The Heart of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam :- Apprehending the Master Visionary P-1

What if I say, that a man, born into a middle-class Tamil family in the island town of Rameshwaram in the erstwhile Madras state, just with his simplicity, sincerity and vision completely revolutionised India in terms of science and technology and played a key role in newly-born independent India's struggle for technological self sufficiency and defensive autonomy? Not only that, but even after spending four decades of his life as a scientist and science administrator, went on to be the 11th President of India. Well, that's Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam for you. That's the man who earned the title of Missile Man of India as well as People's President in just one lifetime!

I am simply fascinated at how can a human possibly show such a level of integrity and be so versatile. Therefore I thought that it would be a blessing for Impulsum Blogs to write on his Holy name. 

I am presently reading Dr. Kalam's world famous autobiography Wings of Fire and as this blog's name is "The Heart of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam", here I have extracted some excellent fragments of the book, thereby knowing him and his approach in his very words.

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, providing a brief sketch of his autobiography, says,

"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...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 a divine fire in us. Our efforts should be to give wings to this fire and fill the world with the glow of its goodness."

"This story is an account, I hope, not just of my personal triumphs and tribulations but of the successes and setbacks of the science establishment in modern India, struggling to establish itself in the technological forefront. It is the story of national aspiration and of co-operative endeavour. And, as I see it, the saga of India's search for scientific self-sufficiency and technological competence is a parable for our times." (Book Introduction)

In this particular blog, as I mentioned earlier, I'll provide you some very insightful snippets from his very own autobiography.

The first and foremost thing that intrigues us about thid legend is his work ethic. Let us know his philosophy of work in his own words.

"It has been my personal experience that the true flavour, the real fun, the continuous excitement of work lie in the process of doing it rather than in having it over and done with. To return to the four basic factors that I am convinced are involved in successful outcomes: goal-setting, positive thinking, visualizing, and believing." (Pg135)

The problem with us, the youths, is that initially we aim very superficial goals. With great pomp we kindle our dreams, and with time entirely lose sight of the goal. As a result, we find that we get carried away by the winds and end up building carriers into fields we had never imagined. Just ask yourself where are those millions of aspiring doctors, engineers and pilots! Poor chaps, 90% of them lost their drive with time, presently scattered around in god-knows loads of queer jobs available at hand.

Let us look at how Dr. Kalam manifested his passion of working for science and technology and how he kept progressing at his chosen ideal. He says,

"Looking back on my days as a young scientist, I am aware that one of the most constant and powerful urges I experienced was my desire to be more than what I was at that moment. I desired to feel more, learn more, express more. I desired to grow, improve, purify, expand. I never used any outside influence to advance my career. All I had was the inner urge to seek more within myself. The key to my motivation has always been to look at how far I had still to go rather than how far I had come. After all, what is life but a mixture of unsolved problems, ambiguous victories, and amor phous defeats?

The trouble is that we often merely analyse life instead of dealing with it. People dissect their failures for causes and effects, but seldom deal with them and gain experience to master them and thereby avoid their recurrence. This is my belief: that through difficulties and problems God gives us the opportunity to grow. So when your hopes and dreams and goals are dashed, search among the wreckage, you may find a golden opportunity hidden in the ruins." (Pg140)

To give you a brief idea of Dr. Kalam's personal life, I can just be done with it by saying that he never had a personal life in the first place. That man, throughout his career as a scientist, merely lived in a room ten feet wide and twelve feet long, furnished mainly with books, papers and a few pieces of hired furniture!

Kalam Sir was noted for his integrity and his simple lifestyle.  He never owned a television, and was in the habit of rising at 6:30 or 7 a.m. and sleeping by 2 a.m. His few personal possessions included his books, his veena, some articles of clothing, a CD player and a laptop. On top of that, he was a lifelong bachelor. Yes, he never married. Commenting on his personal life, Kalam Sir says,

"Perhaps the main motive behind my isolation was my desire to escape from the demands of relationships, which I consider very difficult in comparison to making rockets. All I desired was to be true to my way of life, to uphold the science of rocketry in my country and to retire with a clean conscience." (Pg121)

This clearly suggests us how one-pointed and steadfast Dr. Kalam was.

Some of you might think that Dr. Kalam's contributions to ISRO and space research were very commendable, but whatever Dr. Kalam did later was to invent and strengthen India's weaponry, that is, missiles, which afterall is used in wars and breeds violence. The answer why he specifically chose to improve the defence system of India, in his own words, is -

"Now, this is where the key to the modern world order lies superiority through technology. Deprive the opponent of the latest technology and then dictate your terms in an unequal contest. When the Chinese war philosopher, Sun Tzu ruminated over 2000 years ago that what matters in war is not decimating the enemy army physically but breaking his will so as to make him concede defeat in the mind, he seems to have visualized the domination of technology in the twentieth century theatres of war. The missile force coupled with the electronic warfare used in the Gulf War was a feast for military strategic experts. It acted as a curtain-raiser for the twenty-first century war scenario with missiles and electronic and information warfare playing the lead roles." (Pg164)

We shall now dive into Kalam Sir's Magnum Opus,  i.e his views on scientific and technological advancements of India and his own thought process behind it. He says,

"In India, even today, the term technology, for most people, conjures up images of smoky steel mills or clanking machines. This is a rather inadequate conception of what technology denotes. The invention of the horse collar in the Middle Ages led to major changes in agricultural methods, and was as much a technological advance as the invention of the Bessemer furnace centuries later. Moreover, technology includes techniques as well as the machines that may or may not be necessary to apply them. It includes ways to make chemical reactions occur, ways to breed fish, eradicate weeds, light theatres, treat patients, teach history, fight wars, or even prevent them." (Pg164)

"Today, most advanced technological processes are carried out far from assembly lines or open hearths. Indeed, in electronics, in space technology, in most of the new industries, relative silence and clean surroundings are characteristic, even essential. The assembly line, with the organization of armies of men, to carry out simple, routine functions is an anachronism. Our symbols of technology must change before we can keep pace with changes in technology itself. We should never forget that technology feeds on itself. Technology makes more technology possible. In fact, technological innovation consists of three stages linked together In a self-reinforcing cycle. First, there is the creative stage, with the blueprint of a feasible idea. This is made real by its practical application, and this finally ends in its diffusion through society. The process is then complete; the loop is closed when the diffusion of technology embodying the new idea in its turn helps generate new creative ideas. Today, all over the developed world, the time gap between each of the steps in this cycle has been shortened. In India, we are just progressing towards that stage closing the loop."

In this very sublime lines lies the deep understanding of Dr. Abdul Kalam on Science and Technology and its extreme purposefulness in the society. But wait, the word 'society' reminds us that Dr. Abdul Kalam later went on to become the President of India too!

How did he shift his ever-fixed focus from Science and Technology to serving society? And even after that, just as he had achieved the highest in the field of science, how did he achieve the highest in governance as well?

It is so hard to believe that this man delievered his best in these two totally extreme ends. Well dear friends, even harder it is for me to cover how he shifted to polity and started his journey in it in his grizzled age of 65!

Therefore, I've decided to present this phase of his life in part two of this blog. I found his views on Indian Youth, Nation-Building and Social Upliftment so spell-bounding that I'll make a separate blog on that.

Till then, stay tuned and keep progressing!

Thanks,

Daksh Parekh.