APJ: I have a lot of time for you.
SS: Sir, you are the inspiration of millions, who was your inspiration?
APJ: My inspiration? Prof Vikram Sarabhai, heard about him?
AB & SS: Yeah, yeah.
APJ: Well, my earliest inspiration was my science teacher, Sivasubramania Iyer. This man taught me in fifth class, I was 10 then. He was teaching how a bird flies. He went to the blackboard, drew the bird, its tail, nose, beak and wings and started talking about how it flies.You know which year [it was]? 1941. You were not even ideas then. After 45 minutes, he asked how many of us understood. Many students raised their hands. There were 30 of us who did not. He said, "Those who did not understand...come in the evening." Rameshwaram is a small island, with birds flying over the sea. He said, "Just watch, the wings are flapping. Now, the tail lifts, the wings flap and the direction changes." Tell me, what propels a bird? Cars and aircraft have engines, what does a bird have?
SS: It has life.
APJ: Yes, life! Life is what actuates the brain. That's how he would explain. In a few minutes we allunderstood how a bird flies. But that's not important - what is important is, from that day something got into me, the bird's flight! I was just 10 but the teacher was so good he made me dream.... Flight?Science? I knew in a definite sense, my future had to have something to do with flight. That is how Ideveloped interest in maths and physics. After school, I did aeronautical engineering at Madras Institute of Technology. Then on to rocket engineering atISRO. That's where my career started. My science teacher put me on this orbit, but the full shape was given by Prof Sarabhai. He was a visionary. It was the '60s. Back then, we had no rocket, no missile, nothing. He gave us a vision statement—India should design and develop high-powered rockets, make communication satellites, remote-sensing satellites. That was his vision.