Apr 23, 2010 12:15 PM
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Goodmorning MS,
When my vaccation started, I was in a dilemma. I wanted to make my vaccation creative rather than making it a fun bag. And I searched for books in aa library. I was fed up of fairy tales and Arabian Nights and I wanted to show some ' glimpses of maturity'.:-p And I wanted a good start. And then I found this book- Wings of Fire, the autobiography of our former President Mr. A P J Abdul Kalam. I wondered why I did n't read this book before, as I had always admired Abdul Kalamji and was interested in matters concerning with outer space. I have read his Ignited Minds ofcourse.
Wings Of Fire is not merely his experiences. As Mr. B. Sharma, Editor of Philosophy and Social Action said- it is
"......the first authentic volume on our Indian Space Odyssey."
The voyage of Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam from his house on Thittakudi's Pallivasal Street in Rameshwaram to the palacious Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi is full of odds and honours. This humble son of a boatman and a newspaper hawker himself hardly knew that a day would come when people would fetch the papers to know his own achievements as a great scientist and as the 11th President of India.
Wings of fire unfols the Story of Kalamji in four sections, excluding Preface, acknowledgements and introduction.But what striked me the most is his everlasting gratitude and respect to his parents. He began the book with a poem titled My Mother.Nobody could skip the poem and read the book as the poem posseses exotic beauty.
The first section of the book is Orientation.
The section Orientation opens with a quote from the Atharva Veda.
This Earth is His, to Him belong those vast and boundless skies; Both seas within Him rest, and yet in that small pool He lies.
He remembers his childhood days, when he did his early schooling at Schwartz High School, Ramanathapuram. He was a dedicted and obedient student. What we understand from the first secion is his love towards his Family, gratitude toeards his teachers ad moreover, his submission to the Almighty.
.This section tells us about his undergraduate education at St. Joseph College, Trichy, completion of a degree course in aeronautic engineering from Madras Institute of Technology, and ends with him moving to the United States for a six month training program at NASA...
The second section of the book is named Creation and covers his life from 1963 to 1980. It begins with his recollection of works at the Langley Research Center, NASA, in Houston, Virginia,U.S., and at other facilities in the USA, including the Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island in East Coast of the United States, Virginia. His efforts to make SLV3 a success is clearly presented in this section. It reveals the tensions and hardworks behind a spaceproject. Hardwork never goes unrewarded. A pleasant surprise for him came in the form of conferment of Padma Bhushan on the Republic Day,1981. But he was distracted by his Father's death who was his main source of inspiration.
The third section of the book is named Propitiation. It tells us mainly about his association with DRDL and about his projects Agni, Trishul, Prithvi etc. The fourth sectin of the book is named Contemplation and begins with a quote from Quran-
We create and destroy
And again recreate
In forms of which no one knows.
In this section , his words inspire the young generation to come forward to make India a self reliant in Space Reearch. This book also reveals his association with the pioneers of Indian Space Research like Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, Dr. Satish Dhawan and Dr. Brahm Prakash.
" A Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% prespiration." Dr. Abdul Kalam is truly an epitome of hardwork and dedication and maintans his modesty and humility inspite of his great achievements. This book is truly an inspiration for the Indians to work hard for their nation and bring glory and success to their Motherland...
