailboat to take pilgrims from Rameswaram to Dhanuskodi, also called Sethukkarai , and back. He worked at building the boat on the seashore, with the help of a relative, Ahmed Jallaluddin, who later married my sister, Zohara.

I watched the boat take shape. The wooden hull and bulkheads were seasoned with the heat from wood fires. My father was doing good business with the boat when, one day, a cyclone bringing winds of over miles per hour carried away our boat, along with some of the landmass of Sethukkarai.

The Pamban Bridge collapsed with a train full of passengers on it. Until then, I had only seen the beauty of the sea, now its uncontrollable energy came as a revelation to me. He was about 15 years older than I and used to call me Azad. We used to go for long walks together every evening. As we started from Mosque Street and made our way towards the sandy shores of the island, Jallaluddin and I talked mainly of spiritual matters.

The atmosphere of Rameswaram, with its flocking pilgrims, was conducive to such discussion. Our first halt would be at the imposing temple of Lord Shiva. Circling around the temple with the same reverence as any pilgrim from a distant part of the country, we felt a flow of energy pass through us.

Jallaluddin would talk about God as if he had a working partnership with Him. He would present all his doubts to God as if He were standing nearby to dispose of them. I would stare at Jallaluddin and then look towards the large groups of pilgrims around the temple, taking holy dips in the sea, performing rituals and reciting prayers with a sense of respect towards the same Unknown, whom we treat as the formless Almighty.

I never doubted that the prayers in the temple reached the same destination as the ones offered in our mosque. I only wondered whether Jallaluddin had any other special connection to God. Jallaluddins schooling had been limited, principally because of his familys straitened circumstances. This may have been the reason why he always encouraged me to excel in my studies and enjoyed my success vicariously. Never did I find the slightest trace of resentment in Jallaluddin for his deprivation.

Rather, he was always full of gratitude for whatever life had chosen to give him. Incidentally, at the time I speak of, he was the only person on the entire island who could write English. He wrote letters for almost anybody in need, be they letters of application or otherwise. Nobody of my acquaintance, either in my family or in the neighbourhood even had Jallaluddins level of education or any links of consequence with the outside world. Jallaluddin always spoke to me about educated people, of scientific discoveries, of contemporary literature, and of the achievements of medical science.

It was he who made me aware of a brave, new world beyond our narrow confines. By local standards, however, the personal library of STR Manickam, a former revolutionary or militant nationalist, was sizeable. He encouraged me to read all I could and I often visited his home to borrow books. Another person who greatly influenced my boyhood was my first cousin, Samsuddin.

He was the sole distributor for newspapers in Rameswaram. The newspapers would arrive at Rameswaram station by the morning train from Pamban. Samsuddins newspaper agency was a one-man organization catering to the reading demands of the 1,strong literate population of Rameswaram town. These newspapers were mainly bought to keep abreast of current developments in the National Independence Movement, for astrological reference or to check the bullion rates prevailing in Madras.

A few readers with a more cosmopolitan outlook would discuss Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi and Jinnah; almost all would finally flow into the mighty political current of Periyar EV Ramaswamys movement against high caste Hindus.

Dinamani was the most sought after newspaper. Since reading the printed matter was beyond my capability, I had to satisfy myself with glancing at the pictures in the newspaper before Samsuddin delivered them to his customers. The Second World War broke out in , when I was eight years old. For reasons I have never been able to understand, a sudden demand for tamarind seeds erupted in the market.

I used to collect the seeds and sell them to a provision shop on Mosque Street. A days collection would fetch me the princely sum of one anna. Jallaluddin would tell me stories about the war which I would later attempt to trace in the headlines in Dinamani.

Our area, being isolated, was completely unaffected by the war. But soon India was forced to join the Allied Forces and something like a state of emergency was declared.

The first casualty came in the form of the suspension of the train halt at Rameswaram station. The newspapers now had to be bundled and thrown out from the moving train on the Rameswaram Road between Rameswaram and Dhanuskodi. That forced Samsuddin to look for a helping hand to catch the bundles and, as if naturally, I filled the slot. Samsuddin helped me earn my first. Half a century later, I can still feel the surge of pride in earning my own money for the first time. Every child is born, with some inherited characteristics, into a specific socio-economic and emotional environment, and trained in certain ways by figures of authority.

I inherited honesty and self-discipline from my father; from my mother, I inherited faith in goodness and deep kindness and so did my three brothers and sister. But it was the time I spent with Jallaluddin and Samsuddin that perhaps contributed most to the uniqueness of my childhood and made all the difference in my later life.

The unschooled wisdom of Jallaluddin and Samsuddin was so intuitive and responsive to non-verbal messages, that I can unhesitatingly attribute my subsequently manifested creativity to their company in my childhood. I had three close friends in my childhoodRamanadha Sastry, Aravindan, and Sivaprakasan. All these boys were from orthodox Hindu Brahmin families. As children, none of us ever felt any difference amongst ourselves because of our religious differences and upbringing.

Later, he took over the priesthood of the Rameswaram temple from his father; Aravindan went into the business of arranging transport for visiting pilgrims; and Sivaprakasan became a catering contractor for the Southern Railways. During the annual Shri Sita Rama Kalyanam ceremony, our family used to arrange boats with a special platform for carrying idols of the Lord from the temple to the marriage site, situated in the middle of the pond called Rama Tirtha which was near our house.

Events from the Ramayana and from the life of the Prophet were the bedtime stories my mother and grandmother would tell the children in our family. One day when I was in the fifth standard at the Rameswaram Elementary School, a new teacher came to our class. I used to wear a cap which marked me as a Muslim, and I always sat in the front row next to Ramanadha Sastry, who wore a sacred thread. The new teacher could not stomach a Hindu priests son sitting with a Muslim boy. In accordance with our social ranking as the new teacher saw it, I was asked to go and sit on the back bench.

I felt very sad, and so did. He looked utterly downcast as I shifted to my seat in the last row. The image of him weeping when I shifted to the last row left a lasting impression on me. After school, we went home and told our respective parents about the incident. Lakshmana Sastry summoned the teacher, and in our presence, told the teacher that he should not spread the poison of social inequality and communal intolerance in the minds of innocent children. He bluntly asked the teacher to either apologize or quit the school and the island.

Not only did the teacher regret his behaviour, but the strong sense of conviction Lakshmana Sastry conveyed ultimately reformed this young teacher. On the whole, the small society of Rameswaram was highly stratified and very rigid in terms of the segregation of different social groups. However, my science teacher Sivasubramania Iyer, though an orthodox Brahmin with a very conservative wife, was something of a rebel. He did his best to break social barriers so that people from varying backgrounds could mingle easily.

He used to spend hours with me and would say, Kalam, I want you to develop so that you are on par with the highly educated people of the big cities. One day, he invited me to his home for a meal. His wife was horrified at the idea of a Muslim boy being invited to dine in her ritually pure kitchen. She refused to serve me in her kitchen.

Sivasubramania Iyer was not perturbed, nor did he get angry with his wife, but instead, served me with his own hands and sat down beside me to eat his meal.

His wife watched us from behind the kitchen door. I wondered whether she had observed any difference in the way I ate rice, drank water or cleaned the floor after the meal. When I was leaving his house, Sivasubramania Iyer invited me to join him for dinner again the next weekend.

Observing my hesitation, he told me not to get upset, saying, Once you decide to change the system, such problems have to be confronted. When I visited his house the next week, Sivasubramania Iyers wife took me inside her kitchen and served me food with her own hands. Then the Second World War was over and Indias freedom was imminent.

Indians will build their own India, declared Gandhiji. The whole country was filled with an unprecedented optimism. I asked my. He told me as if thinking aloud, Abul!

I know you have to go away to grow. Does the seagull not fly across the Sun, alone and without a nest? You must forego your longing for the land of your memories to move into the dwelling place of your greater desires; our love will not bind you nor will our needs hold you. He quoted Khalil Gibran to my hesitant mother, Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Lifes longing for itself. They come through you but not from you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts. He took me and my three brothers to the mosque and recited the prayer Al Fatiha from the Holy Quran. As he put me on the train at Rameswaram station he said, This island may be housing your body but not your soul. Your soul dwells in the house of tomorrow which none of us at Rameswaram can visit, not even in our dreams.

May God bless you, my child! Samsuddin and Ahmed Jallaluddin travelled with me to Ramanathapuram to enrol me in Schwartz High School, and to arrange for my boarding there. Somehow, I did not take to the new setting. The town of Ramanathapuram was a thriving, factious town of some fifty thousand people, but the coherence and harmony of Rameswaram was absent.

I missed my home and grabbed every opportunity to visit Rameswaram. The pull of educational opportunities at Ramanathapuram was not strong enough to nullify the attraction of poli, a South Indian sweet my mother made.

In fact, she used to prepare twelve distinctly different varieties of it, bringing out the flavour of every single ingredient used in the best possible combinations. Despite my homesickness, I was determined to come to terms with the new environment because I knew my father had invested great hopes in my success. My father visualized me as a Collector in the making and I thought it my duty to realise my fathers dream, although I desperately missed the familiarity, security and comforts of Rameswaram.

I tried hard to do as he said, which was to strive to control my thoughts and my mind and, through these, to influence my destiny.

Ironically, that destiny did not lead me back to Rameswaram, but rather, swept me farther away from the home of my childhood. My teacher, Iyadurai Solomon, was an ideal guide for an eager young mind that was yet uncertain of the possibilities and alternatives that lay before it.

He made his students feel very comfortable in class with his warm and open-minded attitude. He used to say that a good student could learn more from a bad teacher than a poor student from even a skilled teacher.

During my stay at Ramanathapuram, my relationship with him grew beyond that of teacher and pupil. In his company, I learnt that one could exercise enormous influence over the events of ones own life.

Iyadurai Solomon used to say, To succeed in life and achieve results, you must understand and master three mighty forces desire, belief, and expectation. Iyadurai Solomon, who later became a Reverend, taught me that before anything I wanted could happen, I had to desire it intensely and be absolutely certain it would happen. To take an example from my own life, I had been fascinated by the mysteries of the sky and the flight of birds from early childhood.

I used to watch cranes and seagulls soar into flight and longed to fly. Simple, provincial boy though I was, I was convinced that one day I, too, would soar up into the skies. Indeed, I was the first child from Rameswaram to fly. Iyadurai Solomon was a great teacher because he instilled in all the children a sense of their own worth.

Solomon raised my self-esteem to. With faith, you can change your destiny, he would say. One day, when I was in the fourth form, my mathematics teacher, Ramakrishna Iyer, was teaching another class.

Inadvertently, I wandered into that classroom and in the manner of an old-fashioned despot, Ramakrishna Iyer caught me by the neck and caned me in front of the whole class. Many months later, when I scored full marks in mathematics, he narrated the incident to the entire school at morning assembly. Whomsoever I cane becomes a great man! Take my word, this boy is going to bring glory to his school and to his teachers. His praise quite made up for the earlier humiliation!

By the time I completed my education at Schwartz, I was a selfconfident boy determined to succeed. The decision to go in for further education was taken without a second thought. To us, in those days, the awareness of the possibilities for a professional education did not exist; higher education simply meant going to college.

The nearest college was at Tiruchchirappalli, spelled Trichinopoly those days, and called Trichi for short. In , I arrived at St.

Josephs College, Trichi, to study for the Intermediate examination. I was not a bright student in terms of examination grades but, thanks to my two buddies back in Rameswaram, I had acquired a practical bent of mind.

Whenever I returned to Rameswaram from Schwartz, my elder brother Mustafa Kamal, who ran a provision store on the railway station road, would call me in to give him a little help and then vanish for hours together leaving the shop in my charge.

I sold oil, onions, rice and everything else. The fastest moving items, I found, were cigarettes and bidis. I used to wonder what made poor people smoke away their hardearned money. When spared by Mustafa, I would be put in charge of his kiosk by my younger brother, Kasim Mohammed. There I sold novelties made of seashells. At St. Josephs, I was lucky to find a teacher like the Rev.

Father TN Sequeira. He taught us English and was also our hostel warden. Father used to visit each boy every night with a Bible in his hand. His energy and patience was amazing. He was a very considerate person who took care of even the most minute requirements of his students.

On Deepavali, on his instructions, the Brother in charge of the hostel and the mess volunteers would visit each room and distribute good gingelly oil for the ritual bath. I stayed on the St. Josephs campus for four years and shared my room with two others. The three of us had a wonderful time together. When I was made secretary of the vegetarian mess during my third year in the hostel, we invited the Rector, Rev.

Father Kalathil, over for lunch one Sunday. Our menu included the choicest preparations from our diverse backgrounds. The result was rather unexpected, but Rev. Father was lavish in his praise of our efforts.

We enjoyed every moment with Rev. Father Kalathil, who participated in our unsophisticated conversation with childlike enthusiasm. It was a memorable event for us all. My teachers at St. Joseph were the true followers of Kanchi Paramacharya, who evoked people to enjoy the action of giving. The vivid memory of our mathematics teachers, Prof. Thothathri Iyengar and Prof.

Suryanarayana Sastry, walking together on the campus inspires me to this day. When I was in the final year at St.

Josephs, I acquired a taste for English literature. I began to read the great classics, Tolstoy, Scott and Hardy being special favourites despite their exotic settings, and then I moved on to some works in Philosophy. It was around this time that I developed a great interest in Physics. The lessons on subatomic physics at St. Josephs by my physics teachers, Prof. Chinna Durai and Prof. Krishnamurthy, introduced me to the concept of the half-life period and matters related to the radioactive decay of substances.

Sivasubramania Iyer, my science teacher at Rameswaram, had never taught me that most subatomic particles are unstable and that they disintegrate after a certain time into other particles. All this I was learning for the first time. But when he taught me to strive. I wonder why some people tend to see science as something which takes man away from God. As I look at it, the path of science can always wind through the heart. For me, science has always been the path to spiritual enrichment and self-realisation.

Even the rational thought-matrices of science have been home to fairy tales. I am an avid reader of books on cosmology and enjoy reading about celestial bodies. Many friends, while asking me questions related to space flights, sometimes slip into astrology. Quite honestly, I have never really understood the reason behind the great importance attached by people to the faraway planets in our solar system. As an art, I have nothing against astrology, but if it seeks acceptance under the guise of science, I reject it.

I do not know how these myths evolved about planets, star constellations, and even satellitesthat they can exercise power on human beings. The highly complicated calculations manipulated around the precise movements of celestial bodies, to derive highly subjective conclusions appear illogical to me.

As I see it, the Earth is the most powerful and energetic planet. What if the Sun Be centre to the World, and other stars.

The planet earth, so steadfast though she seem, In sensibly three different motions move? Wherever you go on this planet, there is movement and life. Even apparently inanimate things like rocks, metal, timber, clay are full of intrinsic movementwith electrons dancing around each nucleus.

This motion originates in their response to the confinement imposed on them by the nucleus, by means of electric forces which try to hold them as close as possible. Electrons, just like any individual with a certain amount of energy, detest confinement. The tighter the electrons are held by the nucleus, the higher their orbital velocity will be: in fact, the confinement of electrons in an atom results in enormous velocities of about km per second!

These high velocities make the atom appear a rigid sphere, just as a fast-moving fan appears like a disc. It is very difficult to compress atoms more stronglythus giving matter its familiar solid. Everything solid, thus, contains much empty space within and everything stationary contains great movement within. It is as though the great dance of Shiva is being performed on earth during every moment of our existence.

When I joined the B. Josephs, I was unaware of any other option for higher education. Nor did I have any information about career opportunities available to a student of science.

Only after obtaining a B. I had to go into engineering to realise my dreams. I could have joined the Engineering course long ago, right after finishing my Intermediate course.

Better late than never, I told myself as I made the detour, applying for admission into the Madras Institute of Technology MIT , regarded as the crown jewel of technical education in South India at that time. I managed to be on the list of selected candidates, but admission to this prestigious institution was an expensive affair.

Around a thousand rupees was required, and my father could not spare that much money. At that time, my sister, Zohara, stood behind me, mortgaging her gold bangles and chain. I was deeply touched by her determination to see me educated and by her faith in my abilities. I vowed to release her bangles from mortgage with my own earnings.

The only way before me to earn money at that point of time was to study hard and get a scholarship. I went ahead at full steam. What fascinated me most at MIT was the sight of two decommissioned aircraft displayed there for the demonstration of the various subsystems of flying machines.

I felt a strange attraction towards them, and would sit near them long after other students had gone back to the hostel, admiring mans will to fly free in the sky, like a bird. After completing my first year, when I had to opt for a specific branch, I almost spontaneously chose aeronautical engineering. The goal was very clear in my mind now; I was going to fly aircraft.

I was convinced of this, despite being aware of my lack of assertiveness, which probably came about because of my humble background. Around this time, I made special efforts to try and communicate with different kinds of people. There were setbacks, disappointments and distractions, but my fathers inspiring words anchored me in those periods of nebulous drift.

Plate 1 a My father Jainulabdeen was not formally educated, but was a man of great wisdom and kindness. I often assisted my brother Kasim Mohamed in his shop selling artifacts on this street.

Plate 3 The old mosque in our locality where my father would take me and my brothers every evening to offer prayers. This is his house, from where I would borrow books while at Rameswaram. The words on the plaque read “Let not thy winged days be spent in vain.

When once gone no gold can buy them back again. They are the best examples of small-town Indian teachers committed to nurturing talent. Learning without wisdom is of no use. In the course of my education at MIT, three teachers shaped my thinking. Their combined contributions formed the foundation on which I later built my professional career.

These three teachers were Prof. Sponder, Prof. KAV Pandalai and Prof. Narasingha Rao. Each one of them had very distinct personalities, but they shared a common impulse the capacity to feed their students intellectual hunger by sheer brilliance and untiring zeal.

Sponder taught me technical aerodynamics. He was an Austrian with rich practical experience in aeronautical engineering. During the Second World War, he had been captured by the Nazis and imprisoned in a concentration camp. Understandably, he had developed a very strong dislike for Germans. Inciden- tally, the aeronautical department was headed by a German, Prof. Walter Repenthin. Another well-known professor, Dr Kurt Tank, was a distinguished aeronautical engineer who had designed the German FockeWulf FW single-seater fighter plane, an outstanding combat aircraft of the Second World War.

Notwithstanding these irritants, Prof. Sponder preserved his individuality and maintained high professional standards. He was always calm, energetic and in total control of himself. He kept abreast of the latest technologies and expected his students to do the same.

I consulted him before opting for aeronautical engineering. He told me that one should never worry about ones future prospects: instead, it was more important to lay sound foundations, to have sufficient enthusiasm and an accompanying passion for ones chosen field of study.

The trouble with Indians, Prof. Sponder used to observe, was not that they lacked educational opportunities or industrial infrastructurethe trouble was in their failure to discriminate between disciplines and to rationalise their choices. Why aeronautics? Why not electrical engineering? Why not mechanical engineering? I myself would like to tell all novitiate engineering students that when they choose their specialization, the essential point to.

KAV Pandalai taught me aero-structure design and analysis. He was a cheerful, friendly and enthusiastic teacher, who brought a fresh approach to every years teaching course. It was Professor Pandalai who opened up the secrets of structural engineering to us. Even today I believe that everyone who has been taught by Prof.

Pandalai would agree that he was a man of great intellectual integrity and scholarshipbut with no trace of arrogance. His students were free to disagree with him on several points in the classroom. Narasingha Rao was a mathematician, who taught us theoretical aerodynamics. I still remember his method of teaching fluid dynamics. After attending his classes, I began to prefer mathematical physics to any other subject.

Often, I have been told I carry a surgical knife to aeronautical design reviews. If it had not been for Prof. Raos kind and persistent advice on picking up proofs to equations of aerodynamic flow, I would not have acquired this metaphorical tool. Aeronautics is a fascinating subject, containing within it the promise of freedom. The great difference between freedom and escape, between motion and movement, between slide and flow are the secrets of this science. My teachers revealed these truths to me.

Through their meticulous teaching, they created within me an excitement about aeronautics. Their intellectual fervour, clarity of thought and passion for perfection helped me to launch into a serious study of fluid dynamicsmodes of compressible medium motion, development of shock waves and shock, induced flow separation at increasing speeds, shock stall and shock-wave drag. Slowly, a great amalgamation of information took place in my mind.

The structural features of aeroplanes began to gain new meanings biplanes, monoplanes, tailless planes, canard configured planes, deltawing planes, all these began to assume increasing significance for me. The three teachers, all of them authorities in their different fields, helped me to mould a composite knowledge.

In those days, a new climate of political enlightenment and industrial effort was sweeping across the country. I had to test my belief in God and see if it could fit into the matrix of scientific thinking. The accepted view was that a belief in scientific methods was the only valid approach to knowledge.

If so, I wondered, was matter alone the ultimate reality and were spiritual phenomena but a manifestation of matter? Were all ethical values relative, and was sensory perception the only source of knowledge and truth? I wondered about these issues, attempting to sort out the vexing question of scientific temper and my own spiritual interests. The value system in which I had been nurtured was profoundly religious. I had been taught that true reality lay beyond the material world in the spiritual realm, and that knowledge could be obtained only through inner experience.

Meanwhile, when I had finished my course work, I was assigned a project to design a low-level attack aircraft together with four other colleagues. I had taken up the responsibility of preparing and drawing the aerodynamic design. My team mates distributed among themselves the tasks of designing the propulsion, structure, control and instrumentation of the aircraft. One day, my design teacher, Prof. Srinivasan, then the Director of the MIT, reviewed my progress and declared it dismal and disappointing.

I offered a dozen excuses for the delay, but none of them impressed Prof. I finally pleaded for a months time to complete the task. The Professor looked at me for some time and said, Look, young man, today is Friday afternoon. I give you three days time. If by Monday morning I dont get the configuration drawing, your scholarship will be stopped. I was dumbstruck. The scholarship was my lifeline and I would be quite helpless if it was withdrawn. I could see no other way out but to finish the task as I had been instructed.

That night, I remained at the drawing board, skipping dinner. Next morning, I took only an hours break to freshen up and eat a little food. On Sunday morning, I was very near completion, when suddenly I felt someone elses presence in the room.

Srinivasan was watching me from a distance. Coming straight from the gymkhana, he was still in his tennis outfit and had dropped in to see my progress. After examining my work, Prof. Srinivasan hugged me affectionately. He said, I knew I was putting you under stress and asking you to meet an impossible deadline.

I never expected you to perform so well. Tamil is my mother tongue and I am proud of its origins, which have been traced back to Sage Agastya in the pre-Ramayana period; its literature dates back to the fifth century BC. It is said to be a language moulded by lawyers and grammarians and is internationally acclaimed for its clear-cut logic.

I was very enthusiastic about ensuring that science did not remain outside the purview of this wonderful language. The article evoked much interest and I won the competition, taking the first prize from Devan, the editor of the popular Tamil weekly, Ananda Vikatan.

My most touching memory of MIT is related to Prof. We were posing for a group photograph as part of a farewell ritual. All the graduating students had lined up in three rows with the professors seated in the front. Suddenly, Prof. Sponder got up and looked for me. I was standing in the third row. Come and sit with me in the front, he said. I was taken aback by Prof. Sponders invitation. You are my best student and hard work will help you bring a great name for your teachers in future.

Embarrassed by the praise but honoured by the recognition, I sat with Prof. Sponder for the photograph. Let God be your hope, your stay, your guide and provide the lantern for your feet in your journey into the future, said the introverted genius, bidding me adieu. Sign up Log in. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. Books Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip.

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We had X-ray payloads to look at stars; payloads fitted integration for Prof. To me they looked flimsy, of the upper atmosphere; sodium payloads to find out wind conditions, but Prof. Oda stuck to his stand that the Indian timers be replaced by its direction and velocity. We also had ionospheric payloads to explore the Japanese ones. I yielded to his suggestion and replaced the timers. I not only had to interact with scientists The rocket took off elegantly and attained the intended altitude.

Oda was so upset that tears welled up in his eyes. I was stunned France, Germany and Japan. He had clearly put his heart and soul into his work. I often read Khalil Gibran, and always find his words full of wisdom. If you are a writer the hazardous sodium and thermite mix. As usual, it was a hot and humid who would secretly prefer to be a lawyer or a doctor, your written words day at Thumba.

After the sixth such operation, Sudhakar and I went into will feed but half the hunger of your readers; if you are a teacher who the payload room to confirm the proper filling of the mix. Suddenly, a would rather be a businessman, your instructions will meet but half the drop of sweat from his forehead fell onto the sodium, and before we need for knowledge of your students; if you are a scientist who hates knew what was happening, there was a violent explosion which shook science, your performance will satisfy but half the needs of your mission.

For a few paralysed seconds, I did not know what to do. The The personal unhappiness and failure to achieve results that comes from fire was spreading, and water would not extinguish the sodium fire. But there Trapped in this inferno, Sudhakar, however, did not lose his presence of are exceptions to this like Prof.

Oda and Sudhakar, who bring to their mind. He broke the glass window with his bare hands and literally threw work a personal touch of magic based upon their individual character, me out to safety before jumping out himself.

Sudhakar their hearts. They become so emotionally involved with their work that spent many weeks in the hospital recuperating from the severe burns he any dilution of the success of their effort fills them with grief. I remember him as a assembly, testing and evaluation besides building subsystems like payload diminutive man with a towering personality and eyes that radiated housing and jettisonable nose cones.

Working with the nose cones led intelligence. His dedication to his work was exemplary. He would bring me, as a natural consequence, into the field of composite materials. That was his subtle way composite bows made of wood, sinew, and horn as early as the eleventh of challenging each one of us to stretch our capabilities. The versatility of composites, in the sense that they possess would praise whatever we had accomplished.

Whenever he found any very desirable structural, thermal, electrical, chemical and mechanical one of us going over his head and attempting a task for which he did not properties, fascinated me. I was so enthused with these man-made have the capability or skill, Prof. Sarabhai would reassign activity in materials that I was in a hurry to know everything about them almost such a way so as to lower pressure and permit better quality work to be overnight.

I used to read up everything available on related topics. I was performed. Sarabhai wanted to see me urgently in Delhi. In February By now I was accustomed to Prof. In such a state of mind, to the International Space Science Community. On this occasion, she sudden flashes of inspiration were almost natural. Delhi being a slightly unfamiliar Subramanian and MN Satyanara-yana, great satisfaction.

We made high- place, with an unfriendly climate for someone like me, conditioned to the strength glass cloth laminates to build non-magnetic payload housings warm and humid climate of South India, I decided to wait in the hotel and flew them in two-stage sounding rockets. We also wound and test lounge after finishing my dinner. I have always been a religious person in the sense that I maintain a Slowly, but surely, two Indian rockets were born at Thumba.

They working partnership with God. I was aware that the best work required were christened Rohini and Menaka, after the two mythological dancers more ability than I possessed and therefore I needed help that only God in the court of Indra, the king of the sky. The Indian payloads no longer could give me. I made a true estimate of my own ability, then raised it by needed to be launched by French rockets.

In this partnership, I have but for the atmosphere of trust and commitment which Prof. Today, I can affirm that the kingdom of God is knowledge and skills.

He made every man feel directly involved in problem within you in the form of this power, to help achieve your goals and solving. There are many different types and levels of experience that turn this internal power reaction critical.

Sometimes, when we are ready, the Prof. Sarabhai was matter-of-fact and never tried to hide his gentlest of contacts with Him fills us with insight and wisdom. This disappointment.

He used to talk with us in an honest and objective manner. Many a time, it could come even were, and then charming us by his almost magical powers of persuasion. Without the slightest warning, something nevertheless in a successful manner. He was a well-built person with an intelligent I looked around the elegant lounge. Somebody had left a book on a look and refined posture. Unlike me—always disorderly in my dress— nearby sofa.

As if to fill the small hours of that cold night with some this man was wearing elegant clothes. Notwithstanding the odd hours, warm thoughts, I picked up the book and started browsing. I must have he was alert and vivacious. And before I could get back to the book, It was some popular book related to business management. I was I was informed that Prof. Sarabhai was ready to receive me.

I left the not really reading it, only skimming over paragraphs and turning pages. I was surprised Suddenly, my eyes fell on a passage in the book, it was a quotation from when the man sitting on the opposite sofa was also asked to come inside. George Bernard Shaw. The gist of the quote was that all reasonable Who was he? It was not long before my question was answered.

Even men adapt themselves to the world. Only a few unreasonable ones persist before we sat down, Prof. Sarabhai introduced us to each other. He in trying to adapt the world to themselves. Sarabhai ordered coffee for both of us and unfolded his plan of conformist actions.

I started reading the book from the Bernard Shaw passage onwards. This would help our warplanes to take off from short runways in the The author was describing certain myths woven around the concept Himalayas. Hot coffee was served over small talk.

It was totally and the process of innovation in industry and business. I read about the uncharacteristic of Prof. But as soon as we finished the coffee, myth of strategic planning. It is generally believed that substantial Prof. The author was of the opinion that it is essential for cursory glance at the sofa where I had left the book.

It was not there. Sarabhai showed us felt that it was a myth to hold that the key to economic success is a Russian RATO. A quotation from General George Patton was given as a could you do it in eighteen months time?

Sarabhai asked us. It is a myth that to Prof. I recalled what win big one must strive to optimize, the author felt. After dropping us back at the Hotel Ashoka, Prof. By that evening, Waiting in the hotel lobby at 1 a. But then, Prof. Sarabhai had always exhibited a strong heading the project, was made public.

I was filled with many emotions— component of unorthodoxy in his character. The plan talked about the realisation of a When you are the hammer, strike.

SLV for injecting lightweight satellites into a low earth orbit, upgrading of Indian satellites from laboratory models to space entities and RATO motors were mounted on aircraft to provide the additional development of a wide range of spacecraft subsystems like the apogee thrust required during the take-off run under certain adverse operating and booster motors, momentum wheel, and solar panel deployment conditions like partially bombed-out runways, high altitude airfields, more mechanism.

It also promised a wide range of technological spin-offs than the prescribed load, or very high ambient temperatures. The Air like the gyros, various types of transducers, telemetry, adhesives, and Force was in dire need of a large number of RATO motors for their S- polymers for non-space applications.

Over and above, there was the 22 and HF aircraft. It weighed kg and had a double base propellant encased in Ministry of Defence.

Both Narayanan and I were inducted as members. The development work was to be carried out at the Space Science The idea of making missiles in our own country was exciting, and we and Technology Centre with the assistance of the Defence Research spent hours on end studying the missiles of various advanced countries.

The distinction between a tactical missile and a strategic missile is often a fine one. However, in warfare, this term is used motor casing. We decided in favour of a composite propellant which to denote the kind of target rather than its distance from missile launch.

I also decided to take additional safety measures by in counter-force attacks on their strategic forces or in counter-value incorporating a diaphragm which would rupture if the chamber pressure attacks on the society, which in essence means his cities. Tactical for some reason exceeded twice the operating pressure. Two significant weapons are those that influence a battle, and the battle may be by land, developments occurred during the work on RATO.

The first was the sea or air, or on all three together. This profile was not merely an activity plan laid down in a tactical role, notwithstanding its range of some km.

In those by the top man for his team to comply with, it was a theme paper meant days, however, strategic missiles were synonymous with intermediate for open discussions, to be later transformed into a programme.

In fact, range ballistic missiles IRBMs with ranges in the order of nautical I found it was the romantic manifesto of a person deeply in love with the miles or km and inter-continental ballistic missiles ICBMs with a space research programme in his country.

The plan mainly centred around the early ideas which had been born Gp Capt Narayanan had an ineffable enthusiasm for indigenous guided at INCOSPAR; it included utilization of satellites for television and missiles. He was a great admirer of the strong arm approach of the Russian developmental education, meteorological observations and remote sensing Missile Development Programme.

To this had been added the here, where space research has already prepared the soil for a bonanza development and launch of satellite launch vehicles. A large number of Surface- The next evening, Babu came to me before the appointed time.

The RATO system locations. Gp Capt Narayanan passionately advocated the development can be made without imports. The only hurdle is the inherent inelasticity of these missiles in the country.

He was very eager to learn about rocketry and I approval by a single person instead of an entire hierarchy, air travel for was very curious to know about airborne weapon systems. He had and expeditious accounting procedures. He obtained These demands were unheard of in government establishments, which funding of Rs 75 lakhs with a further commitment towards any tend to be conservative, yet I could see the soundness of his proposition.

At times, I often laughed at his impatience, was to be played with a new set of rules. I weighed all the pros and cons and read for him these lines from T. Hearing my plea for administrative liberalization And the creation and seeing the merits behind it, Prof.

Sarabhai approved the proposals Between the emotion without a second thought. And the response Through his suggestions, Babu had highlighted the importance of Falls the Shadow. Virtually nothing indigenous was available. Together, we made people, more material and more money. But this made me your parameters! Instinctive businessman that he was, Babu did not unhappy—was there no remedy or alternative? I to live with screwdriver technology? We had also gone in for a high energy after I took up the RATO projects, I saw a young colleague, Jaya Chandra composite propellant and an event-based ignition and jettisoning system in Babu going home.

Babu had joined us a few months ago and the only real-time. A canted nozzle was designed to deflect the jet away from the thing I knew about him was that he had a very positive attitude and was aircraft. We conducted the first static test of RATO in the twelfth month articulate.

I called him into my office and did a bit of loud thinking. Within the next four months, we conducted 64 you have any suggestions? Babu remained silent for static tests. And we were just about 20 engineers working on the project! Sarabhai gave me the additional responsibility of designing the fourth stage of the SLV. What made Prof. Sarabhai pick a few of us for this great mission? Dr Gowarikar was doing outstanding work in the field of composite propellants. MR Kurup had established an excellent laboratory for propellants, propulsion and pyrotechnics.

Muthunayagam had proved himself in the field of high energy propellants. The fourth stage was to be a composite structure and called for a large number of innovations in fabrication technology; Movers perhaps that was why I was brought in. I laid the foundation for Stage IV on two rocks—sensible approximation and unawed support. I have always considered the price The future satellite launch vehicle SLV had also been conceived of perfection prohibitive and allowed mistakes as a part of the learning by this time.

Recognising the immense socio- economic benefits of space process. I prefer a dash of daring and persistence to perfection. I have technology, Prof. Sarabhai decided in , to go full-steam ahead with always supported learning on the part of my team members by paying the task of establishing indigenous capability in building and launching vigilant attention to each of their attempts, be they successful or our own satellites.

He personally participated in an aerial survey of the unsuccessful. In my group, progress was recognized and reinforced at every tiny step.

Although I provided access to all the information that my co-workers Prof. I wondered if there was something He finally selected the Sriharikota island, km north of Madras now wrong with the way in which I managed my time. At this stage, Prof. The Sarabhai brought a French visitor to our work centre to point out the crescent-shaped island has a maximum width of 8 km and lies alongside problem to me. This gentleman was Prof. The island is as big as Madras city.

They Canal and the Pulicat lake form its western boundary. Curien was a In , we had formed the Indian Rocket Society. Soon after, the thorough professional. Together, Prof. Sarabhai and Prof. Curien, Prof. Sarabhai had already hand-picked a team to give Prof. Curien to reinterpret his own progress in the Diamont programme. Curien advised Prof. Sarabhai to relieve me of all the minor cancelled their Diamont BC programme. They told us that they did not jobs which posed little challenge and to give me more opportunities for need our Stage IV anymore.

It was a great shock, making me re-live achievement. I recall how this Air Force, and at Bangalore, when the Nandi project was aborted at brought a subtle smile to Prof. As a matter of fact, the Diamont and SLV airframes were I had invested great hope and effort in the fourth stage, so that it incompatible. The diameters were quite different and to attain could be flown with a Diamont rocket. The other three stages of SLV, interchangeability, some radical innovations were required.

I wondered involving enormous work in the area of rocket propulsion were at least where I should start. I decided to look around for solutions among my five years away. However, it did not take me long to shelve the own colleagues. After all, I had thoroughly daily routine reflected their desire to constantly experiment. I also started enjoyed working on this project. In time, RATO filled the vacuum created asking and listening to anyone who showed the slightest promise.

Some in me by the Diamont BC Stage. I When the RATO project was underway, the SLV project slowly started made it an unfailing routine to make notes on individual suggestions and taking shape. Competence for all major systems of a launch vehicle had gave handwritten notes to colleagues in engineering and design, requesting been established in Thumba by now. Through their outstanding efforts, concrete follow-up action within five or ten days.

Curien testified, while for a big leap in rocketry. Sarabhai was an exemplar in the art of team-building. On one counterparts in Europe could barely manage in three years. Our plus occasion, he had to identify a person who could be given the responsibility point, he noted, was that each of us worked with those below and above for developing a telecommand system for the SLV.

Two men were in the hierarchy. I made it a point to have the team meet at least once competent to carry out this task—one was the seasoned and sophisticated every week. Though it took up time and energy, I considered it essential. UR Rao and the other was a relatively unknown experimenter, G How good is a leader? No better than his people and their commitment Madhavan Nair. The fact that I got them dedication and abilities, I did not rate his chances as very good.

During all together to share whatever little development had been achieved— one of Prof. Sarabhai putting all my energy and time into. It was a very small price to pay for did not take much time to back the young experimenter in preference to that commitment and sense of teamwork, which could in fact be called an established expert. Madhavan Nair not only lived up to the trust. Within my own small group of people I found leaders, and learned expectations of his leader but even went beyond them.

He was to later that leaders exist at every level. SLVs and missiles can be called first cousins: they are different in We had modified the existing SLV-IV Stage design to suit the Diamont concept and purpose, but come from the same bloodline of rocketry. A airframe. It was reconfigured and upgraded from a kg, mm massive missile development project had been taken up by DRDO at diameter stage to a kg, mm diameter stage. Sarabhai spent the next hour in re-defining our tasks, and, in the small hours of the morning, the decision to set up a Rocket In , Prof.

Sarabhai came to Thumba on one of his routine visits. Engineering Section was taken. He was shown the operation of the nose-cone jettisoning mechanism. As always, we were all anxious to share the results of our work with Mistakes can delay or prevent the proper achievement of the Prof. We requested Prof. Sarabhai to formally activate the objectives of individuals and organizations, but a visionary like Prof.

Sarabhai smiled, and pressed Sarabhai can use errors as opportunities to promote innovation and the the button. To our horror, nothing happened. We were dumbstruck. I development of new ideas. He was not especially concerned with the looked at Pramod Kale, who had designed and integrated the timer circuit.

In a flash each of us mentally went through an anlysis of the failure. We Prof. Sarabhai to wait for a few minutes, then we detached they were inevitable but generally manageable.

It was in the handling of the timer device, giving direct connection to the pyros. Sarabhai the crises that arose as a consequence that talent could often be revealed. The pyros were fired and the nose cone was I later realised by experience, that the best way to prevent errors was to jettisoned.

Sarabhai congratulated Kale and me; but his expression anticipate them. But this time, by a strange twist of fate, the failure of suggested that his thoughts were elsewhere. We could not guess what the timer circuit led to the birth of a rocket engineering laboratory.

The suspense did not last for long and I got a call from It was my usual practice to brief Prof. Sarabhai after every Missile Prof. After attending one such meeting in Delhi on 30 discussion. December , I was returning to Trivandrum. Sarabhai was Prof. I spoke to him home whenever he was in Trivandrum. I was slightly perplexed by the on the telephone from the airport lounge about the salient points that had summons.

Sarabhai greeted me with his customary warmth. He emerged at the panel meeting. He instructed me to wait at Trivandrum talked of the rocket launching station, envisaging facilities like launch Airport after disembarking from the Delhi flight, and to meet him there pads, block houses, radar, telemetry and so on—things which are taken before his departure for Bombay the same night.

Then he brought up the When I reached Trivandrum, a pall of gloom hung in the air. The incident that had occurred that morning. This was exactly what I had aircraft ladder operator Kutty told me in a choked voice that Prof.

My apprehension of a reproach from my leader, however, was Sarabhai was no more. He had passed away a few hours ago, following unfounded.

Sarabhai did not conclude that the failure of the pyro a cardiac arrest. I was shocked to the core; it had happened within an timer circuit was the outcome of insufficient knowledge and lack of skill hour of our conversation. It was a great blow to me and a huge loss to on the part of his people or of faulty understanding at the direction stage.

Indian science. That night passed in preparations for airlifting Prof. He also asked me to consider if my work was possibly being affected by any problem of which I was hitherto unaware. For five years, between to , about 22 scientists and engineers He finally put his finger on the key issue. We lacked a single roof to had worked closely with Prof. All of them were later to take carry out system integration of all our rocket stages and rocket systems.

Not only was Prof. Sarabhai a Electrical and mechanical integration work was going on with a great scientist, but also a great leader. I still remember him reviewing significant phase difference—both in time and in space. There was little the bi-monthly progress of the design projects of SLV-3 in June The first three Before taking up the responsibility of organizing space research in presentations went through smoothly.

Mine was the last presentation. Sarabhai had introduced five of my team members who had contributed in various established a number of successful industrial enterprises. He was aware ways to the design. The presentations Prof. Sarabhai founded Sarabhai Chemicals, Sarabhai Glass, Sarabhai were discussed at length and the conclusion was that satisfactory Geigy Limited, Sarabhai Merck Limited, and the Sarabhai Engineering progress had been made.

His Swastik Oil Mills did pioneering work in the extraction of oil from oilseeds, manufacture of synthetic detergents and of cosmetics. Suddenly, a senior scientist who worked closely with Prof. But what did astronomical costs at that time. Now with the indigenization of RATO, you do for the project?

Sarabhai his mission had acquired a new dimension—independence in the really annoyed. We just witnessed an excellent example. It rupees in foreign exchange. I recalled this on the day of the successful was an outstanding demonstration of team work. I have always seen a trial of the RATO system. Including trial expenses, we spent less than project leader as an integrator of people and that is precisely what Kalam Rs.

Sarabhai as the Mahatma Gandhi of Indian science at Rs. MGK Menon at the helm, full swing. All the subsystems had been designed, technologies identified, Prof. The processes established, work centres selected, manpower earmarked and whole complex at Thumba, which included TERLS, the Space Science schedules drawn. The only hitch was the lack of a management structure and Technology Centre SSTC , the RPP, the Rocket Fabrication Facility to effectively handle this mega-project and coordinate activities which RFF , and the Propellant Fuel Complex PFC were merged together were spread over a large number of work centres with their own ways to form an integrated space centre and christened the Vikram Sarabhai of working and management.

The renowned metallurgist, Dr Brahm Prakash, took over as Prof. I wondered why I was selected for this task when Bareilly Air Force station in Uttar Pradesh, when a high performance there were stalwarts like Gowarikar, Muthunayagam, and Kurup around.

Sukhoi jet aircraft became airborne after a short run of m, as With organizers like Easwardas, Aravamudan, and SC Gupta available, against its usual run of 2 km. We used the 66th RATO motor in the test. I articulated my doubts to Dr Brahm Prakash.

This effort was said to have saved approximately Rs 4 crores in foreign exchange. The vision of the industrialist scientist had finally borne fruit. Yet another major task was the augmentation of degraders and cautioned me against outrightly seeking optimal launch facilities at SHAR with systems integration and checkout facilities performance from the participating work centres.

The SLV mission will be set in March Dr Brahm you who did not eat or walk about the market squares. We test you by Prakash formed four Project Advisory Committees to advise me on means of one another. Will you not have patience? My job was going to be to showing you an account of those who have gone before you and an avoid those who were interested neither in the work nor in the workers.

Allah guides to His light promote conditions where work and workers went together. I visualized whom He will. He has knowledge of all things. The first Group was made and operation of a standard SLV system, SLV-3, capable of reliably and responsible for looking after the overall executive aspects of SLV expeditiously fulfilling the specified mission of launching a 40 kg satellite project management, including administration, planning and evaluation, into a km circular orbit around the earth.

The Integration and Flight Testing Group was assigned the tasks major tasks. One such task was the development of a rocket motor of generation of facilities required for integration and flight testing of system for the four stages of the vehicle.

The critical problems in the SLV They were also asked to carry out the analysis of the vehicle, completion of this task were: making an 8. The high mass ratio apogee rocket motor system which would use high- Subsystems Development Group was given the job of interacting with energy propellants. Another task was vehicle control and guidance.

Three various divisions of VSSC and was made responsible for ensuring that types of control systems were involved in this task—aerodynamic surface all technological problems in the development of various subsystems control, thrust vector control and reaction control for the first, second were overcome by creating a synergy amongst the available talent in and third stages and the spin-up mechanism for the fourth stage. Inertial these divisions.

If it had not been for synergistic efforts, the whole project would have remained a non-starter. These men were in the habit of celebrating their successes together—in a sort of mutual appreciation club. This boosted morale, and helped them a great deal to accept setbacks and to revitalize themselves after periods of intense work.

Each member of the SLV-3 project team was a specialist in his own field. It was natural therefore that each one of them valued his independence. To manage the performance of such specialists the team Thrusters H leader has to adopt a delicate balance between the hands-on and the aving taken up the leadership of executing the SLV-3 project, hands-off approach.

The hands-off approach committee work, material procurement, correspondence, trusts team members and recognizes their need for autonomy to carry reviews, briefings, and for the need to be informed on a wide range of out their roles, as they see fit. It hinges on their self-motivation.

When subjects. If he goes too far hands-off, he is seen as was living in. I used to prepare a general schedule during my morning abdicating his responsibility or not being interested. Each one of these minutes, I would scan all the papers and quickly divide them into different men rose to his present position through consistent hard work and rock- categories: those that required immediate action, low priority ones, ones like will power.

It was indeed an exceptionally talented team. Then I would put the high priority papers in front of me and everything else out of sight. The list of materials went up to over 1 million components.

From his side, Prof. From our side, we stainless steel, electroforming techniques, and ultra-precision process evolved a matrix type of management to achieve productive interfacing tooling. We also decided to make some important machines in-house, with more than industries. The target was that our interaction with like the litre vertical mixer and the groove machining facility for our them must lead to their technology empowerment.

Three things I stressed third and fourth stages. Many of our subsystems were so massive and before my colleagues—importance of design capability, goal setting and complex that they implied sizeable financial outlays. Without any realisation, and the strength to withstand setbacks. Now, before I dwell hesitation, we approached industries in the private sector and developed on the finer aspects of the management of the SLV-3 project, let me talk contract management plans which later became blueprints for many about the SLV-3 itself.

It is interesting to describe a launch vehicle anthropomorphically. Coming to the life part of the SLV, there is the complex electrical The main mechanical structure may be visualized as the body of a human circuitry, which sets the mechanical structure in motion. This vast being, the control and guidance systems with their associated electronics spectrum of activities, encompassing simple electrical power supplies to constitute the brain. The musculature comes from propellants. How are sophisticated instrumentation as well as guidance and control systems is they made?

What are the materials and techniques involved? Development efforts in avionic systems had already been initiated at A large variety of materials go into the making of a launch vehicle— VSSC in the field of digital electronics, microwave radars and radar both metallic and non-metallic, which include composites and ceramics.

It is very important In metals, different types of stainless steel, alloys of aluminium, to know the state of the SLV when it is in flight. SLV brought a new magnesium, titanium, copper, beryllium, tungsten and molybdenum are surge of activity in the development of a variety of transducers for used.

Composite materials are composed of a mixture or combination of measurement of physical parameters like pressure, thrust, vibration, two or more constituents which differ in form and material composition acceleration, etc. The transducers convert the physical parameters of and which are essentially insoluble in one another.

 
 

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