Wings of Fire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**WINGS OF FIRE**

Author	A P J Abdul Kalam with Arun Tiwari
Cover Artist	Photograph courtesy: The Week
Subject(s)	India journey to self-reliance in technology
Genre(s)	Autobiography
Publisher	Universities Press
Released	1999
Media Type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	180 (paperback edition)
Size and Weight	9.5 x 6.2 x 0.4 inches
ISBN	ISBN 81-7371-146-1 (paperback edition)

Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam (1999) is an autobiography of A P J Abdul Kalam, the current President of India. It was written by President Kalam and Arun Tiwari.

1 Structure
2 Pictures

[edit] Structure

In the following eight sections, Wings of Fire unfolds the story of A P J Abdul Kalam from his childhood until around 1999:

Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Orientation
Creation
Propitiation
Contemplation
Epilogue

[edit] Orientation

The section Orientation opens with a quote from the Atharva Veda (Book 4, Hymn 16)

This Earth is His, to Him belong those vast and boundless skies;

Both seas within Him rest, and yet in that small pool He lies.

Orientation, the first section of Wings of Fire, spread into first three chapters, covers 32 years of Kalam’s life, from his birth in a “ middle-class Tamil family in the island town of Rameshwaram”, his early schooling at Schwartz High School, Ramanathapuram, his undergraduate education at St. Joseph College, Trichy, completion of a degree course in aeronautic engineering from Madras Institute of Technology, and ends with him moving to the USA for a six month training program at NASA.

[edit] Creation

Section Creation traverses seven chapters, from chapters four to chapter ten; and covers Kalam's life and work for 17 years, from the year 1963 until 1980. It begins with his recollection of works at the Langley Research Center (LRC), NASA, in Houston, Virginia, USA, and at other facilities in the USA, including the Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island in East Coast, Virginia. At a NASA facility, he remembers to have seen a painting, prominently displayed in the lobby. The painting depicted a battle scene with rockets flying in the background. On closer examination, he found that the painting depicted Tipu Sultan’s army fighting the British. Kalam felt happy to see an Indian glorified in NASA as a hero of rocketry-warfare.

His association with Thumba and Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) and related projects are vividly presented in the section Creation. During the period covered under Creation, Kalam, in the year 1976, lost his father who lived up to 102 years of age. Kalam took the bereavement with courage and remembered these words written on the death of Yeats by his friend Anden, and “felt” as if they were written for his father:

Earth receive an honoured guest;
William Yeats is laid to rest:
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.

The period covered in the section Creation also brought Kalam national recognition. A pleasant surprise came in the form of conferment of Padma Bhushan on the Republic Day, 26th January, 1981. He reminisces that the award invoked mostly positive reaction, but few became envious too. This reminded him words of Lewis Carroll:

You may charge me with murder
Or want of sense (We are all of us weak at times)
But the slightest approach to a false pretence
Was never among my crimes!

[edit] Propitiation

Section Propitiation covers the period 1981 to 1991, and contains five chapters, from chapter 10 to chapter 14.

[edit] Contemplation

Section Contemplation recounts the life story of Kalam from 1991 until around 1999 in two chapters, namely, chapters 15 and 16. This section opens with words from the Qur'an

We create and destroy
And again recreate
In forms of which no one knows

[AL-Waquiah Qu'ran 56:61]

[edit] Pictures

A P J Abdul Kalam

The book has 24 numbers of plates with photographs associated with the life and work of Kalam:

Plate 1 shows a photograph of his father, Jainulabdeen; and Pakshi Lakshmana Sastry, the ‘head priest of the Rameshwaram Temple’ who was a close friend of Kalam’s father.
Plate 2 shows the locality in which he grew up, his house and the nearby temple.
Plate 3 shows a mosque where Kalam’s father used to take him and his brother for evening prayers.
Plate 4 shows his brother with his engineering instruments.
Plate 5 shows the house and photograph of STR Manickam.
Plate 6 shows a family get-together
Plate 7 shows a picture of Schwartz High School, Ramnathpuram, from where Kalam had completed his high schooling.
Plate 8 shows his teachers at Schwartz High School.
Plate 9 shows Nandi, an indigenous hovercraft prototype.
Plate 10 shows the picture of a Church in Thumba, a place which was donated by the local Christian community to the India’s Space Research Centre.
Plate 11 shows him with Prof. Vikram Sarabhai.
Plate 12 shows an SLV-3 review meeting.
Plate 13 shows presentation of members of SLV-3 team.
Plate 14 is the first plate with a colour photograph and shows Professor Brahm Prakash inspecting SLV-3 in its final stage on integration, and plate 16 shows a colour photograph of SLV-3 on the launch pad.
Plate 15 shows him with Prof. Satish Dhawan and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Plate 16 shows SLV-3 launch.
Plate 17 shows him receiving Padma Bhushan.
Plates 18 shows successful launch of Prithvi, now a part of India’s surface-to-surface weapons system.
Plate 19 shows Kalam standing by the side of Agni, standing on its launch pad.
Plate 20 shows a cartoon by renowned cartoonist R.K. Laxman.
Plate 21 shows another cartoon on the failure of Agni Missile.
Plate 22 shows him after successful launch of Agni Missile.
Plate 23 shows Kalam receiving the Bharat Ratna from the President, K. R. Narayanan.
Plate 24 shows him with the 3 service chiefs.