There are very few who, despite having attained very high goals, remember those who have guided them, inspired and encouraged them, at each and every step in their lives. This is a rare quality which Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam possesses to the maximum extent. In other words, he is a person who extends the credit of all his successes and achievements to Professor Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and pays full respects to him.
He begins with his description about Dr. Vikram Sarabhai from the stage he received a call from Indian Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) to attend an interview for the post of Rocket engineer.
This interview, here, was different from the general interviews in which the interviewers generally display a sort of arrogance and exhibit their patronising attitudes while interviewing a young and vulnerable candidate. Dr. Kalam could feel their warmth and friendliness. While answering the questions asked by the interviewers, Dr. Kalam realized that the questions asked were not aimed at probing his existing knowledge or skills, they were rather aimed at exploring the possibilities he was filled with. Dr. Kalam says—“The entire encounter seemed to me a total moment of truth, in which my dream was enveloped by the larger dream of a bigger person.”
Dr. Abdul Kalam has had modesty as his first quality; he is full of reverence for his guides and has dedication with complete faith in them since the very beginning. He has always expressed his gratitude from the bottom of his heart to everyone who has, at any point of time, rendered support and help to him and become instrumental in his progress.
Here, we are discussing Dr. Abdul Kalam’s modesty and deep sense of gratitude which he has exhibited at each and every step to show his reverence for Prof. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. It is for an added reading for our readers that we are bringing forth certain important references in the following lines—
It was at the recommendation of Professor Dr. Vikram Sarabhai that Dr. Abdul Kalam was sent to America for a six-month training programme on sounding rocket launching techniques at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) works centres.
When Dr. Abdul Kalam returned from America after completing his training, he was full of enthusiasm to make use of his training and give a practical shape to it in his country. And at the same time he was deeply impressed by the Americans whom he found to be very positive in their attitude towards life; he was impressed by the very fact that the Americans believed in meeting their problems head on; they believed in getting out of their problems rather than suffering them. He had returned to his country with a determination to emulate the devotion and dedication of Americans to their jobs.
The first rocket of India, Nike-Apache, was launched on 21 Novermber 1963 at 6 p.m. from Thumba, which is near Trivandrum. The site from where the rocket was launched lay between the railway line and sea coast and had a large church within its area. This church, St. Mary Magdalene church, housed the first office of the Thumba Space Centre, and it became Dr. Abdul Kalam’s place of worship and the working place both. The prayer room of the church was his first laboratory and the Bishop’s room was his design and drawing office; a set up embracing spirituality and the Karma, a beautiful combination.
It was very close to the launching time of the rocket when suddenly the hydraulic system of the crane, which was supposed to lift the rocket and place it on the launcher, began showing signs of leakage. They had no time for repair of the crane, and as the entire responsibility of rocket integration and safety was on the shoulders of Dr. Abdul Kalam, he, without losing a single moments time, decided to do the job manually and, with the help of his other colleagues and using their collective muscle power, finally placed the rocket on the launcher.
Dr. Abdul Kalam’s happiness knew no bounds when he saw the rocket being launched successfully. But here, too, he extends the credit of success to his friends, D. Easwardas and R. Aravamudan. This is a sure sign of his modesty and greatness and also the magnanimity towards his friends.
One more very important thing that we get from the autobiography of Dr. Abdul Kalam is that Dr. Vikram Sarabhai relied more on the personal capabilities of the scientists and engineers, working in the team, than on their degrees and trainings.
Since Dr. Sarabhai was a great visionary and was ever-willing to try out novel approaches and liked to draw in young ones in the working team, his very presence used to fill people, working at Thumba, with new kind of energy and enthusiasm. And it was on the basis of this very enthusiasm of the scientists and engineers that he had formulated a plan of Indian Satellite Launch Vehicle.
Along with doing something new, Prof. Dr. Sarabhai, in accordance with the glory and magnificence of India, wanted to make it more safe and secure as per the requirement of time.
In the order of numerous qualities possessed by Dr. Sarabhai, Dr. Kalam has given some fine references which make the readers of his book aware of some very rare inspirational facts apart from the space research capabilities of our country.
e.g. whenever the team, working at Thumba, learnt of Dr. Sarabhai’s arrival, it would gear up to working day and night and scientists and engineers working in the team would always be anxious to show something new to Dr. Sarabhai. Such used to be their enthusiasm under the contagious influence of the charismatic personality of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. The reason behind all this was his plan to have a Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) under great optimism for India. Dr.Vikram Sarabhai used to have his own vision and plans and the result would be that one moment he would be talking of SLV and the other moment he would be asking Dr. Abdul Kalam to take up studies on a rocket-assisted take-off system (RATO) for military aircraft. The various tasks entrusted to the members of the team would appear totally unrelated in the beginning, but at some later stage they would emerge as deeply interconnected. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai saw to it that his colleagues met their targets with a sense of happiness and satisfaction in their working atmosphere.
The extraordinary capabilities of Dr. Sarabhai
Dr. Abdul Kalam seems to be proudly discussing the wonderful working system of Dr. Sarabhai in his autobiography; and this is the reason why he has mentioned that Dr. Sarabhai used to inspire the scientists and engineers and teach them the secrets of working by utilizing their full capabilities. Whenever some kind of problem would arise during some kind of performance of work due to varying perspectives, Prof. Sarabhai would elect to resolve the issue by rosorting to making experiments and coming to a fruitful conclusion.
It is great that Dr. Kalam extends full credits to the able guidance rendered by Prof. Sarabhai for whatever challenges Dr. Kalam faced and handled successfully with regard to space research programmes. Whatever may have been the experiments to be earried out, whatever may have been the plans for creations of new systems, whatever may have been the programme for development in rocket fuels, propulsion systems and aeronautics etc, full credit goes to Dr. Sarabhai’s extraordinary capability of making the scientists and engineers work with enthusiasm and to his satisfaction. And this precisely is the reason why the Physical Research Laboratory has produced a large number of Indian space scientists of extremely high calibre over the years.
The full credit of the rebirth of rocketry in India goes to the technological vision of the then Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who not only inspired but also provided administrative support in order to make the dreams come true. And it was Prof. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai who took the challenge of giving physical dimensions to this dream. Pandit Jawharalal Nehru and Dr. Sarabhai believed that if India had to be second to none and had to stand with its head high in the world, it was very much required that application of advanced technologies was promoted and encouraged.
Team spirit in real sense
Applying all of one’s calibre and performing a job successfully is something entirely different from making one’s colleagues and subordinates perform a job successfully, sincerely and dutifully. This extraordinary calibre, too, was possessed by Dr. Sarabhai. Along with keeping in view the importance of his leading the team as an expert, Dr. Sarabhai also took care of the feelings and sentiments of his colleagues working in the team. He always liked to ensure the acceptance and equal participation of the entire team before taking a final decision with regard to any kind of work. It was only due to his large heartedness and modesty that the dream of Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) in a fully indigenous capability could be brought to physical dimensions in India. It was all due to the capability of collective decision making of Dr. Sarabhai that the sounding rocket system could gain a solid scientific basis and could ensure faith of the entire nation in the field of technology.
Dr. Abdul Kalam has mentioned one more thing very special about Prof. Sarabhai that he was very practical in all respects and, if he was not satisfied by someone’s performance, he would never try to hide his disappointment. The manner in which he talked to the members of the team used to be honest and objective. He was so positive in his attitude towards things that he would try to make them look more positive than they actually happened to be.
Dr. Sarabhai, in order to enhance the capability of the members of his team, would, at times, bring someone from the developed world and show the performance of the team members working at the drawing board and, with his special working style, he would teach them to accept challenges and enhance their capabilities.
It isn’t that Dr. Sarabhai would become angry with his colleagues on their failures, on the contrary he would stress the need to work with more absorption and sincerity and, thus prove his special calibre by using errors as opportunities to promote innovation and development of new ideas, and by taking a lesson from failures. Thus, he possessed a miraculous power of bringing in the forefront the inner power of the scientists working in the team. Prof. Sarabhai brought about industrial revolution by founding huge establishments like Sarabhai Chemicals, Sarabhai Glass, Sarabhai Geigy Ltd., Sarabhai Merck Ltd., and the Sarabhai Engineering Group.
Tiruchchirappalli : Dr. Abdul Kalam’s source of inspiration
In the historical and religious contexts and backgrounds, a lot has been and is still available for reading about Tiruchchirappalli. From the point of view of natural beauty this place is most attractive. This place becomes more special because there is a temple of Lord Shiva and Lord Ganesha on the peak of the mountain. It seems that it was this temple of Lord Shiva from where Dr. Abdul Kalam took inspiration and developed more faith in him during his early schooling period. (This can be proven from his statement—“It is as though the great dance of Shiva is being performed on earth during every moment of our existence.”) (Wings of Fire—Page 16).
In order to be able to reach the temple, one has to climb up hundreds of stone-made stairs. A great number of saints and sages throng this place, from different directions, to have the Darshan of Lord Shiva and Lord Ganesha. This place is scenic and is full of beautiful views and natural features, and best scenic locations can be seen all around. In fact, the entire city of Tiruchchirappalli is a centre of attraction because of its natural beauty. Jambukeshwar, Shri Rangam and Kaveri are all worth seeing for visitors here. The visitors are benefited by having the Darshan of the saints and sages here, and they also enjoy being in the sacred company of these pious people.
At a distance of a few miles from here is a village named Chehintad. It is said that it is a village of the devotees of Lord Shiva (the Shaivites). The devotees display their faith in Lord Shiva by shouting the slogan of ‘victory to Kashi Vishwanath Baba’ whenever the saints and sages visit this place. This is the peculiarity of the eternal culture of this country that this entire country seems one and united from the south to the north under the inspiring faith of the people in Lord Shiva. It is the influence of this very spiritual zone under the inspiration of which Dr. Abdul Kalam, displaying his unflinching faith in Lord Shiva, named the first hovercraft made by him—‘Nandi’, in the name of the mode of conveyance of Lord Shiva.
In India, places of pilgrimages have had a very special importance since a very-very long time, and if these places of pilgrimages become centres of education and learning also, the importance of these places for human beings and their lives will be doubled.
