A P J Abdul Kalam's Wings Of Fire full story online

Book Review: Wings Of Fire

17DEC

A P J Abdul Kalam

Wings of fire cover page

This book is an autobiography of a rocket scientist, a visionary, the only “king among the pawns”, the missile man and 11th president of India (2002-07) Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam popularly known as people’s president.  “Wings of fire” is one such autobiography of a person who had the courage to dream big and the passion to keep striving till they are achieved.  The book gives best insight about the life of a small town boy who dreamt to make India strong and prosperous – a DEVELOPED Nation and gave us “Vision 2020”.

The book is a journey of dreams, hopes, successes and failures. The life of this great personality was none different than the normal person, only thing different was how he perceive the world around him and how he’s willing to go that little extra to achieve his dreams, how he’s willing to sacrifice for common good and how he never forgets who he really is (some qualities common to visionaries and great men like him). This book gives confidence to Indians that ‘we can do and we can do from India’.

It is story of courage, inspiration leadership and motivation. The book tells us how important it is to value the people around us in order to grow as a person. The book talks about the millions of people who have contributed to the life of Mr. Kalam, which tells us that a great personality is just not one person but a collective effort of many.

The book is also the journey of India’s technological advancement, lists how the success and failures were the integral part of the missions. Though there was a lot of hue and cry from the nation about huge money being pumped in for war purposes when half of the nation is below the poverty line. I too thought that such kind of advancement brings no good. But this book gives a scientist’s point of view and I realized that sometimes it is necessary to solve the puzzle to complete the picture. The hardest battles are those when you are fighting with your own family and indeed the scientists were fighting for a cause for which the nation gave them the least support. Through this book, Mr. Kalam states that missiles were not build to bring war but to become self reliant, to show the world that one cannot rule over others just because they are superior in warfare. This book is not a story of self praise or personal feat but about a person who had the fire in him to give his dreams wings to fly. Through this book he wants the youth to know that no efforts can go waste, no goals can remain unfulfilled and no life can be ordinary. Each of us needs to realize our potential, give away the feeling of being inferior and fight our own battles in order to fly high up in the sky with our WINGS OF FIRE!!!!!

Filled with great anecdotes and the lines of the poems that he loves or has written, one among the many lines in the book that is truly motivating:-

“So when your hopes and dreams and goals are dashed, search among the wreckage, you may find a golden opportunity hidden in the ruins.”