Works Brings Solace by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam
Work Brings Solace By APJ ABDUL KALAM
Dr Abdul Kalam was the 11th president of India. He was an aerospace engineer and scientist too. He was born and brought up in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. People also call Kalam the Missile Man of India He has made missiles. People also call him People‟s President. Because he was so simple and lived a simple life throughout. Kalam had a vision. He wanted to see India as a developed nation by 2020. He has got several awards, like the Padma Bhushan and the Bharat Ratna. Kalam was known for his inspiring speeches and he loved to talk with the students. He died in 2015.
Who was Von Braun? What made him a cult figure in America?
Kalam has spent all his life learning rocketry. Wernher von Braun was a German rocket scientist .He made the lethal V-2 missile .The missile destroyed London in World War II .But in the final stages of the war Von Braun was captured by the Allied forces. However, instead of giving punishment to Von Braun, he was given a top position at NASA. It was because he was a genius who could handle rocketry programme in the US . Von Braun worked for the US army .He made Jupiter missile for the US army .It was the first IRBM missile with a 3000 km range. However, according to Kalam , the V-2 missile by
Braun was itself the most successful work of this great man. Van Braun and his team in the
VFR were making the missile during the 1920s. Soon Braun became the director of the
German Missile Lab. Its first test failed but on 16 August 1942, it became the first missile to
exceed the speed of sound.
1)Von Braun in the German Military Uniform
2) V2 Missile made by Von Braun that devasted London during the Second World War
What kind of Personality was Von Braun? What is the complex that Von Braun attributed to the Americans ? Summarise the point of advice that Von Braun gave to Kalam in respect to hard work, success and goal ?
Kalam was filled with awe when he saw the personality of Von Braun.During the flight in , Kalam noticed the great qualities of Von Braun. Von Braun asked many questions to Kalam.He asked about the missile work of Kalam .He listened to his replies like a student. Von Braun adviced Kalam to make rocketry his religion. Braun himself was the father of rocketry. Kalam never thought the father of modern rocketry could be so humble. Von Braun made Kalam feel comfortable throughout the ninety-minute flight from Chennai to Thumba. Kalam said that Braun became a cult figure in America after creating the Saturn Rocket in the Apollo mission .It put the first man on the moon. But Von Braun found the Americans suffering from a complex. He called it NIH, meaning not invented here .It is
deep rooted among them. And so they looked at everything with doubt. They did not like foreign technologies.Braun said to Kalam that if he really wanted to do something good in rocketry, then, he must do it on himself. He said that SLV-3 was an Indian design. They might have problems.
But one just cannot build on successes alone but also on failures. Only hard work is not important .But he must have a vision or a goal. We should work with a vision or a fixed goal before us. He asked him to make rocketry his religion.
1) Kalam walking along the SLV-3
2) The SLV-3 flying successfully
