JOURNEY FROM RAMESHWARAM TO RASHTRAPATHY
(The life of a scientist – An extract)
It is really a difficult journey from a small island Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu to the Rashtrapathy Bhavan in New Delhi. Especially, it is very difficult for a son whose father is just a boatman. Unlike other great scientists, he was neither educated abroad nor in any leading institution.
His family was economically backward and his family situations made him do odd jobs like hawking newspapers. At the initial stage, he was educated in Schwartz high school in Ramanathapuram. Later he did his B.Sc. degree in St. Joseph’s college, Trichy. He was more interested in engineering and followed it up with an engineering course in Chennai, in the year 1954. By that time, he wanted to become a pilot.
After that, he joined Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as a trainee in the year 1958. In the following year, he had the opportunity of applying for both the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Directorate of Technical Development and Production (DTD&P) interviews which were at Dehra Dun and Delhi, respectively. But he was unlucky at that time and was rejected for the IAF.
Then he met an important man in his life, Swami Sivananda, who resembled the looks of Buddha. He was an important person in his life because the Swami told him about the changing faces of life and about destiny, which is unpredictable. He also instructed, “Look ahead and don’t look back, past is past, design your future.”
Life just moved like this for him, but he did not forget what Swami Sivananda had said to him. In 1962, he joined the Indian Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), a fledgling Indian space institute, which was reformed as Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He was soon posted at newly formed Thumba Equatorial Earth Launching Station (TERLS) near Thiruvananthapuram.
Then he was appointed as project director and rocket specialist for the project of making SLV 3. On July 18, 1980, India`s first Satellite Launch Vehicle, SLV-3 (23-metre, 17 ton, 4-stage), lifted off from SHAR successfully. After that, he was appointed as director of DRDO, and handled 5 projects, which were to be completed within 10 years. He was highly successful in all of these.
In 1997, he received the Bharat Ratna award for the service he rendered for our country’s defence. He was nominated as Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India with the rank of a Union Cabinet Minister in November 1999, a position he held until November 2001. Then, he taught at Anna University.
In the year 2002, he became the eleventh president of our country. Yes, the scientist, about whom you have been reading is none but our APJ ABDUL KALAM. He said that India’s future is in the hands of youngsters. Indeed, youngsters are the greatest treasure of our country. This journey of Kalam sir became possible only because of his self-confidence and hard work. His dream was to make India a well-developed country. Though he is no more now, we still have many Kalams in our country. Let’s bring them all out and fulfill the wishes of our Kalam.
- Extract written by
Bairavi Sundaram
