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The Man With A Heart Of Gold - Dr. Kalam | VK Saraswat

                                      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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