Wings of Fire 1-4

UNIT 1 Chapters 1-4 WINGS OF FIRE

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born in a middle class Tamil family to Jainulabdeen and Ashiamma, an ideal couple, in the island town of Rameswaram in the year 1931. Kalam’s parents were neither highly educated nor very rich. His father lived frugally according to his austere principles. His started with morning namaaz just before dawn. He avoided comforts and luxuries. His parents were very generous to feed more outsiders everyday. They lived in their ancestral house built of limestone and brick in the middle of the 19th century. It was fairly large house situated in Rameswaram’s Mosque Street, which was named after a very old mosque in that area. The famous Shiva temple was about ten –minute walk from their house. People of both religions Hinduism and Islam lived there amicably as neighbours.
The high priest of the temple, Pakshi Lakshmana Sastry, was his father’s very close friend. The two men, each in his traditional attire used to discuss spiritual matters, which made a lasting impression on him. He was convinced with his father’s opinion that prayers reach God. During prayer one moves beyond one’s body and the worldly possessions/things thereby becoming a part of the cosmos, where wealth, age, caste and creed are not standards for dividing people.
Kalam was greatly influenced by his father’s philosophy. When he was six years old he saw his father put his philosophy into practice. His father built a sail boat to ferry pilgrims from Rameswaran to Dhanuskodi and back. Some time later, when a severe cyclone hit the Rameswaram coast, the boat was wrecked in the strong winds. His father bore the loss with great composure and moreover he was worried about a greater tragedy caused by the winds. The Pamban Bridge had collapsed when a train full of passengers was crossing over it.
Kalam grew up imbibing both cultures and religions. The Ramayana and the life of Prophet Mohammed formed the bedtime stories in his childhood. His relatives, Jallaluddin and Samsuddin, whose wisdom was based on intuition rather than instruction, also influenced him. All his friends were from orthodox Hindu Brahmin families. Kalam realized that once a person breaks the emotional shackles that hold back, the road to personal freedom is one step ahead. When the World War –1 came to an end, the country was filled with optimism that India would get freedom from British. Kalam was greatly affected by this air of optimism and asked his father to allow him to study in Schwartz High School in Ramanathapuram.
One of his teachers at Schwartz High School, Iyadurai Solomon taught him that in order to make anything happen, one must desire it intensely. Kalam realized that this kind of conviction is not only a motivating force but it also makes things happen. He instilled in students a sense of their own worth. He raised Kalam’s self esteem and convinced that with faith one can change one’s destiny.
After graduating from St. Josephs College, he joined at the Madras Institute of Technology to study Aeronautical Engineering to attain his goal. Prof. Sponder taught him technical aerodynamics. He opined that the trouble with many students was not lack of educational opportunities or industrial infrastructure but they fail to choose their field of study with sufficient care. He suggested that one should never worry about one’s foundationsbut should have a sufficient amount of aptitude and passion for one’s chosen field of study. Kalam’s most cherished memory from college is related to Prof. Sponder.when their classmates were posing for a class photograph at the end of the final year, Prof. Sponder got up and declared Kalam as his best student and asked him to sit with him.
Soon after completing his training at HAL, kalam attended two interviews one at DTD&P (air)and the other at Indian Air Force(IaF). He was quiet confident and didwell in the interview at DTD&P . But he failed to perform well at IAF where the thrust was on personality, Physical fitness and the ability to speak well. He felt disappointed when he came to know that he stood in the ninth position in the batch os 25 candidates. He was disappointed as felt that he lost an opportunity to join IAF which was his long cherishing dream.
Kalam visited Rishikesh to come out of that mood. There he met Swami Sivananda who seemed to him like Buddha. Swamiji advised him to accept his destiny and think of it as a step that will lead to predestined path. Kalam joined in DTD&P as senior Scientific Assistant on a Basic Salary of Rs. 250/- per month.