The Unsponsored Book Review: You are Born to Blossom by APJ Abdul Kalam
Hey there! Welcome to The Unsponsored Book Review, a new series started by me to review interesting books for you guys. This is the very beginning and this time we review one of Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam’s greatest books, You are Born to Blossom. You could grab your copy over here.
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was an Indian aerospace scientist who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied physics and aerospace engineering. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and was intimately involved in India’s civilian space programme and military missile development efforts. He thus came to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology. He also played a pivotal organisational, technical, and political role in India’s Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.
Arun Kumar Tiwari (born 10 February 1955) is an Indian missile scientist, author, and professor. He has written several books and co-authored 5 books with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, including Wings of Fire, the autobiography of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, former president of India. Published in 1999, Wings of Fire has become a modern classic with over 30 reprints selling over a million copies and was translated into 18 languages.
I was able to get my hands on this book by borrowing from one of my kind friends. I really looked forward to reading it as I had read some really good reviews about it just like this one. The book is not really a biography but an account of APJ Abdul Kalam’s life and how he learned and did what he did, from being a school going kid from Rameswaram to becoming the President of India, Kalam traces back his journey from one role to another and what he was able to learn from every role he took up.
Kalam is a real bug for Information and Technology ever since he left his hometown Rameswaram to go to the district capital of Ramanathapuram to study more about it. He visualizes the real use of IT for India and how it would help India develop itself and make it a developed country among its many competitors. Kalam really sees India's potential, especially its rural talent, which is literally untouched and this is where he touched upon the important topic of education.
He believes that the Indian Education system isn’t really made for the IT entrepreneurs and even sustainable for itself for all it matters. He also believes that how teachers must be prepared to take in students from all prospects of lives to really teach them about the important concept, this is the only way India will progress, he says. The whole idea of education on a school level is to create interesting subject and place important ideals into students brains and help them as individuals and not bore them with unwanted information or homework, as he specifies. He also mentions how education must be made affordable as a way by which rural talent can spring up and represent India for the good. Kalam during his life was able to travel to several institutions and spread his beliefs of education and ideal nation. This is how he and his group of scientists came up with Project 2020.
The idea of Project 2020 is to plan for the happenings in 2020 and create a sustainable network to connect students and teachers with the medium of technology by weaving the blueprint early. He also aimed to devise an education system that made student and teachers a part of a symbiotic network that complimented each other. Kalam really emphasizes how decisions made now will help us in the future.
He also speaks about societal beliefs and unwanted distrust among people. Many developed countries are immensely diverse with people from across the world. It is only with this mindset that India will develop. He speaks about how he went the religious discrimination while growing up and how his teachers and friends help with fight discrimination. He advocates the implementation of sciences fitting to understand and help students respect different races, religions and nationalities.
While being a part of India’s governing system, he understands India’s unstable governing reality, which he highlights in his book. He writes about how the youth should help and be a part of the governing system by raising its standards and safeguarding its sanctity of public institutions. The Indian governing system represented India on an international level and the youth must make the system well-defined and non-corrupt, apart from many other things.
Abdul Kalam has been wicked to be able to represent the education system as an actual government. It is only if we nurture and take good care of the system will it bear fruits for the tree and later on, give chance to others with a good education in turn. The education system only encourages academically bulimic work and doesn't encourage humane qualities. Some topics including financial literacy and even healthcare aren't taught. More of, the environment within a classroom should be made in such a way to encourage and inculcate these qualities. A written test based upon such taught subjects is no grading criterion for any type of work profile.
Teamwork is an important aspect of anyone’s work is well highlighted as well. While Kalam supervised and worked on several works on the national scales, we nicely point out the inclusivity of his teammates and how a leader with a great team can do wonders. He also speaks about how failures are just a part of work. Failure is just a phase from which more should be learnt, and a motivated team really helped Kalam and his scientific work. The success which he received after the successful launch just made it sweeter every day.
Kalam, not only being a complimentary add-on to India’s scientists also was an immense donor and philanthropist, especially during his late years, when he got time to travel across India and abroad to speak about his successful work. He donating and advocated rural talent [ as spoken about earlier ] which he believed immensely in, he founded schools and scholarships to develop new Indian talent which was indeed immensely promising.
He also encourages the idea of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” [ He wasn’t there during the time but was encouraging self-reliance]. With experience in the governing system and scientific research, he understood how India was dependent on several other nations immensely. Raw material from China and expertise from the US? this also why Kalam encourages rural youth talent. He believed that if India was to develop, we must become self-reliant and be able to help ourselves. We were able to see this during the coronavirus situation, where we couldn't source material from several countries.
Hope you liked this edition of The Unsponsored Book Review with Nipun Rai. You could grab your copy of the book here. Hoping to see you later on another of this edition. See you soon!
