Wings of Fire:

 

 

Wings of Fire revolves around the personal & professional life of Kalam and the individuals who made an impact on him. The book is mainly divided into 4 sections (Orientation, Creation, Propitiation and Contemplation) of Kalam’s life which contains 16 chapters and an epilogue.

 

BOOK SUMMARY:-

Kalam introduces us to his early life in Rameswaram where he was born and raised in a secure middle-class Tamil family. He proceeds to describe the communal harmony in Rameswaram and the stable atmosphere for healthy discussion of spiritual matters.

Hailing from a predominantly Muslim locality, Kalam learned respect for other faiths from his parents. During Kalam’s early life, his close relatives encouraged Kalam to excel in studies and would talk about the discoveries of literature and science beyond Rameswaram. Inspired to fulfill his dreams, he left his home to attend Schwartz High School in Ramanathapuram.

Kalam throws light on the time he got selected at Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) for engineering when admission fees were expensive. His elder sister stood by him and helped him financially which deeply moved Kalam to study hard for a scholarship. At MIT, he dreamed to fly an aircraft and hence chose aeronautical engineering.

Kalam sends a message to the future engineering students that ‘when they choose their specialization, the essential point to consider is whether the choice articulates their inner feelings and aspirations’.

Kalam was determined to join either the Air Force or a job at Directorate of Technical Development and Production, DTD&P (Air) at the Ministry of Defence. However, Kalam was not successful in joining the Indian Air Force and could not fulfill his dream to fly.

His indigenous Hovercraft ‘Nandi’ was shelved by a new ministry which favored imported hovercrafts. Kalam learned the harsh truth that certain events may be out of control in life.

In the section Creation, Kalam gives a glimpse of his keen eye while training at NASA. He recollects seeing a painting depicting heroism of Tipu Sultan’s army using rockets against the British.

This memorable line has aged well which tells us to take action now when we are interested in doing a good thing and want to be remembered for it. Interestingly, Kalam preferred a daring attitude with persistence to perfection.

Kalam narrates his experience when he was faced with three deaths in his family. He faced failure when the first flight trial of Indian SLV-3 crashed for which Kalam took responsibility as a leader. Kalam describes two visionaries Prof. Dhawan and Dr. Brahm Prakash who mentored him during such days.

Kalam received the Padma Bhushan after SLV-3 was successfully launched. He then moved to rocketry at the Defence Research and Development Organization and successfully introduced the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme for the development of five missiles namely Prithvi, Trishul, Akash, Nag and Agni.

On the successful launch of India’s missile program, Kalam received the Padma Vibhushan. Despite repeated failures faced, Kalam always maintained that failures are seeds of further learning and emphatically believed that India can be a technological leader.

My openion about this book  :- The book starts off interestingly with a reminiscent narrative of early India & Kalam’s boyhood. Throughout the book, a host of genius people in space research & rocketry have been mentioned in good detail. It also contains inspirational poems written by Kalam and some of his favorite ones.

The authors show us the inner workings of a brilliant mind which not only gave wings to the divine fire but also flew the distance.

Conclusion :-  A common man’s journey to the orbit of success and commendation, the autobiography is widely considered one of the most inspiring of its time. In a country and a time ravaged by communal fire (Babri Masjid Demotion of 1992 by Terrorists) and in bureaucratic system paralyzed with greed and corruption, Abdul Kalam gave up his personal life for a life in service to his country and his countrymen so much so that he died on the stage giving a lecture.

It is the message of the book wings of fire and it is something that young readers of his autobiography must ponder over.

                                       

                                                                   Thank you

                                                 Name :- Student teacher – Vijaylaxmi Shukla

                                                   P.V.D.T. College of education for women

                                                                          Mumbai