Shreshtha Tiwari/Chennai

Scientist Nellai S Muthu worked with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam for 40 years from 1963 to 1980. While Dr Kalam was the project director at ISRO, Muthu joined as a scientist in 1973. They remained in touch with each other even after Dr Kalam had moved to DRDO. Muthu has written and translated four books on Kalam.

Muthu translated Kalam’s India 2020 vision in Tamil and also wrote a biography of Dr Kalam. He is one of the members of the Advisory board of the APJ Abdul Kalam Foundation.

Going down the memory lane, Muthu says, “My first informal meeting with him was in Trivandrum (1989) during his visit to Vikram Sarabhai space centre visit. This was when ASLV underwent a failure. I had written a book called Vanathai Allapom (Measure the Sky) back then and had sent a copy of it to him. During this visit, he recalled the book during tea time.

“Every time he visited Sriharikota during 1997-2008, I met him. Also during his visits to Chennai, we met. During one of his visits to Sriharikota, I remember telling him that it’s my dream to write a book on his life. To which he said, “You have all the freedom to.” The book was later published as Aruvial Araignar Abdul Kalam (Scientific scholar Abdul Kalam).

APJ Abdul Kalam with Muthu and his wife

“There is a story behind the Tamil version of India 2020 vision. A lot went by before I could translate it. Officially, all his books and translations were outsourced to a certain private publishing house. He, however, didn’t give India 2020 vision to anyone as it was had a lot of technical details. Kalam was keen it should be translated only by a professional and he proposed my name to the publisher.

“On the day of the book launch on June 1, 2002, I said on the stage that time had come to hand over the nation’s reins into the hand of a scientist. Dr Kalam quickly hushed me up then and there.  In doing this, I used a Tamil wordplay oppadaikalam (let’s announce) and it received huge applause. Later Kalam appreciated me for my efforts. He said in his speech, “he has given life to the book by his translation due to the same wavelength and views that he shares with me.”

“During the launch of Agni-1, I wrote an article and it started with a three-line Tamil verse by poet Bharatiyar— ‘I have a small fire, but the whole point is not whether the fire is small or big, fire is fire (sic).’ These opening lines impressed Dr Kalam and he just said shabaash (well done). He was very fond of the poet Bharatiyar and his poetry. He later sent me a hand-written signed letter (inked) pointing out two grammatical mistakes in my article.

“In 2004, just two weeks before their wedding, I took my daughter and would-be son-in-law to seek his blessings at the Governor House, Chennai.

Hand-written note by APJ Abdul Kalam for Muthu

“My last meeting with him was in 2013 in Delhi. It was during the holy month of fasting. I was invited by Delhi Tamil Sangam to inaugurate a programme on scientific Tamil literature works. Later, that evening he invited me to his residence at Rajaji Marg. We walked on the lawns and I remember he was fasting for the entire month.

“Two years later when he passed away, I flew to Delhi to pay his last respects.

“Kalam had a great sense of humour; he often used sarcasm and satire in his public speeches.  One such incident comes to my mind. An officer at Sriharikota had asked him at a public meet, “India’s population is growing constantly; how do you believe that by 2020, India will be a developed nation?”   Dr Kalam’s said, “I’m very innocent on such topics.” 

“I was most inspired by his habit of giving importance to people asking him questions. This was the culture in ISRO back. He paid little attention to those who blindly agreed with him, just to please him. Instead, he used to personally call out those who pointed out mistakes or gave negative feedback on any project he worked on.

“I consider him as one of my gurus and gifting me the concept of popularising science among students.  He always asked me to concentrate on school students. As a result, till date I have shared his views with students in almost 600-700 schools.”