Wings of Fire-a book report

8/12/2019 Wings of Fire-a book report

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INTRODUCTION

Wings of fire is an autobiography of Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

with Arun Tiwari. Arun Tiwari was the junior collegue of Abdul

Kalam since 1982. They became close when Abdul Kalam

visited him at the Nizams Institute ofMedical Sciences,

Hyderabad when he was fighting for his life.

This story is an account not just of his personal triumphs and

tribulations but of the successes and setbacks of the scienceestablishment in modern India, struggling to establish itself

in the technological forefront. This is the story of national

aspiration and of cooperative endeavour, and as Dr. Kalam sees

,the saga of Indias search for scientific self sufficiency and

technological competence is a parable for our times.

In this book Dr. Kalam has described the individuals who had a

profound influence in his life. This book is also a way of a

submission of thanks to his parents and immediate family and

also to the teachers and preceptors that he was fortunate to

have in his student and professional life. This is also a tribute

to the unflagging enthusiasm and effort of his young

colleagues who helped to realize their collective dreams. He

owes a great debt of knowledge and inspiration to the

distinguished lineage of Indian Scientists that included

Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and Brahm Prakash.


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CONCLUSION

Through this book, Dr. Kalam has come to personally represent

to many of his countrymen the best aspects of Indian life.

This story of Kalams own rise from obscurity and his personal

struggles inspires the youth population of India to enter into

the development of science and technology in India. He wishes

that todays youth to help India in gaining both economic

prosperity and strong security for growth and development.

Through this book he wants to convey his young readers that

they should come up and take part in the scientific

development of India. He feels that if we take the combined

technological strength of the scientific institutions present in

India, it would certainly be comparable to the best found in

the developed world. He wants to convey the youth to havefaith in the TECHNOLOGY VISION-2020 which has certain

schemes and plans for economic growth and prosperity of the

nation. His life and his experiences inspires the todays youth

to do something valuable on their part to contribute towards

making our country a developed nation.


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SUMMARY

Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was born into a middle class Tamil

family in Rameswaram. His father Jainulabdeen possessed

great innate wisdom. His mothers name was Ashiamma. Kalam

was a short boy with rather undistinguished looks, but his

mind was nurtured by his father who made him understand

cmplex spiritual concepts in very simple down to earth Tamil.

He has tried to emulate his father in his own world of science

and technology.

His father made him understand 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 serves his emotional and physical bondage, he is on

the road to freedom, happiness and peace of mind.

Apart from his parents, persons who influenced the life of Dr.

Kalam was Ahmed Jallaluddin who was a close friend of his

despite the age difference. Jallaluddin inspired Kalam with his

talks about God, educated people, scientific discoveries,of

contemporary literature and of achievements of medical

science. He made him aware of the real world beyond the

narrow confines of Rameswaram.


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Prof. KAV Pandala and Prof. Narasingha Rao shaped his

thinking and helped him built his professional career. They

shared a common impulse of the capacity to feed their

students intellectual hunger by their sheer brilliance and

untiring zeal. During his last year at MIT, he was assigned a

project to design a low level attack aircraft together with 4

other colleegues. Initially he could not impress his teacher but

he performed extremely well under stress.

From MIT Kalam went to Hindustan AeronauticsLimited(HAL), Bangalore as a trainee. There he gained hands

on experience and was ready to take up job either in

DTP&P(Air), Ministry of Defence or Air force. But Kalam could

not make it for Air force. He was deeply disappointed and

dejected. But he met Swami Sivananda who inspired him and

told him to accept his destiny and go ahead with his life.Hence Kalam took up the job at DTP&P(Air) as senior

Scientific Assistant. There he was asked by the director of

the ADE to lead the team which was to develop an indigenous

hovercraft prototype as a ground equipment machine. His

team had very limited information and resources available but

he proceeded with that only. His seniors did not believe intheir capabilities except Krishna Menon the Defence Minister.

He named the hovercraft Nandi. Krishna Menon even took a

flight on it. His project was completed before schedule but

could not go ahead. Kalam became disappointed and


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disillusioned. But he got new opportunities as he got selected

into INCOSPAR. There Kalam was made to train in rocket

launching techniques at NASA. Then Vikram Sarabhai met

Kalam and talked with him about SLV. Also he told Kalam to

take up studies on rocket assisted take off system (RATO)

for military aircraft. Kalam worked in Thumba Equatorial

Rocket Launch Station(TERLS). There they developed the

first rocket named Rohini. After that he worked in close

association with Prof. Sarabhai in developing rockets and

launch vehicles. But in between the progress of the project

Prof. Sarabhai died. It was a great loss to the nation and to

Kalam. He was very much disturbed and he realized that

mistakes can delay or prevent the proper achievement of the

objectives of individuals and organizations, but visionary like

Prof. Sarabhai used errors as opportunities to promote

innovation and development of new ideas.

Next Kalam worked under Prof. Dhawan and Dr. Brahm

Prakash and was appointed the project manager of SLV. He

visualized his team which was to work under him as a group in

which each member worked to enrich the others in the team

and experience the enjoyment of working together. Thepeople in his group were in the habit of celebrating their

success together which generated good morale and helped

them a great deal to accept setbacks and to revitalize

themselves after periods of intense work.


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Dr. Kalam shares with us what we can do to strengthen

personal freedom. First, by building your own educational

skills. The more up to date knowledge you posses, the more

free you are. The second way is to develop a passion for

personal responsibility. Be active. Take on responsibility. Work

for things you believe in. if you do not, you are surrendering

your fate to others.

In the process of development of the SLV, Kalam lost his

friend Jallaluddin, his father and his mother in three

successive year. He had to the very strong to give total

commitment to his work in order to keep performing. He

became a workaholic.But he faced a setback in his SLV

development when stage-2 of the SLV went out of control.

Kalam was frustrated. But Dr. Brahm Prakash helped him

endure the pain he felt. Kalam overcame this setback and then

on 18thJuly 1980, SLV-3 lifted off successfully giving

required velocity to the Rohini Satellite to enter its orbit.

Within a month of the SLV-3 success, Dr Kalam visited the

Nehru Science centre in Bombay for a day, on an invitation to

share his experiences with the SLV-3. He went to Delhi and

handed the members for giving an opportunity to work on a

project like the SLV-3 and prone the scientific strength of

our country.


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A minor tussle over Dr Kalams services occurred

between ISRD & DRDO. Kalam joined DRDL where he

proposed projects with government sanction. These projects

were christened in accordance with the spirit of Indias self-

reliance surface to surface weapon system was called Prithvi,

tactical core vehicle called Trishul, Surface to Air area

defence system named Akash and Anti tank missile project

Nag. He gave the name Agni to his long cherished dream of

REX.

IGMDP was launched which was like a bright flash on the

Indian Scientific firmament. For Trishul, Kalam looked for a

man who not only had a sound knowledge of electronics and

missile warfare but who could also communicate the

complexities to his team in order to promote understanding

and to earn his teams support.

For Agni, his dream project he needed somebody who

would tolerate his occasional meddling in the running of the

project. Meanwhile, PM Indira Gandhi visited DRDL and

encouraged them and showed promise in the ongoing work. But

her death was tremendous loss to the scientific community.

She had given impetus to scientific research in the country.

By summer of 1985, all the ground work had been completed

for building the Missile Technology Research Centre. Trishul

took off from test range at Sriharikota on 16thSept 1985.


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Prithviwas launched on 25 February 1988. It was an epoch

making event in the history of rocketry in the country. The

launch sent shock waves across the unfriendly neighborhood.

Dr. Kalam helped in firmly established the Indian Core

Competence in rocketry. Agni, Kalams dream. Its team

comprised of more than 500 scientists. Many organization

were networked to undertake this huge effort of launching

Agni.

Agni took a perfect launch. It was one of the greatest

moments of Dr. Kalams life. It was a fantastic culmination to

their labour of love. On Republic Day 1990, Dr. Kalam along

with his two other colleagues received Padma awards. It was

the first time in the history of free india that so many

scientists affiliated to the same institution found their names

in the awards list. He was touched by the recognition

bestowed on him by his countrymen. A large number of

scientists and engineers leave this country at their first

opportunity to earn money abroad. It is true that they

definitely get greater monetary benefits, but anything could

not compensate for the love and respect from your own

countrymen. A gust of memories swept over him. In a state of

trance, he acquired his double statusas a child of heaven and

earth. It was during this period that he decided to put his

memories and express his observations and opinions on certain


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issues. Kalam feels that the biggest problem that the Indian

youth faces is lack of clarity of vision, a lack of direction.

Kalam says that no one , however poor, underprivileged or

small, need to feel disheartened about life. Problems are a

part of life. Suffering is the essence of success. He hopes

that his experiences could help children liberate themselves

from bondage of their illusionary backwardness and

hopelessness. Irrespective of where they are, they should be

aware that God is with them. He has observed that most

Indians suffer unnecessary miseries all their lives because

they do not know how to manage their emotions. They are

paralyzed by some sort of psychological inertia. People should

try to prove their self worth and discover pathways to

organizational successes. Let the latent fire in the heart of

every Indian acquire wings, and the glory of this great country

light up the sky. Kalam has quoted :

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.

But god has promised, strength for the day,

Rest for the labour Light for the way.


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A

BOOK REPORT

ON

WINGS OF FIRE

DONE BY:-

AMRITHA (10BEIOOO9)

SAMRIDHI (10BIT0217)

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Wings of Fire-a book report