Reading helps us deal with loneliness–it helps break down more than one barrier. Any time I pick up a book, I end up feeling ashamed and embarrassed to put it down without having completed it. That’s why the book I am reading this time is a favourite of mine. The current book, I can say for sure, is the most inspiring one I have read ever.
When I was aboard the Coromandel Express, returning from God’s own country, Kerala, where a remarkable academic contest had only just concluded, I felt an irresistible pull from the late scientist and former Indian president, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, echoing along the Coromondel Coast. I was drawn close to him.
For a long time, I had been waiting to read his book, “Wings of Fire”, hoping that it would be my dream-key, even though at the time I had read it only partly in its Bengali translation. It was serendipity when a train vendor appeared in our compartment, toting a huge collection of books. After some time, I managed to trace Kalam and bought my long cherished dream, ignoring the damage to my pocket.
It is rare to find a person reading a newspaper or a novel in the train these days. Digital entertainment platforms have diverted people from reading and writing. Most of the time, my fellow passengers were engulfed in browsing through YouTube, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Whether technology can replace human beings or not is a debatable question, but humans have no doubt surrendered to the giant that is technology.
Now the book, “Wings of Fire”, was my unfailing friend as I read on, fascinated. Kalam was roaming the Rameshwaram roads with his companions. “A good book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a counselor,” he wrote.
As a teenager and a knowledge-seeker with dreams of a bright future, Kalam’s “Wings of Fire” inspired me. It weaves its magic spell to the extent that it can be read several times, not just once. I feel as though the book has given me wings too.
Little Kalam grew up in an area in Rameshwaram, with high levels of Hindu-Muslim integration, where the spirit of the temple and mosque held a magnetic pull for him. Under the supervision of his father, Kalam sees the inner-beauty of religion, nature, and communal harmony. He earned his first wage by helping sell newspapers. Despite his humble background, Kalam dreamt of flying high, which led him to the Madras Institute of Technology and then at the Directorate General of Aeronautical Quality Assurance (Air). His “long-cherished desire to fly” blended with a looming sense of ‘anxiety’ more than once, but Kalam was persistent and adhered to the ideas of accepting your destiny and that hard work will help you.