WINGS OF FIRE | AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR APJ ABDUL KALAM| PDF DOWNLOAD.

WINGS OF FIRE

An Autobiography

AVUL PAKIR JAINULABDEEN ABDUL KALAM has

come to personally represent to many of his countrymen the

best aspects of Indian life. Born in 1931, the son of a little

educated boatowner in Rameswaram, Tamilnadu, he had

an unparalleled career as a defence scientist, culminating

in the highest civilian award of India, the Bharat Ratna.

As chief of the country’s defence research and

development programme, Kalam demonstrated the great potential for dynamism and innovation that existed in

seemingly moribund research establishments. This is the

story of Kalam’s rise from obscurity and his personal and

professional struggles, as well as the story of Agni, Prithvi, Akash, Trishul a nd Nag - missiles that have become

household names in India and that have raised the nation to

the level of a missile power of international recokoning. At the same time as he has helped create India’s awesome weaponry, Kalam has maintained the ascetic

rigour of his personal life, working 18 hours a day and

practicing the veena. With characteristic modesty, Kalam

ascribes the greatness of his achievement to the influence

of his teachers and mentors. He describes the struggles of his boyhood and youth, bringing alive everyday life in a

small town in South India and the inspirational role of educators. He describes the role of visionary Indian

scientists, such as Dr Vikram Sarabhai, and of the creation

of a coordinated network of research institutions. This is also the saga of independent India’s struggle for

technological self sufficiency and defensive autonomy – a

story as much about politics, domestic and international, as

it is about science. Arun Tiwari worked under Dr APJ Abdul Kalam for over a decade in the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad. He is currently Director, Cardiovascular Technology Institute, Hyderabad, where he

is pursuing Dr Kalam’s vision of developing cost-effective medical devices using indigenous defence technology. Dr Kalamis now India’s President.