Wings of Fire:: A book extract of the autobiography of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam " Let not thy winged days be spent in vain When once gone, no gold can buy them again " - Message outside the school that Dr kalam attended . Dr Avul Pakir Jalabuddin Abdul Kalam, is a familiar figure to all of us and needs no introduction. An embodiment of sincerity, dedication and above all, simplicty, he represents the India that we all dream of. From a boat owners son to a rocket scientist and then as the first citizen of this great country. it has been a long and eventful journey for Dr Kalam. Such a uncommon pursuit of a apparently "common " man is not only a fascinating odyssey, but also has a lot of lessons for all, to be learnt and practiced. This is more so for us, the youth and the future of this nation. "Wings of fire" the autobiography of Dr kalam, is a passionate description of one of the greatest success stories, that modern India has seen. It is a story, not of just an individual but a saga of the Indian space programme. A parable of India's scientific self sufficiency and technological competence. An awe inspiring tale that sends across a message that Indians can be world beaters despite all the shortcomings and without any foreign degree or training. As " The hindu" puts it " For this upbeat message alone, it is worth 100 management tomes". This in short summarizes the work. So here I present a small extract which by no means is comprehensive but rather focuses on the emotional, and spiritual facets. Other insights, specific to the Indian work culture have also been included. Any work devoid of some humor, is drab. So some rare "Kalam gems" have also made its way in this extract. The gist In Dr kalam's own words,is, "Each individual creature on this beautiful planet is created by god to fulfil a particular role. Whatever I have achieved is through his help, an expression of his will.He showered his grace on me through some outstanding teachers and colleagues... All these missiles and rockets are his work through a small man called kalam, In order to tell several million indians to never feel small or helpless. We are all born with a divine fire in us. Our efforts should be to give wings to these and fill the world with the glow of its goodness" My science teacher Sivasubramaniam Iyer, though a orthodox brahmin,with a very conservative wife was something of a rebel.He did his best to brek social barriers so that ppl from various backgrounds could mingle freely.One day he invited me home for lunch His wife was horrified at the idea of serving me at her spirutually pure kitchen,But Iyer was not perturbed nor did he ge angry with his wife, instead served me with his own hands.I wondered whether she observed any difference in the way I ate or drank.He invited me to lunch again over the next weekend. Observing my hesitation, he said" Once you decide to change the system, such problems have to be confronted" When I visited the next weeknd, Iyer's wife took me into her kitchen and served me with her own hands. My teacher Iyadurai Solomin was a ideal guide for the young and eager minds. I shared a relationship with him that gre beyond that of a master-pupil.I learnt from him that one could excercise enormous influence over the events over one's life. He used to say " To succeed in life and achieve results, you must understand and master three mighty forces : Desire, belief and Expectation". After completing my first year of engineering, I had to opt for a specific branch. I consulted Prof Sponder before opting for aeronautical engg. He told me not to worry about future prospects. Instead, it is more important to lay strong foundations, to have sufficient enthusiasm and a accompanying passion for the branch of study.The trouble with Indians , Prof Sponder observed, was not there lack of educational opputunities or industrial infrastructure, but their failure to discriminate between disciplines and rationalise their choices. I often read Khalil Gibran, and always find his words full of wisdom. "Bread baked without love is bitter bread that feeds but half a man's hunger" those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half hearted success. that breads bitterness all around.If you are a writer who would secretly prefer to be a lawyer or a doctor, your words will feed but half your readers. From Madras Institute of Technology(MIT), I went to HAL as a trainee. I worked and got an hands on experience of aircraft engines. When a principle learnt in the classroom is borne out of practical experience, it creates a strange sense of excitement - akin to unexpectedly running into a old friend among a group of strangers. I could only finish ninth in 25 people examined to select 8 officers for commisisioning in the Air Force.I was deeply disappointed.It took some time to comprehend that the opportinity to join Air Force had just slipped through my fingers.I dragged myself out of the selection board and stood at the edge of a cliff. There was a lake far below. I knew days ahead would be difficult. There were questions to which I sought answers when I met swami sivananda. He smiled and said " Accept your destiny and go ahead with your life. You are not destined to be a pilot.what is destined is not revealed to you. Search instead for your true purpose of your exsistence. Become one with yourself!" And all my anxiety was washed away almost instantly. Dont worry and fret, fainthearted, The chances have just begun, For the best jobs havent been started The best work hasnt been done. (A school poem) In fact, I feel that our country has an uncanny way of bringing out extremes in her people. I suppose it is because Indians have been both afflicted and enriched by the centuries of migrations and invasions. Loyalty to different rulers have dulled our capacity for single allegiance.Instead we have developed an extraordinary ability to be compassionate and cruel, sensitive and callous, deep and fickle all at the same time.To the untrained eye we may appear colourful and picturesque; to the critical eye we are but shoddy imitations of our various past masters. My Impression of American people can be summarized by a quotation from benjamin franklin " Those things that hurt, instruct". I realised that people in this part of the world meet their problems head on.They attempt to get out of them than suffer them. What makes life in Indian organisations difficult is the prevalance of contemptous pride.It stops us from listening to our juniors, subordinates and people down the line. you cannot expect somebody to work if he is insulted. The line between firmness and harshness,between strong leadership and bullying, betwen discipline and vindictiveness is a thin one, but has to be drawn. Unfortunately the only one drawn today in our country is that between "heros" and "zeros". One one side is are these heros keeping a 950 million down on the other side.This has to change. And process of confronting and solving problems often requires hard work and is painful if we have procrastination. Actually problems can be the cutting edge between success and failure.They draw out courage and wisdom. I have always been a religious person in the sense that I maintain a working partnership with god.I was aware that best work required more ability than I possessed Therefore I needed help that god could give me. I made a true estimate of myself, raised it by 50% and then put myself in god's hands.In this long partnership that I had, I have always received the power I needed and actually felt it flowing through me.Today I can reaffirm that the kingdom of god is within you in the form of power to achieve your goals and realise your dreams. I do not think that abundance and spirituality are mutually exclusive, or that there is anything wrong to desire material things.For instance though I cherish a life with minimum needs, I admire abundance for it brings in along with it security and confidence and these eventually help us to preserve our freedom.Nature too does not do anything by half measures, as you will see if u look around you.Go to the garden and in season there is a profusion of flowers or look up, the universe extends into the infintude, vast beyond belief. All that we see in the world is an embodiment of energy. we are a part of that cosmic energy too as sri aurobindo says. Therefore when we begin to appreciate that spirit and matter are both part of existence are in harmony with each other, we shall realise that it is wrong to feel that it is somehow shameful or non spiritual to desire material things. Its perfectly fine to dream of a life full of pleasures and abundancy.whatever you do must come from your heart, express your spirit, and thereby you will also spread love and joy around you. One of the important functions of prayer, I believe, is to act as a stimulus to creative ideas. Within the mind are all the resources required for successful living. Ideas present in the consciousness which when released and given scope to grow and take shape, can lead to successful events.Our minds and personalities hav great potential strength and ability. prayer helps us tap and develop those powers. My day would start with a stroll of about 2KM around the lodge I was living in.I used to prepare a general schedule during my morning walk and emphasize two or three things that I would definitely accomplish during the day, including atleast one thing that would help me achieve long term goals. Once in office, I would clean the table first.Within the next ten minutes, I would scan all the papers and quickly divide them into different categories: Those that require immediate action, those that could be kept pending and reading materials.Then I would put high priority papers in front of me and everything else was out of sight! At that time VK Krishna Menon was the defence minister.He was very keen about the progress of our small project to develop an indegenious hovercraft prototype.But not everyone shared his enthusiasm, our experiment did not exactly delight some of our senior colleagues. Many even called us a group of eccentric inventors in pursuit of a impossible dream. we worked hard and completed the project ahead of schedule.But by that time, VK Menon was out of office and those in power no longer shared his dream of beginning indegenious development of India's defence equipment.In fact even today we import hovercrafts. The project was mired in controversies and finally shelved.It was a new experience for me. So far I thought the sky was the limit but it appeared that the limits were much more closer.There are boundaries that dictate life: you can lift only so much weight: you can learn only this fast :you can work only this hard. You can only go this far!! But, I was unwilling to face reality and as I had put my heart and soul into it, the fact tht it would not be used was beyond my comprehension.I was disappointed and disillusioned. But I never gave up, and as the Bible says, :" Ask and you will recieve". It happened but it happened nevertheless. I laid the foundation of Stage IV of the SLV on two rocks- sensible approximation and unawes support. I have always considered the price of perfection prohibitive and allowed mistakes to be part of a learning process.I prefer a dash of daring and persistence to perfection.I have always supported learning by paying vigilant attention to each of their attempts, be they successful or unsuccessful. While working on the SLV, I used communication to promote understanding and to come to an agreement with the colleagues in defining the problems that exsisted and in identifying the action that was needed to solve thm. Authentic communication was one of the tools required skillfully used in managing a project. How did I do that? First of all , I tried to be factual and never sugar coated the bitter pill of facts. At one of the meetings, frustrated by the procurement delays, I erupted into a agitated complaint against the indifference and red-tape tactics. Dr Brahm prakash was taken aback by my bluntness of submission and walked out of the meeting. I spent the whole night regretting the pain my harsh words had caused Dr Brahm Prakash. However I was determined to fight the inertia built into the system,before I was dragged down with it. I asked myself a practical question: could one live with such a system? with such insensitive beauraucrats? The answer was a big NO.Then I asked myself a private question: what would hurt Dr Prakash more, my seemingly painful words now, or the burial of the SLV at a later stage? Finding my head and heart agreeing, I prayed to god for help. Fortunately for me, Dr prakash delegated financial powers to the project the next morning. Anyone who has taken up responsibility of the project, to lead a team can be successful only if he is sufficiently independent, powerful and influential in his own right to become a person to reckon with. This is perhaps also the path to individual satisfaction in life, for freedom with responsibility is the ONLY sound basis for personal happpiness. What can one do to strengthen one's personal freedom? I would like to share with you two techniques I adopt in this regard. First by building your own education and skills. Knowledge is a tangible asset, quite often the most important tool in your work. The more up-to-date information you have, the more free you are. Knowledge cannot be taken away from you except by obsolence.To lead, is in a way, continuing education. The second is to develop a passion for personal responsibility. The soverign way to personal freedom is to help determine the forces that determine you. Be active! Take on responsibilty!!Work for things that you believe in.If you do not, then you are surrendering your fate to others. Gradually, I became aware of the difference in science and technology, between research and development. Science is inherently open ended and exploratory. Development is a closed loop.Mistakes are imperative in development and are made everyday but each mistake is used in modification upgardation and betterment. Our making of the SLV depended on our awareness of our own limits.Nothing tht is new comes in time bound projects without its problems. IN my opinion, a project leader should always work with proven technologies and only experiement only from multiple resources. To succeed in your mission,you must have single minded commitment.Total commitment is the common denominator among all successful men and women. The difference between a energetic and confused person is the way they hanndle their experiences.Man needs his difficulties so tht he can enjoy his successes.All of us carry some sort of super intelligence within us.Let it be stimulated to examine our deepest thoughts, desires and beliefs. My padma bhushan was received with mixed feelings within the VSSC. While there were some who shared my happiness, there were associates who turned very envious.Why do some people fail to understand the great values of life beacause of sadly twisted thought processes.Happiness, satisfaction and success in life depends on making the right choices. One must distinguish between beneficial and the malevolent ones and choose correctly between them. I arrived at the parliament house for a parliamentary panel meeting on science and tech, chaired by the PM. I was asked by shrimati Gandhi to speak a few words. I was surprised as Dr Dhawan had already addressed the gathering. Hesistantly I rose and responded " I am indeed honored to be here at the great gathering of nation builders. I only know how to build a rocket system in our country, built in our country, by imparting it a velocity of 25000 Km/hr" and sat. There was thunderous appluase. A nation needs both economic prosperity and strong security for sound growth and development.Our self reliance mission in defence system will provide the armed forces with a state of art competitive weapon systems. The technology vision 2020 will put into place certain schemes and plans for economic growth and prosperity. These two plans have evolved of a nation's dream and I earnestly hope and pray that the development from these plans will eventually make our country strong and prosperous- a "developed" nation. PS : So let us all join our hands and work together... let there arise many more Kalams and take India to unprecedented glory. Agni and Prithvi will always inspire, Our Ignited minds on courageous endeavour, Only a prayer, that may we never tire, As India, soars higher and higher On our united wings of fire. - Madhukar Anand