Street Talk
Expert Opinion
Month of October has scripted historical events. Actually October has got a unique significance on political front and at the same time, this month is synonymous with stock market crashes. The behaviour of markets in this month is widely referred to as the ‘October effect’.
The series of events that have happened in this month also include the birth of a boy into a middle class Tamil family on October 15, 1931, in the island town of Rameswaram in the erstwhile Madras State. The boy was short in height with rather undistinguished looks contrary to the looks of his parents who were tall and handsome.
During the journey of his life this boy, APJ Abdul Kalam, became an internationally known Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the 11th president of India from 2002 to 2007. He came to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology. As a scientist of repute he spent more than forty years with the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).
To commemorate Kalam’s numerous achievements, particularly in the areas of academia and research, the United Nations declared October 15 to be World Student’s Day in 2010.
Some time back I received “Wings of Fire” – an autobiography of A. P. J. Abdul Kalam – from a close friend. Though I am not a book worm, I still found the book of my interest because I have come across many of Kalam’s beautiful quotes reflecting his unmatched power of thinking and comprehension.
For instance, one of his awestruck quotes “Love your job but don’t love your company, because you may not know when your company stops loving you” , is amazing. The display of the quote used to be a part of my office chamber during my tenure as Head of Corporate Communication and CSR Department in J&K Bank. Actually, these are the words of wisdom, suiting the current corporate world. In an era of a highly professional world, when companies keep on hiring and employees keep on changing jobs, the quote is an apt statement cautioning about the lack of loyalty as one of the latent reasons affecting employee retention.
Kindly note, I’m not talking about loyalty of an employee but lack of loyalty on part of employers.These words of wisdom among other things serve a note of caution to employees against falling in love with their companies. This quotable quote suggests that one should not develop a blind loyalty to an organization. Companies can change policies, leadership, and priorities, and may not always align with an individual’s values or interests.
Simultaneously, it underscores the importance of maintaining a balance between professional commitments and personal life. In essence, Kalam’s message through this quote advocates for a balanced approach to work, emphasizing personal growth and adaptability over blind loyalty to any organization.
Another of his mind-immersing quotes – “If you salute your duty, you no need to salute anybody, but if you pollute your duty, you have to salute everybody”- is simply a beacon light to the path of success in the field of any profession.
So, the kind of influence of Kalam’s quotes made “Wings of Fire” an inevitable read for me. While going through the autobiography my opinion about him remained flexible till I finished the last chapter in which he emphasized for economic prosperity and strong security for growth and development. He has outlined Self Reliance Mission in Defence System 1995-2005 to provide the Armed Forces with a state-of-the-art competitive weapons system and the Technology Vision plan to put into place certain schemes and plans for the economic growth and prosperity of India.
Even as there’s more about the evolutionary account of the success story of India’s space rocketry and missile programme in the autobiography, Kalam’s personal story of rising from a scratch to the limitless sky heights speaks volumes about his patriotism, but at a cost. The act of patriotism in our country is significant when it’s shown especially by the largest minority community in the country. During his whole career, as reflected in his narrative, Kalam had strategized his delivery of professional capabilities not to prove himself a patriotic Indian but to show that India belonged to him. This strategy worked for him as he rose to the highest position (President) in the country.
I mentioned Kalam’s patriotism at cost. Wittingly or unwittingly, while inventing defence technology for his country, he missed his connection not only to his family, more importantly to his society (largest minority community).
Kalam’s revelation in the book speaks about his concept of ‘Unknown, formless Almighty’. About his childhood days in Mosque street in island town of Rameswaram with famous Shiva temple in the vicinity, Kalam describes the influence of Shiva temple that “circling around the temple with the same reverence as any pilgrim from a distant part of the country, we (he & his friend Ahmad Jallaluddin) felt a flow of energy pass through us…I never doubted that the prayers in the temple reached the same destination as the ones offered in our mosque.”
While in his childhood journey, his mother and grandmother would narrate him the events as bedtime stories from the Ramayana and from the life of the Prophet. Kalam’s narrative suggests that he was more influenced by the bedtime stories of Ramayana. Since his aim in life was to become an air force pilot and had pursued hard to reach close to his goal, he was dropped in an interview at the Air Force Selection Board, Dehradun. In sheer disappointment, he trekked down to Rishikesh, a revered Hindu place, to beat his depression. “I bathed in the Ganga and reveled in the purity of its water”. He also talks about meeting Sadhus to seek their blessing.
In short, Wings of Fire speaks about Kalam as a technology man, a philosopher, a keen innovator in rocketry and finally a successful man. Needless to mention, Indian Muslims in APJ Abdul Kalam gave India unbeatable defence technology, while Christians donated their ages-old church in Thumba, a sleepy fishing village near Thiruvananthapuram, as mentioned by him in his autobiography to become the first office/laboratory of the Indian missile programme. The church’s location was ideal because it was close to the earth’s magnetic equator, where India’s first rocket launch took place in 1963.
Remarkably, the prayer room was Kalam’s first laboratory and the Bishops room his design and drawing office. The church now houses the Indian Space museum that displays rocket models and the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-3), which Kalam designed.
(The author is a veteran journalist/columnist. He is former Head of Corporate Communication & CSR and Internal Communication & Knowledge Management Departments of J&K Bank)