Work Brings Solace : Sure Out Comes ; B Tech II Semester

          Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam is an Indian scientist and administrator. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. Kalam is popularly known as the Missile Man of Indian for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology. Kalam advocated plans to develop India into a developed nation by 2020 in his book India 2020.  He has received several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour. Kalam is known for his motivational speeches and interaction with the student community in India.

            Kalam, a man of technology, has spent all his life learning rocketry. Wernher von Braun was a scientist, designer, product engineer, administrator and technology manager, all rolled into one.  . Kalam was filled with awe at the personality of Von Braun. During the flight in the Avro aircraft from Chennai to Trivandrum, Kalam had occasion to observe the qualities of Von Braun. Von Braun asked many questions about the missile work of Kalam and listened to his replies with rapt attention like a student. As advised by Wernher Von Braun, Kalam made rocketry his religion Kalam never expected the father of modern rocketry to be so humble, attentive and encouraging. Von Braun made Kalam feel comfortable throughout the ninety-minute flight from Chennai to Tumba.

           Three deaths in the family depressed Kalam. He lost interest in life. To overcome all these tragedies he needed total commitment to his SLV work. He also stopped thinking of his family, relations and friends. Nothing outside the SLV circle ever came into his mind. He put a hold button on his life outside the circle of SLV. This shows Kalam’s single-minded devotion towards his goal.

             Individuals like Kalam are called workaholics. But Kalam did not like the term “workaholic” because it implies an illness. He says that to succeed in our life we must have single-minded devotion to our goal. Sometimes we work towards that which we desire more than anything else does in the world.  There is no hurry and no distractions to the worker’s attention. There would no more difference between the workers and work. In addition,  The worker would flow into the work. Kalam and his team experienced his flow.

             Kalam says that to succeed in our life we must have single-minded devotion to our goal. Sometimes we work towards that which we desire more than anything else does in the world. If we are charged with total commitment to our work, the next thing we require is good health coupled with boundless energy.

The Secret of Work : Sure Out Comes : BTech II Semester

           The world is filled with miseries and physical help alone cannot cure them. Until and unless man’s nature is changed, miseries cannot be removed completely by any of the physical help. In his opinion, the only solution to make people free from misery is to make men pure, spiritually strong and educated. Then alone misery will completely stop in the world.

              Swami Vivekananda described the nature of the work as the mixture of both good and evil. Good and bad both make a chain that bind soul. We should work with a spirit of non-attachment to it, so that we can work as masters, not as slaves. According to Bhagavad Gita, we must work incessantly but should not be attached to it. Every work we do, every move of our body and every thought we think leave an impression on the mind. They work in the subconscious mind and finally they determine our character.  This is what is called Samskara.     

               He compared human being with tortoise. The tortoise tucks its feed, head inside the shell, and will not come out even though you break the shell into pieces. In the same way the character of the man who has control over his thoughts and deeds would remain as unchangeably established character. He controls his own inner forces and nothing can draw him out against his will.

               By this continuous reflex of the good thoughts and good impressions moving over the surface of the mind, the tendency to do well becomes stronger. As a result, we will be able to control the Indriyas (sense organs).such is how the character of man is formed and only a man of character can get truth.

                  He emphasized a theory called non-attachment in the work because both good work and bad work make the soul bonded with work. It makes us to do work as a slave, not like a master. If once we detach ourselves from the selfish slave’s work, we can receive love and become free. Real life makes us “unattached”.

             The two most important ways, in which we can work without expecting anything, in return, are to love the world and to become a giver without any thought return. Attachment comes only when we expect a return.

           Swami Vivekananda said “work, but let not the action or the thought produce deep impression on your mind”. He says the Lord himself works incessantly, but ever without attachment.                                                               

Trail Blazers : A Shadow Story by R K Narayan

           A Shadow is a story of a little boy Sambu, a young boy ,who lives in a village with his widow mother. He waits eagerly for the screening of a film, which features his father who is no more. It is a tender and emotional story where Sambu, demands to see a movie that stars his father. This small boy was very excited to see his father performance on the screen. He was going to see his father walking and dancing in front of him as if he was alive. He took permission from his mother for a daily show.

              The scene of the movie is very much like in Sambu’s home. In the movie, Kumari, the 14-year-old daughter does not want to marry, but instead wants to study. The father asks the girl questions about her school work, and is pleased when she gets them right. The girl was with a slate on her knee and he started dictating to her. He asked her a little arithmetic to which she accurately answered. Then his father was delighted. Sambu remembered how he once committed mistake in solving a puzzle.

            Actually, Sambu   was highly delighted as if his father had come back to life. Sambhu is trying to feel the presence of his dead father through his performance in the movie Kumari. The shadow of his father makers him happy and feel him his presence. He keeps his father alive in his memories through his appearance in movie.

            He repeatedly asked his mother to see the picture. However, she explained that she could not tolerate to see her husband again move and speak like alive. Sambu explained her that a mere photo was also no more different that from film photo.  At last, he takes his mother to the last show. She ,by recalling those ugly memories ,faints. By seeing her, Sambu cries, as he loves her much.

              He was seen as a small, innocent child who is unaware of the fact that how mother would feel when she will see her dead husband walking, talking and singing. In this story we can see the emotions, feelings, innocence and sentiments of any child who is deprived of his father’ love.

             The story captures with heart-rending accuracy, the joy and pain experience by the boy and his mother when they saw on the screen a dead man moving and speaking. 

Trail Blazers: Vikram Sarabhai

            Sarabhai was a creative scientist, a successful and forward-looking industrialist, an innovator of the highest order, a great institution builder, and an educationist with a difference, a connoisseur of arts, an entrepreneur of social change, a pioneering management educator and more.      

               Sarabhai’s name will remain inseparable from India’s space programme. Sarabhai put India on the international map in the field of space research. Then he made equally pioneering contributions in other fields. He worked in the fields of textiles, pharmaceuticals, nuclear power, electronics and many others incessantly until last.

             Sarabhai had realized the enormous potentialities inherent in space science and technology for a wide range of social and economic development activities communication, meteorology , weather forecasting, and exploration for natural resources, to name only a few. The Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, established by Sarabhai pioneered research in space sciences and subsequently in space technology. Sarabhai also spearheaded the country’s rocket technology. He played a pioneering role in the development of satellite TV broadcasting in India.

         In the early 1980s VSSC was instrumental in the development of India’s Satellite launch vehicle program, SLV-3. This was followed in the last 1980s with the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV), for launching 150 kg satellites into near earth orbits. Major Programmes of VSSC include the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), Rohini Sounding Rockets, space Capsule Recovery experiment, Reusable Launch Vehicles and Air Breathing Propulsion.

        The most striking aspect of Sarabhai’s personality was the range and breadth of his interests and the way in which he transformed his ideas institutions.