Book Review: Wings of Fire

Of all the genres of books, I like autobiographies the most. The reason is that they give an insight into the belief systems of the individual and what made that person achieve and make the name for himself in his chosen field of endeavor.  The latest autobiography that I read was "Wings of Fire" by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. It is the story of a man who started his life in Rameswaram and his passion of science and technology took him to Trichy, Chennai and then to Bangalore, Trivandrum and Hyderabad.

This was the second time I read this book, the first was when I was an Engineering student. The book gives a glimpse of his early life in Rameswaram and then his education in Trichy and Chennai. The book is organized in four sections namely, Orientation, Creation, Propitiation and Contemplation. Each section deals with a different stage of his life. The book covers the events till early 1990s. So, the book does not cover his experiences in the highest office of the country and the life thereafter.

The book has two major themes; first is the life history of Dr. Kalam and his experiences at ISRO and DRDO. This theme mentions about his mentors and other luminaries of that time in the fields of science and technology like Professor Vikram Sarabhai, Professor Satish Dhawan, former president Dr. R. Venkatraman and how they inspired Dr. Kalam in his achievements. The book beautifully captures the events where visionaries dreamt and worked towards self-reliance in the fields of space and defense. The book describes how the missions were done indigenously and the importance of such missions in a country like India that had then acquired independence recently. It is a very inspiring story about how few people positively shape the destiny of a country through their vision, belief and actions.

The second theme in the book is the technology management of the projects that Dr. Kalam with his team worked on. Dr. Kalam has shared his experience of handling teams of the SLV-3 project at ISRO and then Integrated Guided Missile Development programme at DRDO. The projects were huge and involved many laboratories, academic institutions and many sub-contracts and Dr. Kalam shared his experiences of managing such large projects to success overcoming failures in between.

The book is interspersed with lines that Dr. Kalam found fit for the context and those lines are inspiring. Our education system should include autobiographies and biographies of people from different walks of life (sports, science, art, politics) who can be an inspiration for the generation to follow. The book attempts to revive the latent fire in the hearts of Indians and give wings to that latent fire. Overall, a very inspiring read.