Dr. Kalam - The Inspiration Behind the Legend | VK Saraswat

Almost every achiever is asked at least once who his/her inspiration or role model is. We often look up to someone for their admirable qualities and look to inculcate the same in our lives.  Dr. Kalam often told that he had three Gurus, namely, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, Dr. Sateesh Dhawan and Dr. Brahm Prakash.  He always acknowledged their contribution in his growth.  I remember him saying he learnt the importance of having a vision from the Dynamic Dr.Sarabhai. From the no-nonsense Dhawan he fathomed how to convert a simple vision into a mission and evolve fail-safe systems.  And from the soft spoken Brahm Prakash, the first Director of VSSC, he learnt the art of converting the mission on hand into achievable goals.

It just goes to say dreams aren’t enough; dreams that become goals are what matter.

All these qualities made Dr. Kalam an outstanding manager of technology – a rare quality. But the most important quality his mentors taught him was, how to handle failure. 

The first SLV-3 flight in 1979 tumbled into the Bay of Bengal.  Dr. Dhawan shouldered all the blame and shielded Dr. Kalam who wanted to resign.  Dhawan then taught Dr. Kalam how to ensure a rigorous quality control system.  A year later the SLV-3 flew successfully, making India only the sixth nation to have the ability to launch a satellite.  Dhawan stepped aside and allowed Dr. Kalam to hog the limelight.

All these lessons were not forgotten when he was leading IGMDP.  The following incident demonstrates how seriously Dr. Kalam followed the preachings of his Gurus:

When the Prithvi-08 flight lifted off from a mobile launcher and tumbled in the Bay of Bengal after reaching a height of only 1 km, and fell at a distance of only 400 meters from the launch pad jeopardising the safety of the Launchpad and Launch Console, Dr. Kalam shouldered all the blame when Dr. Arunachalam was trying to fire the project team (I was Project Director) and SHAR Range was sceptical about allowing future launches of Prithvi from SHAR.  I was crestfallen and did not know how to handle the situation.  Dr. Kalam advised me to constitute immediately a rescue and recovery team under the guidance of a safety team chaired by Shankar, SHAR Safety Chief.

He visited all the Range Stations with me and studied the telemetry data to identify the cause of failure.  We could fathom some idea of the cause of failure.  Dr. Arunachalam was very eager and insisted that we issue a report within 24 hours. 

Dr. Kalam acted as a shield and saved the project team from the onslaught.  Fortunately, we could carry out a preliminary analysis and presented the technical details to Dr. Arunachalam who flew to Delhi to convey the same to the then RM.

Dr. Kalam was not satisfied and he constituted a National Failure Analysis Board.  He personally participated in all the deliberations ensuring that the weakness in the design could be identified.  After three months of extensive simulation and testing, the reason for failure could be reproduced and corrective actions were taken by sub-system designers and upgraded Prithvi could be successfully launched from a mobile launcher, mobile Launch Control Centre and from a new Flight Test Range – DRDO’s Interim Test Range at Orissa.

Immediately after the success of Prithvi, Dr. Kalam organised press/media interviews for General Sundaram, Late Shri J.C. Bhattacharya and me, projecting us as the pillars of the success of Prithvi.  He made sure that good work of all scientists was duly rewarded and recognised by the nation.

These important lessons that Dr. Kalam not just learnt from his gurus but also demonstrated in his own life to his team made us believe in the very essence of team work. Dr. Kalam always ensured that credit was given where due, conversely he also accepted blame whenever there was a fault without ever passing the blame onto anyone else. Such is the quality of a true leader, so impeccable even in the face of adversity. Surely, there’s something all of us can take home from him - his aura, his demeanor, his life lessons; those still remain with me, both professionally and personally.