READING DAY AND READING WEEK:BOOK REVIEW "WINGS OF FIRE"
Kalam introduces us to his early life in Rameswaram where he was
born and raised in a secure middle-class Tamil family. He proceeds to describe
the communal harmony in Rameswaram and the stable atmosphere for healthy discussion
of spiritual matters.
Hailing from a predominantly Muslim locality, Kalam learned
respect for other faiths from his parents. During Kalam’s early life, his close
relatives encouraged Kalam to excel in studies and would talk about the
discoveries of literature and science beyond Rameswaram. Inspired to fulfill
his dreams, he left his home to attend Schwartz High School in Ramanathapuram.
Kalam throws light on the time he got selected at Madras
Institute of Technology (MIT) for engineering when admission fees were
expensive. His elder sister stood by him and helped him financially which
deeply moved Kalam to study hard for a scholarship. At MIT, he dreamed to fly
an aircraft and hence chose aeronautical engineering.
Kalam sends a message to the future engineering students that ‘when
they choose their specialization, the essential point to consider is whether
the choice articulates their inner feelings and aspirations’.
Kalam was determined to join either the Air Force or a job at
Directorate of Technical Development and Production, DTD&P (Air) at the
Ministry of Defence. However, Kalam was not successful in joining the Indian
Air Force and could not fulfill his dream to fly.
Frustrated, Kalam turned to Swami Sivananda who taught him to
accept his destiny and go ahead with life. He learned that this was not in his
destiny. He got accepted as a Senior Scientific Assistant at DTD&P (Air).
Here, Kalam faced his first failure.
His indigenous Hovercraft ‘Nandi’ was shelved by a new ministry
which favored imported hovercrafts. Kalam learned the harsh truth that certain
events may be out of control in life.
However, ‘Nandi’ had created interest by then and as if destiny
came knocking, Kalam was called for an interview at Indian Committee for Space
Research for the post of Rocket Engineer. At this interview, he met Prof.
Sarabhai, father of the Indian space program.
In the section Creation, Kalam gives a glimpse of his keen eye
while training at NASA. He recollects seeing a painting depicting heroism of
Tipu Sultan’s army using rockets against the British.
He learned many valuable management and leadership lessons from
Prof. Sarabhai. At an early stage of his career, Kalam trusted that leadership
with the free exchange of views was more desirable than giving directions.
Kalam also learned that leaders exist at every level.
Kalam throws light on his work schedule when he started leading
projects. On entering his office he would first clean the table, prioritize
papers for immediate action & remove everything else from sight.
If you want to leave your footprints
On the sands of time
Do not drag your feet
On the sands of time
Do not drag your feet
This memorable line has aged well which tells us to take action
now when we are interested in doing a good thing and want to be remembered for
it. Interestingly, Kalam preferred a daring attitude with persistence to
perfection.
He favored allowing mistakes as a learning process as they are
inevitable but generally manageable. He advocated building own education,
skills and keeping up-to-date.
Kalam narrates his experience when he was faced with three
deaths in his family. He faced failure when the first flight trial of Indian
SLV-3 crashed for which Kalam took responsibility as a leader. Kalam describes
two visionaries Prof. Dhawan and Dr. Brahm Prakash who mentored him during such
days.
In the book we learn how
Kalam started his career in Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) and
was involved in the design of a hovercraft. Later he moved to Indian Space
Research which was the brain child of Vikram Sarabhai. In 1963, Kalam went to
NASA facility in Maryland(USA) as part of a training program on sounding rocket
launching techniques. There he came across a painting which depicted Tipu
Sultan’s rocket warfare against the British,
Here, I saw a painting prominently displayed in the reception
lobby. It depicted a battle scene with a few rockets flying in the background.
A painting with this theme should be the most commonplace thing at a Flight
Facility, but the painting caught my eye because the soldiers on the side
launching the rockets were not white , but dark-skinned, with the racial
features of people found in South Asia.
One day, my curiosity got the better of me, drawing me towards
the painting. It turned out to be Tipu Sultan’s army fighting the British. The
painting depicted a fact forgotten in Tipu’s own country but commemorated here
on the other side of the planet. I was happy to see an Indian glorified by NASA
as a hero of warfare rocketry.
The book covers a lot of
"behind the scene" information and technical details about India’s
satellite and missile program (SLV-3, Prithvi, Agni, Thrisul, Akash and Nag).
This might interest technically inclined readers but is sure to put off readers
who bought the book to get to know Kalam or to know his principles/ideas. Space
and missile programs are huge complex projects and managing them is extremely
challenging.
The
book is a journey of dreams, hopes, successes and failures. The life of this
great personality was none different than the normal person, only thing
different was how he perceive the world around him and how he’s willing to go
that little extra to achieve his dreams, how he’s willing to sacrifice for
common good and how he never forgets who he really is (some qualities common to
visionaries and great men like him). This book gives confidence to Indians that
‘we can do and we can do from India’.
It is story of courage,
inspiration leadership and motivation. The book tells us how important it is to
value the people around us in order to grow as a person. The book talks about
the millions of people who have contributed to the life of Mr. Kalam, which
tells us that a great personality is just not one person but a collective
effort of many.
The book is also the journey of
India’s technological advancement, lists how the success and failures were the
integral part of the missions. Though there was a lot of hue and cry from the
nation about huge money being pumped in for war purposes when half of the
nation is below the poverty line. I too thought that such kind of advancement
brings no good.
But
this book gives a scientist’s point of view and I realized that sometimes it is
necessary to solve the puzzle to complete the picture. The hardest battles are
those when you are fighting with your own family and indeed the scientists were
fighting for a cause for which the nation gave them the least support.
Through
this book, Mr. Kalam states that missiles were not build to bring war but to
become self reliant, to show the world that one cannot rule over others just
because they are superior in warfare. This book is not a story of self praise
or personal feat but about a person who had the fire in him to give his dreams
wings to fly. Through this book he wants the youth to know that no efforts can
go waste, no goals can remain unfulfilled and no life can be ordinary. Each of
us needs to realize our potential, give away the feeling of being inferior and
fight our own battles in order to fly high up in the sky with our WINGS OF
FIRE!!!!!
Through Wings of Fire, we
come across some brilliant people who worked behind Indian space research
such as Vikram Sarabhai and Dr. Brahm Prakash. The book also contains about 24
photos and I found the ones from the early days of Indian space program very
interesting. This alone is worth the price of the book!
One of the things that
stands out throughout the book is Kalam’s positive thinking. He held many high
ranking positions in various organizations. Yet in the book he rarely mentions
anything about lethargy/corruption of bureaucracy or politicians. The secret to
his success seems to be his ability to ignore negative things around him. The
book also gives a clue to his popularity in India. Kalam is a simple, secular,
inspiring humanitarian.
Book details:
Title: Wings of Fire
Author: APJ Abdul Kalam
Genre: Autobiography
ISBN: 978-81-7371-146-6
Publishers: Universities Press
Price: INR. 275
