Book Review

Wings of Fire
Review by K.V.Ramana Babu
CM (Faculty)
Author : A.P.J.Abdul Kalam
No. of Pages : 180
Price : Rs.225
Publisher : Universities Press (India) Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad
Abdul Kalam One of many children a short boy with rather undistinguished
looks born in the mosque street of a small remote place called Rameshwaram
became President of India, Bharat Ratna and recipient of many honorary
doctorates of many universities. This journey is depicted in his 180 pages book
named Wings of Fire.
Fire is the only element among the five natural elements which always goes
upwards. I feel this book is aptly named as it tells about the fire in a boys heart to
achieve something great for his nation. Maybe his desire for achieving perfection
without compromising on values is the fire within him, which had taken him to
unexpected heights.
The book starts with the depiction of his childhood. His humbleness and openness
in stating certain facts takes anyone by surprise. He was a happy child of
Jainulabdeen and Ashiamma. He says his father was a person with great innate
wisdom and true generosity. His mother was an ideal helpmate.
After regular prayers in the mosque, many people used to go to his father to get
their ailments cured and he used to dip his fingers in water and give to them as a
divine medicine.
Pakshi Lakshmana Sastry, head priest of the Rameshwaram temple was a good
friend of his father and they used to have elaborate discussions about spirituality.
Kalaam says, I have throughout my life tried to emulate my father in my own world
of Science and Technology. I was convinced that there exists a divine power that
can lift one up from confusion, misery, melancholy and failure and guide him to his
true place. Maybe these childhood impressions were a strong moral support to
him all through his life to face the ups and downs so bravely.
Jallaluddin, who was a distant relative married to his sister Zohara, also had an
impact on Kalaam. He made me aware of the brave new world, scientific
discovery and contemporary literature, observes the author. Kalaam used to
borrow books from the personal library of Mr.Manickam.
Another influence was his cousin Samsuddin, who used to sell newspapers and tell
him about the latest happenings of the world. When he was eight years old, Kalam
used to sell tamarind seeds to get some pocket money. He also used to catch the
newspaper bundles which were thrown out of the train (as that had no stop in that
station) and earned one Anna.

Jallaluddin and Samsuddin with their unschooled wisdom, intuitiveness and

responsiveness made Kalaam write, I attribute my subsequently manifested
creativity to their company in childhood. He had three close friends who hailed
from orthodox Hindu families. Stories of Rama and The Prophet were bed time
stories. No religious splits were allowed on his small island. People lived in peace
with a mutual respect for each ones religion and customs.
Kalaam had to leave to Ramanathapuram for higher school education. His father
said You have to go away to grow. His father quotes Khalil Gibran to pacify his
mother Your children are not your children. They are children of Lifes longing for
itself. They come through you, but not from you.
Prof.Solomon, the High school teacher of Ramanathapuram also had a great
influence on Kalam. He used to say To succeed in life and achieve results, you
must understand and master three mighty forces desire, belief and expectation.
Since childhood, he had enthusiasm about sky. His maths teacher once
commented : The boy is going to bring glory to the School and to the Teachers.
In 1950 he joined the St.Josephs college at Trichi to do his intermediate.
Whenever he used to reach Rameshwaram on holidays, he used to sell provisions
and novelties of sea shells in shops of his brothers to help them.
In St.Josephs college, he was impressed by the energy and patience of Father
Sequira. He shared his room with an orthodox Iyengar from Srirangam and a
Syrian Christian from Kerala. Maybe these people were also responsible for his
truly secular ideas in his later life. Many teachers of St.Josephs were true
followers of Kanchi Paramacharya, whose preaching was Enjoy the action of
giving. There he developed great interest in English Literature and Physics. He
says, For me, Science has always been the path to Spiritual enrichment and selfrealization.
He was not aware that there were institutions that offered professional courses, so
he joined B.Sc. After B.Sc., he wanted to do engineering from Madras Institute of
Technology but financial position of his family was the major constraint. His sister
Zohara mortgaged her jewellery and sent money. He says, I was moved by her
confidence in me.
Two decommissioned Aircrafts were at display in the campus at Madras Institute of
Technology. Kalam used to have a strange fascination for them and finally chose
Aeronautical Engineering. He quotes Prof.Sponder, Pandalai and Narsingh Rao
were having the capacity to feed their students intellectual hunger by sheer
brilliance and untiring zeal. They used to say, A students choice should articulate
his inner feelings and aspirations.
Kalam was given a project to design a low-level attack aircraft with four other
students. He was not going with good pace. Suddenly Prof.Srinivasan had set a
target of three days to finish that aerodynamic design; else his scholarship would
be stopped. Kalam says, Scholarship was my only life-line. He skipped his
dinner, was awake through the night, next day took only an hour break to freshen
up. When the design was coming to its completion, Prof.Srinivasan suddenly
entered and hugged Kalam in great appreciation. He said, I knew it was an
impossible deadline and never expected you to perform so well.

In the farewell function when group photograph was taken, Prof.Sponder hailed
Kalam and made him sit beside him and said, Sit with me. Your hardwork will bring
great name to your teachers in future. His predictions came true word by word.
Kalam went to HAL, Bengaluru from Madras as a trainee. He appreciated the
delicate demonstrations of Blade Angle Control by HAL technicians. Later he was
called for two interviews One, in the Airforce, which he was very much interested
to join and the other, in the Director of technological Development and Production
of Defence Ministry. As not getting selected in the Airforce disappoints him, he
goes to Rishikesh, takes a holy dip in the Ganges and visits Swami Sivanandas
Ashram. Swami instantly enquires about his sorrow and tells him, Desire, when it
comes from heart and Spirit, when it is pure and intense, possesses awesome
electro-magnetic energy. Surrender yourself to the wish of God. Forget this failure
as it was essential to lead you to your destined path. Kalam joined the Defence
Ministry and was posted to Technical centre Civil Aviation and won appreciation.
After 3 years he was posted to Bengaluru. The task entrusted to him was to design
and develop an indigenous Hovercraft prototype as a ground equipment machine.
Three years of time was given. There were no designs or standard components
available but they had to make a successful, heavier than Air-flying machine. After
lot of hard-work things started moving. Mr.Krishna Menon, the then Defence
Minister was keenly interested in this project as he envisioned this design as the
beginning of the indigenous development of Indias defence equipment.
In this book, we can find Kalams disappointments, depressions, hopes, dreams
and success simultaneously.
On many occasions he received blows of bureaucracy, colleagues jealousy,
ridicule of the media but he sustained them. At the same time he won
appreciations from best scientists, best leader of the nation, best teacher and
absorbed them. If he has to praise or give the credit of his success he will reveal
the name of that person. If he has to tell bitter truths he will say some people,
one of the committee members. I was awestruck at this sheer modesty and
humble, humane nature.
His Hovercraft Nandi was tested by Mr.Menon himself and Kalam was asked to go
ahead with more powerful prime movers. But once Mr.Menon was out of his office,
this project was mired in controversies and finally shelved.
Prof. Vikram Sarabhai entered his life as an interview committee member of The
Indian Committee for Space Research and influenced him all through his life. He
was a friend, guide and mentor. Rocket launching station at Thumba near
Trivandrum was started and Kalam was sent to NASA to attend a training
programme on Sounding Rocket Launching Techniques. Indias first sounding
rocket Rohini was launched in 1967. Prof. Sarabhais trust and commitment
created electrifying effect on all people who worked under him.
Mr.Kalam was called by Mr.Sarabhai and was entrusted with the work of making
RATO motors to help warplanes take off from short runways. A target was fixed as
18 months and he could accomplish that. Then at Sriharikota, the SHAR centre
was established in 1968 to fulfil the dream of Mr.Sarabhais Our own Satellite
launching vehicles and rockets and Kalam was made Project Leader.

Kalam had to wade his way through bureaucratical delays, limited number of
scientists occasional electrical and mechanical failures, small accidents and above
all losing his master Mr.Sarabhai, his beloved brother-in-law Jallaluddin, 102 years
old father and soon after his mother also.
First experimental flight trial of SLV-3 in 1979 was successful but II stage failed and
its remains fell in the sea. The incident caused profound disappointment.
Completely drained mentally as well as physically Kalam goes straight to his
room and slumps on to the bed. Mr. Brahm Prakash wakes him up in the evening
and takes him for lunch. Kalam thinks that he was sad but not alone. He said to
himself, I have to concentrate on the creation of SLV as this was Gods mission
for me and my purpose on this earth.
Finally in July, 1980 - required velocity was given to put the Rohini satellite into
orbit by indigenous SLV at Sriharikota. There were jubilations among all country
men. The press and Parliament praised their effort. The then Prime Minister
Mrs.Gandhi invited him to Delhi and made him speak about this achievement.
Mr.Satish Dhavan and Mr.Brahm Prakash were his able superiors who inspired and
encouraged him during this period.
Prof.Raja Ramanna, the great nuclear scientist and the then scientific advisor of
the Defence Minister offered him the post of Director, DRDL to activate indigenous
missile programme. He was made Director, DRDL in 1982. He observed that
there was not much movement and involvement of staff in the programme as their
first attempt Devil was shelved for various reasons. He created interest and
involvement of both junior and senior scientists, impressed the then Defence
Minister Mr.R.Venkataraman, and got a funding of Rs.390 crores for his Integrated
Guided Missile Programme.
His mission was to develop surface to surface missile Prithvi, tactical core vehicle
Trishul, surface to air missile Aakash, anti-tank missile project Nag, long
cherished dream of REX Agni and he identified five project leaders for these
projects. He then faced a sarcastic question in the meeting On what basis you
have selected these Pandavas?. Though he asked the person to wait and watch
the results, he said to himself, All these Pandavas are married to the Draupadi of
positive thinking.
Mrs.Gandhi as long as she was alive had taken great interest in the progress of
these programmes. Even Rajiv Gandhi had a child-like interest in such
technological advancements. After many problems and technical snags finally the
Agni was launched successfully in May 1989. They had reached the launch pad
after five years of continuous work at multiple working centres. They faced the
ridicule of media, whenever there was a postponement of launch for reasons which
were beyond their control. Kalam says, Such technical snags are common in
rocketary and often happen in other countries too, but the expectant nation was in
no mood to appreciate our difficulties.
All through, we find him not only to be a true and committed worker but also a
highly efficient leader who teaches innumerable principles of leadership. He writes,
Each worker should enrich others and enjoy the experience of working together.
Communication is the Mantra. Try to be factual, never try to sugar-coat the bitter

pill of facts. The line between firmness and harshness, strong leadership and
bullying, discipline and vindictiveness is very fine, but it has to be drawn.
He never forgets the person who broke the glass window panel and threw him out
of it in a fire accident, the person who cried bitterly when his idea failed, the person
who held one component close to his chest and emerged out of a smoke engulfed
aircraft in an accident, the person who, in spite of his severe burns due to a fire
accident, assured that the mission would be accomplished, the person from whom
his family kept the news of the death of a dear one, a secret till the mission was
completed, and scores of people who were brilliant, committed, hard-working and
brave.
He writes, The profiles of these courageous people will never be written about in
any history book, but it is such silent people on whose hard-work, generations
thrive and nations progress. India had achieved the status of having a missile
system on par with any state-of-art technology in the world. Indigenous composite
technology had achieved a major milestone.
Finally, in his own words this book was written for The Indian youth who lacked
clarity of vision and clarity of direction. No one, however poor, underprivileged or
small, need feel disheartened about life. Problems are part of life; suffering is the
essence of success. This (book) should help at least some children who are poor,
living in an obscure place, in an underprivileged social setting liberate
themselves from the bondage of their illusory backwardness and hopelessness.
I have acquired nothing, built nothing; possess nothing no family, sons and
daughters.
I am a well in this great land
looking at the millions of boys and girls
To draw from me
The inexhaustible divinity and spread His grace everywhere
As does the water drawn from a well
Each individual creature on this beautiful planet is created by God to fulfil a
particular role. Whatever I have achieved in life is through His help, and an
expression of his will. He showered His grace on me through some outstanding
teachers and colleagues and when I pay my tributes to these fine persons I am
merely praising His glory. All these rockets and missiles are His work through a
small person called Kalam in order to tell the several million mass of India to never
feel small or helpless. We are all born with divine fire in us. Our efforts should be
to give wings to this fire and fill the world with the glow of its goodness.
I would like to conclude this review with his golden words:
Let the latent fire in the heart of every Indian acquire wings and the glory of this
great country light up the sky.