Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam: Memories Revisited
Debasish Chakraborti
My eventful
journey in DRDO since 1985 landed me to a premier laboratory named ADRDE, Agra
as Director. Among other things, I was happy to meet two erudite scholars of
Agra College, Agra, Dr. Nibir K. Ghosh and Dr. Sunita. It is Nibirda who has
motivated me to write about the illustrious personality of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
with whatever experience I gathered as a scientist. I humbly offer the
following reminiscences as a tribute to one of the most worthy sons of Mother
India.
It happened to be a rainy morning at Chandigarh DRDO guest house, when
I saw our chief of DRDO, Dr. Kalam taking a stroll in the midst of deep clouds,
quite relaxed with rain water gently sprinkling his head. About 2/3 weeks ago,
the country had witnessed “Pokhran-II” — the nuclear experiment at Rajasthan
under the able stewardship of Kalam sir. I quickly got down and congratulated
him on the success of Pokhran. On the same afternoon at the lunch table along
with young scientists from DRDO, Dr. Kalam put up two specific questions to the
youngsters. One was, “Why has India always been the target country for all
invaders including a small country like Portugal?” and the second one, “Why
India always, almost all the times, has given in to the invaders?” The
questions were simple but intellectually loaded and it still hovers on me to
find the most appropriate reasons and answers to both the questions in this
jigsaw puzzle of information blast in the world. However, one thing was certain
that he had kindled the quest to know our country and serve it with all
righteousness.
I asked
him on the same day, whether this nuclear test was indeed a priority for the
country which has been facing all kinds of problems like poverty, malnutrition,
health, education and Roti-Kapda-Makan.
“Good Question” was his impromptu response in his usual way … but his answer to
the question startled me a lot. He said: “The U.S.A. administration has rolled
the heads, since they could not anticipate/predict this great event and at the
same time in the American media, probably for the first time, they talked about
‘nuclear fission experiment in India’ several times, which is a homegrown
technology.” He reiterated, “technology is strength, and strength respects
strength.” This is how this great man, whom I knew for quite a long time in
relation to Defence R&D works, remained embedded in my mind, as a leader
and facilitator for harnessing indigenous technologies for self- reliance of
the nation.
We had
been working in the field of antiship and antisubmarine torpedoes in the DRDO
Laboratory, NSTL, Visakhapatnam for quite long. I still remember the day, when
DRDO chief Dr. Kalam sanctioned the torpedo project a very paltry sum of Rs. 30
crores with 5 years duration when the country did not possess the infrastructure
of underwater acoustic ranges — which all other torpedo developing nations used
to have, specifically U.S.A., that had invested almost about Rs 1000 crore for
the Range. Our scientists worked day and night on developing the technology of
light weight and heavy weight torpedoes. As expected, lot of technological
challenges were faced by us and we started exploring the gap between theory and
practice at field trials at sea, where torpedoes used to sink to the bottom of
the sea with no data of failure available to the scientists (since the recorded
data also used to be lost in case of torpedo sinking). These setbacks were
found to be expensive as well as demotivating for the Scientists. Kalam sir
once constituted a committee with veteran scientists of DRDO who had tasted
success in their respective fields in Missile programs (namely Dr. V.K.
Saraswat, Dr. Prahlada, Dr. S.K. Ray, Admiral Mohan Rao and others) to review
and analyse the various problems in torpedo failures at the Laboratory.
Exhaustive reviews were conducted in detail and the scientists learnt a lot and
made a comprehensive way ahead plans for the project. The torpedo project was
getting delayed and the Navy was getting restless to have the weapon on board.
Admiral S. Mahapatra from Navy was posted to the Lab and he was instructed to
Push the project. Admiral Mohapatra took charge of the laboratory and started giving
a momentum to the project with all his leadership skills.
One
morning at sea, Dr. Kalam came on board INS Saryu to witness the field trial.
Unfortunately, the weather was not congenial for recovery of torpedo and the
trial was cancelled by Navy. Dr. Kalam asked me to describe the events starting
from the launch tube through the pre-setting till recovery after the underwater
run as per the mission requirement. We explained him all the events in detail.
I explained to him that water ingress inside the torpedo will make it sink and
it is not only the expensive torpedo we lose, we lose the mission run data
also, since the black box recording the data comes up to the surface along with
the torpedo. Unlike missiles, the underwater acoustic communication cannot be
captured above using telemetry. I referred to one important trial at sea after
implementing some improvements in the design based on his review. The torpedo
was supposed to be surfacing after 8 minutes of run underwater but the weapon
was not sighted by the helicopter. I had no control on torpedo and therefore
submitted to God and started writing “Om Sri Saraswatyai namo” in the ship’s
wardroom several times when suddenly the ship announcement came up: “torpedo
sighted and being recovered” — what a joy for us at that moment! After
listening to this story, Dr. Kalam
quipped, “How many times have you written that shloka before it was recovered?”
I said it was 44 times, but not 9,11,13 etc. as normally the rituals go in
pujas. Sir said, “I understand your agony and anxiety…but immediately
thereafter with a pause, he pulled me up with humour … “Why not you make a
suitable program with that shloka 44 times and get it embedded to torpedo
onboard computer OBC so that such failure will never happen?” We laughed with
him and realised that he happens to be one of us and he generates the light
moments and the required frequency to
resonate with scientists of all ranks. However, with great motivation,
subsequently thereafter we progressed on the project well and we are proud to
have inducted an indigenous light weight
torpedo (TAL) and one heavy weight torpedo (Varunastra) into Indian Navy as on date. Dr. Kalam was a
great leader and motivator to all the scientists for such mission of harnessing
indigenous technologies for the security of the nation.
Once, Dr.
Kalam came for a visit to the laboratory for a review of projects and we
displayed the critical technology hardware as exhibits. Our Director was
explaining the things and we were standing there for any clarifications. At one
point in one of the exhibits of high energy density battery, he told our
Director, “Admiral, let us listen from this young scientist, let him explain,
let us see how he does it, is that ok?“ Admiral said … “yes sir.” He always
used to inspire and motivate the young scientists in his own usual way. He used
to ask them, ”what do you feel, what are the scope for improvement, have we
benchmarked it with the global state of art technologies? Where are the gaps?”
Whenever he used to come for visit to the laboratory, program itinerary would
be sent to him … and invariably he made changes. Suppose we said the program would
start at 0900 hrs … he would change it and say that he intended to have
discussion with all young scientists and technical officers at 0630 hrs and the
agenda would be spelt out by him at that time. He would have discussions on
Decoys — the countermeasure for torpedoes … he asked us, what we were thinking
about our torpedoes to be intelligent enough not to get decoyed by our
adversaries. How the scientists were thinking of making the torpedo stealthier …
or how to increase the speed of the torpedo … can we achieve missile speed
underwater? etc etc. We used to reflect on all these points in the lab and thus
make value addition to the product to the extent feasible. Quite often, he used
to say “think out of the box, dream big but at the same time please wake up and
toil to realise it.”
On one
occasion our Director wanted him to address all officers and staff of NSTL in a
very short time available to him at Vizag. In the same address, he said “what
you want me to say to your officers? You are all good guys ... keep working etc
etc?” For a change, he said “I would rather request you to introspect and ask
yourselves, what all important things you guys are not doing, what all you need
to work and improve. Please make a way ahead document project-wise with
timelines. I will look into it when I come next to the laboratory.” — This was
his way to synergise the scientific community. A very simple way to pass the
message to scientists to shun complacency.
Dr. Kalam
worked tirelessly for achieving self-reliance in the field of Defence research
and development, boosted DRDO in the IGMDP (Integrated and guided missile
development program) and became the Missile Man of India. Simple living and
high thinking coupled with the urge of serving the nation has always been his
forte.
The time
passed by and Dr. Kalam was
elevated to the level of Chief scientific advisor to the Prime Minister.
One
morning, 25th July 2002, the dawn saw him rise as the first citizen of India —
the Rashtrapati — the President of India. We were indeed excited to witness the
recognition bestowed on him by the nation. An honest individual, a simple and
kind soul, a visionary, an eternal
learner and a Teacher with scientific background took the oath to serve the
nation. The story beyond is all well known to the countrymen. His emotional and
iconic connectivity with the youth and children of India is widely known and
appreciated. We were proud to see that our leader and mentor had become the
leader of the nation. Subsequently He was conferred the country’s highest
award, Bharat Ratna in the year 2013.
We met him
last as President when he came to Visakhapatnam and visited our laboratory
NSTL, saw our progress of works and then
addressed all the school children of Vizag at Manasi Auditorium as
President. The representative children from all the schools of Vizag gathered
in the auditorium along with their teachers. The President of India stepped on to
the dais with a thunderous applause and claps from all the students, which kept
on resounding in the auditorium for a long time. He too joined the children in
clapping till it sopped little later to a dead silence. He needed no
introduction — by this time, Dr. Kalam had got introduced to all the children
and youth of the country by his arduous interaction with them in social media.
Breaking
the silence, he asked the children ... “how many of you have seen bumble bee in
the natural parks?” So many children responded and explained how the bumble bee
looks like, spherical in shape and wings to fly etc. However, one child retorted
... he had not been to any natural parks, so he did not see a bumble bee. The Pesident
asked … “who is your class teacher?“ The
class teacher got up. Kalam sir said to the teacher, “Please take the children
to some natural surroundings at least twice a year, ok? This is Presidential
order ok?“ Then he continued, “if you take this bumble bee shape to any
aerodynamicist … he would say, this cannot fly … No? it does not have the
aerodynamic shape…. So my dear children … how does it fly?”— all the children
one after the other was trying to give some explanation in their own way … He said.
“see, all of you are trying to see the reason, you all are flying … so, what is
the bottom line? The bottom line is that the bumble bee wishes to fly … If you
all wish to fly in your respective fields, if you want to take our nation ahead
with innovative science and technologies …. YOU ALL WILL FLY and our nation
will be proud of you.”
What an
inspiring message! A thundering applause again—all of us present there
discovered an honest man, a visionary, a thinker, a patriot—a humble soul with
huge eternal power—the real hero—The Leader of the nation, the Bharat Ratna—Dr.
APJ Abdul Kalam who has made us proud to be a citizen of this great
nation.
·
Debasish Chakraborti
is an Outstanding Scientist (Scientist H) who has to his credit one Indian and one
Russian patent granted on Floating Recorder and Transmitter. With a
Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cranfield Institute of
Technology, U.K., he began his eventful career with Indian Oxygen Limited,
Kolkata before moving on to DRDO at the Naval Science and Technological
Laboratory NSTL, Visakhapatnam in 1985. At the DRDO he has worked on several
prestigious assignments before joining as Director, Aerial Delivery Research
& Development Establishment (ADRDE), Agra. He is a distinguished Fellow of
Indian Institute of Engineers. His special contributions relate to Paratrooper
parachute systems, Brake and seat ejection Parachute systems for all fighter
aircrafts, including LCA for Indian Army and Airforce, Aerostat Surveillance
systems and Tactical Aerostat. He has also worked on Airship development
and Parachute System for Human Space Program of ISRO.
v
Published in Re-Markings Vol 18 No.1 March 2019
Copyright Nibir K Ghosh 2019
www.re-markings.com
Debasish Chakraborti & Dr. Paromita
