Thiruvananthapuram: S Nambi Narayanan, the former ISRO scientist worked with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Cente (VSSC) at Thiruvananthapuram in 1966. Recalling his association with Kalam, he speaks about their initial days in VSSC and his experience when he last met him and so on.
He remembers how they spend those initial years, when VSSC had just three buildings and five of them Including Dr Kalam sat across the four tables. According to him, Kalam always had a vision and was a hard worker.
Though Dr Kalam was in a sensitive position at that time, he gave a statement after a couple of days that if people think that rocket technology can be sold in a few drawings and papers, they are fooling themselves. Later when they met, Dr Kalam told Nambi Narayanan, "just don’t go and fight these people, it is not worth it. There is a court, he showed his hand upwards. Nobody can lie there. So leave it to him and get back and complete the job you have undertaken”.
“Many know Kalam as a great scientist but the point is he is a great human being. We were watching, though he was a leader he never behaved like a boss. He grew rapidly from the PM's advisor to the President. We were looking at him. But the change was only for us, not for him”.
He said, “Dr. Kalam was a visionary, good scientist, his contribution has brought ISRO to what it was today. He taught us that decision making is an important factor in the development activities of rockets.
I last met him two-three months back when he came to Trivandrum. I found him a bit weak, he always used to walk fast, get up fast. He was unusually a little slow then but he hardly spoke his health. "I told him. you should look after your health but his answer always was that he was perfectly healthy”.
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