WINGS OF FIRE

Book cover for A P J Abdul Kalam's Wings of Fire.

Author(s)

A P J Abdul Kalam with arun tiwari

Cover artist

Photograph courtesy: The Week

Subject(s)

India journey to self-reliance in technology

Genre(s)

Autobiography

Publisher

Universities Press

Publication date

1999

Media type

Print (Paperback)

Pages

180 (paperback edition)

ISBN

ISBN 81-7371-146-1 (paperback edition)

OCLCNumber

41326410

LC Classification

Q143.A197 A3 1999

FEB

16

Book Review: Wings of Fire- APJ Abdul Kalam

The book Wings of Fire, the autobiography of A P J Abdul Kalam constitutes an extraordinary reading for all ages. There is something that everybody can extract from this book. In this book, the authors tell us the story of a young Muslim boy who has big dreams about his future and what inspires him to become an eminent scientist. This real story tells us the role of family, relatives and friends in helping a person in achieving his goals. Apart from the very indicative title, the chapters of the book are also touching orientation, creation, propitiation, and contemplation. Orientation contains 32 years of his early life days as a child, going through adolescence and getting into rocketry. His description of the people, who shaped his life, interweaving religion and education, is a charming part of the book that almost nobody would miss reading. Chapter 2 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 a satellite in the orbit. The next ten years are set out in chapter 3. These constitute the outstanding accomplishments at DRDL. The way he transformed the laboratory from one which had a weak heart with little confidence to one which felt a sense of strong self-esteem and could feel proud by contributing developed missile systems to the services, is a remarkable saga. The last chapter entitled Contemplation contains a condensation of ideas and thoughts arising out of his colourful life, the awards that he received (the highest honour, namely Bharata Ratna that he received does not find a mention in this book) and some messages for the future generation.

The author through this book and the various chapters builds a quick rapport with the reader, who is spellbound. It stresses on the point that the youth should not get disheartened by failures.

According to him, source of hidden knowledge is within us, with whom we should communicate. It is an inspirational book for everyone, especially the youth, with a message not to get bogged down in life, due to personal tragedies and setbacks in professional life.
=> Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam had born on October 15, 1931, Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu, India. => Graduated from Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai in aeronautical engineering in 1958. => Joined in Indias Premier research center DRDO in 1962. => Has become director of DRDO in1982. => Received highest civilian honors: The Padma Bhushan in 1981, The Padma Vibhushan 1in 1990, and the Bharath Ratna in 1997. => Served as 11th president of Independent India during 2002-2007.

I dont think that my recommendation is necessary. You already know how BIG Mr. Kalam is. The book is just of 180 pages. That is itself a very witty thing that Mr. Kalam has done. Otherwise, any person of his stature wants to give every minute details about his/her life and end up writing an autobiography of 500-1000 pages.
After a detailed analysis it was decided that the missile was ready for launch on 1st May, 1989. But unfortunately due to technical problems, it was postponed. After two postponements and a possible cyclone, Agni was launched on 22nd may 1989 at 7/10 hours. It was a perfect launch. The missile followed textbook trajectory. All flight parameters were met. They had met success at last after five years of continuous work Abdul Kalam was sure that the Indian scientists and technologists working together had the capability to achieve this technological breakthrough. The Agni had more than 500 scientists. The launch had been scheduled for 20th April, 1989. Unlike space launch, missile launch involved wide ranging safety hazards. All activities preparatory to the launch went according to schedule. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi called the Agni a major achievement in our effort to safe guard our independence and security by self-reliant means.president R.Venkataraman saw in Agni success, the fulfillment of his dream. He congratulated Abdul Kalam and said that it was a tribute to his dedication, hard work and talent.

Father Jainulabdeen mother- Ashiamma .high priest of rameswaram temple- Pakshi Lakshmana Sastry close friends were- Ahmed jallaluddin(15 year greater than kalam) , Aravindan , Sivaprakasan ,Ramanadha Sastry. Three brothers and sister .Science teacherSivasubramania Iyer .1st cousin Samsuddin .high school- Schwartz high school .12 types of poli made by mother . Ideal guide was a teacher Iyadurai Solomon in school and used to say that to achieve something; we need to desire, belief and expectations. Ramakrishna Iyer maths teacher (4th class). In 1950, he arrived to St. Josephs College (Rev. Father TN Sequeira) to study for Intermediate exams. Elder brother-Mustafa Kamal. Younger brother- Kasim Mohammed. Room partners at St. Josephs campus were Syrian Christian from Kerala and Iyengar from Srirangam. Mathematics teacher Prof. Thothathri Iyengar and Prof. Suryanarayan Sastry. Physics teachers Prof. Chinna Durai and Prof. Krishnamurty. MIT teachers- Prof. Sponder(technical aerodynamics) , Prof. KAV Pandalai(aero-structure design and analysis), Prof. Narasingha Rao(mathematician). Dr. Srinivasan(design teacher and director of MIT). Ananda Vikatan- editor of tamil weekly. Hovercraft name NANDI (after the bull name of lord shiva). Prof. MGK Menon(director of tata research of fundamental research). Indias 1st rocket launch took place on 21 november 1963, which was called Nike-Apache made at NASA ( incharge- kalam and their colleagues D Easwardas and R Arvanmudan. DRDO Defence Research and Development Organisation.

Wings of Fire is an autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam that he has written with Arun Tiwari, his colleague who compelled him to write it. Arun Tiwari always got inspired by the presence of Mr. Kalam, hence said that he wants to write all the major incidents in the life of Kalam. And Kalam sir agreed. Result: Wings of Fire. It does not have every minute incident in the life of Kalam sir but only the ones that are related in converting this Rameswaram villages boy into the man behind the successes of many missiles and rockets. Contradicting the myths, this book is not related to anything regarding Kalam sir being the PRESIDENT of India. This is not even mentioned in the book that Kalam sir ended being President of India. It is all about how he persisted in his field and got intrigued that he earned Padma Vibhushan for being the most influential and effective person in the field of Rocketry. I dont think that my recommendation is necessary. You already know how BIG Mr. Kalam is. The book is just of 180 pages. That is itself a very witty thing that Mr. Kalam has done. Otherwise, any person of his stature wants to give every minute details about his/her life and end up writing an autobiography of 500-1000 pages. The first chapter is nice to read as it gives a little scenario related to caste differences in society. Even 2nd chapter gives some scenarios related to another social issue. 89th page is the most motivating and the best page of the book. The way Kalam sir has described the work that he did in Rocketry field in organizations, I

got a sudden urge to be in his team and witness the whole scenario of how a rocket is imagined, made and launched. And then how the success of it is being celebrated. The sacrifice that Kalam sirs family did for sending him for further education inspires us to be a CLASS as he is; as we find our family similar to his. Mr. Sarabhai is the kind of boss that everyone of us pray for. The death of close ones at the time of landmarks in Mr. Kalams life really made me feel bad about the man. The story that is unfolded in the latter half is no less than any great fiction. After learning about Kalam sirs passion and experiments in science, I started feeling bad about hating the subject. SLV-3s success is amazingly described. How Mr. Kalam got a special recognition for the mission for which everyone in the team was equally responsible is described in the real human emotions. The book is written as if every character is Mr. Kalam except the protagonist who is THE KALAM himself. He has kept such a low profile while writing the book that youll be amazed to learn that the person does not have a pinch of arrogance in his parlance. This is the HOLY BOOK for the Science students. Agnis launch is so filmy and interesting to read pre-climax. The medias comment that are mentioned made me know that media was shit even then. Book is ended in an epic way.
I feel myself very fortunate to read this book. Wings of fire is an autobiography of the former president of India Dr. A. P.J. Abdul Kalam. In this book he tells us the story of a Muslim boy, who had big dreams about his future and what inspired him to become an eminent scientist. The narration is simple, direct and shows how a boy with humble background from a remote corner of India could dream of aeronautics, rocket science and missiles. In this book he touches so many things like his family and the cordial relationship between Hindus and Muslims. The book starts with his personal information regarding his family, tradition, childhood and education, then he shares his experiences of those days which he spent in Indias premier R&D organizations like DRDO, ISRO. Through out this book he shares those moments, which inspired him to maintain his focus towards realizing his dreams of becoming an atomic scientist. This book is a must read for every Indian especially for youth, it is a great source of inspiration for those young guys who want to achieve something in their lives. It is my duty to let you know few important things about the missile man.