Kalam completed his education at Schwartz, and got admission in St Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappalli, in 1950. There he spent four years. When Kalam was introduced to the concepts of physics, the young man fell deeply in love with the subject. He was fascinated by the movement of electrons around each nucleus in each object of the Universe – “It was as if Lord Shiva was performing his great cosmic dance during each moment of our existence,” he thought.
Even as a child, Kalam was fascinated by the world around him, constantly asking questions about how things worked. He would spend hours watching birds fly, wondering what made them soar through the air with such ease.
“I want to fly like the bird one day!” he thought. But, it was only after he had completed his Bachelors in Science (BSc) that Kalam realised that despite his love for physics, only that wouldn’t help him fly like birds. Instead, he had to study engineering. So, he applied to the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), the premier institute of technical education in South India at the time.
Kalam had always been a bright and hardworking student, so he easily cleared the admission test. The problem that arose instead was money. Education at a prestigious institution was expensive – a thousand rupees was required for admission, which poor Jainulabdeen, with his meagre earnings, couldn’t afford. Kalam felt his wings being clipped even before he took flight! It was his sister Zohara who came to Kalam’s rescue, rustling up the money by mortgaging her gold jewellery. Kalam was deeply moved.
“I shall release Zohara’s jewellery from the mortgage with my first earnings!” he vowed.
Two decommissioned aircraft were on display at the MIT campus. Seeing those massive metal birds, Kalam could almost see his childhood dream right in front of his eyes. So, with his first year at MIT done and dusted, he chose aeronautical engineering as his specialisation without a second thought.
“I am going to fly an aircraft!” Kalam thought.
Kalam was surrounded by superstars of aeronautical engineering, each a specialist in fields like aero-structure design, theoretical aerodynamics and technical aerodynamics. Once Kalam was assigned a project to design a low-level attack aircraft along with four other colleagues at MIT. Professor Srinivasan, the Director of MIT, was the design teacher heading the project. He informed Kalam that the project was progressing at a slow pace and needed to be completed faster.
Kalam requested for a month to complete the task.
“I’ll give you three days,” Prof Srinivasan declared. “If I don’t get the configuration drawing by Monday, your scholarship will be revoked.”
Thunderstruck, young Kalam felt utterly helpless. He wouldn’t be able to achieve anything without MIT’s generous scholarship. Determined to never let that happen, he immersed himself at work, even skipping dinner on Friday night. On Saturday morning, he took only an hour’s break to freshen up and eat some food. He had almost completed his drawing on Sunday morning when Prof Srinivasan entered the room.
The old director hugged Kalam lovingly and patted his back in appreciation after examining the work. “I knew I was setting an impossible deadline for you,” he stated. “I never expected you to meet it, and perform so well.”
The years at MIT passed in a blur. Soon it was time for graduation. On the day of graduation, during the farewell photograph with the graduating students and the professors, Professor Sponder, who taught technical aerodynamics, sought Kalam and asked him to sit with him in the front. As an emotional Kalam moved from the third row to the front of the group, the professor proudly declared, “You are my best student, and I am sure your hard work will make us teachers proud in the future.”
With a post-graduation from MIT in his bag, Kalam joined Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bangalore as a trainee, working on engine overhauling of piston and turbine engines. The practical experience served him well to master concepts of gas dynamics and the working dynamics of propeller engines.
At HAL, the people Kalam learnt from did not have university degrees, but their hands-on experience, acquired over the years, taught Kalam valuable lessons. When he finally graduated as a successful aeronautical engineer, a determined Kalam applied for jobs both at the Air Force and at the Directorate of Technical Development and Production, DTD&P (Air) at the Ministry of Defence. With his experience and expertise, the interview calls arrived simultaneously for both positions and he was summoned to Dehradun by the Air Force and to Delhi by DTD&P (Air).
For the first time in his young life, Abdul Kalam left his native south and boarded a train to travel the long distance of over 2000 km.
Excerpted with permission from The Incredible Life of APJ Abdul Kalam: The Visionary Man of Science, Swayam Ganguly, Talking Cub.
