My encounters with Dr Abdul Kalam

My encounters with Late Dr Abdul Kalam:

 

Kalam sahib was born at the holy place of rameshwaram tamilnadu and was influenced by mix  culture of islam, christianity and hinduism at that place ।This was visible in him till last day .

He studied physics and aerospace science from Madras।

Very few people know he was not from ISRO but from DRDS under DRDO  and his first attempt was hovercraft ।

He was transferred to ISRO  by govt orders by his request under none other than Dr Vikram Sarabhai who was incharge of ISRO set up in 1969।

I prepared and read a technical paper on Inter Continental ballistic missiles with focus on  solid fuel propellant engine technology and deployment of multiple war heads।

At that time 5000 plus  km range was considered   as ICBM।These had to go to upper atmoshphere and make re-entry like space vehicles।

It was tough job to do research in 1971 and isro was newly setup in 1969 and I visited in 1971 to collect the materials। there were no computers forget internet.

Dr Kalam was working on SLV III project which later launched successfully PSLV Rohini।

Kalam sahib helped me a lot to compile material which was scarce and explained logistics of icbm flight।

I stayed there for 8 days।

I was even invited by him to join ISRO on completing degree😊

Great friend and human he was।He was not famous at that time।

I again ran into him twice at jodhpur DRDO where desalination plant project was going on by GOI। He recognised me and asked where I was then , and why I did not join isro।

DRDO was his parent organisation।

The man had no attitude , had great memory and was non stop  workaholic ।He had uncanny skill of evaluating alternatives and ability to manage teams।He was found to be thorough gentleman though not handsome । It is character that manifested on his face।

One of the best presidents world ever had।

He represented true multi faceted indian culture. 

He was a bachelor।

Peace be upon him.