| WINGS OF FIRE | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | 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 |
| Publication date | 1999 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 180 (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 81-7371-146-1 (paperback edition) |
| OCLC Number | 41326410 |
| LC Classification | Q143.A197 A3 1999 |
Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam (1999) is an autobiography of A P J Abdul Kalam[1], former President of India. It was written by Dr. Kalam[2] and Arun Tiwari.[3]
Contents |
The autobiography first published in English, has so far been translated and published in 13 languages including Hindi, Gujarati, kannada Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Oriya, Marathi apart from Braille. A Chinese edition of `Wings of Fire', titled `Huo Yi' and translated by Ji Peng is also present. It translated in French also.[4]
Wings of Fire unfolds the story of A P J Abdul Kalam from his childhood in the following eight sections:
The section Orientation opens with a quote from the Atharva Veda
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 people,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 United States for a six month training program at NASA.
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, NASA, in Houston, Virginia,U.S., and at other facilities in the USA, including the Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island in East Coast of the United States, Virginia. At a NASA facility, he remembers to have seen a painting, prominently displayed in the lobby. The painting depicted a battle scene with rocket 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 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 William Butler Yeats by his friend Auden, and his father:
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,1981.
Section Propitiation covers the period 1981 to 1991, and contains five chapters, from chapter 10 to chapter 14.
This section covers the scientist’s journey towards becoming the “Missile Man of India”. In this section, his excellent leadership qualities as taking up the responsibility of shaping up the Guided Missile Development Program, are clearly visible. In this phase of the life, Kalam was responsible for the development of the five missiles – Prithvi, Trishul, Akash, Nag and the most awaited one Agni. The launch of Agni clearly showed that a developing country could also achieve a stage where she had the option of preventing the wars involving her.
The book has 24 plates with photographs associated with the life and work of Kalam:
|
|||||