INTRODUCTION

Wings of fire is an autobiography of Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam with Arun Tiwari. Arun Tiwari was the junior collegue of Abdul Kalam since 1982. They became close when Abdul Kalam visited him at the Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad when he was fighting for his life. This story is an account not just of his 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. This is the story of national aspiration and of cooperative endeavour, and as Dr. Kalam sees ,the saga of Indias search for scientific self sufficiency and technological competence is a parable for our times. In this book Dr. Kalam has described the individuals who had a profound influence in his life. This book is also a way of a submission of thanks to his parents and immediate family and also to the teachers and preceptors that he was fortunate to have in his student and professional life. This is also a tribute to the unflagging enthusiasm and effort of his young colleagues who helped to realize their collective dreams. He owes a great debt of knowledge and inspiration to the distinguished lineage of Indian Scientists that included Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and Brahm Prakash.

CONCLUSION
Through this book, Dr. Kalam has come to personally represent to many of his countrymen the best aspects of Indian life. This story of Kalams own rise from obscurity and his personal struggles inspires the youth population of India to enter into the development of science and technology in India. He wishes that todays youth to help India in gaining both economic prosperity and strong security for growth and development. Through this book he wants to convey his young readers that they should come up and take part in the scientific development of India. He feels that if we take the combined technological strength of the scientific institutions present in India, it would certainly be comparable to the best found in the developed world. He wants to convey the youth to have faith in the TECHNOLOGY VISION-2020 which has certain schemes and plans for economic growth and prosperity of the nation. His life and his experiences inspires the todays youth to do something valuable on their part to contribute towards making our country a developed nation.

SUMMARY
Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was born into a middle class Tamil family in Rameswaram. His father Jainulabdeen possessed great innate wisdom. His mothers name was Ashiamma. Kalam was a short boy with rather undistinguished looks, but his mind was nurtured by his father who made him understand cmplex spiritual concepts in very simple down to earth Tamil. He has tried to emulate his father in his own world of science and technology. His father made him understand that there exists a divine power that can lift one up from confusion, misery, melancholy and failure and guide one to ones true place. And once an individual serves his emotional and physical bondage, he is on the road to freedom, happiness and peace of mind. Apart from his parents, persons who influenced the life of Dr. Kalam was Ahmed Jallaluddin who was a close friend of his despite the age difference. Jallaluddin inspired Kalam with his talks about God, educated people, scientific discoveries,of contemporary literature and of achievements of medical science. He made him aware of the real world beyond the narrow confines of Rameswaram.

Another person who greatly influenced his boyhood was his first cousin Samsuddin. Kalam was a helping hand to him in selling newspapers. Kalam inherited honesty and self-discipline from his father and faith in goodness and deep kindness from his mother. But time spent with Jallaluddin and Samsuddin were most unique and made the whole difference in his later life. They manifested creativity into Kalam. Kalam had to suffer from social inequality in school.he had to do odd jobs to pay his school fees. Kalam like an ordinary boy joined Schwartz High school, Ramanathpuram but he found difficult to adjust to the new surroundings. He missed the coherence and harmony of Rameswaram. But kalam was an enthusiastic 15 year old boy. His teachers at school instilled in him a sense of his own worth and encouraged them to write their own destiny. After completing his schooling Kalam joined St. Josephs College,Trichi. There teachers like Rev. Father T.N.Sequeria, prof.iyengar, Prof. Sastry inspire Kalam to this day. Kalam then joined Madras Institute of Technology. There he was very much fascinated by two decommissioned aircrafts displayed there for the demonstration of the various subsystems of flying machines. He felt strangely attracted towards it. Kalam studied aeronautical engineering at MIT. In the course if his education three teachers Prof. Sponder,

Prof. KAV Pandala and Prof. Narasingha Rao shaped his thinking and helped him built his professional career. They shared a common impulse of the capacity to feed their students intellectual hunger by their sheer brilliance and untiring zeal. During his last year at MIT, he was assigned a project to design a low level attack aircraft together with 4 other colleegues. Initially he could not impress his teacher but he performed extremely well under stress. From MIT Kalam went to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited(HAL), Bangalore as a trainee. There he gained hands on experience and was ready to take up job either in DTP&P(Air), Ministry of Defence or Air force. But Kalam could not make it for Air force. He was deeply disappointed and dejected. But he met Swami Sivananda who inspired him and told him to accept his destiny and go ahead with his life. Hence Kalam took up the job at DTP&P(Air) as senior Scientific Assistant. There he was asked by the director of the ADE to lead the team which was to develop an indigenous hovercraft prototype as a ground equipment machine. His team had very limited information and resources available but he proceeded with that only. His seniors did not believe in their capabilities except Krishna Menon the Defence Minister. He named the hovercraft Nandi . Krishna Menon even took a flight on it. His project was completed before schedule but could not go ahead. Kalam became disappointed and

disillusioned. But he got new opportunities as he got selected into INCOSPAR. There Kalam was made to train in rocket launching techniques at NASA. Then Vikram Sarabhai met Kalam and talked with him about SLV. Also he told Kalam to take up studies on rocket assisted take off system (RATO) for military aircraft. Kalam worked in Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station(TERLS). There they developed the first rocket named Rohini. After that he worked in close association with Prof. Sarabhai in developing rockets and launch vehicles. But in between the progress of the project Prof. Sarabhai died. It was a great loss to the nation and to Kalam. He was very much disturbed and he realized that mistakes can delay or prevent the proper achievement of the objectives of individuals and organizations, but visionary like Prof. Sarabhai used errors as opportunities to promote innovation and development of new ideas. Next Kalam worked under Prof. Dhawan and Dr. Brahm Prakash and was appointed the project manager of SLV. He visualized his team which was to work under him as a group in which each member worked to enrich the others in the team and experience the enjoyment of working together. The people in his group were in the habit of celebrating their success together which generated good morale and helped them a great deal to accept setbacks and to revitalize themselves after periods of intense work.

Dr. Kalam shares with us what we can do to strengthen personal freedom. First, by building your own educational skills. The more up to date knowledge you posses, the more free you are. The second way is to develop a passion for personal responsibility. Be active. Take on responsibility. Work for things you believe in. if you do not, you are surrendering your fate to others.

In the process of development of the SLV, Kalam lost his friend Jallaluddin, his father and his mother in three successive year. He had to the very strong to give total commitment to his work in order to keep performing. He became a workaholic. But he faced a setback in his SLV development when stage-2 of the SLV went out of control. Kalam was frustrated. But Dr. Brahm Prakash helped him endure the pain he felt. Kalam overcame this setback and then on 18th July 1980, SLV-3 lifted off successfully giving required velocity to the Rohini Satellite to enter its orbit. Within a month of the SLV-3 success, Dr Kalam visited the Nehru Science centre in Bombay for a day, on an invitation to share his experiences with the SLV-3. He went to Delhi and handed the members for giving an opportunity to work on a project like the SLV-3 and prone the scientific strength of our country.

A minor tussle over Dr Kalams services occurred between ISRD & DRDO. Kalam joined DRDL where he proposed projects with government sanction. These projects were christened in accordance with the spirit of Indias selfreliance surface to surface weapon system was called Prithvi, tactical core vehicle called Trishul, Surface to Air area defence system named Akash and Anti tank missile project Nag. He gave the name Agni to his long cherished dream of REX. IGMDP was launched which was like a bright flash on the Indian Scientific firmament. For Trishul, Kalam looked for a man who not only had a sound knowledge of electronics and missile warfare but who could also communicate the complexities to his team in order to promote understanding and to earn his teams support. For Agni, his dream project he needed somebody who would tolerate his occasional meddling in the running of the project. Meanwhile, PM Indira Gandhi visited DRDL and encouraged them and showed promise in the ongoing work. But her death was tremendous loss to the scientific community. She had given impetus to scientific research in the country. By summer of 1985, all the ground work had been completed for building the Missile Technology Research Centre. Trishul took off from test range at Sriharikota on 16th Sept 1985.

Prithvi was launched on 25 February 1988. It was an epoch making event in the history of rocketry in the country. The launch sent shock waves across the unfriendly neighborhood. Dr. Kalam helped in firmly established the Indian Core Competence in rocketry. Agni, Kalams dream. Its team comprised of more than 500 scientists. Many organization were networked to undertake this huge effort of launching Agni. Agni took a perfect launch. It was one of the greatest moments of Dr. Kalams life. It was a fantastic culmination to their labour of love. On Republic Day 1990, Dr. Kalam along with his two other colleagues received Padma awards. It was the first time in the history of free india that so many scientists affiliated to the same institution found their names in the awards list. He was touched by the recognition bestowed on him by his countrymen. A large number of scientists and engineers leave this country at their first opportunity to earn money abroad. It is true that they definitely get greater monetary benefits, but anything could not compensate for the love and respect from your own countrymen. A gust of memories swept over him. In a state of trance, he acquired his double statusas a child of heaven and earth. It was during this period that he decided to put his memories and express his observations and opinions on certain

issues. Kalam feels that the biggest problem that the Indian youth faces is lack of clarity of vision, a lack of direction. Kalam says that no one , however poor, underprivileged or small, need to feel disheartened about life. Problems are a part of life. Suffering is the essence of success. He hopes that his experiences could help children liberate themselves from bondage of their illusionary backwardness and hopelessness. Irrespective of where they are, they should be aware that God is with them. He has observed that most Indians suffer unnecessary miseries all their lives because they do not know how to manage their emotions. They are paralyzed by some sort of psychological inertia. People should try to prove their self worth and discover pathways to organizational successes. Let the latent fire in the heart of every Indian acquire wings, and the glory of this great country light up the sky. Kalam has quoted :

God has not promised skies always blue, Flower-strewn pathways all our life through; God has not promised sun without rain Joy without sorrow, peace without pain. But god has promised, strength for the day, Rest for the labour Light for the way.

A BOOK REPORT ON WINGS OF FIRE

DONE BY:AMRITHA (10BEIOOO9) SAMRIDHI (10BIT0217)