The Hindu : Front Page : President at home

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Friday, May 06, 2005

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President at home

T.S. Subramanian

Mr. Kalam ``virtually took a mission readiness review'' as well

— Photo: By Special Arrangement

A HUG FOR ISRO: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, rocket engineer, congratulates G. Madhavan Nair, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, after the successful launch of PSLV-C6 at Sriharikota.

CHENNAI: ``It was like a family get-together. It was almost like the old days. The President was very nostalgic." This was how ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair described President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's visit to Sriharikota to witness the PSLV-C6 launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

Sriharikota has an emotional attachment for Mr. Kalam, project director of ISRO's first SLV-3 flight on August 10, 1979, and the next flight SLV-3 on July 18, 1980, which was "a fantastic success."

During his two-day stay at Sriharikota, the President narrated this story to his friends from the SLV-3 days. ISRO had organised an exhibition featuring, among other things, scale models of SLV-3, ASLV (Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle) and PSLV. A school girl looked at SLV-3, the smallest of the models, and asked Mr. Kalam, ``Uncle, did you make it?'' To his ``Yes,'' she responded, ``Why did you make such a small rocket?' The practised raconteur's story was greeted with laughter.

It was like a family get-together but he "virtually took a mission readiness review" as well. There were presentations and discussions on the preparedness of the various sub-systems. The President was nostalgic, especially about his SLV-3 days. He recounted how the SLV-3 had deployed a 40-kg Rohini satellite in July 1980 and how ISRO had "evolved" now to deploying satellites 100 times that size. "He was trying to project how India should really become a leader in space technology, space transportation and planetary exploration," reported Mr. Nair.

Mr. Kalam was happy to meet "Pant saab" - Nilambar Pant, who was Director of SHAR during the SLV-3 flights in 1979 and 1980, then Director of ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore and subsequently ISRO Vice-Chairman. There was ribbing about how it would take a few hours even to get a cup of tea at SHAR in the early 1970s but now, dinners and lunches were organised for hundreds of people in a few hours. Most of the facilities in the old days were under an asbestos-roofed shed.

M. Nagarathinam, an expert cook, popularly known as `Murugan' at the ISRO guest house in Chennai, went to SHAR to prepare a meal featuring especially "vatha kozhambu" relished by the President. "Mr. Kalam is a pure vegetarian and he likes avial, vatha kozhambu, and mor kozhambu," is SHAR intelligence. At the SHAR guest house, he stayed in the room he occupied in 2003 when he came to Sriharikota to acquaint himself with the preparations for the launch of RESOURCESAT.

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