Wings of Fire

By APJ Abdul Kalam and Dr. Arun Tiwari

INTRODUCTION
Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on 15th October 1931 at Rameswaram in
Tamil Nadu. He was a mediocre student at school, though he used to be highly appreciated
for his will to study. He completed his school education from Schwartz higher secondary
school at Ramanathapuram. After that he studied his B.Sc. Degree education from Saint
Joseph College in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. He had his major in Physics. He finally
graduated from college in the year 1954. Then he moved to Madras in 1955 to study
aerospace engineering in Madras Institute of Technology.
Though as a child he had a dream of becoming a fighter pilot, he missed his chance very
narrowly. But it didnt break him down . His contributions are immense. He was responsible
for the development of Indias first satellite launch vehicle, the SLV- 3, development and
operation of strategic missiles and building indigenous capability in critical technologies. He
was appointed as the chairman of Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment
council (TIFAC). He also guided a number of Technology projects and mission.
Kalams contributions, as a scientist, have been recognised not only nationally but also at the
international level. He received honorary doctorates from 48 Universities and institutions
from India and abroad. The Honorary Doctorates include, Nyenrode Business University,
Netherlands; Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburg USA; University of Wolverhampton, UK; University of Kentucky,USA; Oakland
University, Michigan USA; University of Waterloo, Canada; University Sans Malaysia,
Malaysia University of Sydney, Australia and the Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.
He has been awarded with the coveted civilian awards - Padma Bhushan (1981) and Padma
Vibhushan (1990) and the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (1997). He is a recipient of
several other awards and Fellow of many professional institutions.
The Royal Society, UK has awarded Dr Kalam with the King Charles-II Medal for Science
and Technology in October 2007. He received the Woodrow Wilson Award in 2008. The
Royal Academy of Engineering, London conferred on him the International Medal 2008 in

June 2009 at London. The Hoover Board of Awards presented him the Hoover Medal 2008 at
New York in April 2009. The Aerospace Historical Society in Collaboration with the
Graduate Aerospace Laboratories (GALCIT) at the California Institute of Technology
awarded him the 2009 International Von Karman Wings Award in September 2009.
Dr. Kalam became the 11th President of India on 25th July 2002 and stayed in his position for
5 years. Widely referred to as the Peoples President, he returned to his civilian life of
education, writing and public service after a single term. He had held various positions under
ISRO and DRDO and became Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government Of India
holding the rank of a Cabinet Minister.
He was criticized as a President for his inaction to decide the fate of 20 mercy petitions out of
21, including that of the Kashmiri Terrorist Afzal Guru, who was convicted for the Parliament
attacks in December 2001. When he demitted office, Kalam left behind over two dozen
mercy petitions. He, in his book Turning Points: A Journey Through Challenges, wrote, One
of the more difficult tasks for me as President was to decide on the issue of confirming
capital punishment awarded by the courts after exhausting all processes of appeals. As a
substantial number of cases have been pending in Rashtrapati Bhavan for many years, it is
one inherited task that no President would feel happy about.
Kalam, as the Peoples President and Missile Man, was the embodiment of every Indian
Ideal. His contribution to the Indian defence and military sector of 21st century is priceless.
His aide Srijan Pal Singh once asked Kalam what would he like to be remembered as:
"President, scientist, writer, Missile Man, Indian 2020, Target 3 billion..what?"
Kalam replied: "Teacher." Mr. Kalam spent his last few minutes teaching the students at the
Indian Institute of Management, Shillong.

ASSESSMENT
Wings of Fire is a journey into the life of a dirt poor Muslim who grew up to become the
President of a country filled with other 1200 million Hindus. It is the saga of
independent Indias struggle for technological self sufficiency & defensive autonomy. This
book serves as an answer to all those who question the technological endeavours of India.
The book is neatly divided into four sections viz. orientation, creation, propitiation and
contemplation. The book begins with orientation which gives a vivid picture of Kalams early
days as a child. Kalam gives his readers a splendid display of his life by describing the
individuals who had a profound influence on his life. It serves as a tribute to the unflagging
enthusiasm and efforts of his colleagues who helped him to realise his dreams.
Since the very beginning, Kalam has been helped by his parents, friends and family. His
description of the people who shaped his life, interweaving religion and education, is a
charming part of the book. The difficulties involved in getting education are very reminiscent
of the era the late thirties or the forties which is full of examples of people of lower
middle class living largely in villages struggling hard to get education in cities/large towns
with little infrastructure and financial support. Through out this chapter, Kalam has presented
with incidents that helped him in evolving as an ideal mean. Not only it is a biographical
account of his life, it even comprises of some meaningful lessons for a young person
preparing for a professional life.
"The trouble with Indians [was] not that they lacked educational opportunities or industrial
infrastructure - the trouble was in their failure to discriminate between disciplines and to
rationalise their choices,"

The next chapter entitled Creation describing the next seventeen years till 1980 covers his
struggle at ISRO going from one-engineer-amongst-many to the successful project director of
SLV bringing pride to the nation through the technological achievement of putting the first
Indian satellite in the orbit. A major part of this chapter describes Sarabhai, whose vision and
mode of working influenced Kalam, the leader of space technology. The support of Dr. Satish
Dhawan as chairman ISRO, Brahma Prakash as Director of VSSC is also mentioned. Nearly
half of the book goes to the "Creation" phase traversing six chapters from chapter 4 to chapter
9.

The following section has been named Propitiation. It covers Chapter 10 to chapter 14 from
1981 to 1991. These ten years constitute Kalams outstanding accomplishments at DRDL and
covers his journey towards becoming the Missile Man of India. His excellent leadership
qualities as taking up the responsibility of shaping up the guided Missile Development
Programme, Kalam was responsible for development of missiles. It lets us see Kalam going
into the defence stage of his career, breathing fresh life into struggling research institutions
under the Defence R&D Organisation, and later taking charge of all the DRDO
establishments, helping India to acquire modern weaponry and delivery systems. If the
"creation" phase was marked by the SLV-3 saga, this phase had the Agni and related missile
programmes as the defining theme.
The last chapter entitled Contemplation contains a condensation of ideas and thoughts
arising out of his colourful life and the awards that he receivedAs Kalam moved into the
contemplative phase of his life, he was coveted with nations highest awards, and ironically,
also made him take more wide ranging responsibilities connected with science, technology
and the Defence of the realm. The awards that he received include Padma Bhushan, Padma
Vibhusahan and Bharat Ratna He was also awarded with Doctor of Science from Jadhavpur
and IIT Bombay.
He gives the credit of his success to the many great visionaries who prepared him for life,
especially his parents, teachers, friends, Professors Sarabhai, Dhawan and Brahm Prakash. He
ends the book with the fervent prayer that eventually the country will become strong,
prosperous and developed. Through this book, Kalam has personally represented the best
aspects of Indian life.
The biggest problem, Indian youth faces, according to Kalam is a lack of clarity of vision, a
lack of direction. He therefore decided to write about the circumstances and people who
made him what he is today; Kalam wants to say that no one, however poor, underprivileged
or small, need feel disheartened about life. Problems are a part of life. Suffering is the essence
of success. Kalam suggests that, though he himself feels that his life cannot be a rolemodel
for anybody but some poor child living living in an obscure place, in an underprivileged
social setting may find a little solace in the way his destiny has been shaped. It could perhaps
help such children liberate themselves from the bondage of their illusionary backwardness
and helplessness. Irrespective of where they are right now, they should be aware that God is
with them and when He is with them, who can be against them?

He also says, that, the youth of today must de-learn the self defeating way of living life. The
culture of working for material possessions and rewards must be discarded. Kalam points
that, when he sees wealthy, powerful, learned people struggling to be at peace with
themselves, he thinks of people like his father, jainulabdeen, his brother-in-law Jalaluddin, his
teacher Iyadurai Solomon Etc. These were the people who were very happy, even though they
were people with virtually no possessions. These were people who felt so secure, though they
had nothing to fall back upon. They drew sustenance from within. They relied more on the
inner signals and less on the external ones; like wealth, prestige, position, promotion,
approval of ones lifestyle by others, ceremonial honors and status symbols of all kinds.
One must be aware of the inner signals and trust them. One must also have the focus of
control over ones life in ones own hands. If one learns to make decision avoiding external
pressures, which will constantly try to manipulate and immobilize, the better or life will be;
the better the society will become. The entire nation will benefit by having strong, inner
directed people as their leaders. A citizenry that thinks for itself, a country in which people
know and trust themselves as individuals, would be virtually immune to manipulation by any
unscrupulous authority or vested interest.
Everything is possible to be achieved for anyone and every human being has got the
capability and competency of doing some or the other thing the only things an achiever
requires are the desire of doing something within him, second the belief that he can achieve it
and the last but not the lest is the expectation from whatever the achiever does.
I wonder why some people tend to see science as something which takes man away from
God. As I look at it, the path of science can always wind through the heart. For me, science
has always been the path to spiritual enrichment and self-realization.
Right from his childhood, Kalam was a very spiritual person who respected not only his own
religion but showed the same respect for other religions too. Science sources from the
religion itself but unfortunately people misperceive it. The spirituality protects us from
depression while achieving our goals and relieves us, as well as gives us patience against
failure and difficulties. As Kalam himself says that he has always been a religious person in
the sense that he maintains a working partnership with God. He believes that the best work
requires more ability than he possesses and therefore he needs Gods help. He makes a true
estimate of his ability then raises it 50% and puts himself in Gods hands. In this partnership,
he has always received all the power he needed and in fact even felt it flowing into him. He

affirms that the kingdom of God is within us in the form of this power. This power helps to
achieve ones goals and realize ones dreams. He may not be an example to others, but a few
souls may draw inspiration and come to balance that ultimate satisfaction which can only be
found in the life of the spirit. Total commitment is not just hard work; it is total involvement.
Building a wall is a back breaking work. There are people who build rock walls all their lives.
And when they die, there are miles of walls, mute testimonials to how hard their people had
worked. But there are other men who build rock walls, and all the time they are placing one
rock on top of another they have a vision in their minds, a goal. The rock wall may enclose an
apple orchard or make a boundary. When they finish, they have more than a wall. It is the
goal that makes the difference.
When Kalam looks back in retrospect on his days as a young scientist, he is aware that one of
the most constant and powerful feelings that he experienced was his desire to be more than
what he was at that moment. He had a strong unwillingness to let his mind settle in pettiness,
where it idles. He desired to feel more, learn more, express more. He desired to grow,
improve, purify, expand. He never had any outside influence to advance in career, all he had
was the inner urge to seek more within himself. The key to his motivation was to look at how
far he had to go rather than how far he had come. It is his belief that through difficulties and
problems, God gives the opportunity to grow.
Kalam has also been a great leader, be it as the incharge of various missile missions or as the
President. Throughout his life, he has always focused on how people should achieve their
goals and how they should be led. He has pointed out some of the weak points of the Indians
for example; What makes life in Indian organization difficult is the widespread prevalence
of this very contemptuous pride. It stops us from listening to our juniors, subordinators and
people down the line. He condemns such a leader and his leadership. According to him a
relationship of trust is required for leaders to develop the competencies of the followers and
allow them to do things by their own in order to get motivated and learn by their own, from
their own mistakes.

CONCLUSION
This story of a boy who rose from a very humble coastal village in Tamil Nandu, Southern
India to become one of the greatest architects of Indian Space mission is a very inspirational
account. Dr. Kalam managed to grace the Indian canvas with his simplicity and elegance.
Despite all the outcries and qualms, India is surely a unique country where even a dirt poor
boy from a village can become the President, the one which remains the most loved head of
the state in recent times. Wings of Fire hailed as the autobiography of Mr. Abdul Kalam is
not merely an autobiography. In addition to provide a deep narration to the events of Kalams
life, it advocates and portrays his vision and guidance to the youth of India encompassing his
discourse on the inspirational leadership and collaborative people management. The
narratives of his journey discharging beams of achievement through the dark disappointments
embeds hope.
Forget the failure and search instead for the true purpose of your existencesurrender
yourself to the will of God
This book is rich in motivational texture filled with positive thinking citing examples from
his own life. There were times when the disappointment and failures bogged down even
someone like Kalam exposing him to risk of breaking down and falling back. Just when, he
was about to collapse, someone or the other was there by his side to instill confidence and
fighting spirit in him which propelled and launched him with greater intensity towards the
success. In his words, Believe in yourself and also on his inscrutable ways.
At the core, the book is about the great Indian dream. A wish that all the founding fathers of a
country have, a wish fulfilled by Abdul Kalam.