A great man is always willing to
be little.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
couldn’t hold truer in the case of Dr. Kalam.
It’s in the most unexpected of circumstances that the most unlikeliest
character traits often manifest themselves. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more,
do more and become more, you are a leader. We all knew Dr. Kalam to be
the strong visionary and impeccable leader that he was. Our interactions with
him on a daily basis though, pleasantly let us in on the humble greatness of
this legendary soul.
An incident from the first launch
of the Prithvi missile comes to mind… The reviews and safety considerations
were planned from SHAR. As was the norm,
the range authorities had to clear the mission from safety considerations before
the final check. During a review by the
SHAR team, some concerns were raised about the design of the launcher with
respect to the survivability of the deflector and the likelihood of the flame
deflecting back into the missile. The
review team recommended that the deflector design be analysed for heat transfer
and gas-dynamic performance and presented to LAB (Launch Authorisation
Board).
Now for the difficult part - this
analysis had to be done within a three days, as the launch date/slot was
already finalised by the Launch Authorisation Board (LAB).
My colleague Late Shri
V.K.Venugopal and I were assigned to be working on this analysis and this
inevitably caused us late nights. On one of these nights, I couldn’t meet Dr.
Kalam, according to my usual schedule of reporting, to brief him on the
progress of work that evening. Later
that night, at about 9.30 p.m. Dr Kalam walked into our workstation and asked
us why we were working so late. When we
explained the urgency and complexity of the job he went away to his residence
in the DRDL Guest House.
A few hours later, much to our
delight and surprise, Dr Kalam appeared again at 11.30 PM with a flask of hot
tea and served it to both of us. We were
emotionally moved and realised the importance of humility and concern for his
team members in a successful leader. This noble little deed by Dr. Kalam made
us want to do better at our tasks and also prepared us to be better leaders
later in life.
Another anecdote that remains
etched in my memory is one that happened during a launch campaign. For the
uninformed, launch campaigns are high tension, time consuming exercises which
keep the launch teams away from their families for long periods of time. During one such launch campaign, Dr. Kalam
came to chair the Launch Authorisation Board late one evening. He arrived
straight at the launch pad and I started explaining to him the status of the
missile preparation cycle and countdown activities planned.
Just then, I received a call from
my wife informing me that my younger daughter had suffered an epileptic
fit. I made some telephone calls to my
friends and doctors to assist with the medical care for my daughter. Dr. Kalam overheard the telephonic
conversations and noticed signs of tension on my face. I explained to him that none of the neuro doctors
in Hyderabad were able to treat my daughter.
He placed his hands on my shoulders to calm me and we became busy with the campaign as the
launch was scheduled within next two days.
One week after the launch Dr.
Kalam called me to his office and told me that he had fixed an appointment for
my daughter with India’s best neuro surgeon (Dr. Ramamurthy) in Chennai, and
advised me to immediately take her there.
I was moved by his concern, consideration and courtesy. His empathy
towards the team in general and these little thoughtful gestures showed us his
humane demeanor; behind the brains of one of the greatest Indian scientists was
one of the most beautiful hearts as well.
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